A soldier’s father posts a video of still photos from the barracks in Fort Bragg, North Carolina…

Yeah, sign me up for the army…

I’m not a vegetarian, but this is why I don’t really like going to zoos or animal parks…

A 30-year-old dolphin at Sea World has died after colliding with another dolphin while performing aerial tricks, the Orlando, Florida, amusement park said Monday.

The incident occurred about 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Discovery Cove area of the park, according to a statement by Sea World spokeswoman Becca Bides.

The animals were in the center of the lagoon and not near guests, she said.

The dolphin who died was named Sharky. The other dolphin, Tyler, is being watched by veterinarians but appears to be fine, Bides said.

“This is an unfortunate, random incident,” Bides said in a written statement.

“While it is not unusual to have two animals performing aerial behaviors at the same time, we are reviewing the situation to ensure even such a random incident does not occur again.”

RIP, big fella.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Cheri Oteri’s father was murdered by his roommate Richard Fagan on, chillingly, Saturday night. Gataeno Thomas “Tom” Oteri was a Nashville music producer that had collaborated with Fagan on several songs. Fagan was pulled over for DUI shortly after the murder. He told the police he and Oteri had gotten in an argument and he had slashed Oteri across the chest with a pocket knife before leaving the scene. Tom Oteri died at 69 due to a wrist laceration. Both men were drunk at the time of the fight. Synthesis’ condolences go out to Cheri Oteri.

In the ongoing saga that has become Roger Clemens vs former trainer Brian McNamee, “new shit has come to light.” Clemens, who on January 6th filed a defamation suit against McNamee, is now surrounded by speculation of a decade long affair with country music artist Mindy McCready. According to McNamee’s attorney:

“When you sue for defamation, you put your whole reputation in the community at issue. Anything is fair game, including his claim of sanctimonious purity.”

Clemens will hold that McCready has been nothing more than “a close family friend.” Either way, this situation cannot play out to anything better than a game of he said/she said. The circus that surrounds Clemens seems to gain more and more dancing bears as the months pass, and you can flat forget any notion of Clemens ever going to baseball’s Hall Of Fame.

The only sensible action at this point would be for Clemens to drop the defamation case. Without such an action, Clemens’ family is going to be unfairly and mercilessly tortured by a sex hungry media.

Ever see the movie Oldboy? Well, the plot to this real-life story is easily 1,000 times more horrific. A 73 year old Austrian man was arrested this weekende, accused of holding his daughter hostage in a windowless basement cell for 24 years, raping her and fathering seven children, three of which he ‘adopted” to live with he and his wife upstairs.

From the New York Times:

AMSTETTEN, Austria — Austrian police have arrested a 73-year-old man who they say kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, three of whom never emerged into daylight from their prison until now.

The lurid nature of the alleged crime, first reported on Sunday, so horrified the Austrian press that the local media on Monday dropped usual procedures of withholding the full names of defendants in criminal cases. They identified the man as Josef Fritzl, an electrical engineer. The name matched the nameplate on the door of the defendant’s home in this quiet Austrian town.

Mr. Fritzl, who was arrested on Sunday, had initially kept silent but has now said he is prepared to confess to the crimes and give an account of his actions over the past 24 years, Franz Polzer…

Mr. Fritzl’s daughter, identified by the police as Elisabeth, was released by her father last week after her eldest daughter, 19, became ill and was taken to a hospital. She had for several years suffered from severe attacks of convulsions. After she had been taken to hospital, her mother spoke to doctors and Mr. Fritzl was picked up by police over the weekend. The authorities said the daughter still in serious condition.

Elisabeth, 42, told the police that in 1984, her father drugged, handcuffed and dragged her into a basement, accessible only through a hidden door with an electronic code. She said she spent close to the next quarter-century imprisoned there, a constant victim of sexual abuse and incest by her father.

Elisabeth gave birth to seven children during that time, one of whom died shortly after birth, the police said. Her father ordered her to give up three of the children, who were then adopted or cared for as foster children by Josef and his wife, Rosemarie, the mother of Elisabeth.

The police said Rosemarie apparently did not know of her daughter’s ordeal, believing that she had left the children on her parents’ doorstep because she was unable to care for them herself. When Elisabeth disappeared in 1984, her father claimed that she had written a letter asking her parents not to search for her.

Three of the children born in the basement — now 19, 18 and 5 — never left it, the police said.

When Josef brought Elisabeth and the others out of confinement to go to hospital, he told his wife that their “missing” daughter had returned. He is in police custody, charged with abduction and incest. Elisabeth told the police that she had been sexually abused by her father from the age of 11.

The story begins just before dawn on November 25th, 2006. Sean Bell is hours away from getting married to fiance Nicole Paultre Bell and wrapping up an all-nighter bachelor party with his friends. He walks out of the Kalua Club in Queens as it’s closing, a strip club with complaints of guns, drugs and prostitution. Meanwhile, undercover detectives are inside the club, and plainclothes officers are stationed outside. An argument breaks out just as Bell begins to leave with his friends. One of them, Joseph Guzman, is seen going to Bell’s car, at which point the officers assume the worst: he is going to get a gun. Cops follow Bell and his two friends and call for backup.

This is where the drama unfolds. Bell, Guzman, and Trent Benefield get into the car, Bell in the driver seat. The detectives draw their weapons. Benefield and Guzman would later testify that they never heard the painclothes detectives identify themselves as police, sending Bell into a panic to get away. Detectives, believing Bell is trying to run them down, open fire. A total of 50 bullets were fired among the five NYPD officers, three were charged with crimes. (A video demonstration of how quickly Oliver could have fired off 31 rounds, including a pause to reload can be seen here.) Benefield and Guzman are wounded and Bell lays dead. No guns were found among the friends. Nicole Paultre Bell, Benefield, and Guzman file a wrongful death lawsuit with the federal court in an attempt to provide justice for Bell and his loved ones.

Fast forward. Tears streamed down Nicole Paultre Bell’s face as she fled the courtroom today. Justice Arthur Cooperman announced earlier this morning, the verdict clearing Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell. Detective Marc Cooper was cleared of reckless endangerment.

No doubt an argument greater than that which triggered the fatal events was seen outside the courtroom, after the verdict. Some quotes…

The officers charged:

“I want to say sorry to Bell family for the tragedy,” Cooper said.

Isnora thanked the judge “for his fair and accurate decision today.”

Oliver praised Cooperman “for a fair and just decision.”

The outraged community, which you can see here:

“This case was not about justice,” declared Leroy Gadsden, chair of the police/community relations committee of the Jamaica Branch NAACP. “This case was about the police having a right to be above the law. If the law was in effect here, if the judge had followed the law truly, these officers would have been found guilty.

“This court, unfortunately, is bankrupt when it comes to justice for people of color.”

Patrick Lynch, president of the New York Police Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said “there’s no winners; there’s no losers” in the case.

“We still have a death that occurred. We still have police officers that have to live with the fact that there was a death involved in their case,” Lynch said.

“You can’t be proud of wearing that hat. You can’t be proud of wearing that badge,” a black woman shouted at a black police officer. “You must stop working for the masters! Stand down! Stop working for the masters!”

“Fifty shots is murder. I don’t care what you say. That’s what it is,” another woman said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement saying, “An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son. No verdict could ever end the grief that those who knew and loved Sean Bell suffer.” source.

I keep trying to think of all the iconic lyrics from NWA to Tupac, and nothing matches the grief of this situation. Just rest in peace, Sean Bell. Your death isn’t in vain as long as you will be remembered.