NOOOooooo!!

Christmas Story' director, son killed in crash
Two men were in an Infiniti that collided head-on with a GMC Yukon

LOS ANGELES - Film director Robert Clark, best known for the beloved holiday classic "A Christmas Story,"? was killed with his son Wednesday in a car wreck, the filmmaker's assistant and police said.

Clark, 67, and son Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in the accident in Pacific Palisades, said Lyne Leavy, Clark's personal assistant.

The two men were in an Infiniti that collided head-on with a GMC Yukon around 2:30 a.m. PST, said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman. The driver of the other car was under the influence of alcohol and was driving without a license, Vernon said.

The driver, Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles, remained hospitalized and will be booked for investigation of gross vehicular manslaughter after being treated, Vernon said. A female passenger in his car also was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and released, police said.

In Clark's most famous film, all 9-year-old Ralphie Parker wants for Christmas is an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle.

His mother, teacher and Santa Claus all warn: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."?

A school bully named Scut Farkus, a leg lamp, a freezing flagpole mishap and some four-letter defiance helped the movie become a seasonal fixture with "It's A Wonderful Life"? and "Miracle on 34th Street."?

Scott Schwartz, who played Flick in "A Christmas Story"? and kept in touch with Clark, called Clark one of the "nicest, sweetest guys that you'd ever want to come in contact with."?


"It's a tragic day for all of us who knew and loved Bob Clark,"? Schwartz said. "Bob was a fun-loving, jellyroll kind of guy who will be sorely missed."?

Clark specialized in horror movies and thrillers early in his career, directing such 1970s flicks as "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things,"? "Murder by Decree,"? "Breaking Point"? and "Black Christmas,"? which was remade last year.

His breakout success came with 1981's sex farce "Porky's,"? a coming-of-age romp that he followed two years later with "Porky's II: The Next Day."?

In 1983, "A Christmas Story"? marked a career high for Clark. Darrin McGavin, Melinda Dillon and Peter Billingsley starred in the adaptation of Jean Shepard's childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s.

The film was a modest theatrical success, but critics loved it.

In 1994, Clark directed a forgettable sequel, "It Runs in the Family,"? featuring Charles Grodin, Mary Steenburgen and Kieran Culkin in a continuation of Shepard's memoirs.

In recent years, Clark made family comedies that were savaged by critics, including "Karate Dog,"? "Baby Geniuses"? and its sequel, "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2."?

Among Clark's other movies were Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton's "Rhinestone,"? Timothy Hutton's "Turk 182!"?, and Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd's "Loose Cannons."?

Bummer. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Bad news for sure

$25 says old Hector was a [censored].

F**** drunken moronic drivers .. makes me madder than hell. I always hate to hear about this happening. The fact that the drunk driver didn't die just makes it that much worse.

A sad day indeed.

Happens every day across the country. VA isn't immune.

http://content.hamptonroads.com/stor...&ran=40850

Local policy let this illegal immigrant flout the law




Spare me the moth-eaten maxim about illegal immigrants doing work "Americans won't do." I'm not in the mood.

For one thing, it's not true. There isn't any work Americans won't do - if the pay is right.

And even those who subscribe to the Work-Americans-Won't-Do theory know it doesn't apply to restaurants. Plenty of Americans are happy to wait tables.

Which brings us to Alfredo Ramos, the 22-year-old waiter accused of killing two teenaged girls in Virginia Beach on Friday night.




Alison Kunhardt, 17, and Tessa Tranchant, 16, were sitting at a traffic light, police say, when a car driven by Ramos smashed into them. According to a story in The Pilot, Ramos' brother said Ramos had been drinking and didn't even remember the wreck.

One thing we know about Ramos is that he's in the country illegally. He admitted to that in court. We also know that Ramos had several brushes with the law in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

Drunk in public. Driving under the influence.

It appears no effort was made to get him out of the country. In the aftermath of last weekend's wreck, there's been a sickening display of bureaucratic buck passing as officials try to tell us why Ramos was not sent back to Mexico.

It comes down to this: Local law enforcement can't do a [censored] thing about illegal immigrants who commit small-time crimes, and the feds don't because they're overwhelmed.

Shoot, Virginia Beach police have been told not to ask suspects in misdemeanors about their immigration status, lest they violate the individual's civil rights.

Memo to Police Chief Jacocks, Any time your guys need a translator to interview a suspect, feel free to ask whether the person is here legally. That's not racial profiling; it's common sense.

But even when local cops pick up illegal immigrants, the feds rarely step in. So Ramos got to live and work and break little laws.

Until Friday night.

Now two girls are gone. And Alfredo Ramos is in hot water.

On Tuesday morning, an exasperated caller to Tony Macrini's radio show asked Attorney General Bob McDonnell why Ramos hadn't been deported. McDonnell said state and local law enforcement have no authority to enforce immigration laws. That could change at the state level, he said, if Gov. Timothy M. Kaine would sign an agreement with the feds.

The attorney general sent a letter to the governor in January, pleading with Kaine to do just that. In a news release, McDonnell said there is " a strong correlation between illegal immigrants and crime... the inability of law enforcement to enforce immigration laws threatens law-abiding citizens. "

You can say that again.

Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the governor, said Wednesday that Virginia has not entered into an agreement with the federal government - as some other states have - because immigration is a federal responsibility and because the Virginia State Police are plenty busy already. Besides, the feds have demonstrated that they "don't care" all that much about enforcing the law in every case.

Two bills introduced in the General Assembly last session would have bypassed the governor. They wanted to "expand the powers of state and local law enforcement officers to include immigration."

They didn't pass.

This week, we learned that a 16-member task force is being formed by the Virginia State Crime Commission to study illegal immigration and crime. It could be more than a year before it issues a report.

Please.

Here's a thought: Study the faces of Alison and Tessa.

Fix the laws, punish businesses that employ illegal immigrants and scrap the platitudes.


Reach Kerry at (757) 446-2306 or [email protected].


[censored] wet backs are sending this country into the [censored] house and the [censored] in the state houses aren't doing a [censored] thing about it.