Ricky Gervais to Hollywood Elites

Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right.

Ricky Gervais, January 8, 2019, English actor/comedian

Charles Bukowski on Jail

I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) poet, novelist

Rodney Dangerfield's Crime Humor

I remember the time I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof.

Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004) stand-up comedian, actor, screenwriter

Google Almighty

Google, the most feared and powerful entity on the planet, is omnipotent. It is where we go for answers. We can't live without it. It knows everything about us, and if we make it angry, it can punish us. We ask for its forgiveness. And when we die, Google provides an afterlife either in Internet Heaven or Internet Hell. 

Hostage Negotiation

In my years as the FBI's lead international kidnapping negotiator, I learned an important fundamental lesson: Hostage negotiation is often nothing more than a business transaction.

Christopher Voss

No Respect For Acquisition Book Editors

One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception--at least some of the time--incompetent or crazy. By the nature of their profession they read too much, with the result they grow jaded and cannot recognize talent though it dances in front of their eyes.

John Gardner

The Pleasure of Good Dialogue

Good dialogue is such a pleasure to come across while reading, a complete change of pace from description and exposition and all that writing. Suddenly people are talking, and we find ourselves clipping along. And we have all the pleasures of voyeurism because the characters don't know we are listening. We get to feel privy to their inner workings without having to spend too much time listening to them think. I don't want them to think all the time on paper.

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, 1994

Thomas K. Hubbard: Professor of Man/Boy Love

     When it comes to academic freedom in higher education, where do you draw the line between challenging students with unpopular, outlandish ideas and harming students with subversive, anti-social propaganda? At what point does a professor cross that line?

     Administrators at the University of Texas at Austin, in 2019, were confronted with what to do about Professor of Classics, Thomas K. Hubbard. A group of students had been protesting and demonstrating against what they considered Professor Hubbard's advocacy for the legalization of sexual relations between adult men and boys under the age of 14. According to reports, the professor allegedly said that boys over the age of six should be old enough to legally consent to sex with an adult male. Regarding boys six and under, the criminal penalties for men having "consenting" sex with them should be reduced. Professor Hubbard allegedly said that boys who had sex with an adult when they were under 6 believed they were hurt by the experience because they were later told it was harmful to them.

     The offended students based their demands for Professor Hubbard's dismissal on his class lectures and writings on the subject.  The professor taught courses called, "Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome," and "The Mythology of Rape." The last course, due to student complaints and lack of enrollment, was canceled by the University.

     A 2010 article published in the journal, Thymos: Boyhood Studies, Professor Hubbard wrote: "Contemporary American legislation premised on children's incapacity to 'consent' to sexual relations stems from outmoded gender constructions and ideological preoccupations of the late Victorian and Progressive era. We should consider a different 'age of consent' for boys and girls."

     Professor Hubbard believed that making "consensual" sex between adults and minors a crime was a "sad by-product of a naive and self-righteous era." He compared these laws to prohibition's ban on liquor.

     In defense of his lectures and published writings, Professor Hubbard insisted that he was not endorsing pedophilia but rather discussing a phenomenon he calls "pederasty" described by him as the romantic courtship of boys under the age of 14 with older men. He describes sexual relations of this nature in ancient Greece as "proper learning experiences " for the boys.

    In recognition of his published views on man/boy sexual relations, one of the largest supporters of this form of sexual deviancy, the North American Man/Boy Love Association, promoted Professor Hubbard on the group's website.

     In December 2019, student demonstrators outside of Hubbard's house carried large banners that read: "Professor Thomas Hubbard Pedophile." The angry students blocked his driveway and chanted, "Thomas Hubbard is a Creep! Keep an eye out when you sleep!"

    Police officers escorted the professor to his car and unblocked his driveway so he could leave his house. The demonstrators, shortly after his departure, dispersed.

    As of this writing, Professor Thomas Hubbard remains employed by the University of Texas. 

The Shane Miller Family Murder Case

     In 2013, Shane Franklin Miller, a twice convicted marijuana grower and distributor, lived with his 34-year-old wife Sandy and their two daughters in a two-story house surrounded by pine trees in northern California's Shasta County. The 45-year-old and his family resided in the rural community of Shingletown located 230 miles northeast of San Francisco. The Miller property was also home to a small flock of alpacas, two horses and a pony that grazed not far from the house. The Miller family kept to itself.

     At 7:45 on the evening of Tuesday, May 7, 2013, someone from the Miller household called 911 to report a shooting. Upon arrival at the Miller dwelling, deputies with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office discovered the dead bodies of an adult woman and two elementary school-aged girls. The victims, Sandy Miller and her daughters Shelly and Shasta, had each been shot several times. (Detectives believe the 911 call had been made by one of the victims.)

     Officers who searched the house, a shed, and the detached garage found several guns. They did not, however, find Shane Miller or his pickup truck. Shortly after the discovery of the mass murder scene, law enforcement officers in the region began looking for Shane Miller.

     Late on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, police officers in Humboldt County 200 miles west of the murder scene found Shane Miller's abandoned 2010 Dodge Mea Cab pickup. The gold-colored truck equipped with a camper shell was found near the town of Petrolia, California. Miller, who had grown up in the forests and canyons of Humboldt County, owned a cabin in the area.

     Law enforcement officers involved in the manhunt for the man suspected of murdering his wife and two daughters considered him armed and dangerous. In 2002, Miller was convicted of possessing a machine gun as an ex-felon.

     On May 14, 2013, a week after the killings, the authorities, following a massive search, began scaling back the operation.

     In June 2014, police officers found a homemade underground fortress on property that Miller owned. Inside, detectives found an arsenal of rifles, shotguns, and handguns. A month later, in Shasta County, searchers found Miller's body in a remote area along the bank of the Mattole River near Petrolia. This was an area Miller had fled to in the past when pursued by the authorities. A loaded handgun lay next to his remains. The manner of death was later identified as suicide.

The Old Testament as a Guide to Capital Punishment

If the Old Testament were a reliable guide in the matter of capital punishment, half the people in the United States would have to be killed tomorrow.

Steve Allen (1921-2000) comedian, writer, TV personality