Judegement came from a Court Most High:

Enron founder Kenneth Lay died early Wednesday in Aspen, Colo., a family spokeswoman said.

Lay, 64, was awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of conspiracy and fraud in the Enron trial in May.

In a statement, spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said, "The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate, and out of respect for the family we will release further details at a later time."

CNN affiliate KPRC in Houston said Lay was admitted to the Aspen Valley Hospital overnight with a massive coronary.

On May 25, Lay was found guilty of 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of Enron, the energy company he founded that eventually grew into the nation's seventh largest company before it imploded after an accounting scandal.

The sentence cannot be appealed.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:47 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The Raleigh, NC News & Observer:

Congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes, winners of the 2006 Stanley Cup!

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Any custom bike fans out there?

My brother-in-law made a sweet-looking custom chopper, one built at some of the most famous chopper shops in the United States. Fabrication and paint came at Orange County Choppers and J.B. Grafix of American Chopper fame in New York, and it was completed in West Palm Beach at Eddie Trotta's Thunder Cycles.

Believe it or not, he's selling it on eBay, so if you want it, go get it.

Alternately, if you happen to be one of my visitors for the left side of the tracks and you'd really like to see me offline, raise $20K or so and put it in my Paypal tipjar to the right, and I'll take it.

Think of it as your chance to "stick it to the Man."

Donations for my expected medical bills would be nice, too.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:57 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I know I have a few regular readers at the Internal Revenue Service, and I'd like to ask for your help if at all possible.

I'm trying to obtain a 2005 W-2 from a former employer, but I've been unable to contact them so far. I know that I can request a 2005 tax return transcript, but I was told on the phone that for whatever reason, these are going to be unavailable for several months. I need it this week.

If you can provide any help in getting this, please shoot an email to the email address listed on the right column.

Thanks!

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I've refrained from making any comment on the Duke University lacrosse team rape allegations, for the simple reason I tend to blog about politics and the media, not criminal proceedings. That does not mean I've been ignoring the case, however, and I've been quite interested in seeing what the DNA tests of the lacrosse team would reveal.

It revealed nothing.

Wade Smith, an attorney for members of the Duke University lacrosse team, announced late Monday afternoon that no DNA samples taken from the 46 athletes matched any DNA on the alleged victim and that he hopes Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong will consider dropping the case.

Nothing on the victim's skin. Nothing on the victim's clothes. Nothing on internal swabs of the victim's mouth, anus, or vagina. Nothing on her fake fingernails found in the bathroom. Nothing, anywhere. Nothing.

The local and national media have been on something of a witch hunt against the lacrosse team from the very beginning, painting a picture of spoiled rich kids abusing a girl working her way through college any way she could. That narrative presented by the media seems all but shattered now.

Once again, a witch hunt provides no witches, and the prosecution's case seems reduced to so much Durham bull. And yet, I doubt we'll hear anything in the way of media apologies...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:31 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Didn't blog over the course of the weekend, and probably won't post much during the next few days, either. We have something of a family reunion is going on at my place, with my wife's sister and her kids up from Florida, and my wife's parents down from New York, and we're having a blast.

They're all looking at real estate and thinking about joining us in the area, and if they do, my wife's brother and his family probably won't be too far behind. The crappy schools, over-priced real estate, and high taxes are pushing them out of both upstate New York and West Palm Beach, and they're looking here like so many people have before them.

Based upon people I've met, I think half of Poughkeepsie, NY has relocated to Cary, NC. They didn't jokingly nickname it C.A.R.Y. -the "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees" - for nothing.

Why are people moving?

Houses are going for over $190 a square foot in the part of NY my wife's family is from for a 40 year-old home, and they're paying outrageous property taxes to support public schools that are both under-performing and increasingly dangerous.

Here is NC, we're building a home for less than $90 dollars a square foot, pay considerably lower taxes, and have our kid attending one of the top school systems in the nation.

I think that's what they call a "no-brainer," isn't it?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:05 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Rusty is taking far too much enjoyment from the fact that the new world record* largemouth bass has been caught--well-foul-hooked-- in California:

World record large mouth bass caught yesterday at Dixon Lake, in San Diego County by Mac Weakley. Yes, the world's biggest bass was caught in California. Take that Confederate Yankee. The fish weighed 25 lbs. 1 oz, breaking the previous record of 22 lbs. 4 ozs set by George W. Perry at Montgomery Lake in Georgia in 1932.

Unfortunately, this giant of a fish was "foul-hooked"--which means that it was hooked in a place other than in the mouth. In other words, Weakly's lure snagged the fish on accident. The IGFA rules, though, only disqualify the fish if it was intentionally fould-hooked [sic]. Regardless of its official position in the record books, this is the biggest bass ever caught.

George Perry's record largemouth was (and may still be) the longest running and most coveted of fishing records, but even if Mac Weakley's 25 pound 1 ounce is deemed the new world record* for largemouth bass, it will carry with it an asterisk like that of Barry Bonds.

Why?

Introduced in 1874 (or 1891, depending on the source) from Midwestern stock, largemouth bass in California are a non-native species. Largemouths from Florida, long considered the thoroughbreds of the species, were introduced in 1959 in an effort to boost the potential size of California bass, which began growing fat on a steady diet of stocked trout. It remains to be seen if BALCO was invlvoed.

A record? Maybe, but every bit as engineered as Barry Bonds.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:06 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Went to visit with my parents and grandparents this weekend, so weekend posting was virtually nil. I'll be getting back into the swing of things later today...

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I'm "Uncle Bob" again.

My blogging brother's beautiful wife gave birth to their first child last night, a handsome baby boy, weighing in at 8-14. Head on over and congratulate them, won't you?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Posting will remain light during the rest of the day. Mind-crushing sinus headaches tend to block stimulating political discourse.

Funny, that.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:14 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Yankee Wife and I have been house hunting off and on since we moved back to North Carolina last summer, and seem to be narrowing things down to the southern Wake County area, and a specific three-bedroom homeplan in a developing community where we had to stop for a doe and two fawns crossing the road tonight. Absolutely gorgeous.

But more important than those details, who wants wants to buy the house for me? A few hundred grand through that PayPal button on the right ought to do the trick. Baby needs that jetted tub upgrade...

All kidding aside, I would like to pick up some writing gigs to help finance this puppy, so if you hear anything, please pass 'em along.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:34 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I'll be "enjoying" a nasty case of strep throat that has more or less ruined my holiday trip to the in-laws in New York, but I sincerely hope that everyone has a Happy New Year... well except for liberals, who I expect will have another long disappointing year of paranoia, outrage, and failure.

Hey, everybody can't be happy...

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:51 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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Some people spend Halloween as a ghost or or a Vampire or Elvis. This year, I was a prospective cardiac patient known as Stretcher One, Triage at WakeMed.

The headaches I've been having since last week finally convinced me to go to a doctor, and once there, I was diagnosed with a sinus infection. One of the drugs I was given to help fight the worst of the headaches is something called Imitrex.

It is supposed to help with headaches, only the best I can tell, the single 100MG Imitrex tablet I took could have come close to killing me. In the literature that accompanies most drugs these days, I think they call it a "potential side effect."

Within seconds of taking the pill I had a tightness in my upper left chest, followed immediately with dizziness and a rapidly numbing left arm. Luckily the guys in the big red and white truck with the flashing lights and stretcher were just minutes down the road, and I think the triple doses of nitro they hit me with on the way to the hospital seem to have kept any lasting damage from happening. It seems they weren't unfamilar with this side effect, which looking back, makes me feel both better and worse.

I missed trick or treating this year, but thanks to a top-notch ambulance crew that I never got to thank and some very good folks at WakeMed, this blogger should be around for many more Halloween's to come, which will make one five-year-old pixie I know (and her mother) very happy.

Perhaps I'll have more on the day's adventure tomorrow. In the meantime, I can only generate but so much sympathy for the ills of my dear brother.

Wuss.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:38 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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This is our 7th Anniversary weekend for "Mrs. Yankee" and I, and as my parents have our daughter, blogging will be light (you're looking at it).

I'm a very, very lucky guy, and it will be nice to have some time for just the two of us. We don't have a whole lot planned (I did manage to sneak in a reflexology pedicure for her), but I'm sure we'll think of something to do later.*

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:29 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My brother-in-law was the operations manager at Verla International several years back. His replacement, who was fired about a year ago, just shot up the place today before taking his own life, literally just a few hundreds of yard away from my wife's childhood home.

Three people my brother-in-law knew well were victims. Two of the victims are in stable condition, but one is in critical. If you any of you folks is the praying kind, I'm sure it would be appreciated.

9/29 Update: The victim in critical condition has no brain activity and has been removed from life support, and her passing is imminent. Tonight, I grieve for her family.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina has a gas price forum to discuss gas prices, and now supply.

If reports are accurate, some stations in North Carolina are already running low or dry.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:57 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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48 hours ago, reporters asked New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin what he intended to do about prisoners in the Orleans Parish Prison. He ignored the reporter, and apparently ignored the incarcerated. The inmates didn't appreciate it.

Via ABC News:

Inmates at a prison in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans have rioted, attempted to escape and are now holding hostages, a prison commissioner told ABC News affiliate WBRZ in Baton Rouge, La.

Orleans Parish Prison Commissioner Oliver Thomas reported the incident to WBRZ.

A deputy at Orleans Parish Prison, his wife and their four children have been taken hostage by rioting prisoners after riding out Hurricane Katrina inside the jail building, according to WBRZ.

The estimated rioting prisoners and their hostages are approximately one mile northwest of the Louisiana Superdome where thousands of civilians are awaiting evacuations.

(Via Yahoo Maps and a little graphics work)

I hope the National Guard troops coordinating the evacuation of the Superdome are armed, or this could get even uglier than it already is.

Update: Michelle Malkin is all over this before I could even get this posted. She's that good.

9/2/05 Update: Prison Riot was bogus, but now it appears the convicts got out before the children, the elderly, and the ill. See here for more.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:38 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I'm not big on asking people to donate their money. I certainly don't ask for it myself, and it is only on the rarest of occasions that I solicit contributions for a few worthy causes. This is one of those rare times.

image swiped from Argghhh!

Click the image to donate to Project Valour-IT, a Soldier's Angels project to get voice-activated laptops for our wounded warriors.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:42 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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As Hurricane Dennis bears down on the Gulf Coast and various television news weather girls are getting pounded by high winds, it seems like the perfect time to republish this post.

Confederate Yankee's Guide to Dealing with Hurricane Season

Days Before the Storm Arrives

1. Move. Seriously, people in Idaho never have to deal with this crap.

2. Get milk and bread. Nobody seems to know exactly why, but I'm pretty sure it's the law.

3. Send Mama and the kids away to her folks for a few days.

4. Go to the beach and grab a seat in the dunes. Huge waves are cool to watch crashing on the beach, and if you're lucky, you can see some idiot from Quebec get swept out to sea. Screaming is funny in French.

5. Go home.

6. Throw all the crap you don't want any more in the yard. If the storm surge comes you can avoid a dumping fee, and if it doesn't, you can use all the debris to convince the guys from FEMA that it did and they'll cut you a big, fat check.

1. Get more beer. Lots of it. If you're living in hurricane country, you might as well make the best of it.

2. Get ice. That way your beer stays cold even if you lose power for a couple of days.

3. Get one of those huge 490-quart Igloo coolers that looks like chest freezer, but bigger. It'll keep your iced beer cold, and can be used as a raft. Put it in the bass boat tied to your back porch.

4. Board up the windows of your trailer. You already have all the boards numbered from last year, so it should be a snap. Put all the crap you really need (rifles, radio, lawn chairs, cans of vienna sausages, etc.) in a big waterproof bag and tie it tightly well off the ground in a nearby tree.

5. Invite your best buddy over. Remind him to bring his cooler.

6. Wait.

Landfall

1. Sit inside and drink beer. Watch that 90-pound girl reporter from the local television news crew get battered by the wind and sideways rain while doing a live report. Take bets on whether or not the cameraman will warn her about that dumpster bearing down behind her. Wonder why he hates her so much. Giggle until you loose power.

2. Put on your lawn ‘n leaf bag and step outside for a smoke. Wow, those 100 MPH lighters really do work.

3. Go out back, get in the boat, and tie a rope around your cooler. Mount up. When the storm surge comes, you can ride that bucking 490-quart beast like a bull.

4. Yee-haw!

5. Float serenely along, drinking more beer. At this point you should have enough beer in you to “contribute to the storm surge,” if you know what I mean.

6. Empty your bladder up-current from that still-screaming guy from Quebec.

7. Thow your empty cans at, err, to him. Empty beer cans are nature's unsung floatation devices. Don't let him get too close though—he smells like piss.

8. Enjoy the ride while it lasts. Likes the French, storm surge always retreats eventually, and you'll be back on land soon enough.

1. Climb off your cooler, hop out of the boat, and immediately start picking up full cans and bottles of beer left over from that convenience store down the street that washed away.

2. If he hasn't stopped screaming yet, an ice-cold beer should encourage “Frenchy” to settle down—especially if you catch him in the temple.

3. When he comes too, have him help pick up beers. If he refuses to work—which you should expect of socialists—simply hum a few bars of “Dueling Banjos.”

4. Deliverance needs no translation.

5. Have “Frenchy” drag your cooler back to your freshly scoured lot and then send him on his way.

6. Retrieve your rifle, radio, lawn chairs, and viennas from that waterproof bag you tied in a tree.

7. Pose for the CNN news crews that come by. They LOVE filming guys guarding nothing from lawn chairs. When Mama sees you on CNN, she and the kids will know you're “ah-ight.”

8. Have a can of viennas and a beer.

9. Wait for FEMA to come by.

10. Listen to the radio. According to the National Weather Service, you'll get to do it all again next week.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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1 leasing signing, 11 flea bombs, five days, two flights, and 650 miles behind the wheel of a GMC 6500 later, and we're here, and starting to get semi-unpacked.

Time-Warner Cable was only 7-11 hours late to install my cable TV/internet/digital phone yesterday, but at least they finally showed up and everything seems to work.

Regular blogging resumes this evening, so stay tuned!

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:56 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Good Grief - I'm exhausted just reading that! Glad your back - now go take a nap!

Posted by: scmommy at July 06, 2005 03:18 PM (b3gbN)

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