The king is dead, the queen is dead, hell, everybody is dead

     And so it begins, another in a along line of fine blog entries by yours truly.  Fact is, I haven't done much blogging of late, but thanks to a harmonic convergence of the serious and the, well, not so serious, I find myself sitting here banging away at the keyboard in hopes that something remotely readable comes forth.



     I should start by saying, "the king is dead!!!!"   Or maybe "the boy king is dead!!!"  Luke Ravenstahl, once one of the youngest mayors in America and leader of the hamlet we call Pittsburgh, has opted not to run for another term as mayor.  Perhaps he tires of the job, and wants to move on to life's bigger and better things.  Or perhaps it had something to do with a little sit down with the FBI recently, a sit down that was immediately followed by the mayor asking for the resignation of Police Chief Nate Harper.  The city allows it's off duty officers to do freelance work, providing security and what not at local events, bars, etc., provided that said hours are paid through the city.  Well, unbeknowst to some, but apparently not all, Chief Harper established a credit union account outside of the normal realm of accounting and reporting, an account that saw at least one of the checks for this freelance work deposited into it.  Because the account was on the outside of the normal city government, the monies going into and out of the account were not subject to review as to how they were spent.  All is well and good, the Chief got caught, all's well that ends well.  Except some members of the mayor's security detail, who also happen to be off duty police officers, had debit cards with access to that account, and there is no record of what they spent that money on while they were working for and with the mayor.   The mayor denies any knowledge of the account, though at least one former member of his security detail has come forth and said that in fact the mayor did know, and was more than content in the knowledge that monies spent from that account did not need to be accounted for or were open to any sort of public Right to Know laws, since it technically was not a city authorized bank account.  They mayor claims the FBI said he is not a target of their investigation, but then again Mr. Mayor, if you were a target, do you really think they would tell you?

I was playing around online the other night, and lo and behold, I almost had a new video mascot for the page.  You all have probably seen Miss Teen South Carolina on top of the page at one point in time, well she was almost replaced by Miss Teen Delaware 2013, Melissa King.  The problem with putting her on top of the page is, well, her video is a porn.  (For your viewing pleasure, you can go here if you want.)   Miss King has claimed that it isn't her in the video, it is a doppleganger or some such nonsense, but has opted to turn in her tiara and sash, perhaps for fishnets and a thong.    As for me, I hope she comes back and runs for Miss America when she is older, because I would pay good money to watch the talent competition.

I really tire of the bubble that is Washington DC anymore, the fact of the matter is that the people who reside there, or at least those elected by the people, are so out of touch with average, everyday Americans that I just can't bother to take them seriously anymore.  There has been lots of talk of sequestration, which is just a long word for saying those people elected to office to do a job didn't do it, now everyone else will pay for it.  Automatic spending cuts will kick in, all because the people elected to do a job couldn't do so.  So programs will get cut, from defense to education.  But you know whose government spending program doesn't get cut?  Their salaries.

I managed to take in my first hockey game of the year a week or so ago, a 6-5 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.  A few notes on that game; the Consol Energy Center, while a sparking gem of a building to play in, offers no competitive advantage that the old Civic Arena provided the Penguins, as evidenced by the fact that Philadelphia is now 6-1 in regular season games since the building opened; if Tomas Vokoun was brought in to push Marc-Andre Fleury then the bar must be incredibly low for what actually is meant by pushing, to date Vokoun has a 4-3 record, his save percentage (.883) ranks 40th amongst NHL goaltenders and his goals against average (3.61) is 42nd; and while the game was a loss, I can't complain when I get free seats that are this close to the ice

Anyway, it is getting late and I think some sleep may be called for.  I am off tomorrow, so do not wake me.

Goodnight.