Tag: Maryland

Stock up on toilet paper, milk, and bread, a ‘potentially paralyzing’ snow storm is coming to town

It looks like we are about to be hit with a massive snow storm.  The weather forecasters are calling for up to 20 inches of snow for Friday and Saturday.  I normally don’t pay much attention to the weather forecast.  I figure it’s going to do what it’s going to do.  If it snows, it snows.

There’s nothing I can do about about it.

Truth be told, I was already planning on staying home this weekend.  Landon Donovan and the rest of his Everton teammates go into Anfield to play their cross-town rivals Liverpool.  ESPN is showing the game in stunning HD.  I can hardly wait.  On Sunday, the Baltimore Indianapolis Colts face off against the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl.  I’m picking the Saints to win which of course means the Colts will probably win in a blowout.

If the region is blanketed with snow this weekend, it wont really effect me all that much.

by Rick on February 4, 2010
filed in Maryland
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Former Maryland Colts fans confuse me

Today the Baltimore Ravens play the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs and many local fans who used to follow the Colts when they played in Baltimore are now lifelong Raven fans and want nothing more than for the Ravens to destroy the Colts in today’s game.

I just don’t get that.

If they were truly Colts fans before the them moved to Indianapolis, I don’t understand why they would stop rooting for the Colts simply because they moved. I don’t remember any Redskins fans jumping ship when the team moved from Washington D.C. for Maryland. The Jets used to play football in Shea Stadium in Queens, New York. They moved to Giant’s Stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey. I don’t remember hearing about any Jets fans shunning the Jets after they moved.

I think the reason so many Maryland Colts fans stopped supporting the Colts after they moved to Indianapolis is because they never really were Colts fans to begin with. One might argue that if the Colts had more fans here in Maryland, they never would have had to move in the first place. I personally can’t blame the Colts for moving to Indianapolis in 1984. Colts owner Robert Irsay tried for years to work out a deal with the city of Baltimore and/or the state of Maryland to get a new stadium to play in.

The lease for the run down, dilapidated Memorial Stadium had expired. Public sentiment was against building a new stadium or even repairing Memorial Stadium. What exactly did they think Robert Irsay would do? Memorial Stadium was an armpit of a stadium. He did the right thing by moving to Indianapolis. The fact that so many of the supposed Colts fans dropped the team like a bad habit and are now rooting against the team, tells you all you really need to know about the level their fandom.

4 Comments by Rick on January 16, 2010
filed in Football
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18 inches of snow makes this blizzard some kind of record

The blizzard looks to be over.  The sun is shinning and it’s not snowing anymore, but the ground is still blanketed with the white stuff.  The Herald-Mail is reporting that we received 18 inches of the stuff here in Williamsport.

The National Weather Service is saying this storm was a record for the month of December.  I’m not sure why it’s important to categorize it by the month.  It’s not like it’s August or July.  It’s December, one of the months we get snow.

I guess a lot of people yesterday decided to would be a good idea to go out and drive around even though local law enforcement was pleading with people to stay off the roads and to please stay home.  It’s not like there were a lot of places for people to go, except of course a snowy ditch on the side of the road.  That’s where a lot of people ended up yesterday.  In a snowy ditch.

Most if not all of the stores in the area were closed yesterday. I guess it’s hard to get people in the world of retail to come to work in the middle of a blizzard when you are only paying them minimum wage.

Yesterday was some kind of major shopping day in that it was the final Saturday before Christmas, the day we honor the birth of the Son of God, the man that told people to forsake treasures here on earth and to instead sell everything we own and give it to the poor.  We honor his birth by ignoring what he said and instead we buy lots and lots of stuff for the people in our lives.  If these people also happen to be poor, than so much the better.

Now that it’s stopped snowing and the roads look to be clear, I imagine the malls and other stores will be making up for yesterday with lots of shoppers.  And yes, I will probably be one of them.  I have a 30% off Borders coupon that expires on Monday.  Plus, I think we still have a few gifts to pick up.

by Rick on December 20, 2009
filed in Maryland
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I look out my window and see white death

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We in the north east/mid-Atlantic  are getting slammed with a real life, honest to goodness snow storm.  It started snowing last night before I got off work and it looks to have been snowing ever since.  The state of Virginia declared a STATE OF EMERGENCY before even one snow flake fell.

Way to keep a stiff upper lip Virginia.

This morning the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning that is scheduled to stay in effect till tonight at 6:00 p.m.  It looks like we wont be going anywhere today.  Not that we really need to.  I’m still reading the new Stephen King book (I love it) and I really should finish Call of Duty: World at War.  When I last played, I was a Russian sniper stuck in a burning building surrounded by Nazi soldiers. I don’t know what I dislike more: having to pretend to be a Godless communist or being surrounded by Nazis.

I can’t help but wonder how this blizzard will be effecting the opening weekend numbers for Avatar.  Having a major chunk of the east coast get hit by a monster of a snow storm has got to have an effect on the box office.  Not that I was planning on going to see it.  One one hand, being a science fiction nerd more or less requires me to go see movies like this.  On the other hand, the movie looks to me to be a giant World of Warcraft game run amok.

by Rick on December 19, 2009
filed in Maryland
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I guess Luke Wilson has never been to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

AT&T, in response to some Verizon ads that trash AT&T’s minuscule 3G coverage, have hired actor Luke Wilson to make commercials touting how great AT&T is. instead of actually improving their 3G coverage, they spend millions of dollars telling people that how great they are.

Isn’t that just fantastic?

I have an iPhone which means that I can only use AT&T as my provider. No matter what Luke Wilson says, I know that AT&T’s 3G coverage sucks. Without 3G, the iPhone is just a pretty iPod that you can talk to people on. When you find yourself in one of the many areas the AT&T doesn’t have 3G coverage, a lot of the apps that make the iPhone great are unusable.

When I worked in Pennsylvania, my iPhone’s 3G coverage died the minute I crossed from Maryland into Pennsylvania. Because of this fact, I had to listen to XM radio on the actual XM radio instead of the Sirius-XM iPhone app on my iPhone. This would not have been necessary if AT&T’s 3G coverage wasn’t such a big bucket of suck.

2 Comments by Rick on November 24, 2009
filed in Technology
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You call that perfect?

web86fleerjordanbgs10frontSean Storms, a collector with more money then sense, just spent $200,000 on a graded “perfect” Michael Jordan 1986-87 Fleer Card. The card is considered Jordan’s “rookie” card, even though his rookie season in the NBA was 1985-86.

Beckett, publisher of the most popular sports card price guide and the company that graded the card, published the story on their website about the card’s sale to Sean Storms. They claim in the article that the card is perfect, yet if you look the actual ratings of the card, it’s not really perfect. If it was perfect, it would rate solid 10’s in every category. This card doesn’t have solid 10’s. Beckett rated the card’s surface as a 9.5 out of 10. If it was in fact perfect, they would have assigned a perfect 10 to not only the Centering, Edges, and Corners, but the to the Surface too.

This card isn’t perfect.

If you want to impress me, show me a graded 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan with solid 10’s. You do that and I just might just start bowing like Obama in Japan.

One of my favorite basketball cards comes from the same set. It’s a 1986-87 Fleer Kurt Rambis card, number 89 in the set. It, like the Jordan card, is considered the Rambis rookie card. I was able to pick it up for fifty cents at a card show at the Ruritan in Mauginsvile, Maryland. It was quite a score because the card usually goes for around $2. I handed the gentleman selling the card a one dollar bill and not only did I get a mint Rambis rookie card, I got two shinny quarters as well.

It was a wonderful day.

by Rick on November 19, 2009
filed in Basketball
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Jon Gosselin sues TLC

jon-goselin-240Jon Gosselin has filed a $5 million lawsuit against TLC claiming that the network dedicated to learning damaged his reputation and career by preventing him from working with other media outlets.  He also claims in his lawsuit that TLC owes him $175,000 for Jon and Kate Plus Eight episodes that have already been aired.  In accordance with a contract he and his soon to be ex-wife signed in 2008, he gets $22,500 for each half-hour episode and $45,000 for each one-hour episode.

I’m not sure he even has to be in the episode to get the money.  TLC probably didn’t foresee a future where Jon and Kate would be separated and no longer appearing together on the show.

Jon Gosselin filed the lawsuit here in Maryland at the District Court in Rockville, where Discovery Communications, TLC’s parent company, is headquartered.

Since Jon Gosselin is under contract with TLC, it’s a shame that they cannot simply reassign him to another show on the network.  I’m sure I’m not the only one that would get a real kick out of seeing Jon work as a deckhand on The Deadliest Catch.  After spending 48 hours on his feet pulling up crab pots in below freezing temperatures on the Bering Sea, he might just decide that being married to Kate isn’t so bad after all.

by Rick on November 14, 2009
filed in Television
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The state of Virgina is fixin to kill Muhammad

muhammad-2Tonight at 9 p.m the state of Virgina will be executing John Allen Muhammad, one of the so-called beltway snipers.

Back in 2002, Muhammad and his young ward, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized people in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virgina. People were afraid to cut their grass, pump gas, or go shopping. Before they were done, they had killed 10 people and wounded 3 others.

The three weeks they were driving around and shooting people from the trunk of their car was a colossal bucket of suck for everyone. They were caught sleeping in their car at a rest stop here in Maryland on Interstate 70, about halfway between Frederick and Hagerstown.

The reason Muhammad is now in Virgina and not Maryland is because the Bush administration had him transfered to Virginia so that he could be tried there first. The reason? Because the prosecutor in Virginia was a Republican who had aspirations for higher office.

The prosecutor in Maryland was a Democrat.

I’m generally against the death penalty, not because I care about people like John Allen Muhammad. I don’t. I just don’t see how it solves anything. When Muhammad shuts his eyes for the last time tonight, the people he killed will still be dead. I also have a problem with how the death penalty is given to some, but not others.

It seems far too arbitrary.

With that said, I’m glad Muhammad is getting his ticket punched tonight. If we are going to have the death penalty in this country, why not him? I can think of no better person than John Allen Muhammad to get strapped down on a gurney and a toxic cocktail pumped through his veins.

2 Comments by Rick on November 10, 2009
filed in News
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City of Frederick does not understand why hanging dummies from a tree might remind some of lynchings

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To say that racism, or at the very least, racial insensitivity, can be found here in western Maryland is perhaps a whopper of an understatement. Every once in a while something happens that reminds one and all of this sad and depressing fact. The city of Frederick hung three dummies from a tree at a city park as part of a Halloween program. From a distance, they looked like actual people hanging from the tree.

To some, the dummies hanging from the trees reminded them of when black men were hung from trees by white southern supremest groups. The practice was commonly referred to as a lynching.

Though I don’t necessarily believe that whoever thought up this display was trying to recreate a lynching, I don’t understand what it has to do with Halloween.

Guy Djoken, president of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter, requested that the dummies be removed from the park. Republican Mayor Jeff Holtzinger refused saying that Djoken was only trying to drum up publicity for himself.

A quick check of the Frederick News Post comment section shows that Holtzinger is not alone. Some of the comments:

  • “Gives the “race hustlers” something to do.”
  • “My goodness, lets get Jessie and Al on the phone. Let’s make sure we have all the race baiters in court for this one. Get a life.”
  • Guy Djoken is just like Obama, they are born in another country, come to the US, and try and run things, but are failures.
  • “Hey…they just had a story on the news about BLACK BEAR season opening in Maryland. I guess the NAACP idot will have something to cry and complain about tomorrow. Why can’t they just go back where they came from if they are always offended about something. What a bunch of crap”.

Why can’t we all agree that hanging dummies from a tree is not the best use of city resources?  To me, this just seems like a no-brainier.

Life is full of hard questions.  This is not one of them.

3 Comments by Rick on November 1, 2009
filed in Maryland
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Harry Reid announces that he is for the public option, but only if states can opt out

happy_harry_reidSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that the health reform bill he will bring to the Senate floor will have a public option, but it will include the provision that individual states could opt out if they want to.

My guess is that the only reason Reid is now for the public option is because he knows what everyone else knows; that 6 in 10 Americans are in favor of the public option.

Only a few months ago Reid said he was only for the public option if it was run not by the government, but by a private entity.

As I’ve blogged before, I’m really curious to see how the whole opt out thing would work.  Not that I’m so curious that I would want to see a Republican governor deny the people in his or her state the ability to have access to quality and affordable health care.

I’m not that curious.

I imagine it would be a real wedge issue during gubernatorial elections. Living here in Maryland, I am blessed with seeing political commercials from candidates not only here in Maryland, but in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia too. Right now there’s a heated campaign going on in Virginia for governor. The Democrat is getting attacked because when he says he wont raise taxes, it somehow secretly means he will raise taxes. The Republican is getting attacked because he once wrote that working women were a detriment the American family and that birth control should be illegal.

Imagine the attack ads against Republican candidates for governor when voters see commercials warning them that a vote for the Republican means they will lose their public option health insurance.

Who knows, maybe that’s the point.

by Rick on October 26, 2009
filed in Politics
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Hagerstown Waldenbooks is closing

waldenbooksThe Waldenbooks in the Hagerstown Valley Mall is closing.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised in that Hagerstown has a Borders and Borders and Waldenbooks are owned by the same corporate overlords.  I guess in this economy, the Hagerstown area cannot support two corporate book stores.  Compounding this problem, a massive Books-A-Million store just opened down the road in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia.

The store is located in the mall near the food court and the multiplex movie theater.  When a comic book movie would be playing in the theater, someone from the bookstore would put a display of trade paperbacks pertaining to the movie near the store’s entrance.  People walking by would see these trade paperbacks.  Maybe some of them stopped and looked at the trade paperbacks.  Perhaps some of them even bought a book or two.  It always seemed like a smart move.

I’m going to miss Waldenbooks.  Before Borders opened, it was the only real bookstore in town.  I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the mall without visiting Waldenbooks.

2 Comments by Rick on October 22, 2009
filed in Economic Apocalypse
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Nice sunglasses buddy

sunglassesThere’s a Native American Indian Pow Wow going on this weekend at the Hagerstown Raceway. The Herald-Mail was kind enough to run photos from yesterday’s event so people like me can see some of the sights without having to go to the trouble of venturing out to the raceway and ponying up the $5 admission fee.

It’s not like I haven’t seen a pow wow before. I was once at the Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick when one of these hokey events was taking place in the mall’s center square. I stood there in the mall and watched for a couple of minutes. I couldn’t really believe what I was seeing. What I saw were people that were supposedly honoring their ancestor’s culture and spiritual beliefs by prancing around the mall dressed in costumes made with synthetic materials. Nearly all of the participants were wearing eye glasses, something their ancestors probably didn’t do even if they weren’t lucky enough to have perfect eyesight. One of the female participants was wearing a costume made from pink buckskin.

Though there are many words I could use to describe what I saw, the words “traditional” or “authentic” would not be included.

The whole thing just seemed tacky. It would have been different if what I saw were people engaged in the historic and authentic reproduction of their ancestor’s beliefs. I didn’t see that. I saw something a lot different than that. Instead of honoring their ancestors, if anything, what they were doing was actually dishonoring those beliefs.

3 Comments by Rick on October 4, 2009
filed in Maryland
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You mean texting while driving used to be legal?

screenshot-iphoneThe state of Maryland joined 17 other states today by enacting a ban on texting while driving. It’s classified as a “primary offense” which means that an officer of the law can pull a driver over for suspicion of texting. He or she needs no other reason than to stop you.

It’s punishable by a $500 fine.

How exactly is a cop supposed to tell when someone is texting while driving? Reading a text message while driving is not covered under the law, so simply holding your cell phone or your PDA while driving isn’t enough for a police officer to pull you over. You must be actually typing a message to be breaking the law.

Laws like this amuse me. I wouldn’t think of texting while I was driving because it seems like an obviously retarded thing to do while you are operating a motor vehicle. Isn’t there already a law against driving dangerously and/or recklessly?

It seems to me that should have already covered it.

9 Comments by Rick on October 1, 2009
filed in News
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Shawne Merriman chokes reality star girlfriend

figure2San Diego Chargers star linebacker and Maryland alumni Shawne Merriman was arrested on Sunday for allegedly choking and throwing girlfriend Tila Tequila, a woman that somehow got famous on MySpace and then parlayed that fame into a gig on an MTV reality show.

Being that Merriman is a San Diego Charger, I thought the only choking he did was in the post season.

It also goes to show what I know about the California legal system. I didn’t know it was illegal to choke Tila Tequila.

4 Comments by Rick on September 7, 2009
filed in Football
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16-year old Hagerstown girl found guilty of soliciting the murder of her father

DanielleBlack-2Danielle Black, a 16-year old Hagerstown girl was found guilty of soliciting the murder of her father, Billy Lee Black. Danielle Black asked a friend, Matthew Gray, to kill her father while the two were riding on a school bus.

Billy Lee Black’s body was found the morning of October 31, 2008 behind his house.

Alec Scott Eger, 20, not Matthew Gray, is charged with committing the actual murder of Billy Lee Black. Eger is awaiting a mental evaluation before he can be tired.

Danielle Black never asked Eger to murder her father.

Danielle Black told her fellow students at South Hagerstown High School that her father often physically abused her, though the girl’s stepmother, Andrea Black, testified that this was not true. Then again, what’s she supposed to say? If she admitted that Billy Lee Black abused his daughter, she too would be culpable if she allowed it to go on without trying to stop it.

There’s a lot about this case that bothers me. There’s no doubt that Danielle Black is a screwed up, creepy person, but is she an adult? I don’t like how children can be tried as adults. A person is either an adult or they are not. We as a society decided a long time ago that a person is not an adult until they are at least 18 years of age. Though some 16 year old children are more mature than their peers, I don’t think anyone would argue that Danielle Black was one of those.

If anything, she’s less mature than the average 16-year old.

4 Comments by Rick on July 16, 2009
filed in News
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Maryland prison guards don’t like to get strip-searched

From Hagerstown’s most respected newspaper, the Herald-Mail:

Eight people who worked at Maryland Correctional Training Center south of Hagerstown are suing nine colleagues over strip searches conducted last year.

The $40 million suit filed Monday in Washington County Circuit Court alleges that the workers’ constitutional rights were violated through “sexually intrusive, humiliating” and unjustified strip searches.

Court papers allege that the searchers, who found nothing, later ridiculed the victims’ underwear and physical appearance.

A Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesman says the strip-search policy was later changed.

The lawyer representing the plaintiffs, most of whom still work at the prison, says a nearly a year after the incident “nothing meaningful” has been done.

I’m having a hard time drumming up much sympathy for these prison guards. They were strip-searched because some type of high tech device that detects illegal drugs detected drug residue on them. Drugs are a problem in the prison and some believe that it’s the prison guards that are bringing the drugs in. Go figure.

What I find to be even more ridiculous than the claim that  they were ridiculed about their underwear is the claim that the strip-searches were “sexually intrusive.”  Really?  These eight prison guards perform strip-searches on prisoners.  Does that mean they are being “sexually intrusive” when they perform strip-searches on prisoners? 

They really shouldn’t be whining about getting strip-searched when they themselves perform strip-searches for a living.

by Rick on July 9, 2009
filed in News
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Worshiping Michael Jackson

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A local church held a special service on Sunday not to honor Jesus, their Christ and savior, but Michael Jackson, singer of songs and molester of children.

As part of the service, members of the Asbury United Methodist church of Frederick, Maryland signed a special guest book that will be sent to the Jackson family.

That wonderful, loving Jackson family.

I haven’t been this creeped out by people worshiping since that Planet of the Apes movie where people lived underground and prayed to a nuclear bomb. With that said, at least those freaks didn’t sign a guest book.

11 Comments by Rick on June 29, 2009
filed in News
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D.C. metro death toll reaches 9

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The number of dead is now up to nine people in the crash between two metro trains on the Red line near the Washington D.C./Maryland border.  The number of injured is at 70.  The crash happened in north-east Washington D.C. between Fort Totten and Takoma.  Evidently one train was sitting still on the track waiting for another train to clear the station up ahead (Fort Totten) when another train plowed into it from behind.  Fort Totten serves as a stop for both the Red line and the Green line (map).

The impact was so bad that the trailing train jumped the track and landed on top the other train.

The death toll includes the operator of the trailing train, Jeanice McMillan of Springfield, Virginia.

The accident happened near 5:00 p.m., the height of rush hour in the Washington D.C. area. I can only imagine the trains were packed with commuters when the accident happened. Considering how many people were on both trains, along with the force of the impact, it’s a miracle the death toll isn’t much higher.

3 Comments by Rick on June 23, 2009
filed in News
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Pedophiles don’t get better

State’s Attorney Charlie Smith weighed in on the Samuel Huffer, Fredericktown Players controversy.  Smith was the one that prosecuted Huffer in 2001 for buying child porn.  He spoke with Fox 5, the Washington D.C. Fox Network affiliate and had this to say:

People don’t get better.  Pedophiles, which is what medically he is. They don’t get better– they’re hard-wired this way. You don’t tell somebody not to like men anymore. You don’t tell somebody not to like women any more and, quite frankly, you can’t tell them not to like children any more.

Yes, pedophiles don’t get better.

My real problem with Samuel Huffer and people like him is that when he realized he was sexually attracted to young boys, he did nothing to mitigate the problem. He didn’t seek therapy or counseling or anything else that would help him curb his sexual desires. He also didn’t do the most important thing he could ever do; he didn’t avoid young boys. In fact, he did the complete opposite. He became a teacher.

He chose a profession that would force him to interact with the thing he desired sexually, but couldn’t have.

That’s what I have a problem with.

When he went on a Yahoo chat room and purchased child porn from an undercover Postal Inspector, he clearly demonstrated that he could not control his sexual impulses. He had to know that what he was doing was wrong, but he chose to do it anyway.

Samuel Huffer owes it his community to not put himself in situations where he will come into contact with underage boys. Is he doing that? No, he is not. In fact, he’s doing the complete opposite. He’s directing a musical where half the cast is made up of children. The audience will undoubtedly consist of lots of children, unless parents decide not to take them to a musical directed by a registered child sex offender.

If Samuel Huffer has any remorse for what he did, he sure isn’t showing it. Not putting himself in situations where he will be around children would be a good start.

6 Comments by Rick on June 19, 2009
filed in News
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Registered child sex offender directing children’s musical

3965524Samuel Huffer is the director of a summer production of Annie put on by the Fredericktown Players, a community theater group located in Frederick, Maryland. The popular children’s musical opens towards the end of July.  The cast is made up of around 50 actors and actresses, about half of them being children.

Samuel Huffer is also a convicted child sex offender.

He used to work as a drama teacher at Walkersville High School.  On June 9, 2001,  officials raided his home armed with a search warrant.  He had purchased child pornography over the Internet.  When they searched his home, they found pornographic tapes of boys along with cocaine, opium, and marijuana.  Four months later, he pleaded guilty to one count of receiving three video tapes containing child pornography.

He spent 21 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised probation.  He was also ordered to register as a child sex offender.

Not only does Samuel Huffer appear on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry, he’s a well known person in the Frederick area.  It’s not like he was convicted of possessing child pornography in a faraway land.  When he was caught with child pornography and drugs, it happened here in this area.  It was in all the newspapers.

How is Samuel Huffer allowed to be in a position where he has unfettered access to young children?

It’s 2009. How is it that parents today aren’t using the the online sex offender registry to verify the people that are interacting with their children? If I was a parent of a young child, I’d be checking everyone that interacted with my kid. Not only would I run them through the sex offender registry, I’d be doing a quick Google search on them too. If the parents had done either one of these two things, they would have quickly learned that Samuel Huffer was not someone they should trust around their kid.

25 Comments by Rick on June 16, 2009
filed in News
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Because everyone loves free food

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There are a large variety of wild birds living around our apartment. We thought it would be fun for our cats if we put bird feeders out on the balcony to help attract them.

So far, it’s been a huge success.

At first I couldn’t figure out what would be the best type of feeder to use. I finally just settled on two large tin pans. They are made to put under a potted plant, but they work great as balcony bird feeders. In one we put black sunflower seeds and the other we put regular bird seed. The black sunflower seeds are intended for the blue jays and the cardinals. Not only do they come and eat the black sunflowers, they eat the regular bird seed too.

Not only do blue jays and cardinals show up to eat, but we get a lot of other birds too. Sparrows, finches, doves, and a few other birds I can’t identify. No orioles yet. I’ve lived in Maryland now for 15 years and the only orioles I’ve ever seen are the kind that get in trouble for using steroids.

4 Comments by Rick on May 23, 2009
filed in Personal
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So I guess this is why people buy instead of rent

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We’ve been having a massive amount of problems with management at our new apartment. On April 21, we noticed the hardwood flooring in the main hallway was warped and buckling. We called the office and told them about it. After lots and lots of phone calls as well as emails to the vice-president of the company that owns this apartment complex, we were finally told that the flooring installers would be coming out on May 6 to replace the warped floor.

What caused the warping?  The floor had been damaged by water leaking on the inside of the air-conditioning unit.  I had to fix that myself since nobody from the apartment would come and do it. Read the full article »

5 Comments by Rick on May 8, 2009
filed in Personal
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Roscoe Bartlett refers to Democrats as the enemy

Area Republicans gathered at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center on Saturday for the Maryland GOP spring convention where they talked about how awful Democrats were and how courageous Rush Limbaugh is.

From Hagerstown’s newspaper of record, the Herald-Mail:

As Democrats strengthen their federal control, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., said he feels ambivalent.
Even while outnumbered, Republicans can fight full bore for their causes. Or they can be content to watch Democrats overspend and make bad policy decisions, benefiting the GOP, Bartlett said.

The conventional wisdom, he said, is “when your enemy is committing suicide, you shouldn’t interfere.”

And I thought Roscoe Bartlett’s enemy, like all Americans, was al Qaeda.  I should have realized Bartlett would put his political party before his country.  Silly me.

Bartlett told the crowd that he was with Rush Limbaugh.  He said that Limbaugh had the courage to not say that he wanted Barack Obama to succeed.

It should be no surprise that Roscoe Bartlett would think that a draft-dodger like Rush Limbaugh is courageous. Rush Limbaugh avoided military service during the Vietnam conflict by claiming to have an “old football injury”, and then claiming to having a pilonidal cyst on his buttocks. Roscoe Bartlett avoided military service during World War Two by claiming he wanted to pursue a career in the ministry, though ne never actually did.

This is the man that once called for higher gas prices.  He failed to report roughly $1 million in property sales in official documents.  He also bowed to Reverend Sun Myung Moon at a crowning ceremony held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter what Roscoe Bartlett says or does.  The people of the 6th district of Maryland will continue to reelect him to the U.S. House of Representatives every two years.

1 Comment by Rick on May 4, 2009
filed in Maryland
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So who will now be my favorite Republican in Washington?

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is switching to the other side. He is changing his party affiliation from Republican to a Democrat. So why is he going to do it? From a statement released by the Senator:

“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

I’ve always liked Arlen Specter. Though I’m a card carrying, tree-hugging liberal, I could see myself voting for a man like Arlen Specter. I would certainly rather vote for him than a kook like Barbara Mikulski.

I guess the Republicans could make a run on “Independent Democrat” Joe Lieberman and try to lure him over to the GOP. The only problem is that they have nothing to offer him. He caucuses with the Democrats and because of this fact, he is allowed to be the chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs committee. If he became a Republican, he would lose that.

4 Comments by Rick on April 28, 2009
filed in Politics
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What happens to your blog when you are dead?

whatamisupposedtodonowFrancis Wood, the Maryland woman who’s husband murdered her and their three children before killing himself had a blog. She maintained the blogspot blog What am I supposed to do now, where she blogged about personal issues including the stress her husband was under with his new job and the fact that she was taking an anti-depressant.

It’s kind of creepy to read.

She recently blogged about one of her children having  emergency appendix surgery.  It’s somewhat unsettling to read when you realize this young boy who needed surgery only a month ago is now dead, brutally murdered by his own father.  Before shooting him with a .25 caliber handgun, he reportedly cut him repeatedly with a knife.

Reading her blog made me think of something I had never thought about before: what happens to your blog when you die?

Since Francis Wood had her blog over on Google’s free blogging service Blogspot, I imagine her blog will be around for quite awhile.  Since there are no fees to pay to keep it online, it very well may be floating about the World Wide Internet Web for years to come.

Since I have my blog on AQHost, a paid hosting site, I imagine it would only be around for a month or two after I kick the proverbial bucket and can no longer make the monthly payment.  Then again, I pay my monthly hosting fee with an automatic credit card payment.  Maybe it would continue taking up Internet space, at least until my card was canceled.

And what happens to your Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook page when you are now longer sucking oxygen? I’m not so sure that I like the idea of my Facebook or Twitter page living longer than me. Maybe there should be some kind of deadman’s switch that requires you to log-on once a week. If you don’t, you will be presumed dead. I don’t want to die and have my fake friends on Twitter and Facebook leaving fake messages about my demise.

3 Comments by Rick on April 20, 2009
filed in Web Design & Blogging
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Hagerstown Tea Party

From the “official” Hagerstown Tea Party freebie Google Blogspot website:

TEA PARTY PLANNED FOR HAGERSTOWN MARYLAND

The Hagerstown Tea Party represents people who are concerned about their family’s and their children’s future, who are concerned about the skyrocketing national debt, and who think the government is spending too much of their hard-earned money. The Hagerstown Tea Party is a part of a national movement of Tea Parties planned in over 1,500 cities across the U.S. scheduled for April 15.

The Hagerstown Tea Party expects to have approximately 200 participants. Main Speakers include Delegate Chris Shank and Delegate Andrew Serafini. The event is scheduled for this Wednesday, Tax Day, rain or shine from 3-6 PM in the University Plaza. The plaza is located right next to the University of Maryland Hagerstown Campus and across from Hagerstown Post Office in the middle of the Dual Highway.

Please contact Neil Parrott for more information. He can be reached by phone at 240-329-2645 or by e-mail at hagerstownteaparty@myactv.net.

I don’t know what’s funnier: that they think 200 people are going to show up for this thing or that they are wrong about where the University of Maryland Hagerstown Campus is located.

The Hagerstown Post Office is not on Dual Highway. It’s on Franklin Street. The University of Maryland Hagerstown Campus is on West Washington Street.

3 Comments by Rick on April 15, 2009
filed in Maryland
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Orioles fans hate Mark Teixeira

mark-teixeiraOrioles fans last night once again booed Yankees first baseman and Maryland native Mark Teixeira each and every time he came up to bat.  In fact, they started booing him as soon as he made his way to the on deck circle.  Could this somehow become an Orioles tradition?  I sure hope so.

Why is he getting so much heat?  It’s for statements like this one:

“In a perfect world, the Orioles would’ve won the World Series every year I was alive and I’d be an Oriole right now,” Teixeira said. “I have so much love for this city, this organization. But in the business world, in the baseball world, sometimes you have to make difficult decisions. When it came down to it, the Yankees were a better fit for me.

And by “the Yankees were a better fit for me“, he means that they were able to throw more money at him.  The Orioles actually tried to bring the Maryland native home, offering him $150 million over seven years.  The New York Yankees offered him $180 million over eight years.

Teixeira has often spoke about being an Orioles fan.  He was in Camden Yards the night Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games.  He became a switch hitter because he wanted to emulate Eddie Murray.

If he really wanted to come home to Maryland and play for the Orioles, he could have accepted the $150 million the O’s offered him.  I realize that $150 is less than $180, but it still represents more money than he could ever spend in his lifetime.

It’s more money than his children could spend in their lifetime.

I think he made it seem as though he wanted to come home to Maryland to play baseball so that the Yankees would simply offer him more money.  Normally the Yankees only have to compete with themselves when it comes to free agents, especially when the Boston Red Sox aren’t in the mix.

by Rick on April 9, 2009
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The joys of moving

Sheri and I are in the process of moving this weekend. We are moving from our third-floor walk-up apartment off Robinwood Drive in Hagerstown to another third-floor walk-up apartment in nearby Willamsport.

When I first moved to Maryland in 1994, I lived in Williamsport, so I’m coming full circle. My how things change. Back then, the only way to get an Internet connection was to go through an outfit in Frederick, Maryland called Frednet. Frederick is about 25 miles away, so it would have been a long distance call from Williamsport to Frederick. I had to pay extra each month ($10) to get a Halfway phone number. Halfway is the town between Hagerstown and Williamsport. Calling from Williamsport to Frederick was long distance, but calling from Halfway to Frederick was not.

Frednet sucked. It was the only Internet provider in the region and the man that owned it knew it. I was constantly getting disconnected and had trouble getting a connection once I was disconnected. The phone number you had to dial to connect was constantly busy. I remember that Frednet had it’s own Usenet message board. Once a bunch of us complained on the message board about our service. We were all suspended for a week. The reason? Using obscene language on the message board. I called and complained that I had not used obscene language. I was told that since I participated in the thread where obscene language was used, I was some sort of an accessory and had violated their terms of service.

Frednet is not longer an Internet provider. The man that owned it sold it. For the Internet, I was able to get Verizon DSL. I never could get it on Robinwood Drive. Not only is it cheaper than Antietam Cable, it’s a lot faster. At least the posted download speeds are faster than cable. We shall see. I have to go pick up the self-install kit at USP first thing tomorrow.

We were also able to get DirecTV at the new apartment. That’s something that was never an option over on Robinwood Drive. Our apartment did not have a balcony to mount the dish. The one in Williamsport does. The tech is coming out Tuesday morning to set it up.

You do not realize just how heavy your belongings are until you must move them from one third floor walk-up to another third floor walk-up. I’m getting far too old for this.

1 Comment by Rick on February 22, 2009
filed in Personal
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D.C. United to move to nearby Maryland

dc-unitedThe D.C. United have finally given up on getting a new soccer stadium in the District and hope to break ground on a new stadium somewhere in Prince George’s County later this year.  The plan is to play in the new 24,000-seat stadium either at the end of the 2011 MLS season or at the beginning of the 2012 MLS season.

For the past 13 seasons, the D.C. United have played in rickety old RFK stadium, the former home of the Washington Redskins.  It’s ugly and it’s falling apart.  The once burgundy colored seats have been bleached by the sun and now have a somewhat pinkish color.

The D.C. United are by far that most sucsessful team in the Washington D.C. area.  It’s only fitting that they get a real soccer stadium.

by Rick on February 17, 2009
filed in Sports
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Greivis Vasquez has to instruct Maryland students not to boo their own team

greivis-vasquez2

From the Washington Post’s Terrapins Insider:

When Vasquez missed a shot or made a mistake, a cluster of Maryland students either booed the guard or yelled for Vasquez to shape up. And Vasquez responded at least three times by turning toward his classmates (once while dribbling the ball), putting his index finger over his lips and telling them to “Shut the [expletive] up!”

And I thought only Redskins fans boo their own team.

by Rick on January 12, 2009
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Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon indicted on 12 counts

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has been indicted on 12 counts in connection with an investigation into a bribery scandal.  From Baltimore ABC Channel 2:

In December 2005, state prosecutors say a real estate developers gave Dixon Target & Best Buy gift cards.  According to the indictment, Dixon told a developer that the cards would be given to needy families.   But according to the charges, Dixon used 19 of the 20 Best Buy cards to buy a Digital Camcorder, a Playstation 2 and other electronics for her personal use.

In December 2006, Old Navy, Best Buy & other gift cards were given to the Mayor to give to needy families.  But prosecutors say she used them to buy an Xbox 360, PlayStation portable, clothes and other things.  According to the indictment, some of the cards were given to her staff at an office Christmas party.

In December 2007, the City Housing Department bought Toys R’ Us gift cards for needy families in Baltimore.  One of the cards was given to someone on Dixon’s staff.  Proseuctors found 5 others, when the Mayor’s home was raided in June.

So she took gift cards intended for the needy and she used them for herself.  That’s classy.

The mayor is the aunt of former Maryland college basketball star and current NBA player Juan Dixon.  Even NBA bench players make enough money so that their aunts don’t have to skim money for the poor to buy a Playstation 2.

2 Comments by Rick on January 9, 2009
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Man faces fines unless he moes his grassland habitat

Sharpsburg resident Dean Joyce has been notified by the Washington County Commissioners that he has to mow his natural meadow habitat down to 18 inches or he will face huge fines. Joyce decided to return his 3-acre field into a natural grassland habitat shortly after moving into his home in 2000. He is originally from Australia and he wanted to learn more about the flora and fauna of the United States.

I have to hand it to the Washington County Commissioners. When they decided to illegally give $10,000 to a Hagerstown all-star Little League team to supposedly cover travel expenses that were already being covered by Little League, I thought they couldn’t do anything as stupid ever again. Clearly I was wrong.

Joyce’s field is the way a field is supposed to look. It’s natural. It’s the way God intended a field to look. [The Herald Mail]

by Rick on September 17, 2008
filed in Maryland
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Maryland is getting tough on chicken poop

Maryland regulators have announced new regulations that will severely control how Maryland chicken farmers on the Eastern Shore store and handle chicken poop. Evidently many of them store the stuff out in the open and the rain washes the poop into the Chesapeake Bay.

They also spray the stuff on their corn fields. When the rain comes, it washes it from the corn fields into the Chesapeake Bay.

As you probably already know, chicken poop is rich in nitrogen. That’s probably why it smells so good. The nitrogen causes the amount of oxygen to decrease in the Chesapeake Bay which leads to bacteria outbreaks.

If your crab cakes have been tasting kind of funny lately, you might have been tasting the chicken poop. [Washington Post]

by Rick on September 14, 2008
filed in Maryland
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Are you ready for some football?

Today starts the begining of the NFL 2008 season even though technically it sort of began this past Thursday when the 2007 Superbowl Champions the New York football Giants beat the Washington Redskins.

I was planning on watching the local Baltimore Ravens lose to host the Cincinnati Bengals, but the TV listings show that our CBS station is showing the New York Jets play the Miami Dolphins.  Thus begins the obsurditiy of watching sports in the central Maryland region.

Perhaps it’s for the best. Normally watching the Ravens play football is a lot like taking four Excedrin PM’s and turning the thermostat up to 85 degrees. To say that their games are boring makes them sound more exciting then they really are. Watching a game where the final score is 9 – 6 might be fun to watch if it’s baseball. It’s not so fun when it’s football. It’s even less fun when, because of geography, the team you are rooting for is the one with only six points.

Update: I just checked the TV listings again and the Bengals vs. Ravens game is now showing up on the non-HD CBS channel. The HD CBS channel is still showing Jets vs. Dolphins. Watching non-high definition football like people did back in the olden times is like drinking warm non-alcoholic beer or eating a tuna sandwich made with fat-free mayonnaise.

by Rick on September 7, 2008
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Robert McKee facing up to 41 months in prison for child pornography

Former Maryland Delegate Robert A. McKee pleaded guilty to a child porn charge in federal court yesterday. Prosecutors are asking for 37 to 41 months in prison along with the requirement to register with as a sex offender.

Prosecutors stated that McKee possessed printed images of child pornography from the Internet and printed stories describing sexual acts between young boys and other young boys or adult men. They stated that McKee would read these stories while looking at the images. Some of the images were of known victims identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s database.

When McKee wasn’t working as a Maryland state delegate, he was the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County. He was also active in local Little League.

by Rick on September 6, 2008
filed in Politics
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Former state delegate caught with child pornography remains free

On January 31, 2008, law enforcement officers raided the home of Robert A. McKee and seized two computers, 30 videotapes and printed materials from his home that officers described as being child pornography.  At the time of the raid, McKee was an elected delegate to to the Maryland House of Delegates.  He was also the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County.

He was also a Republican.

When news of the incident was made public a week later, McKee resigned from both the Maryland House of Delegates and his position with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County.

It has now been 190 days since investigators seized the child pornography from McKee’s home. He has yet to be charged with any crime.

Why not?

by Rick on August 8, 2008
filed in Politics
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Representative Roscoe Bartlett has been a bad boy

It seems that Roscoe Bartlett, my elected representative in the U.S. House of Representatives has been less then honest with his finances. The Frederick-News Post uncovered the fact that since 2004, Bartlett underreported or failed to report roughly $1 million in property sales.

As a member of Congress, Bartlett is required by law to disclose details of his finances each year.  He is required to report his earned and unearned income, assets, gifts and travel. By submitting false financial statements, he could be facing up to five years in prison.

Being the man of character that he is, he quickly did what all men of character do – he blamed his wife and son:

“I really was a bit player,” he said. “My son rebuilt the houses; my wife wrote the checks.”

Bartlett also blamed the people that work for him:

Bartlett blamed that error on staff first not reading his handwritten notes correctly, and then his own signing of the finished form without reading it, something he said he shouldn’t have done.

Bartlett also made a series of interest baring loans to various family members.  He failed to declare the money generated from the interest from this loans.  Who even charges their own family interest?

I’m not really sure who he is blaming for that mix up.

by Rick on August 7, 2008
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Maryland college bans smoking

The smoking lamp is permanently off at Montgomery College, a community college — also known as the 13th and 14th grade — here in Maryland. No more smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, or any other tobacco based products.

I’m not sure if this ban also applies to marijuana.

Montgomery College Snuffs Out Smoking [Washington Post]

by Rick on August 3, 2008
filed in Maryland
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How long does it take to investigate someone for child pornography?

It’s now been 65 days since Washington County Sheriff deputies raided the home of former Maryland state delegate Robert A. McKee (R) and child pornography. Investigators seized two computers, 30 videotapes and a “significant amount” of printed material, including magazines showing naked children.

He has yet to be charged. Why not?

Even after deputies hauled the massive kiddie porn collection from McKee’s home, they didn’t bother notifying anyone. When McKee wasn’t in Annapolous helping to craft new state laws, he was the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County. He was also quite active in the local Little League.

Maybe steps should have been taken to make sure he stays away from children.

I just don’t understand why things are being delayed in this case. At the very least he should be placed under arrest and charged for possession of child pornography. If I didn’t know any better, I would think McKee is getting special treatment.

by Rick on April 5, 2008
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Oklahoma State representative compares homosexuality to toe cancer

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern evidently didn’t know someone had an audio recorder going when she was telling about 50 of her constitutes exactly what she thought about gay people. Damn you modern technology!

I don’t know what is more unsettling. The crap this nut job is spewing or the fact that nobody in the audience is openly laughing at her.

According to her, gay people are taking over the world. They’ve already taken over the Maryland cities of Takoma Park and Kensington. That certainly explains this photo of the Kensington city council.

She claims that she is not gay bashing. That’s funny, because it certainly sounds like she is. [www.pamshouseblend.com]

1 Comment by Rick on March 10, 2008
filed in Politics
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Fujicolor to close Maryland facility

Fujicolor Processing has announced that they will be closing their Williamsport, Maryland plant on March 12. The Williamsport facility processes film for Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and other retail stores that operate in the Northeast. The facility currently has around 125 employees who will now be out a job.

I used to work at the Williamsport facility. In fact, it’s the reason I am living here in Maryland. I was hired as a repair technician shortly after leaving the Air Force. I didn’t know anything about photofinishing equipment. They were looking for ex-military people with an electronics background. When operators had a problem with their photofinishing equipment, they would call for a service tech. One of us would show up with our tools and try to get the problem fixed as soon as possible.

It could get very hectic at times. It was very much a high-production environment. It wasn’t the greatest job I ever had, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. The photofinishing equipment broke down constantly. Most of the problems were mechanical in nature. Very rarely did a piece of photofinishing equipment have something wrong with it that had to do with it’s electronics.

It wasn’t all bad. That’s were I met my wife Sheri. She operated a machine called a splicer that constantly broke down. I found myself looking forward to when her splicer acting up. She would sit and talk to me while I worked on it. Once I got it working again, I would hang around just to make sure it was working. That of course was just an excuse to talk to her.

You would not believe how perverted people can be. Seeing many of the pictures developed from the film people turned into their local Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club for 2-day processing gave me a clear understanding of just how nasty some people can be. Take it from me, if a guy is going to take photos of himself with a long stemmed rose inserted in this rectum, chances are he’s not going to go for the one-hour film processing. He’s going to drop his order in the box and come back in two days.

I guess I’m not surprised the facility is being shut down. Who uses film cameras?

by Rick on March 2, 2008
filed in Personal
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Maryland delegate under investigation for child pornography

From the Hagerstown paper of record, The Herald-Mail:

Maryland Del. Robert A. McKee, R-Washington, on Friday announced his resignation from the House of Delegates after information surfaced that deputies, acting on information that child pornography was in the residence, searched his Halfway home on Jan. 31.

During the search, investigators seized two computers, about 30 videotapes and a “significant amount” of printed material, including magazines, Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore said Friday afternoon during a press conference.

No charges have been filed.

McKee, in a faxed statement, also said Friday that he had resigned from his position as executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County, an organization he said he served for 29 years.

Yes, that’s right. When this asshole isn’t carrying out his duties as our elected representative in Annapolis, he is running the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County. You just can’t make this kind of stuff up.

Even though authorities found a “significant amount” of child porn in the delegate’s home over two weeks ago, he remains free. He has yet to be placed under arrest. How much child porn does one have to amass before being placed under arrest? This asshat should have been forced to announce his resignation from the House of Delegates from a jail cell. This is why we have jail cells. Why hasn’t he been placed under arrest?

McKee was present when the search warrant signed by Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III was executed, said Mullendore, who knows McKee personally.

I guess it’s safe to say if you are going to be a collector of child porn, it pays to be friends with the local sheriff.

1 Comment by Rick on February 15, 2008
filed in Politics
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Coming to you from insignificant Maryland

From MSNBC’s First Read:

“Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn’t won any of the significant states — outside of Illinois?” Chief Strategist Mark Penn said. “That raises some serious questions about Sen. Obama.”

Significant states? Does that mean the only states Obama has won — such as Maryland — are insignificant?  At least we weren’t called poopy heads.

1 Comment by Rick on February 14, 2008
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I voted

Today is the day Maryland, Virgina, and Washington D.C. hold their primary elections. People are calling it the Potomac Primary after the nasty, dirty river that runs through all three places. Here in Hagerstown, you couldn’t ask for a nastier day to vote. It has been snowing and sleeting most of the day.

Sheri and I voted at nearby Hagerstown Community College. There wasn’t that many people their casting votes. It was probably the smallest crowd I’ve seen voting at the college. I don’t know if it’s because of the weather or because most of the people living here are Republican. Maybe it was a combination of the two. I probably wouldn’t vote either if I could only vote for one presidential candidate.

Something funny happened as I was going over my ballot and double checking my votes. My cell phone started to ring. Are you even allowed to answer your phone while standing in the voting booth? They never covered that in my high school government class. That’s probably because they hadn’t invented the cell phone yet. I decided to go ahead and answer it. It turned out to be a taped message from Michelle Obama reminding me to go out and vote. As I was listening to her speak, I was looking at my ballot making sure the “X” was next to her husband’s name. It was a surreal moment.

by Rick on February 12, 2008
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Maryland man Tasered to death

Jarrel Gray, a 20-year old Frederick Maryland man was killed this past Sunday morning after being Tasered twice in a 23 second period by a Frederick County Sheriff Deputy. This from the Frederick News-Post:

The deputy found three men fighting, Jenkins said. A female was also on the scene.

Jenkins would not provide the names or ages of the other people at the scene, but he said the deputy was a corporal and a 13-year veteran of the department.

When the deputy told the three men to show their hands, one of them did so immediately, another walked away before showing his hands, and the third man, identified as Gray, did not comply, Jenkins said.

The sheriff said no other officers were present when the deputy deployed the Taser. Gray, of the 7000 block of Ladd Circle, fell to the ground unconscious; he was given first aid on the scene.

Emergency responders arrived in minutes, Jenkins said. Gray was then taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead about 7:30 a.m.

Gray’s family says that he was deaf in one ear and may not have understood the deputy’s instructions to show his hands.

I don’t like these Taser devices. For supposedly being non-lethal, there sure are a lot of people now dead because of them.

2 Comments by Rick on November 21, 2007
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Congressman Roscoe Bartlett calls for higher gas prices

My representative in congress Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett spoke at a town hall meeting on energy in Mount Airy and said he thought “gasoline needs to cost more that it already does” in order to promote conservation. He also said that “too many people are driving pickup trucks as personal transportation.”

I don’t know about people driving pickup trucks, but I know that gas already costs too much as it is. It doesn’t need to cost more then what it costs now. The fact that my elected representative in Washington D.C. actually hopes that gas goes up in price just confirms what I already know – I have a representative that does not represent my interests. Not only my interests, but the interests of my fellow neighbors in the Maryland 6th district.

Roscoe Bartlett uses the power of his office to satisfy his own whims. He doesn’t use his office for the benefit of the people he is elected to represent.

I also know that Roscoe Bartlett will continue representing the 6th district of Maryland until he either retires or dies. He will never lose an election. My fellow voters here in the 6th district of Maryland will continue to vote for Roscoe Bartlett no matter what he says or what he does. He can even say that he hopes our gas prices go up and people will still reelect him into office.

9 Comments by Rick on November 18, 2007
filed in Politics
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SCHIP, the right-wing bolgosphere, and Graeme Frost

A couple of weeks ago the Democrats decided to have 12-year Graeme Frost present a radio rebuttal to President Bush’s weekly radio address. The topic was a bill that would expand SCHIP. It’s a federal program that helps pay for health insurance for children of the working poor. People that make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid, but don’t have access to health insurance through their employer. Bush was planning on vetoing the bill.

Graeme Frost was chosen because he enrolled in the SCHIP program through the state of Maryland. He and his sister were in a terrible car accident that left both children in comas. Shortly after the radio address, the right-wing blogosphere started looking into the Frost family. Right-wing bloggers started to publicly question whether the Frost family fit their preconceived notion of the term working poor.

They went snooping into the Frost family’s lives. Some right-wing bloggers turned to Google to try to find some dirt on the Frosts. Their address was posted online along with links to satellite photos of their home on Google. Right-wing crackpot blogger Michelle Malkin even drove by their house.

Graeme’s father, Halsey Frost, is a self-employed woodworker. Graeme’s mother, Bonnie Frost, works part-time and doesn’t have health insurance through her employer. They earn less then $50,000 a year. The Frost’s own their own home, a 1936 Baltimore rowhouse they purchased in 1990 for $55,000. It’s since been assessed at $263,140. The Frost’s own a commercial property as well. It’s where Halsey operates his woodworking business. And to think Republicans used to like it when people ran their own business.

Judging from above the photo, they also own a very nice looking pumpkin.

What were the Frost’s supposed to do, sell their home, business, and their pumpkin so they could buy health insurance?

The problem is that health care in our country is still treated as though it’s a luxury instead of a basic fundamental human right. Access to quality health care shouldn’t be a luxury for the rich or the privileged. Maybe that mindset made sense when our machines were powered by steam and our commerce was conducted with the exchange of beaver pelts.

At the end of the day, programs like SCHIP only put a band aid on the problem. Until we as a nation put into place a national health care system like the rest of the industrialized world, we will continue to have these type of problems.

Our health care problems wont be solved with a Michelle Malkin drive by.

by Rick on October 19, 2007
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I cannot afford to be a Maryland Democrat

Last year I did some volunteer work for Andrew Duck, a Democratic candidate for the United States House of Representatives. He sought to represent Maryland’s 6th congressional district against Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett. Normally I would automatically support anyone running against Bartlett. Duck was different in that I really thought he would make a good Representative. Unlike chicken-hawk Bartlett, Duck served over 20 years in the United States Army, serving three tours in Bosnia and one tour in Iraq in 2003.

I wasn’t voting against Bartlett, I was voting for Duck.

I guess because of my volunteer work, I ended up on a Maryland Democratic email list. Tonight I received an email inviting me to a special Maryland Democratic Gala event in Greenbelt, Maryland. The keynote speaker at this Gala will be Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.

To be honest, I don’t really know what a Gala is.

If I want to go to this Gala, I have two options. I can pay $250 and be a regular Gala Guest or I can pay $500 and be a VIP guest. As a $500 VIP, not only would I be attending the Gala, but I would be able to attend the special VIP Reception held prior to the regular old Gala.

The $250 guests don’t get to attend the Reception. I guess they have to sit in their cars and listen to Air America Radio.

There is something horrifically wrong with our political system. I volunteer to deliver VOTE DUCK yard signs to old people and now I get emails from my political party offering to let me hang out with them if I agree to pay enough for the privilege. I should not have to pay $500 to listen to my governor give a speech.

This isn’t how the political process is supposed to work. It is broken.

by Rick on September 4, 2007
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An open letter to Senator Barbara Mikulski


The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski
Suite 503
Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-4654

Dear Senator Barbara Mikulski:

This concerns the recent email you sent me asking me to shut off my electrical power this past Saturday for one hour. I didn’t see the message until today when I decided to clean out my spam folder. You claimed in your email that by turning off my electricity for one whole hour, I would be fighting global warming.

I have to ask you Senator Mikulski – do you know how hot it is in central Maryland this time of year? Telling someone in Hagerstown to turn off their electricity on a humid 91-degree day is just down right silly. Especially when you realize the air-conditioning will only have to work just that much harder after it is turned back on. You actually conserve more power Senator Mikulski by setting the thermostat to one temperature and leaving it alone.

I couldn’t help but notice you were not in Maryland this past weekend. No, you were on a taxpayer-funded trip to Greenland. It was reported that your trip even included a boat tour of Disko Bay where you witnessed first hand the effects of climate change. You actually got to see ice breaking off glaciers and sliding into the water. That sounds like a nice weekend.

Did they serve snacks on the boat ride?

It’s a shame you couldn’t just do what I normally do when I want to learn about something. Instead of going to Greenland for the weekend to watch big chunks of ice fall into the water, I would just go to Wikipedia and read about it. After reading about climate change over at Wikipedia, I would have then gone over to YouTube and watched videos of the icebergs of Disko Bay. Using the Internet to learn about global warming may not be as exciting as jetting off to Greenland for the weekend, but you have to admit my learn-about-it-on-the-Internet method creates a much smaller carbon footprint then yours.

Using the Internet to learn about things is also much cheaper then your method. Granted, you and I both pay the same amount with our methods – absolutely nothing. Even though you personally didn’t pay for the weekend junket to Greenland, the taxpayers did.

The very same people you told to turn off their air-conditioning on a 91-degree day.

Please do us a favor Senator Mikulski and the next time you decide to take a costly fact-finding trip on the tax-payers dime, stop and ask yourself if you could learn just as much by getting on the Internet.

Democratically Yours,

Rick Rottman

Hagerstown, Maryland

3 Comments by Rick on July 31, 2007
filed in Politics
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Maryland’s war on smoking

Starting next February, a new Maryland law will eliminate indoor smoking in most public places, including bars and restaurants, as well as in private social clubs and fraternal organizations.

I don’t think the law says anything about the immediate doorways to public places.

The chain restaurant Ruby Tuesday has banned smoking at their restaurant for a few years now. Before smokers would sit in the bar area and blow their smoke at each other. They didn’t bother me. Now because they cannot sit at their table and smoke, they go outside and stand at the doorway and smoke. That means that I have to walk through their smoke just to get into the restaurant. It makes me think twice before going there to have a broiled talupa fish sandwich. They are very good, but I don’t know if they are worth having if I have to walk through a gantlet of disgusting cigarette smoke both entering and leaving the restaurant.

With Maryland’s new law, it looks like I will be faced with this same problem not only at Rudy Tuesday, but at every other restaurant too.

I’m not against smoking. I’m just against doorway smoking.

I’m also against smokers that roll down their car window and throw the butt out the window. Just who do they think is going to pick that butt up? Why don’t they just use the ashtray in their vehicle? I assume it’s because they don’t want anything as nasty and disgusting as a cigarette butt in their vehicle. I cannot say that I blame them for feeling this way. It’s the same reason I don’t want cigarette butts all over the ground. They are nasty looking and disgusting.

I will be totally honest and admit that I used to smoke. In fact, I smoked a lot. I quit about eight years ago. It wasn’t the first time I tried to quit, but I hope it turns out to be the last. Nicotine is truly a powerful and addictive drug. The cigarette companies actually make it more addictive that it is naturally. With that said, I have a hard time understanding why people that smoke just cannot quit like I did. If someone as pathetically weak willed as myself can sever the addiction to nicotine, I have to believe anybody can.

(photo by Justin Shearer )

8 Comments by Rick on May 19, 2007
filed in Politics
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