Here's A Teacher Who Should Be Rubber-Roomed

In the middle of this extraordinary New York Daily News piece explaining why Congressman Michael Grimm - the guy who threatened to throw a NY1 reporter off the balcony of the Capitol and is facing a 20-count indictment for corruption - is likely to win re-election from his Staten Island constituents is this:

Many said they thought Grimm showed nothing more than understandable frustration when he threatened Michael Scotto of NY1, after Scotto asked Grimm about the federal investigation of him.

“At least he gave (the reporter) a warning,” said Judy Psaotas, 49, a waitress at the Annadale Terrace Diner. “I would have just thrown him off.”

Psaotas was among several voters interviewed who appear to connect with Grimm on a visceral level.

I don’t like anybody, and I like him,” Psaotas said. “That’s not just because of the way he looks, because God knows, he is eye candy. I think he’s a man first. Before a politician, he’s a man.”

A 37-year-old teacher having breakfast at the diner put it more bluntly: “He’s bang-able,” she giggled, adding that she planned to vote for him.

The guy who threatened to toss NY1 reporter Michael Scotto off the Capitol balcony and faces 20 corruption counts deserves re-election because he's "bang-able"?

Anybody who says something like this is clearly too stupid to be in a classroom with children.

I'm only sort of kidding here.

Sort of.

In any case, it's beginning to look like the Bay Ridge/Staten Island area is going to re-elect a Congressman with violent tendencies who is facing a 20-count indictment and a State Senator under investigation for corruption by US attorney Preet Bharara.

Well, I guess in the end, most politicians are corruptible and contemptible.

In this Bay Ridge/Staten Island district, they're just more open about that and voters are okay with it all.

I guess that's nice.

Not sure it's "bang-able" though.

Don't Kill The Bees!

Mass murder at the Yankees game down in Florida - for bees:

TAMPA — Steinbrenner Field was buzzing Tuesday, but it had nothing to do with the Yankees and Red Sox.

The rivals were delayed for seven minutes in the bottom of the third inning when a swarm of bees wreaked havoc in left field.

Boston left fielder Mike Carp pointed the bees out to umpires, who stopped the game while stadium employees treated the area with insect spray.

“I heard them before I saw them,” Carp said. “I turned around and knew I had to get out of there.”

“I didn’t know what was going on,” said Boston pitcher Felix Doubront, “but I knew I didn’t want to be out there.”

Both teams stood at the top of their dugouts watching the scene, though Mark Teixeira decided to have some fun and fetched two bottles of honey from the clubhouse and brought them onto the field.

“I’m a big peanut butter-and-honey guy, so I always know where the honey is,” Teixeira said. “What I thought was if you could just do a line of honey out to the parking lot the bees would maybe follow it and leave us alone.”

Fans gave the stadium employees a big ovation after the situation was resolved.

“That was a first for me,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “Never saw a game delayed by bees.”

I'm going to be blunt here because this story PISSES me off:

The players on both teams are fucking morons.

The fans in the stands who gave the stadium employees a standing ovation for killing the bees are fucking morons.

And the Yankee employees who killed the bees are fucking morons.

Do any of these people know that we NEED bees for life and currently bees are dropping dead at rates that put the future of life as we know it on the planet in jeopardy?

Commenters at the DN story do:

Do these idiots realize that destroying our honeybees is damaging our food chain? I just can't believe they were allowed to do this. All they had to do was wait for the queen to settle and they would have swarmed around her. As a beekeeper I am appalled at them  destroying the bees. Anyone involved in this should be ashamed of themselves.

...

Don't spray insecticides haphazardly!  Geez.  What are they?  A bunch of New Yorkers in Florida?  ;)

There are many beekeepers who are willing to rescue swarming honeybees!

http://www.callabe­ekeeper.com/CallaBee­keeper.asp?State=FL&­Submit=Search

http://www.beeremo­valsource.com/bee-re­moval-list/florida/

...

Shame on them for using insecticides. I hope they inhaled enough themselves to
feel sick. Swarming bees have their bellies full of honey and are almost
incapable of stinging. You can scoop them up with unprotected hands
once they land somewhere and cluster. They are just trying to find a new
home. The Yankees should have done the right thing and called for a
beekeeper, and reap in good publicity for it. Using poison is just bad.
Shame on them for even having this stuff on hand. I hope they will lose
every game for the next decade for killing innocent insects. Yeah I'm
putting a beekeeper curse on them.

...

I agree with Elizabeth, it should be illegal to spray bees at this point. It's a major issue. Here's a way to be part of the solution instead of the problem: http://bidg­rouponeconsulting.wo­rdpress.com/2014/03/­18/using-the-power-o­f-the-internet-to-he­lp-protect-endangere­d-bees/

One more time - everybody involved at the game who contributed to the deaths of the bees are fucking morons.

There are smart ways to handle a swarm and then there's the way the Yankees handled it.

The older I get, the more I can't figure out how human beings have managed to last this long on the planet given the stupid things we do to the ecosystem. 

Given how much damage we've done to the ecosystem lately, we'll see how much longer human hegemony goes on. 

Might not be much longer. 

Here's hoping if collapse comes, it starts at Steinbrenner Field.