Large Boulder The Size Of A Small Boulder Gives Us The Moment We Need

The boulder that fell on this Colorado highway
prompted a most glorious Tweet that
made everybody's day. 

This past week on a snowy mountain highway near Telluride, Colorado, a big rock fell off a cliff and landed smack dab on the eastbound lane of Highway 145.

Not exactly a national news story until the San Miguel Sheriff's office Tweeted to the public: "Large boulder the size of a small boulder is completely blocking eastbound lane of Highway 145 mm78 at Silverpick Rd."

Everybody, including me, said, "Huh?"  

This odd tweet went totally viral, as deserved.  The absurdity of it was a winner in a week of grim tweets over impeachment, coronavirus and other lovely developments.

Reactions were classic:

"Did a self-conscious small boulder write this?"

"This is how I want to be described in my obituary."

"Americans really will use any other system of measurement than metric won't they?"

Someone else explained why this incident happened:  "It came off a large mountain the size of a small hill."

One Twitterer helped the sheriff's department by providing this update to the situation on Highway 145: "Road is closed while emergency crews bring in equipment to break it into larger, smaller boulders." 

One person cautioned people on Twitter to "not take these things for granite," to which someone else replied, "I marble at your sense of humor."

That fun tweet also inspired lots of gloriously bad puns.

OK, I love bad puns.

Someone else wanted to delve into the technicalities by asking whether a large boulder the size a small boulder is heavier than a small boulder the size of a large boulder.

Personally, I'm glad that the San Miguel Sheriff's office never deleted the tweet, and only updated motorists about the situation on Highway 145.  

Even better, a woman named Susan Lilly who works in the San Miguel Sheriff's office disclosed she was the one who wrote the now-famous boulder tweet. On Wednesday, she tweeted: "I am the author behind this now viral tweet. I own my mistake and now I rock it."

Which is the second best tweet of the week, behind the original large, small boulder missive.

I love Lilly's attitude.  She explained that she meant to write that it was a "large boulder the size of a small car," but that would have made sense and would have been no fun.

As one person replied to Lilly: "You are the reason that Twitter became a lighthearted place for awhile."

Personally, I hope the Colorado road crews saved that boulder and will put it in a prominent place. It will be labeled the "Susan Lilly Memorial Large Small Boulder."

I'm Not A Cat Guy, But I'm Still Really Mourning Grumpy Cat

Grumpy Cat died last month at the age of 7. 

The big, sad news of the past month is that Grumpy Cat passed away back in mid-May at the age of 7.

She was a celebrity, and word of her passing was all over the news, seemingly almost to the level of press coverage at the deaths of Michael Jackson and Princess Di.

And no wonder. Grumpy Cat was the ultimate internet celebrity, becoming one of the most popular memes out there.

She went to the SXSW festival in 2013 and people lined up around the block to take selfies with Grumpy Cat. She was probably the hottest celebrity at the star-studded event.

Grumpy Cat did have a thrilling life, making appearances on television shows and ball games. She went to Broadway to visit the cast of "Cats," --- obviously!

Grumpy Cat also "wrote" a bestselling book called "Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book."

As NPR reported:

"The Grumpy Cat book promised to 'put any bad mood in perspective' - and that seems to be a main source of the mourning and tributes that were triggered by the unexpected and unwelcome news that one of the worlds most adorable grouches is no longer with us. 

'I loved the cat,' one fan wrote, 'I find the absolute pleasure of meeting her once and I will never forget it. I will never forget the first time I saw her face! I learned much from her an deeply saddened and devastated to hear of her passing.'"

This fame was all because Grumpy Cat was a relatable meme. I'm not really into internet memes, but this one fit my occasional moods perfectly. Same with everybody else. Grumpy Cat made it OK to not be relentlessly cheerful all the time, as long as you didn't let the grumpiness harden into hate or deep gloom.

Even President Obama, during a speech, did an imitation of Grumpy Cat while mocking some negative acting Republicans.

Police Departments Are Battling It Out Through Lip Sync Challenges

You never know what will be the next weird "it" thing. Pokeman, planking, bad jackets worn by Melania Trump. You know random.

The latest Big Thing is police departments from all over the nation are battling it out on social media through lip sync challenges.

Police personnel in various cities have been taking popular songs and lip syncing to them. I guess for bragging rights.

On one hand, some of these police departments look like they have too much time on their hands. On the other hand, police do need to blow off steam occasionally, and this, at worst, a harmless way to do that.

This seems to have originated in Texas, but might have been inspired by a viral video from about three years ago, in which a dash cam video inside a Dover, Delaware captured an officer hilariously performing Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off"

A lot of these latest lip sync battles are on YouTube. Here are a couple good ones I've found.

This first one is from the Flower Mound, Texas Police Department:



Of course, somebody had to do "Uptown Funk" and the Norfolk, Virginia police department obliged. The lead guy in this video looks very much like a massive version of Bruno Mars:



The San Francisco office of the California Highway Patrol does "Bohemian Rhapsody" The driver in this video has quite a blonde version of a Freddie Mercury mustache.



I have to say that many members of the Rapid City, South Dakota Police Department are definitely eye candy:



Finally, the rather white Cleveland, Tennessee Police Department go both Latino and chill doing Camila Cabello's "Havana."  I hope they didn't take their service revolvers into the pool with them:

Was Trump Operating A Disco In The White House? No, But The Idea Is Fun

What was the deal with the red lights in the White House
windows Sunday night?

In a web cam that's always trained on the White House, there was a bit of a spectacle Sunday night.

It looked like there was a red strobe light going off in the second floor residence of the White House.

You could see the flashing lights in two of the windows.  

What was going on?

As always, social media had a lot of fun with this.

Michael Hicks wrote on Twitter, "Everybody relax. The flashing red lights coming from inside the White House are just a simple code being transmitted to Russian overseers."

Trey Lucas speculated: "Looks like a rave, where are my globe sticks?"

Another theory: "He probably pulled the fire alarm because his Diet Coke button didn't work."

The real explanation for the lights was much more tame, as real explanations tend to be.  Due to a medical emergency unrelated to the White House, a DC ambulance was parked on a street nearby for 17 minutes.

What people saw in those windows was the lights of the ambulance reflected in the White House windows.

Oh. Too bad. Wish the other theories were true, as they'd be more fun.

Bernie Sanders Speaks At A Ben And Jerry's Tub Podium Where I Live And It's Weird

Bernie Sanders speaks at a giant Ben & Jerry's tub podium
at an ice cream plant in St. Albans, Vermont recently. 

I live in St. Albans, a town in northwestern Vermont where not much of national importance happens - ever.

But the internet has been going nuts the past week because Bernie Sanders made an appearance at the Ben and Jerry's ice cream plant here in St. Albans.

That' piece isn't that newsworthy. Vermont's congressional delegations always visit many of our bigger employers.

Last week, Vermont Rep. Peter Welch was at the company where I work, Gardener's Supply.

The internet is going nuts, though, because there's nationally known Bernie Sanders, speaking behind a giant tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

The photo has become a Twitter meme

One image was re-captioned:  "I scream, you scream we all scream for social justice reform!

The photo makes it look like Bernie is popping out of a giant tub of Ben & Jerry's. Like a stripper coming out of a cake. Which inspired this comment:

"Worst bachelor party ever."

Others re-envisioned the conversations going on at the Ben & Jerry's plant:

"Bernie: Today, the top one-tenth of 1% owns nearly as much wealth.....
B&J employee: Sir, do you want the Chunky Monkey or not?"

It goes on.

But anyway, how would you captioned the photo in this post?

Donald Trump Junior Is Choking On His Skittles.

The infamous Trump Junior Skittles Tweet. 

You have to admire Donald Trump Jr, the son of the Republican presidential candidate.

I don't know if admire is the right word exactly, but it certainly is an accomplishment to make so many mistakes in one little Tweet.

As you might have heard, the Tweet from Trump Junior heard around the world this week showed a bowl of Skittles with a caption that said: "If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem."

OK, let's list all that went wrong here:

1. The Skittles metaphor Junior used seems to have originated a guy named Julius Streicher back in the late 1930s. He was a dedicated Nazi who was hanged for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg back in 1946, says The Intercept.

Streicher wrote a children's book that compared poisonous mushrooms to Jews. In his awful book, a mother tells her son, "Just a single poisonous mushroom can kill a whole family, so a solitary Jew can destroy a whole village, a whole city, even an entire (nation.)"

Yeah, lovely.

2. The guy who took the photo of the bowl of Skittles in Junior's Tweet is David Kittos of Guilford, Britain. Kittos was himself a refugee, having been forced to flee Cyprus in 1974, says the BBC.

Kittos uploaded the Skittles bowl photo to Flickr in 2010, and that's where the Trumpsters apparently found it. Kittos made it abundantly clear he did not give the Trumps or anyone else permission to use the Skittles photo, and he vehemently opposes using the photo the way it was used.

"In 1974, when I was six years old, I was a refugee from the Turkish occupation of Cyprus so I would never approve the use of this image against refugees," Kittos told the BBC. 

Kittos is highly pessimistic that Trumps will take the photo down, or that he will be paid for his troubles. Kitto's pessimistic is certainly realistic, let me tell ya.

3. The timing of the Skittles Tweet suggests Junior was reacting to that idiot who set off the bomb in Chelsea, Manhattan last weekend, injuring 29 people.

The moron bomber was not a Syrian refugee but a naturalized American citizen born in Afghanistan. So this particular incident had noting to do with Syrian refugees.

4. Candy companies tend to be pretty friendly outfits. So if you get candy manufacturer mad at you, you're doing pretty badly.

Mars, the parent company of Skittles, felt the need to spell out the obvious to Junior in this terse statement on Twitter: "Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. It's an inappropriate analogy. We respectfully refrain from further comment as that could be misinterpreted as marketing." 

A classy corporate response to a decidedly unclassy Trump Junior remark.

5. Junior doesn't understand how the First Amendment works. On the top of his Twitter feed Wednesday morning, he has this pinned Tweet from March: "Liberals love the first amendment until you say something they don't agree with."

No, nobody is saying that Junior can't discuss Skittles. But just as he has the First Amendment right to be stupid with Skittles and refugees, we have the First Amendment right to say Junior is stupid with his Skittles and refugees.

6. As is often the case, Stephen Colbert had the last word last night. He noted Junior brought up Skittles, not M&M's.

Colbert said: "Of course the Trump family prefers Skittles because there are no brown ones."

Ouch!

"Birdie Sanders" Got A Very Avian Endorsement In Portland Today

Bernie Sanders happily accepts the endorsement of a bird
that landed on his podium during a Portland, Oregon
stump speech today. Click on the photo to make it bigger,
you can see the sparrow on the left side of his podium. 

Presidential candidates will accept endorsements from practically any place they can get them, and Bernie Sanders is no exception.

As Sanders gave his stump speech in the big Moda Center in Portland, Oregon Friday, a small bird landed on his podium.

The incident became all the rage on social media and in the news, and inspired a top trending hashtag, #BirdieSanders

As you might expect, Sanders looked delighted and slightly bemused when the bird landed right in front of him, and the crowd went wild.

Always quick enough to see a political opportunity in front of him, Sanders said of his new friend, "I think there may be some symbolism here... I know it doesn't look like it, but that bird is really a dove asking us for world peace!", Sanders exclaimed.

Actually, it was a sparrow, as the Willamette Week pointed out, but who can complain about a sparrow of peace if a dove isn't available?

I also guess this could be considered an endorsement from the sparrow.

This is going to be mean of me to say, but I bet if the bird landed on the podium at a Donald Trump rally, he would have had security hustle it out of the stadium or have it killed. It would have taken attention away from The Donald.

The bird would have probably pooped on Ted Cruz.

Here's the fun video of the moment Sanders and the sparrow found common ground:

Awesome Reactions To Chris Christie's Sad,Terrified Moment At Donald Trump Presser

Chris Christie stares glumly and terrified, having
endorsed Trump and now listening to Trump's victory
lap press conference after the Super Tuesday primaries. 

The headlines all agree: As Donald Trump gave his victory press conference last night after the Super Tuesday primary, it looked like we were watching a hostage situation.

I say that, because you've probably seen by now the visage of Chris Christie standing behind Trump as he spoke.

It looked a bit like those grainy terrorists videos from ISIS, in which they proclaim "Death To America" while a hostage sits terrified and glumly behind.

That's what Christie looked like last night.  The momet instantly became one of the most popular Internet memes I've seen in a long time.

How hard he has fallen. Christie dropped out of the race for GOP nominee for president recently, as his poll numbers really sucked. He then mystifyingly endorsed Trump for president.

People have had it with Christie, let me tell ya. Not only did practically nobody want him to be president, everybody is thinking he's an idiot for endorsing Trump.

The influential Manchester Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire, which had endorsed Christie before that state's primary in February, now says it was a terrible idea for them to endorse Christie. 

Six New Jersey newspapers today jointly called on Christie to resign as governor, saying in editorials they were fed up with Christie's constant travel out of state, and the hypocrisy of trashing Trump as unfit to lead, then endorsing him.

Now we have the piece de resistance that ends Christie's political career, which was his deer in the headlights, 'What have I done' stare as he stood in the background during Trump's press conferne.

It really did look like Trump was holding Christie hostage. I almost wouldn't put it past Trump. Still, the whole thing was entertaining.

Thanks to Twitter, we were able to compile some of the best reactions to Christie's long lost stare behind Trump last night.  

In keeping with the hostage meme, Eli Clifton tweeted, "I hope Trump releases Christie's wife and children after the speech is over. Poor guy is worried sick."

Other people urged him on Twitter to blink twice if he was in trouble, and suggested maybe when he did blink, he was doing so as Morse code, pleading for help.

"Gov. Christie, are you happy to be here?"-- Paul Singer of USA Today.

"I hope some day Chris Christie finds his forever home." -- @pourmecoffee

"Why hasn't President Obama sent the Navy Seals in to rescue Chris Christie already?" --Dan Savage 

"His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back and then he endorsed the abyss."-- Chris Cillizza.

"Chris Christie's expression I believe must have been Robert Oppenheimer's at the Alamogordo test site,"  -- Neil Bhatia. 

"I think Trump must keep Christie in a basement in full leather with a ball gag," -- Erick Erickson.

"It's like watching Christie try and understand a Jackson Pollock canvas" --- Jason Horowitz.

"Chris Christie looks like my dog when she realizes our car ride is to the vet,"-- @Matthops82

"Chris Christie will just be sitting in a diner later tonight and 'Don't Stop Believing' will start playing. We'll never hear from him again." ---Jason Diamond 

 Ned Resnikoff imagined on Twitter that Christie was singing to himself, "Hello darkness, my old friend."

TV critic Ryan McGee, noting the apparent horror on Christie's face as Trump spoke, tweeted, "We are all Chris Christie."

We can only hope we are not all Chris Christie. That would be a living hell, wouldn't it?

U.S. Military Advisor Says Head Scarves Are "Passive Terrorism." The Internet Mocks

Look carefully at this scene from the opening
credits of the early 1970s sitcom "Mary Tyler
Moore Show" The woman in the lower left
is wearing a scarf on her head. She
must have been a terrorist  

So here's something that might give you a bit less confidence in U.S. military intelligence and preparedness.

A document is being distributed within the military that tells us that Muslim women who wear headscarves known as the hajib - the majority of them -- are practicing "passive terrorism."

That's right, the mere act of wearing a head covering is terrorism, at least according to some guy named Tawfik Hamad, who, according to The Intercept, is a self-described former Islamic extremist and fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

According to The Intercept, Hamad believes, "the hajib contributes to the idea of passive terrorism' and represents an implicit refusal to 'speak against or actively resist terrorism.'"

Which would come as news to so many women who do wear the hajib and who live peaceful lives and speak out against terrorism.

The overall manual the military has does contain a lot of sensible information, at least the parts not written by Hamad.

It was first released to the military in 2011 but was re-released to the military as part of a renewed push to combat terrorism.

This time, though, the hajib causes terrorism idea has captured the imagination of social media, often hilariously. Hey,  stupid, simplisitic ideas need to be mocked, right?

Basically, every head covering is fodder for this meme.

Under the hashtag #PassiveTerrorism, people have been showing all kinds of examples of women amd others with their heads covered, and so therefore are terrorists.

This includes nuns, old women shielding themselves from rain, a pug in a head-covering robe and a cat with a pink scarf tied around its head, Mother Teresa, Queen Elizabeth, Amish women, Orthodox Jewish women, random guys and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousatzai.

You noticed I got into the act in this post. The photo up at the top is from the opening credits to the old 1970s "Mary Tyler Moore" show. Notice the old woman in the lower left in the background.

She's got a scarf on her head. My God! There were Islamic terrorists in Minneapolis in the early 1970s! Who knew?!?!?

It's cold and rainy outside my house in Vermont as I write this. A little while ago, a ran out to get the mail. I wore a hat because of the weather. A head covering!

I guess I'm a terrorist, too!

Cookie Monster Tries To Break The Internet

The Cookie Monster tries to break the Internet  

The latest obnoxious meme is the phrase "breaking the Internet."

This dumb phrase gained currency when Kim Kardashian displayed her butt online, and supposedly so many people wanted to see it that it would "break the Internet."

Time magazine defines breaking the Internet to mean "engineering one story to dominate Facebook and Twitter at the expense of more newsworthy things... So perhaps a more accurate term would be 'hijacking the Internet,' since really these stories seem to be manipulating online fervor rather than shutting the whole thing down."

Now, it seems, when some marketer wants to entice a gullible public to open a link, they tease that it would "break the Internet." You're supposed to be so excited about the idea of breaking the Internet that you succumb to the click bait.

Finally, then we come to this: A video of the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street trying to break the Internet.

His way of doing it is much better than everybody else's. Certainly much better than anything Kim Kardashian can do.

Here's the video:

Kirby Delauter Wants Permission Before Media Publishes His Name. Now Kirby Delauter Is This Week's Big Internet Meme.

People are laughing at Kirby
Delauter because Kirby Delauter
does not want Kirby Delauter's
name published anywhere unless
Kirby Delauter grants permission
for the use of the name "Kirby Delauter"  

UPDATE: 

After a 24 hour media storm, in which Kirby Delauter was in EVERY news outlet, he's apparently come to his senses about demanding that people ask him permission before mentioning his name in a news story.

Here's what he said today in a news release:

"I thought I had long ago learned the lesson of waiting 24 hours before I hit the send key, but apparently, I didn't learn that lesson as well as I should have....

Of course, as I am an elected official, the Frederick News-Post has the right to use my name in any article related to the running of the county --that comes with the job.

So yes, my statement to the Frederick News-Post regarding the use of my name was wrong and inappropriate. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong."

Well, good. We've got that straightened out.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION: 

Like it or not, if you're a politician from local city councilor on up to President of the United States, your name is going to get in the paper. Or any media for that matter.

You might like the coverage you get. You might hate it. But you're name is going to be in the paper.

According to the Frederick (Maryland) News-Post, Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter decided, hey, First Amendment, Smirst Amendment.

Anybody has the right to print a name in the media, as long as they're not being libelous. But Delauter decided the News-Post's coverage of him was unfair, so he demanded they ask his permission before even mentioning him anywhere in the publication. 

Now Kirby Delauter says he's going to sue the paper because the paper put his name in a story anyway.

Kirby Delauter! Kirby Delauter! Kirby Delauter!

Oh, sorry, I got carried away there with my First Amendment enthusiasm. My bad.

Kirby Delauter learned today that if you want to keep your name out of the media, you don't demand that people keep your name out of the media. #KirbyDelauter was among the Top 10 most trending hashtags on Twitter Tuesday evening.

The popularity of the name "Kirby Delauter" really got underway when the Frederick News-Post decided to have fun with a little editorial highlighting how ridiculous Kirby Delauter is for demanding publications ask his permission before mentioning his name.

The paper has trolled Delauter in the most fun way with an editorial headline: "Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter."

The editorial goes on to mention him by name 27 times. Plus the first letter of each paragraph in the editorial spells out "Kirby Delauter."

Here's the Facebook exchange, since
deleted, of the exchange between
Kirby Delauter and a Frederick, Maryland
News-Post reporter. Click on the image
to make it bigger and more readable.  

The paper speculated, tongues firmly in cheek, that they could get around Delauter's edict by giving him sort of a hip hop name like K-Del.

Or just change letters around to make him Sherbert Deluder, Derby Kelauter or Shirley Delaughter.

Of course, the editorial made its serious point:

"Kirby Delauter's ignorance of what journalism is and does is no joke and illustrates one disturbing aspect too prevalent in conservatives' beliefs: That the media are all-liberal stooges hell bent on pursuing some fictional leftwing agenda."

As Washington Post blogger Eugene Volokh put it: "Uh, Council Member: In our country, newspapers are actually allowed to write about elected officials (and others) without their permission. It's an avant garde experiment, to be sure, but we've had some success with it. You know that whole First Amendment thing."

Back to the Frederick News-Post editorial:

"Enough. Seriously. What's Kirby Delauter going to do? Sue everyone who's making fun of him on Twitter using the #kirbydelauter hashtag or on Facebook? Boy, his attorney will be able to retire off that."

Kirby Delauter's attorney is going to be extremely busy, since most major media outlets in the nation have picked up this story. Even the BBC is covering it. And there's a Kirby Delauter parody Twitter account. He's being skewered on Facebook, too. 

So many Kirby Delauter jokes and parodies!  

This is a classic example of the Streisand Effect, named for the time Barbra Strisand tried to stop people from photographing her Malibu home.

Her efforts garnered lots of attention and suddenly the whole world heard about it, and was laughing at the attempts.

Now, though, we're all paying attention to Kirby Delauter, who at this rate is going to be more famous in the Internet than Kim Kardashian.

As long as Kirby Delauter doesn't post a photo of his butt on the Internet like Kardashian did, I'm happy.

Thanks, Kirby Delauter for entertaining us today.

OK, Kids. You Sit In This Frigid Cold Car While I Go Hog Hunting

The ever-reliable Florida has given us yet another in the world's longest string of dumb criminals.

Intrepid hog hunter Kayla Shavers is
in hot water because she left her
kids in a cold car during the hunt.
according to Florida police officials.  

Meet Kayla Marie Shavers, 31, who decided one recent, unusually chilly Florida morning to go hog hunting.

Well, that's fine. Lots of people, OK, not lots of people, but some people enjoy that sort of thing. Why not?

Only she left her nine year old son and eight month old kid alone in a car in 38-degree weather while she did her hog hunting, according to WFTS-TV in Tampa. 

At least the nine year old was smarter than his mom. After getting colder and colder, he called 911 because he reasoned, "A police car would be warmer."

Right he was! So the cops showed up, put the kids in their nice toasty police cruiser and waited 40 minutes or so from Shavers to emerge from her (apparently unsuccessful) hog hunt.

She said she was hunting said hogs because they were tearing up her property. There's nothing worse than hogs making a mess of your flower bed, I guess.

Shaver said she left the keys in the car for the nine year old to start it up if he got cold, according to the WFTS report.

Well, that sounds safe!  Turns out he wasn't quite able to figure out how to start the car, which is probably a good thing. Because what if he put the vehicle in drive?

With any luck, the kid would have run over a hog, which doubtless would have made his mama proud.

But in the end, Shaver faces two counts of child neglect according to authorities.

Want Some Quick Cash? Pepper Spray Cop Discovers Spraying Protestors Is Profitable

We've gotten an unpleasant pepper spray blast from the past over the past day or two.

The famous Pepper Spray Cop, John Pike, in
action in 2011.  

Remember the famous Pepper Spray Cop?  He's $38,000 richer for his efforts, thanks to a worker's compensation claim. Not a bad day's work.

Here's the back story:

 Back in the good old days (2011) Occupy Wall Street protestors were out in force, railing against big banks, income inequality, fraud, and bad banking laws.

In some places, including the University of California/Davis, the demonstrators were persistent, not moving out of the way when told to, basically being underfoot. They weren't violent, but they were engaging in civil disobedience.

At UC/Davis, John Pike, who would win infamy as the Pepper Spray Cop, casually and very heavily pepper sprayed a group of seated demonstrators. He kind of looked like a bored homeowner spraying Raid on a cluster fly nest or something

Video and photos of this idiot went viral. He was fired, and pretty much everybody disliked him intensely, which is reasonable.  He got thousands of mean and threatening emails, messages and letters, especially after the group Anonymous released Pike's personal information

The death threats against Pike were of course definitely NOT reasonable, and he filed a workers compensation claim because of the stress of the death threats.

He was also the (deserved) subject of derisive humor. I especially loved the Tumblr site full of photo shopped images of Pike pepper spray all kinds of interesting people and things. 

According to the Davis Enterprise newspaper, Pike has received $38,056 in his workers compensation claim, for anxiety, stress and depression caused by all the hate that has gone his way.

That's more than the $30,000 each of the 21 protestors who got sprayed and sued got from a settlement agreement with UC/Davis. And much more than the $6,666 each of 15 other protesters got

Seems like a lawyer the Enterprise quoted might have a point with this comment:

"Bernie Goldsmith, a Davis lawyer supportive of the protestors, said that the settlement 'sends a clear message to the next officer nervously facing off with a group of passive, unarmed students: Go on ahead. Brutalize them. Trample their rights. You will be well taken care of."

The law appears to be on Pike's side, even if common decency and common sense are not.  According to the Christian Science Monitor:

"'Whether you can get compensation when you're the aggressor varies among states, but there certainly are a number of states (including California) where, even though you've done something that most people would find offensive, the aggressor can still be compensated,' said John Burton Jr., a labor law expert and professor emeritus at Rutgers University. "

So, kiddies, if you want to make a quick buck, become a low rent security officer and pepper spray the demonstrators closest to you.

It's all for fun and profit, you understand.