Virginia becomes the first statewide jurisdiction to eliminate the use of ten-code. Montgomery County has already abolished it’s use.

Hoodlums however, will retain the use of the wide range of epitaphs by which they will refer to law enforcement, especially the colorful ones.

We came home and tried to look it up on the net. We found out that there are very specific conditions under which they could be ordered to fly at half-staff, as half mast is for ships. We also found that they can only be ordered so under presidential order. So we looked up to see if W had said anything, but the White House’s website had more to say about christening a Navy ship after his poppy than about the matter we were curious about.

After considering that it could have been related to the ghastly school shootings of the past week, the only other connection we could possibly see was that John “Buck” O’Neill had passed away earlier this week. He was a star of the ‘Negro’ Leagues in baseball back in the day, and surely he ought to be honored nationally. However, we’re not sure about this and would like to know what the deal was.

If it is about Buck O’Neill, then I have to say that this is another sad example of how the Leader of the Free World is more interested in baseball than about being the leader of the free world.

So again, does anyone have an idea for whose memory we were honoring nationally?

I did walk away feeling like the organizers did little to separate the issue of Lebanon from that of Palestine. That’s not too hard of a stretch to make, however, my mind did wander as soon as they made mention of Cuba. Not to be rude, but that’s not necessarily an issue that is as pressing to Arab Americans at this particular moment. Yes, I understand the concept of the United States blackballing a regime simply because it has the gumption to stand up to Wall Street and Washington ought to resonate with those of us from the Middle East, but time and place, everything has it’s time and place.

All in all, this rally probably lost a lot of its fire since the UN passed Reolution 1701, but in my mind it was still worth having just in case that gets ignored by the major players.

The story with all this is that Wizards benchwarmer Awvee Storey was busted for blocking a street in Miami. A cop ordered him off the street and arrested him for not obeying a command. Gilbert jumps out of the car to stick with his boy. And gets his own pair of slap-ons. Of course, if the arresting officer looked anything like chicky below, well, go go gilly!!!

P.S. If you are an NBA free agent reading this, don’t you think that you would want a teammate like that? And since Storey will soon be a free agent himself, I’m dropping the hint that he won’t be coming back…

His latest timekill is collecting jerseys. In the last year alone he’s got his hands on 262 jerseys. What’s really scary is that the lion’s share of them have been acquired since this February. He plans to build a gym which will them showcase all in glass. Not bad for a guy who has made a name for himself for coming through when his back is to the wall.

The site was a hit even though it was unwieldy, having just been republished in its twentieth edition. Well now’s it better, having been translated into the interactve, categorized and cross-referenced format of a blog. To be found here, and soon to give Tom Bridge more time to write about Ben and Jerry’s.

So that’s where I was last night, at St. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Potomac, somewhat struggling to keep my attention on the proceedings. Father George had a hard time too come 1am, when I thought I caught his voice trail off into mumbles at various points. But I won’t begrudge him his dedication to serve the faithful.

In any case, my ability to focus was doing about alright when I noticed something out of the ordinary in the far transept (go look that one up). At first I thought it was one of the faithful so enraptured with the ceremony that he was standing on the pew.

Turns out that Ghitza wasn’t standing on anythng but the bare floor. On a Saturday night after the Wizards (for whom he is a Suite Ambassador) got their tails handed to them in Cleveland, all 7-foot-7 of Gheorghe Muresan was celebrating Easter with the rest of the Orthodox world. Needless to say, the only reason I stayed afterward was to see how they were going to manage communion. Big Gheorghe did go up, stood in line like everyone else, knelt like everyone else and made the proper observance. However, as much as he knelt, Gheorghe was still taller than the priest.

Just thought you might want to know what happens to NBA players (ok, former NBA players) late on Saturday nights…

He’s wrong on both counts. Washington isn’t exactly a northern town. It was selected as the capitol precisely because it was in dead center of the original thirteen colonies, making it equitably accessible to the industrial maritime colonies of the north and the rural south. Washington may feel northern because of the urban feel to it, but let’s not kid ourselves; it’s ambiguous nature was completely intentional on the part of the founding fathers. I believe it was John F Kennedy who remarked that “Washington is a city of northern charm and southern efficiency”.

Secondly, while Manassas may not be confederate flag waving gunrack pick-up truck country, it has historically been a southern outpost. And finally, it really isn’t a suburb as much as it is an accident of geography. If we were to give Roach that DC is a northern town, and that all suburbs or exurbs thereof are by definition northern, how does Fred-neck get a pass? Or why is that Hagerstown, a mere 45 miles northwest of the District has the distinct feel of being the world’s largest truck stop? And we won’t even get into Calvert County and the SMIBs (Southern Maryland In-Breds)….

I mean seriously, Westminster is about as far west of Baltimore as Manassas is to the District. Drive up there someday and if you don’t feel like you’ve just hit Chattanooga, well, ribs are on me!

Understandably so, since they were on the lookout for a suspicious white van from which the crimes took place. I recall one late night when I was driving home taking the beltway and I-270. I saw no less than a dozen trafffic stops. I had two theories, one being that they were leaving no stone unturned and snagging everyone who so much as sneezed the wrong way. You could have called it the upcounty dragnet. My second theory was that with just about every badge on call, someone had to pay for overtime and extra runs to the donut shop. Manhunts don’t come cheap.

Then tonight, in the 10 minutes it takes me to get home from the beltway up Georgia Avenue I saw FIVE, count `em, five stops by the po-po. Something about babies shooting babies that just gets them all riled up. So if you got something to hide, especially a piece, don’t come riding through the `burbs. Hey writing tickets has got to pay for all those gunlocks.