IN THE SKY AND ON THE GROUND?: A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR UNI-MARSHALLS

There is some evidence that the use of "sky marshals" (now called air marshals) deterred the hijacking of American airplanes.

It is a perfectly maintainable argument that our University Students and Faculties are every bit as valuable to the common good as replaceable airplanes. What if our younger air marshals were, after full training, occasionally deployed on college campuses.

It would have kinda ruined Cho's whole gesture if, after he whacked a mere two students, a trained marshall put a throwing star into his brain stem before he could take out the next 30. Obviously, he didn't fear death but he might have feared embarrassment as an incompetent, non-recordbreaking killer.

We take deterrence where we find it.

MEAT PARADE

NFL Draft is this weekend. It is immensely popular. Even non-draftniks follow the first couple of rounds. It is interesting. Still, it almost raises the issue whether man has a dark side that responds to the ownership of human beings. Is this just a polite, well-funded way to feel the same things the slave traders felt?

It's all good fun......isn't it?

CHICAGO AND DES MOINES BASEBALL: THREE WORDS A PROFESSIONAL PITCHER NEVER WANTS TO HEAR

Exploratory.......Shoulder........Surgery


Good Luck, Mark Prior.

SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION NIGHT AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS: MAKE SURE YOU FIREBOMB YOUR SOON-TO-BE COLLEAGUES

(Been outta town after early-voting. Just read election night coverage in old papers)

This is just my own quaint view of the world. It's probably not a great way to build legislative coalitions and open up a civil discourse of issues on the upcoming school board for a newly elected person to accuse the people there now of having done something illegal. This would be especially true when the newbie has no legal training with which to analyze the proposition which he claims is not legal. This is the public service equivalent of "Ready, Fire, Aim!"

'The most immediate challenge will be passing a budget in May that's based on a tort tax of about $4.4 million in salary subsidies "that are in all likelihood not legal," Mays said.'

Even if the guy, after years of appellate litigation, turns out to correct, it was a graceless and counterproductive thing to say.

GETTING SHOT IN MODERN AMERICA: A NOTE TO ACTIVE SHOOTERS

(This is a little personal and implies no criticism of anyone except the freaky shooter in Blacksburg)

I am an expert at getting shot. Done it twice. Don't recommend it.

If it happens again and is not a complete, successful ambush, rest assured I shall not die passively. However much of a Flight 93 posse I can assemble, Mr. Shooter, I promise I'm not coming along nice and quietly. If it's my time to die, it's going to be in attempting to separate you from your weapon and your teeth. We're becoming a nation of victims and it's not, well, becoming.

QUINCY UNIVERSITY: A PLAN TO EDUCATE AND HABILITATE DISABLED VETERANS, MAKE MONEY, UP ENROLLMENT AND BE PATRIOTIC

This is so simple. Starting right now, actively recruiting mustering out disabled vets. We have a terrific university, the best collection of phys. therapists of any town on the planet, a VA medical office and room at the U.

Everybody wins. This isn't even "outside the box". It should be in the top, middle of the box.

You won't find any more motivated students and some of them will do us the honor of remaining in our community as productive citizens.

It's not patented, QU. Run with it!

ROVE'S DOG ATE HIS RNC EMAILS: THE PROBLEMS OF A SHADOW GOVERNMENT IN THE INFORMATION AGE

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OFRA1O0&show_article=1

I think your view of this one depends on what the meaning of "is" is. Just read it. I can't add anything that makes it any more bizarre than it already is.

STUDENT LOAN KICKBACKS IN MACOMB ILLINOIS: THE GROSSEST RECEIPT OF ALL!

All over the nation we are being slimed by University Adminstrators and Universities. It used to be the filth was in the cheating recipients of student loans. The filth has done graduated and now it is the Unies and the Suits getting kickbacks to make lendors "Preferred". Whether it is to the Uni Scholarship Fund or to the VP of finance, it's vile self-dealing and the law has to be closed up to make it a crime for a Uni or official to take anything of value to list a lendor. It's a little vague in some jurisdictions now and, of course, folks jump on that.

Students and families are being hurt by this duplicity. Who do we think pays the kickbacks?

It was especially disappointing to learn that WIU is in the "Pay to play sweepstakes" (Scholarship Fund, at least it's not an official personally...so far as we know.)

Yuck!

DURHAM NIFONG LACROSSE RAPE MESS: SOMETHING GOOD WILL COME OF THIS

My modest prediction is that at least one of these young men becomes a lawyer, then becomes a highly placed prosecutor and does more for the cause of justice and good judgment in the decision to charge than would have otherwise occurred if this greasefire hadn't happened. I hope it's Seligman. What an impressive young man.

WHEN NIXON SAID "I AM NOT A CROOK", THE REST WAS INEVITABLE

So now Imus says "I am not a racist" Impeachment awaits.

Stevie Williams says "I am not responsible for club selection". He's fired. It's just a matter of filling in the date.

Some things are self-executing and really don't need to be discussed.

So let's talk about mispeaks that really burn me up. I'll limit myself to my two current favorites.

"Here comes the calvary, riding in to the rescue!"

" It's important that kids stay in school and get that high school degree".

These two beauties oughta be enough to get one's application for a Sam's club card rejected.

BRITISH MARINES GET RIPPED BY STAY-AT-HOME HEROES: WALK A MILE IN THEIR COMBAT BOOTS

OK, there wasn't a lot of John Wayne or even Alec Guiness in this last round of Iranian captive time. I get that. But they're home. They're not dead. The only pain now being inflicted upon them is by self-appointed Prisoner Conduct Analysts. Some American of my era is saying the Royal Marines were a "disgrace" and "everybody I know" thinks so. Maybe he needs new friends. A bunch of drunken pub crawlers with bad teeth agree, on the BBC, no less.

First, when the Crown fights a war, it's the Scots who fight and die so I'm not looking in London for experts on heroism. Second, the captivity pressures are different today so the resistance techniques that are taught have to be more adaptive. Third, nobody knows how he or she would react until he or she is THERE. Even POW training camp can warp your mind like you wouldn't believe. Fourth, and this is essentially new, captors have a new weapon to use against mixed groups of detainees, gender, and it is a powerful weapon! Fifth, the economics are much different now. The military has so much money tied up in a fighting person, the person literally owes a duty to try to return to service and not wind up dead on a cell floor.

Let's take it in order. If you are whacking on these folks and you didn't serve, bite me! Sit there in your wife-beater shirt with the Cheeto stains and opine all you want. Never mind you're taking up valuable oxygen that a productive person could be using.

If you were a POW and you find their conduct distasteful, please try to understand that the nature of warfare has forever been changed by nuclear proliferation, technology and the evolution of interrogation and mind control techniques. John Wayne has left the building. Thank you for your service and bravery but please grasp that these people are not taught "Name, Rank and serial number." They are taught "SRE" (Survive Resist and Extract--U.S. Survive Resist and Escape--UK). The techniques for the S and the R are situational. Papillon has also left the building.

Chuck Norris is on Medicare and Sylvester Stallone belongs to AARP. Stuff Changes. Deal with it.

Royal Marines, glad you're home. Hug your families. Live Well.

BIG IMMIGRATION BUST IN BEARDSTOWN: FEDS SHOOT FISH IN A BARREL

Imagine that! all 60 guys named "Julio Lopez" with the same birthday and address working at Cargill in Beardstown weren't who they said they were. Gosh, I'm shocked but probably not as shocked as the diligent folks in HR at Cargill who so carefully vetted the Julios.

Maybe Cargill should just turn the process over to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Soon we'll have vigilantes patrolling the border between Schuyler and Cass Counties here in Illinois, making sure nobody swims the Illinois River. (Hint: for you 'burb dwellers, find Peoria and follow the blue thang southwest.)

Anyhow, fight them here or fight them there, or something.

DISASTER IN FAYETTEVILLE AND HONKED IN AUGUSTA--RAZORPIGGIE VACANCY: THE MASTERS FRANK DIDN'T ATTEND

We have actually located a guy who would rather live in Omaha than Fayetteville. He'd rather be a Blue Jay than a Razorback.

Never a good idea to annoy Frank Broyles.

Let's start a petition drive: Steve Hawkins to coach at Arkansas! It's a natural.

Still, I'll bet Broyles is really honked he had to fly home to find a basketball coach. It's only Augusta National, after all.

If you don't get any of this, don't worry. Either you will never care or it will become clear.

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA: A GREEDY IDIOT UNLIKE ANY OTHER

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=90146

You're at the Masters. You're on an expense account. And you need to rob a flipping bank?

You really can't make this stuff up.

ILLINOIS BAR ELECTION DAY: VOTE HOWARD FREAKING FELDMAN, EARLY AND OFTEN!

All right, you non-lawyers can take the day off.

Illinois lawyers, pick up your Bar Ballot and vote for HOWARD FELDMAN, right now!

The other candidate's a good guy.

Still, Howard's been in the trenches for years. He knows how small, downstate firms operate. Howard's Served on our Board of Governors. He walks the walk.

He's also resolute and courageous (Some have suggested he can even be a pain in the ass, but only when it's absolutely convenient--I, of course, take no position on that). He comes from our appellate district and knows the turf in which we practice. He also has a sense of humor and wondeful partners who support his "hobby" of bar politics.

Vote Feldman, a true lawyer's lawyer.

THIS COMMENT IS UTTERLY UNAUTHORIZED BY THE CANDIDATE AND HOWARD WILL PROBABLY NEVER KNOW ABOUT IT UNLESS HE GOOGLES HIMSELF.