Short Circuit

'Tis the Season...

...for the people who run our nation's K-12 public schools to beclown themselves while flexing their authority. Now that school has begun all over the country, expect a tsunami of stories like this one, in which a 14-year-old is cuffed, interrogated, and suspended from his high school...for building a clock.

Here's a hint, Irving Independent School District Board of Trustees, MacArthur High School principal Dan Cummings, and the Irving Police Department: If a 14-year-old freshman winds up in handcuffs, you've most likely screwed the pooch.










In a letter to parents, the principal even admitted that the young man's clock "did not pose a threat" to anyone. So why, precisely, was he handcuffed and treated like a felon? Why is he suspended from school, exactly?

No adult in Irving, Texas has ever been to a Radio Shack, apparently.

This sort of thing will be a regular feature of this blog because, frankly, far too many
of the people in charge of educating your children (including the nitwit English teacher whose lack of common sense led to all of this) are idiots. It really is that simple.

Things That Make Me Happy: True Grit Edition

September 2015 has not been kind to my beloved Kansas City Royals to this point. After spending almost the entire season with the best record in the American League, the Royals have faltered and allowed the Toronto Blue Jays to close that gap to just 3 games. They are only 5-9 so far this month after going 19-9 in August, and they still have five games left on the current road trip.

The starting pitching has been dreadful during this stretch, the bullpen has faltered, and the offense has shown an alarming tendency to disappear for days at a time. For Royals fans used to a quarter century of mediocrity and lost seasons, it has looked all too familiar.

It is at times like this that good teams need to call on their inner strength and find ways to win even when they're not playing their best. Last night the Royals did just that, beating the Indians 2-0 at Progressive Field behind a gritty pitching performance by Kris Medlen (4-1, 3.92 ERA).

"I just want to help this team be successful."

The Royals mustered only four hits off of Indians starter Josh Tomlin, who was tagged with the loss despite pitching a complete game. Two of those hits were a double by All-Star 3B Mike Moustakas and an RBI single by All-Star catcher Sal Perez in the 2nd inning. RF Alex Rios added a solo home run in the 5th inning...

"Boom!"

Game 3 of the four-game series is tonight. The Royals will send Danny Duffy (7-7, 4.14 ERA) to the mound, while the Indians will rely on Danny Salazar (12-8, 3.57).

A Trump Supporter Gets a Reading

From Wiley Miller's comic strip Non Sequitur, which you should read every day, as I do (even though Wiley is a squishy liberal).

Until Next Time...

I almost never listen to music on the radio anymore, mostly because it is difficult to find stations that play music I enjoy, and partly because commercials make my head explode. It isn't like the good old days, when I could count on radio to introduce me to new music.

That role has largely been taken over by television, of all things. I have lost count of the number of songs and artists I have discovered when they've made an appearance in an episode of a TV show I watch regularly. Several of my favorite shows, including Justified, The Walking Dead, Bones, House, M.D., and Criminal Minds, each has an iTunes playlist consisting of nothing but songs used on that show.

Today's send-off is a good example. Yesterday I was watching a rerun of the Criminal Minds episode "Revelations." The first time I saw that episode was also my introduction to "The Funeral," by Band of Horses. I offer the usual disclaimers about music videos. Enjoy...