Supreme court refuses to hear Ward Churchill appeal

Finis. The end. Sayo. Nara. (Probably two versions, maybe three, of your basic AP story in them links. Gotta go over to the Wart Stalinarity Network and see what they have to say.)

Update: Under the heading "CU Regents Free to Violate the Constitution," nothin' much.

Update II: Reuters, Inside Higher Ned, and Breitbart, which has a pic of the same crazy "Apologize" lady I took pics of way back when.

Update III: Abnormal font. Sorry, don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Illini Central wins Illinois state 1A b-ball title

One-A in Illinois is schools with a population of one student or fewer.

Actually Illini Central is the former Mason City High in Mason City, IL (pop. 2700, mebbe). The D-blog was incarcerated there in the mid-70s. It was consolidated with a couple of even tinier towns, San Jose (San JOES) and Easton (EAston), some years back.

Always had something of a sketchy relationship with Mason City, but, cool. Here's the State Journal Register's story.

Billy Bob

July 25, 1998-January 14, 2013.

Finally, a newsletter for us

The PERA "Inactive Member" newsletter. Not that kind of inactive member.  There are other "newsletters" out there the D-blog uses to deal with that.



No, PERA is the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association, and I am about as inactive a member as you can be, not having worked for the state in 20 years, and having had absolutely no money in its pension fund for the same amount of time.

Rantito: Like a lot of public employee pension funds, PERA is in the hole. Way in the hole, like $23 billion worth. This is because PERA, like a lot of public employee pension funds, did stupid shit like counting on an eight percent ROI, making "unfunded cost-of-living adjustments," and, if Denver radio yakker Mike Rosen is right, making some pension increases retroactive. So dumb.

Interesting fact or figure from the EDNews piece: "But between 2000 and 2011, contributions from state and local governments fell short by $3.5 billion and investments fell short over the same period. Investments in pension plans grew by 4.5 percent when they needed to grow by 8.4 percent, [some wonk] said."

Interesting fact or figure from the EDNews piece II: "A pessimistic analysis foresees the gap could grow to $35 billion, while more upbeat forecasts calling for 9.5 percent annual returns on plan investments mean a $14.5 billion unfunded liability."

Interesting use of a once-hip word: "There is substantial evidence people value current wage more than they value deferred compensation,” [some other wonk] said. “The state has a limited number of compensation dollars that have to be divided. I would encourage you to think holistically about the compensation dollars being offered.”

Sigh

Taken in Kansas or Missouri or somewhere, late August, 2012.

The return of Occupy Denver?

Post: "Thousands of zombies, mutants overtake downtown Denver." (What, was downtown Denver running away?)

No, I see now it's just another benighted instant tradition imported from California, this one called a "Zombie Crawl." An alleged 10,000 showed up. Lots of zombie vomit on the sidewalks of Lodo by the end, I bet.

Update: Boy, did I call it, in general and in deeee-tail. Post: "Zombie Crawl and anti-police protesters mix leading to arrests."

Police made six arrests Saturday night during the seventh annual Zombie Crawl and third annual anti-police march, said John White, Denver police spokesman. . . .

 "The non-permitted march started around 7 p.m. with about 35 individuals, then zombies joined in," White said.

Apparently neither anarchists nor zombies need any stinkin' &tc.

This was the third Denver march "against police terrorism," according to the Denver Anarchist Black Cross website

"The march was attacked early on, as demonstrators and police contested control of the streets," the site states. "Demonstrators fought to hold ground, and a brief but brutal street fight erupted." . . .

Yeah, sure it did. Okay, so it's not Occupy Denver, but close enough. (We've noted the (Ward Churchill-approved) Anarchist Black Cross before, btw.) And the drunken zombies?

The sidewalks up and down the 16th Street Mall were covered in fake blood, trash and broken glass as thousands participated in the zombie event.

You wouldn't even have noticed the vomit.

Probably Buster after the humiliation of MommyBoy XXXVII

Teased on the Post's front page, even as we speak: Man with body parts in car faces 1st-degree murder charge.

A man arrested Wednesday after police found body parts that could be his mother in the back seat of his car made an initial court appearance Thursday morning in Arapahoe County District Court. Investigators at his home found a hand saw in the dishwasher.

Always such a neat boy. Fave grafs from the story:

[Alleged mumsywhacker] Ari Liggett told authorities he had planned to put the remains in a tub with vinegar and store them in a storage unit "in hopes that police would be unable to identify the prints or dental records," the affidavit said.

But he said he didn't have enough money for a storage unit, the affidavit said, and drove back home to get his PlayStation to pawn it for cash.

Update: Everybody knows that after six or seven years a new season of Arrested Development will be out on Netflix in 2013, right? It better be funny or, or, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe a chicken dance.

Update II: No, I don't need to ask if it's too soon.