Via the Indy Star:

Indianapolis, Indiana – Jeri Holland, 25, of the 3700 block of West 10th Street, said a man in a pick-up truck stole the basketball goal in front of her house at 6 p.m.

After backing his silver Chevrolet pick-up onto her property, the robber — about 5-feet, 10-inches tall, and 145-pounds — lifted the goal off the ground and threw it into the bed of the truck.

If I were the thieving kind I’m pretty sure that a basketball goal would be pretty far down the list of things I’d be after.  But hey, sometimes in the summertime I guess you just have to have your hoops.

I won’t elaborate on the shootings in downtown Indianapolis last night but I’ll hit the key points of my thoughts:

• First, check out Abdul Hakim-Shabazz’s Second Saturday Night Special post.  I echo what he’s saying.
• Parents: for those of you whose children were misbehaving last night, what in the world are you doing and teaching your children? And where were you?
• Leaders: where were you on this one?  You think a kid getting beat down for not respecting and listening to the authorities is a travesty and wonder why this sort of thing happens.  I’m not saying that cops should necessarily go out beating people down, but just think about the message that you’re sending to the youth and the community by asserting that you don’t need to respect authority.  This is what that mindset leads to.
• Girls: stop dressing like “street workers” & fighting with each other in the streets! Respect yourselves first and foremost and control yourselves.  Whatever you’re after and upset about isn’t worth it. (Back to the parents.)
• Boys: pull up your freaking pants! I watched live coverage of kids trying to run away from the shootings and there were a handful of you not getting anywhere fast as you’re holding your pants up. I thought the “prison draws” were a fad back when I was in school, but I guess that I was wrong.  Come on fellas.  I’m not saying to wear slacks all of the time, but you can at least do functional baggy in something your size. (Back to the parents.)
• Morons with guns: I’m glad that you’re a horrible shot, but:
  1. where did you get your guns?
  2. are you even old enough to have a gun?
  3. what made you think it was a good idea to bring guns along?
  4. what made you think it was a good idea to start shooting people?
• IMPD & Mayor Ballard: You did the best job you could be expected to and you were on top of.  There were ample officers and no one should expect you to control the stupid actions of a select few.

That said, let me know your thoughts, agree or disagree via comment or voicemail at 317-565-4250.  And keep it civil.

Via the WSJ:

The Supreme Court says suspects must explicitly tell police they want to be silent to invoke their Miranda protection during interrogations. A right to remain silent and a right to a lawyer are the first of the Miranda-rights warnings, which police recite to suspects during arrests and interrogations. But the justices said suspects must tell police they are going to remain silent to stop an interrogation.

So, my question is, if you tell the police anything, how do you remain silent? And for the sake of argument we have to assume that both written & oral communication, as well as sign language, are fair game.

Via my WISH TV 8 alerts:

Fishers police have closed down I-69 in both directions at 116th Street.

According to Fishers police, a complaint about the driver of the vehicle led to police stopping the vehicle in question. The person in the vehicle is thought to be emotionally unstable and was refusing to exit the vehicle. 24 Hour News 8 Jim Shella reported that after a brief standoff, police shot out one of the windows on the truck and then were able to remove the suspect from the vehicle.

I-69 is still closed between I-465 and State Route 238. Visit WISHTV.com for the latest updates and traffic information on this breaking story.

People are losing their minds, but knowing how people drive on that stretch I’m actually surprised that this hasn’t happened sooner. I vote they rename I-69 The Interstate of Death and Insanity.

It took years to get him behind bars in a criminal case, but it is official that this time OJ Simpson is going to spend some time in the big house.  That amount off time seems to be at dispute though…I’ve heard anywhere from 5 years on up through double digits.

I do think that normal people don’t burst into hotel rooms with a crew of armed men and should have to serve time and that we really don’t want these sort of folks on the streets.  If OJ learns anything from this, it should be that Nevada is no longer the “Old West”.

I receive a ton of spam every day which usually gets caught by my spam filters, but over the past few days I’ve seen a variation of the same one come through, six of which were in my inbox this morning (I’ll post four examples). What irritates me the most is that the account it came to is not given out to third parties. And of course the spelling errors.

Here’s the main content of the spam messages for eBay item number 190195958868. If you have received this spam as well, I encourage you to report this item to eBay or forward the message to eBay at spoof@ebay.com.

My hunch is that eBay can’t do anything about it since this is clearly not inside of their system (send me an email at…which is outside of eBay’s rules), but they could at least slap some sort of spam/phishing warning on the item itself (Warning: Please use caution…).

Related, check out eBay’s spoofing tutorial (how to spot them, not how to send them).

E-Mail #1…

I have for sale: 190195958868 At your last bid price $120.00 . If you are interested just give me a fast reply on this email address and you will find all the info that you want. Please contact me as soon as possible for more details directly at kroberts40@gmail.com !

Thank You For your Time

(more…)

OK, apparently it is going around…

An Indianapolis woman has been charged with neglect for leaving her 4-year-old child unattended in a car near Greenwood Park Mall.  The incident occurred on Nov. 23 as shoppers converged on shopping malls for after-Thanksgiving sales.  (The) child was left unattended for over an hour in (the) car.

Seriously, was that “bargin” really worth a possible 6 months to 3 years in prison?  People, please use some common sense here and think about the safety of your children.  These people are just killing me.

I said it almost a year ago and I’ll say it again, the Indiana Pacers must get rid of Jamaal Tinsley (legal troubles and just poor judgement) and they might as well send Jermaine O’Neal (slows the team down when he’s on the court), Marquis Daniels (legal troubles with his buddy Tinsley) and Shawne Williams (legal troubles) with him in some sort of package deal that does not include Mike Dunleavy (as I can see them doing that).  Poor off court decisions, regardless of who is at fault, continue to kill the support for the team and maybe eventually even the players themselves.  Seriously guys, something has got to give.

A 63-year-old Pennsylvania woman has given a new meaning to “packing for Disney World”.

Disney World security personnel reportedly discovered a … .32-caliber Beretta handgun had been loaded with seven live rounds in the magazine, but the chamber was empty.   Also found in (her) purse was a pair of scissors and a locked blade knife.

Maybe she was paranoid that the characters were out to get her or that the “magic” of Disney was going to add her to the previous three Disney World deaths over the past week and a half.

All I can say is that I’m glad that she wasn’t there when I was a few months ago.  And I’m glad that there’s obviously no “profiling” going on at Disney World.