Brett Myers: Wife-Beater Scum

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers assaulted his wife Kim over the weekend in Boston. It was violent enough that multiple witnesses called 911. Normally we'd post this over at Double Technical, since it's sports-related. But since it's an off-field incident, we'll keep it here.

Myers pitched Saturday as scheduled against the Red Sox - no suspension, no leave of absence, no nothing. The Phillies, predictably, announced they really had no comment other than to comment after the case worked its way through the legal system. Myers didn't help by the following:

Asked what he was feeling, what his state of mind was, and whether he was embarrassed by the situation, the 25-year-old pitcher responded: "I'm sorry it had to get public, that's it. Of course, it's embarrassing."

Option One: Do nothing and let Myers pitch. The Phillies did that. Oops.

Option Two: Don't put him out there. And if the Phillies had simply not put Myers out there Saturday? As WIP's Glen Macnow noted on tonight's crossover with Howard Eskin, exactly what wrong would the Phillies have done there? And if the MLB Players Association filed a grievance, exactly what or who would they be supporting? A wife-beater? A wife-beater's right to work? I'm sorry, that's alleged wife-beater. Too bad for Kim Myers it wasn't in public. Oh it was? Right on the street?

Option Three: Suspend Myers without pay. Harsher than suspending him with pay for a certain time period, but who decides when the time period is over? And doesn't Myers have a right to be considered innocent until proven guilty? (never mind the multiple eyewitnesses, they're all Red Sox fans - except for the Phillies employee who also witnessed it).

Newspaper columnist reaction was swift on the issue:

Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News:

While nobody came right out and blurted, "She probably had it coming," Kim Myers got about as much backing as a Combat Zone hooker caught with a john's wallet. You better believe that if Myers had been denied his lustily booed Fenway start, some would have insisted he was the real victim.

None of this is remotely surprising, however.

While proving that they value the integrity of the five-man rotation over the right of women not to be used as punching bags, the Phillies did not stray an inch from organizational character....

If the Phillies had a real bunker instead of the hypothetical fortress in which they have encapsulated their stonewalls for decades, it would be adorned with signs and slogans.

The centerpiece would look something like a mathematical formula with words to this effect:

No Arrest + No Witnesses + No Media = It Never Happened.

Never happened...

Oh, you might have heard a rumor in a couple of days that something went down between a player and his wife outside the hotel. You might even be able to dig out the entire story, right down to whether the alleged blows were open-hand slaps or fisted right crosses - and how many. Then where do you go with it? Nowhere, that's where. You just file it away with all the rest of the stuff accumulated over time in the bunker behind the stone wall.

Jim Salisbury of the Inquirer:

Myers has been charged with domestic assault and battery and the best he can do is say he's sorry it went public.

Someone needs to speak with this guy.

Myers pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been advised by his legal counsel not to discuss the alleged assault, which happened in front of enough people that "multiple" 911 calls were placed, according to the Boston police report. Maybe Myers believed he'd be admitting guilt if he said he was sorry for what happened, sorry he inflicted pain on his wife.

Whatever the case, he sure sounded pretty bad as he stood in the middle of the visitors' clubhouse at Fenway Park after another Phillies loss and said he was sorry the situation had to go public, as if it would have been any less inexcusable and appalling had it happened in private.

More proof that Myers doesn't get it came when he was asked whether there was anything he wanted to say to the fans.

"Nothing, really," he said. "I gave it my all."

Well, that's good to hear.

More to come I'm sure, and none of it good. Maybe if the Phillies had some backbone, they'd do the right thing. But apparently the fact that Myers was their best pitcher knocked something off kilter in the minds of Phillies President David Montgomery and General Manager Pat Gillick. Better take a long look in the mirror, fellas. God help you if you have wives and daughters.

Olbermann on Coulter

From Crooks and Liars:

Olbermann: Honestly, if you were Ann Coulter's attorney at a sanity hearing where could you possibly start? Our #2 story on the Countdown, eclipsing even Bill O'Reilly and Malmedy, the Connecticut Screech has continued her assault on 9/11 widows. After calling them "witches who acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them" she has now told Reuters news that they are, quote, "professional victims." All as part of the promotion of a book in which she claims *liberals* are, quote, "godless."

[Today Show interview tape]

Let's return to *this* planet. To recap Coulter's argument: The wives of those who died in the worst attack in this nation's history enjoyed their husband's deaths and profited off them, they have politicized 9/11, their positions as widows immunize them from any criticism or debate over their opinions. All of this stated by a commentator much of whose income in the last four and a half years has derived from *her* speeches and writings about the deaths of those same men on 9/11. All this stated by a commentator who has staunchly, repeatedly, and enthusiastically defended an administration that began to politicize 9/11 within a month of the nightmare and has never paused for a moment since. All of this stated by a commentator who has called those who have criticized her and her party "un-American" and now, "godless." All of this stated by a commentator who is bitching that these 9/11 widows can't be criticized while she is writing a book and going on TV and venomously criticizing them.

[Tucker Carlson interview tape, ending with Coulter saying, "these women got paid, they ought to take their money and shut up about it."]

The way Ann Coulter always does when she's criticized.

Ms. Coulter's walk on the swaying tightrope of her own emotional stability did not end there. In her book she also wrote, "And by the way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy..."

Appearing in Playboy and getting divorced -- neither of those being scenarios that Ann Coulter is ever going to have to deal with in *her* life.

Five of the most politically active 9/11 widows, including Kristen Breitweiser and Lorie Van Auken, have responded in a written statement.

[Statement shown]

And lastly, back to my allusion about having to defend Ann Coulter in a sanity hearing, that was inappropriate -- because it was insufficient. Imagine, in fact, defending her on Judgment Day -- and trying to find her soul.

-P

Best of Coulter

And in case you haven't read Ann Coulter in a while, here's some more of the lady in black, courtesy of the AP.

Ann Coulter and the Happy Widows

To stir up a little publicity for her new book, Ann Coulter said of some 9/11 widows:

I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much.

Atypical or usual Coulter? I think the latter. From the Huffington Post:

LAUER: Do you believe everything in the book or do you put some things in there just to cater to your base?

ANN: No, of course I believe everything.

LAUER: On the 9-11 widows, and in particular a group that had been critical of the administration: "These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing Bush was part of the closure process." And this part is the part I really need to talk to you about: "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies.I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much." Because they dare to speak out?

COULTER: To speak out using the fact they are widows. This is the left's doctrine of infallibility. If they have a point to make about the 9-11 commission, about how to fight the war on terrorism, how about sending in somebody we are allowed to respond to. No. No. No. We have to respond to someone who had a family member die. Because then if we respond, oh you are questioning their authenticity.

LAUER: So grieve but grieve quietly?

COULTER: No, the story is an attack on the nation. That requires a
foreign policy response.

LAUER: By the way, they also criticized the Clinton administration.

COULTER: Not the ones I am talking about. No, no, no.

LAUER: Yeah they have.

COULTER: Oh no, no, no, no, no. They were cutting commercials for Kerry. They were using their grief to make a political point while preventing anyone from responding.

LAUER: So if you lose a husband, you no longer have the right to have a political point of view?

COULTER: No, but don't use the fact that you lost a husband as the basis for being able to talk about, while preventing people from responding. Let Matt Lauer make the point. Let Bill Clinton make the point. Don't put up someone I am not allowed to respond to without questioning the authenticity of their grief.

LAUER: Well apparently you are allowed to respond to them.

COULTER: Yeah, I did.

LAUER: So, in other words.

COULTER: That is the point of liberal infallibility. Of putting up Cindy Sheehan, of putting out these widows, of putting out Joe Wilson. No, no, no. You can't respond. It's their doctrine of infallibility. Have someone else make the argument then.

LAUER: What I'm saying is I don't think they have ever told you, you
can't respond.

COULTER: Look, you are getting testy with me.

LAUER: No. I think it's a dramatic statement. These broads are millionaires stalked by stalked by griefparrazies? I have never seen people enjoying their husband's deaths so much.

COULTER: Yes, they are all over the news.

Couldn't hurt to have her speak and let people decide for themselves whether she offers cogent points or if she is truly evil. I think the problem is when she does make valid points, she then goes overboard with ad hominem attacks (as do her opponents, don't get me wrong) that detract from her logical opinions. And of course, she just happens to be making a profit blasting these widows, too.

And on radio.....
I listened to an interview Coulter had with Suzanne LaFrankie of WPHT-AM in Philadelphia last week. I kid you not, when Coulter talked about the "old days" of liberal-run media, she said the Big 3 TV networks absolutely killed Goldwater and also wouldn't let people like McCarthy and Nixon have enough time to get their points across. I almost ran off the road at that statement. Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon were two of the most venal men this nation has known - and Coulter said they didn't have ENOUGH media access? Gag me.

-P

Geno's steaks its case: Order in English

Philadelphia's Geno's Steaks, long a tourist attraction, recently caused a stir with 2 signs in its front window:

1. This is America: When Ordering Speak English.
2. Management Reserves Right to Refuse Service.

For a little background, see here, here and here.

Owner Joey Vento, whose grandparents came from Italy and spoke halting English, does not discriminate aginst Italians, of course....(from the last article):

But the "Speak English" placards are not aimed at tourists, according to the Ventos.

Vento, in an earlier interview with The Inquirer, recalled summoning an Italian-speaking employee from home to take the order of Italian tourists who had just arrived in the city.

Hee hee. I'm sure the neighboring taco shops would be HAPPY to sell him some $2 tacos. - X

New TV show pilot

The setting: An island in the South Pacific.

Add the following "would be" characters:
> a poker player (ESPN)
> a soap star (Soap Net)
> a pop singer (Fox)
> a country singer (CMT)
> a mechanic (Speed or MTV)

Plot: Get half the characters to build a home within a week for indigenous peoples AKA island natives, and the other half to makeover an existing home. Enjoy!

Additional Plot: Make the series a cartoon and add the voices of Yakko, Wakko and Dot from Animaniacs.