"The dog is turned to his own vomit again."
Second Epistle General of Peter, 2:2

After 2 ½ months of weirdness and shame in the courtroom, Rep. John A. Traficant is down for an 8 year stay at one of our country's fine penal institutions. His convictions, 10 in all, range from bribery to tax evasion and racketeering, a list that would put Caligula or Richard Nixon to shame. But he's an Old Hand at these types of things. It was less than 20 years ago when he was the Sheriff of Mahony County, defending himself against charges of racketeering and footing his extensive bar tabs to the local mafia. But he wriggled out of those charges like so many tapeworms through a lower intestine. It was not such a jolly success, though, when U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells dished out a sentence even larger than that dreamed of by the prosecution team.  "Why did you tie my hands behind my back?" Johnny Boy hollered, his hubris almost
popping the seams of his denim, bellbottomed suit, his beaten cowboy boots stamping the courtroom floor. But by then a team of bailiffs was silently whisking him away to prepare for prison and his reelection campaign in Ohio' s 17th district, though only he knows how this is all possible. It doesn't seem to have dawned on him that he has beached himself like the pilot whales on the shore of Cape Cod and, like those confused beasts, no amount of moist towels will keep him from cooking alive. - Dr. Shin

A Darkness on the Edge of Town:
     New Jersey’s Devils and The Enemy
The Sunday report from The News Desk
by Dr. Shin, staff writer, petty criminal

 Left Unsaid