Monthly Archive for December, 2010

The 2010 Trenchie Awards

Once again it’s time for the 10th annual blog post that my wife likes the most, the 2010 Trenchie Awards.

Best Movie: Shutter Island. Sorry folks but I liked this movie. If you were one of those people who figured out the ending before the end of the movie I feel sorry for you. One of the greatest joys to me is being truly surprised by the ending of a good movie. I’m not a DiCaprio fan but I liked him in this. I didn’t see Inception.

Worst Movie: Iron Man 2. The acting was great, the cast was great, the effects were great, the writing just wasn’t there and I felt the ending was a little more than anticlimactic.

Best Album: 2010 was a great year in music for me. There were great releases by such bands as Fozzy, Overkill, Charred Walls of the Damned, and Stone Sour. However I’m going to bend the rules a little bit here because for the best album for 2010 was actually an album that came out in 2009. Jade and I attended a concert back in the fall that was opened by a band called Halestorm. I’ve been in love with the band ever since. Fronted by Lzzy Hale their self titled album is just pure raw rock at its best. A woman hasn’t rocked this hard since Joan Jett. Bands like Lacuna Coil, Flyleaf and Evanescence wish they could be half as talented and not over produced like Flyleaf. And the great part is they’re even better live than they are in studio.

Worst Album: It seems they keep winning this category every year that they release a new album. The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden. I’ve loved Maiden since I was a kid. I saw them several times in concert back in the day but again they haven’t put out a decent studio album since 2000′s Brave New World.

Best TV Show: AMC’s The Walking Dead. Again the job of a good TV show is to keep my interest in tuning in again next week and The Walking Dead did just that. I think the fact that it only had a 6 episode season was a good thing too. No dragging shit out forever.

Worst TV Show: Top Gear America on History. Look, it’s not a bad show. I actually enjoy it but it’s Top Gear for people who have never seen the real Top Gear. It’s Top Gear Light.

Best Comic: Hey kids a new category. Since I started reading comics again I thought it was only natural. Anyway in 2010 I really enjoyed the Batman titles with Dick Grayson as Batman while Bruce Wayne was lost in time. Not a big fan of Bruce Wayne being lost in time though.

Worst Comic: Deadpool MAX. I get it. Deadpool is a goofy character and all but my problem wasn’t with Deadpool as much as it was with the supporting characters. It seems the writers had too much fun putting in gags about poop and sodomy. It was like a Kevin Smith fanboy tried to write a comic like Kevin Smith.

Dumbasses of 2010: Everybody who boycotted their local BP station. The only thing you were doing was taking the money way from a local business in a tough economy.

Most Inane Political Agenda of 2010: This is a two patrter. Not only does it go to the people who started the ‘Pray for Obama’s death’ Facebook page but also for the people who were outraged that probably wouldn’t have batted an eyelash if there was a pray for George W. Bush’s death Facebook group.

Biggest Jackass Celebrity of 2010: As much as I don’t want to recognize that their celebrities I have to go with the cast of Jersey Shore. I take umbrage to this program because I grew up on the South Jersey Shore, or as we call it…the beach. Only tourists call it ‘the shore’. And these assclowns and hambeasts aren’t even from New Jersey. They’re Bennies from New York.

That’s it for 2010. Don’t be a statistic on Amateur Night II and hopefully we’ll do this again next year for the 11th time.

Comic of the Week: Power Girl #19

Furthering the storyline of how much an evil bastard Max Lord is. Lord is like a really good wrestling bad guy. You keep tuning in to see if this is the week he finally gets his.

Plus Power Girl kicks a giant robot in the nads.

James Paul Byrd ran real pedophile group on Facebook

James Paul Byrd

Do you know how you get those e-mails or messages that say don’t join a certain Facebook group because it’s run by pedophiles and it turns out to be a hoax? It seems that for at least one Facebook group it wasn’t a hoax at all.

While he didn’t try to convince parents to join his Facebook group federal investigators say 38-year-old James Paul Byrd of Lincolnton, North Carolina ran a Facebook group in order to trade child porn with other pedophiles.

Byrd’s group was called  “little girls love to play to :) ” and he belonged to another called “girls girls girls.” Byrd allegedly used the alias of  Stephanie Stewart. Also busted by the feds in the same operation were Michael Engelking, David Large, Brian Slott, Daniel Slott and Henry Wright. Investigators say that all six men used female aliases on Facebook while exchanging child porn with each other.

Did they really think by using female aliases that they would some how evade the authorities? They would have had a better chance if they dressed in drag at the time of their arrests. Now they’re going to be somebody’s girlfriend soon.

Father-X Page 12: Trip to the Hospital

(Fiction)

On the pack is the phrase “In hoc signo vinces”, Latin for “With this sign conquer.” That was the sign that God gave to Constantine to take up the cause of Christianity. If it wasn’t for Constantine I would only have half of the exorcism equation. It’s funny how small decisions work out centuries later.

As I exhale the first drag from my smoke I exclaim “To the hospital James.”

Mary gets an annoyed look on her face and says “Quit calling me James.”

Kids don’t get that joke. I shouldn’t call her a kid. She’s a legal adult and has seen more than most people have in an entire lifetime although I am twice her age. At first I refused to bring her along with me on my journey but I relented after she convinced me how invaluable she would be as my assistant.

We arrive at a Catholic hospital where I have some connections. At least I hope I still have some connections or else I’m going to have a hard time explaining Jimmy’s potential injuries. I don’t see anyone I know as I roll Jimmy in. I tell the admissions nurse that Jimmy tried to mug me but that I was the top boxer in my seminary. She buys it. Apparently she’s never seen an episode of M*A*S*H. Thank you Father Mulcahy.

Win it. Wear it. Share it. Round 13

Win a free craigscrimelist t-shirt

It’s been almost 3 months since we gave away a free craigscrimelist t-shirt. It makes me wonder if people are thinking that crime on classifieds sites has gone away or is not that important. I couldn’t disagree more. Crime is still alive and well on craigslist and even more so on the Village Voice Media owned backpage. But I digress.

It seems almost disrespectful to call this week’s t-shirt commenter a winner. Her commenting name is Kristies2 and she is a relative of craigslist murder victim Heather Snively. Here is her comment.

Ever since my beloved step daughter was murdered by a woman she actually met through another woman on Craigslist, just the mention of that website makes my heart skip a beat. But I will go through that skipping countless times in my own life to try and save another. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve warned people about using this website. I always tell them it is a TOOL for criminals. Not just murderers looking to steal babies from young mothers, but for prostitution and countless other illegal activities. It’s just sad that the police seem to only be able to do anything if there is a loss of life. I’m with you guys in working to somehow get rid of Craigslist in any way possible. We NEED to spread the word. I’ve been working on it on Facebook but still there are people that think they might ok, or it can’t happen to them. (Of course, I remind them what happened to Heather at that point) I’m living proof that it CAN happen. Our family was like any other with our normal lives, but all that was changed when I received a horrifying phone call from Heather Snively’s father at 5am, telling me Heather had been murdered. It just CAN’T happen. That always happens to other people. But now I definitely tell people that you really never know. Your life can change in an instant. And if you have a CHOICE to a situation, so it. BE SAFE. NOT SORRY.

It doesn’t get any more real than that. Do you want someone you know to be the victim of a horrible crime like that?

But now on to this week’s contest which is the same as it has been.

Today is your chance to win a free craigscrimelist t-shirt emblazoned with the motto “Friends don’t let friends use craigslist.”

As before the rules are simple. Please comment on this post why you are boycotting craigslist or backpage or why you don’t use craigslist or backpage in the first place or why you think it’s a bad idea to use craigslist or backpage.

Please use the e-mail address you would like to be contacted at in the e-mail address field.

If you have entered before and have not won you can enter on this and future posts as well.

This contest will end 8pm Eastern Time Monday (1/2/2011) or later if the apathy continues, but there will be more chances to win shirts in the coming weeks.

Take a stand. Do the right thing. And you might win a shirt in the process.

It also wouldn’t hurt if you could Tweet this post or put in on Facebook.

Village Voice Media asks for dismissal of child trafficking lawsuit

Backpage.com Urges Dismissal Of Teen’s Sex Trafficking Lawsuit:

Rather than doing the right thing Village Voice Media has asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit against them filed by a girl who was trafficked on backpage.com.

Once again they’re hiding behind the Communications Decency Act. A law that was passed in 1996 which in internet years is a lifetime ago. But what the CDA doesn’t address is what if a website opens up a section for obvious illegal activity?

You would think that Village Voice Media would know that this would come as bad PR if it was actually reported except in industry circles. That’s how the problems with craigslist first started being reported. Unfortunately it took 2 high profile murders for the rest of the world to catch up. Hopefully it won’t take the rest of the world that long to get on to backpage.

Rather than hiding behind an arcane law maybe they should do the right thing and shut down their adult section. You would think that they would have learned from craigslist’s mistakes yet here we are.

Geebo.com never hid behind anything.

The fight isn’t over yet. Help spread the word on craigslist and backpage crime by winning a free CraigsCrimeList T-Shirt.

Backpage crime post #76
Prostitution/Human Trafficking post #653

Blake Holmes charged with sexually assaulting underage Facebook friend

Blake Holmes

18-year-old Blake Holmes is from Anchorage, Alaska. He was staying with relatives in Ridgecrest, California  when he befriended two girls from Ridgecrest on Facebook. His new friends are 12 and 13.

One night last week police say that at 2am local time Holmes picked the two girls up in Ridgecrest using a truck that he stole from relatives. He then allegedly took the girls to Reno, Nevada where he sexually assaulted (raped) one of the girls. In case you’re wondering that’s a 340 mile trip one way and let us not forget that is also crossing state lines with a pair of minors.

When cops caught up to him in Reno he had dumped the girls somewhere. I guess since he got what he was looking for he dumped them.

Now before anyone even dares defending this piece of filth just shut up right now. 5 or 6 years is a big difference in age when you are that young. Neither of these girls were at the age of consent and most age of consent laws allow a three year cushion, not 5 or 6 years. Again, you don’t have to be a creepy old man to be a pedophile.

Man shot in face during craigslist robbery

Craigslist robbery victim recovering from bullet in jaw:

You know I’ve been spending so much time on the human trafficking aspect of craigslist I guess I should remind you of some of the other dangerous aspects of craigslist, such as armed robbery or getting shot in the face.

That’s exactly what happened to one man from Trotwood, Ohio who was selling a dirt bike on craigslist. The victim and woman met two men when one of the men shot the seller in the jaw and ran off with the dirt bike. Luckily the victim’s injuries are non-life threatening.

Police in the area say there have been a rash crimes related to dirt bikes, motorcycles and ATVs that are craigslist related.

Or you can keep using craigslist, your call.

The fight isn’t over yet. Help spread the word on craigslist and backpage crime by winning a free CraigsCrimeList T-Shirt.

craigslist crime post #1381
Robbery post #145

4 arrested in AK craigslist child sex abuse case

Men arrested in child sexual abuse case:

Police in Anchorage, Alaska have arrested 4 men charged with having some kind of sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy.

20-year-old Brandin Carpenter is said to have been a family friend of the boy and has been charged with sexually assaulting him.

23-year-old Samuel Bair was arrested after soliciting the boy for sex over craigslist. The boy is said to have placed an ad on craigslist for sex.

26-year-old Yasin Soofizadeh and 49-year-old Nathan Merkel were arrested after they allegedly responded to ads placed by police posing as the boy. This leads me to believe that these two possibly could have previously abused the boy and police posed as the boy to fish them out. That is purely speculation on my part however.

But this story goes to show two things. The first is where were this boy’s parents to allow him to post on craigslist? I don’t blame the boy for posting on craigslist because I would bet that he was intially corrupted into that lifestyle by his so called family friend. Secondly again where was the so called community policing by craigslist. If this was posted in either the personals or the casual encounters section why was the ad not flagged by the community. It’s because the community doesn’t care about 14-year-old boys unless they’re shopping for one.

As I keep harping craigslist has a long way to go in cleaning itself up.

Geebo.com proactively removed their personals in order to avoid something like this from happening to children.

The fight isn’t over yet. Help spread the word on craigslist and backpage crime by winning a free CraigsCrimeList T-Shirt.

craigslist crime post #1380
Predators post #196

Burnt Popcorn: Office Scourge

I’d like to address something that affects all of us who work in an office environment. It’s something that affects everyone no matter what age, gender or creed. Something that can bring the largest offices to a grinding halt. I’m speaking of course about microwave popcorn.

This toxic item is a plague upon the American workforce. How many times have you been at your desk when the gag inducing stench of burnt popcorn wafts into your cubicle? Then when you leap up from your cube like some kind of office prairie dog and you ask who nuked their popcorn for an hour and no one ever owns up to it. It’s almost like corporate saboteurs travel to random offices and burn popcorn in order to destroy the morale of the resident workforce.

Besides, who the hell needs popcorn at work? Are you watching Netflix when you’re supposed to be working?

To those of you who think “I eat popcorn at work and it doesn’t stink when I do it.” Yes, yes it does.

Security at larger offices shouldn’t be worried about weapons.l They should be more worried about the biological terrorism that popcorn provides. It should be banned from all offices in America.

If you need a snack at work get a bag of Doritos like normal people.