What did Doyle of Cool Change do before she starting blogging? Why, she was a folkie. Thankfully, she's lost the bouffant, the worst female hairstyle in the history of human coiffuring. When Tawana Brawley was staging her hoax racist attack, one of the things she did to herself was rat her hair and then hairspray it. That was meant to prove the true viciousness of her attackers. It almost worked.
Fine, so this might be someone else. But who? Picture guys snorting cocaine off her ass if you need a memory jog.
--
Wow this one ended up being a toughie. Congrats to Hamous for correctly guessing Stevie Nicks from about 10 years before she became famous.
It's time this young lady learned that while she may be daddy's little princess, to me she's just one more person on the planet.
What's the big deal about Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney punching a cop on her way into her workplace? I had the same thing happen to me. Arriving at work, I tried to go through the security point without my badge. Despite my having worked there for years, the officer stopped me and wouldn't let me though. So I screamed and hit him. Or maybe I just waited there until a co-worker with a badge came up and vouched for me. One or the other.
Either way, I was miffed at the officer for not doing his job and recognizing me. OK, maybe his job wasn't to recognize people, but rather to make sure people going through the gate were wearing a badge. Whatever.
(Via Lucianne.)
UPDATE:
Ace and Allah are keeping up on current events. Ace's list of charges against McKinney are excellent.
Just let me add that, like McKinney, I too am "absolutely sick and tired of having to have my appearance...validated by white people." Just wave me through checkpoints based not on my appearance but by... wait, recognize my appearance and then let me through the... no, letting me through would be validating my... Look, it's very simple: just don't look at me. Ignore me as I go through checkpoints. Well, don't ignore me. Even if you don't know me, say, "Good morning, Miss Cracker" as I whisk myself badgeless and unchecked through the gates. Is that so hard?
Never be afraid to ask for help.
Do you ever feel that your southern border is wide open to anything?
Deputies say a man arrested for sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl is not who he claimed to be.
A man identified as Tito Zavala was arrested last Wednesday after a work crew recognized him and held him for deputies.
Deputies now say the man's real name is Carlos Eduardo Alfaro.
Alfaro was convicted of Sexual Battery in Virginia in September 2002. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but only served one before being deported back to El Salvador.
He reappeared in Virginia in December 2003 and was arrested again and then deported again.
Sago miner Randal McCloy will be going home for good tomorrow. Today he gave his first interview. It's astonishing how well he's talking.
Judging from the aftermath of the Quecreek rescue, he might not be damaged enough for some folks -- especially if he complains about mine safety. After the euphoria had died down, the tall grass Quecreek miners caught hell from some of their neighbors until everybody was level again -- and the miners stopped threatening people's livlihoods by agitating against the mining company.
As one of the Pennsylvania rescuers said, "All the good feelings we had - the jubilation - it's all gone when you think you might lose your job."
Here's a terrific video and slideshow of 12-year-old Cody Bohnert and his dog being rescued from a clifftop ledge. The dog looks like he's having a blast the whole time.
The boy had gone to rescue the dog, appropriately named "Chaos," after it had slipped and fallen down onto the ledge.
In the audio interview, the boy's family is heard cracking up in the background when he tells the CBC interviewer to hang on because he has another call.
Cute stuff and a happy ending.
Members of the Afghani parliament are outraged about the Abdul Rahman case. Whew, that's a relief. I was beginning to think they were homicidally backward and ignorant.
Oh, wait. They're not outraged about his arrest; they're outraged about his release:
Suggestions he might be offered asylum have outraged politicians in Afghanistan.
The issue was discussed in the Afghan parliament on Wednesday, with almost all MPs in agreement that "his leaving Afghanistan must be prohibited", the AFP news agency reported.
Dr Assadullah Hymatyar, an MP from Logar province, told the BBC that parliament was planning to investigate the events that led to Mr Rahman's release.
"We will ask the judge to explain to us why he was released. In the beginning they said he was mentally fit. So why is he mentally unfit now?" he asked.
"If he is really mentally unfit than that's a separate issue. But if not we will ask the judge why he allowed international pressure to influence him."
Italy has offered Rahman asylum, with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saying, "We are very glad to be able to welcome someone who has been so courageous."
In Afghanistan there have been some words of sanity, however. Abdulrahman Jan, the spokesman for the clerics of Zabul province is quoted as saying "This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan."
No, no, false alarm. He was talking about the release too. He said the government should have either forced Rahman to convert back to Islam or killed him.
We Hire Aliens- Know of a business hiring illegals? Want to see if any local businesses are listed as hiring them? This is the place to go.
Further adventure in footwear: motorcycle boots on a tiny stage.
Wail on, Skydog!
(B&W via Owen.)
I'm giving Bill an "A" for his magnificent epic poem about plagiarist Ben Domenech.
He likes his "A's" in the form of classic smut. How weird is that?
Ever wonder what Michelle Malkin does when she's not blogging? She's off doing gigs with her band Mile-High Fence! They do an awesome version of Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" reworked as "Border Blitz." If anyone has a bootleg of it, shoot it my way, please.
("Blitz" via Tweaks and Reviews.)
Anybody have an alternate ID for the photo? ;) This particular girl represents a first in Rock and Roll history.
Don't anybody look to me to come get them out of a burning house -- I'll be extremely busy at that time, sorry. This man might be willing to go in and get you, though. Even if he does happen to be blind:
An unlikely hero is credited with saving his blind neighbor’s life and three newborn kittens. That’s because the hero is also blind.
Jim Sherman, 54, is a retired computer programmer with a heart and spirit as big as Texas. When his 84-year old neighbor in Montgomery County, Texas, recently suffered a stroke, he set up a baby monitor between their homes.
Monday night, Sherman heard something strange over the monitor. It was the elderly blind woman calling out his name. Her home was on fire.
With no way to speak with her, he ran out of his house, felt his way along the fence line and found her in the kitchen.
"I grabbed on to Ms. Smith's hand and led her out on to the porch," said Sherman.
In a nice change of pace from the usual mayhem in the news, the people in this story were taking care of somebody more helpless than they: Sherman, the elderly neighbor; and the neighbor, the kittens; so yay for kind people. Three cheers for brave people too; they do come in handy.
So Abdul Rahman has been released from police custody. Hopefully some country will offer him asylum before his countrymen have the opportunity to tear him apart.
With the exception of Israel, things don't look too good for a person wishing to leave the Religion of Peace in any other country in that region, either.
But to find the true evilness of religion in politics, St. Petersburg Times Robyn Blumner suggests you look closer to home; and sounds a clarion call about future Red State Christian nits becoming voting lice:
The 2004 presidential election clearly illustrates the trend. Fertility rates among the states that went for Bush were 12 percent higher than those that went for Sen. John Kerry.
Children born to parents who embrace patriarchy, tradition, nationalism and rigid religiosity are highly likely to adopt these views and vote for the party that reflects the same values: Republican. The children of parents who are more cosmopolitan, progressive, individualistic and supportive of women's equality - the Democratic voter - will have never been born.
Kevin Phillips may be ringing the alarm that the Republamentalists are dragging this nation down. But pretty soon there won't be enough of us left to do much more than go along for the ride.
What she leaves unsaid is it's the "cosmopolitan, progressive, individualistic and supportive of women's equality - the Democratic voter" who is more apt to abort. We "patriarchal, traditional, nationalistic and rigidly religious" Southerners aren't churning out extra babies -- we're just less likely to abort the ones we have.
If a group of people chooses to abort themselves into oblivion, that's their call. But it doesn't mean any other group is required to follow suit.
Didn't your Blue State father ever tell you that just because everybody else is jumping off a cliff, it doesn't mean you have to do the same?
In honor of the upcoming anniversary of Andrea Dworkin's passing into the welcoming embrace of the Great Mother, I'd like to present this video of her most precious gift to the world: her message. Also, I'm giving her this upgrade on her current coffin. She deserves no less.
Some Seattle people made up to look like the living dead became just plain dead:
The private party following a "zombie rave" was winding down when a man walked out, returned to the house wearing bandoliers of shotgun shells and opened fire on the young crowd, police said.
...
About 20 people had gathered at the two-story rental house after a Friday night rave called "Better Off Undead" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Some of the guests were "made up to look as if they were dead," [Police Chief Gil] Kerlikowske said.
The killer stopped to spray some creepiti:
As the gunman walked the half block back to the house, he spray painted the word "NOW" in orange twice on the sidewalk and once on the steps of a neighbor's home, police said.
Now for the comic relief:
Nancie Thorne told The Seattle Times that her 15-year-old daughter, Suzanne, was in the house.
"It's the worst phone call a mom can get," Thorne said, crying. "She shouldn't have gone to the rave. I've never approved of those things. ... I just hope to God she's alive. And if she is, she's grounded for life."
Six people were killed before the killer commited suicide. No motive has been mentioned so far, but if ever there were mayhem for a giant one-eyed rabbit to be behind, this would be it.
UPDATE:
The killer has been named as Aaron Kyle Huff, a Montanan who lived in Seattle with his twin brother.
But enough about that. Let's let a rave promoter put the whole thing in perspective for us:
Several ravers gathered at a makeshift memorial near the crime scene Sunday morning, including Travis Webb, an area rave promoter who attended the rave that preceded the fatal party.
Webb said he and other ravers are fearful that officials would use the shooting as an excuse to shut down the parties. Police said alcohol and marijuana were found at the murder scene, but they had not linked them to the crime.
"It's almost a double punishment," Webb said. "You lose six people that are so close, and then you might lose the community that brought you all together in the first place."
Black & Decker
Lids Off Open-It-All Center
Not quite yet. Still yet to be devised: a robot to deal with bugs, tentatively called the "Make It Go Away."
Thin ice, boys. Thin ice.
I was going to review these videos for you when they first came out, but it's been kind of a busy last 20 years, and only rocket scientists had access to the Internet back then. So I'll do it now and just declare that the 80's are back:
"Photograph"- Def Leppard
Did a young Joe Elliott ever take a screaming jump at me in slo-mo wearing a sleeveless Union Jack t-shirt, leather pants, and a jaunty neckerchief? Nope, nope, sadly it was just a video. Since this was one of the first videos on MTV, I'm saddling this one as being the beginning of the unfortunate "girls in cages" video motif. See, the girls have to be locked in cages or behind big wire fences (preferably topped with barbed wire) because that's how sexy the singer or band is. Get it? Well, theoretically, anyway. When later served the spectacle of girls having to be chained up because of their mad lust for John Cougar Mellencamp, I had to call bullshit.
"Take on Me" -A-Ha
What's your worst fear? What's your worst nightmare come true? What are you most afraid of? Well, if you're the one who thought up this video, it's being menaced with a wrench by a motorcyclist who's lost a race. Now that's dramatic tension.
In addition to the animated graphic novel style, I like this video because the female lead is a normal 80's girl. She's a nice girl and is worth Morten's Altered States-style break out of his comic book world to be with. That is, until he finds out that she was one of the sluts prowling behind the fence in the Def Leppard video. Look at it again--I'd swear the one lasciviously singing in the close up is the same gal.
"Come on Eileen" -Dexy's Midnight Runners
You know what's worse than looking at Kevin Rowland's face? Looking at the pits under those butterfly wings he calls arms. His pits are on full display here, repeatedly and gratuitously as he flaps his little wings over his head. I think each of his pits should have a little censor bar over them in each and every frame of the video. That's how much they bother me.
Just like how when people are watching a horror movie and they beg a character not to go down in the basement, I shout out warnings for the video Eileen to run. Run Eileen, run from that scraggly scarecrow with the pits.
Hi, it's me, Phil Spector's hair! Back in the day, Phil was famous for creating the "Wall of Sound," but nowadays he's better known for me, the Giant Balloon of Hair. And for shooting chicks, but we're not going to talk about that right now.
The truth is, this gig with Phil wasn't my first crack at show biz. I was the star of the very popular TV show "The Prisoner." Here's a pic of me in costume with co-star Patrick McGoohan.
Well, on with the links!
*The Fat Guy looks deep in the heart of the new hit song [CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP] "Don't Start A Tab In Texas."
*Over at the Gates of Vienna they're a little tired of drunken girls crying wolf about rape and ruining other people's lives. All I can add is that in the last month there've been two cases where the also-drunk-at-the-time guys have saved their own necks by producing videotapes showing extremely willing gals who were now saying they'd been assaulted. Regret does not equal rape. Stop trivializing the word and the crime with drama queen bullshit.
*Who's the Irish dude up in the tree
That all the people wanna see?
LEPRECHAUN!
Can you dig it?
And finally:
*Tim Blair reviews the held-over Up With People show in Paris, the famous "City Alight." That's some fiery performance!
Buck Owens, the king of the Bakersfield Sound, and one of the nicest (and savviest) guys in Country music has passed away. The son of sharecroppers, rising out of the Dustbowl and the Depression he used his Telecaster to create a unique sound and a music empire.
Listen to a recording of Buck's No.1 duet with Dwight Yoakam, "The Streets of Bakersfield" here.
(Via Skinny's WAV collection.)
Here's a video from 1966 of Buck performing a live version of "Tiger By The Tail" for his Ranch concert series.
This pic of Buck with his band was always my favorite of him:
To further underscore that he should be blogging, the post where I used an article sent by reader Dave has won the Watcher's Council award.
Should he blog, he will follow the routine four-step process to success as I've outlined in my book "The Cracker Who Loved Unknown Bloggers Who Are More Talented Than Her":
1) He'll start his little blog.
2) I'll link to him.
3) He'll leave me choking on his dust.
4) I'll weep bitterly.
While character flaw is surely the source of the average acts of petty plagiary, there must be some type of mental illness involved when the plagiarist knows his work will be widely read and yet still steals from obvious sources. Why else would otherwise capable writers lift passages wholesale from places such as the Reader's Digest (Bob Morris) and the works of P.J. O'Rourke? (Ben Domenech)
Or is this just the literary version of the commonplace stupid criminal?
UPDATE:
There's no need to brood about this Domenech deal. As time passes, we'll look back with the big picture in mind and remember this time as being the best of times, the worst of times, the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness, the epoch of belief, the epoch of incredulity, the season of Light, the season of Darkness, the spring of hope, and the winter of despair-- a real contradictory and confusing time for people, especially for writers. Even more especially so for plagiarists, because they had to rack their brains trying to decide who they were going to copy and paste from next. A multitude of choices creates its own dilemna, you know.
UPDATE II:
You're my big, brave boy. Yes, you are.
To the commenters at RedState who are calling Ben Domenech "brave" for finally cutting the crap and telling the truth: It's not "brave" for him to do this. Owning up to wrongdoing isn't something that a grown man is to be commended for -- it's simply what any adult is supposed to do. If you want to forgive him, forgive him. That's a good thing. But don't fawn over him for finally doing what any decent adult human being is supposed to do: take responsibility for his actions.
(Via Bill in comments.)
**
Previous postings:
Weeping, Wailing, And Gnashing Of Teeth
What do you get when you combine 15 unsupervised ninth-graders and a room full of Play-Doh?
Gators lack all subtlety:
So now the alligators are going door to door. When Lori Pachelli heard someone knocking at the door of her home in a gated community in this southwest Florida community earlier this week, she looked out to see an unwelcome visitor on her front stoop: an 8-foot alligator.
The bull gator, which had wandered up from the pond behind the house, had a bloody lip from banging its head against the door.
"He was pretty big, pretty aggressive," Pachelli said, adding that the gator may have followed her home from walking her cocker spaniel, Trooper.
Pachelli's husband, Mike, said he sped home after his wife called him in hysterics. The animal remained at the Pachellis' door for about an hour before going back into the lake, where trapper John French captured it later.
Still captures from the video:
Some pics of the bloody front and garage doors here.
Surviving Sago miner Randal McCloy, who had been told only that he was injured in a mining explosion, is now aware of the scope of the tragedy:
[Neurosurgeon Dr. Julian] Bailes says McCloy is able to remember parts of his ordeal in the mine, and is reacting appropriately to the tragedy.
"He certainly has a lot of emotions and feelings for losing his friends,” said Dr. Bailes.
"If he weren't discussing it or dealing with it, that would be a bad sign for his brain recovery, and a bad psychological sign. So we're glad he's going through that and processing it."
What an awful thing to "process."
The doctors still don't how on earth he survived, much less to be walking and talking, and suspect there may be something in his genetic make-up that allowed him to tolerate the carbon monoxide.
He had his first visit home last week. He stayed for a few hours and ate barbecue ribs. Not bad for a guy who, according to the medical books, should be on the other side of the grass right now.
Walgreen's Drug Utilization Review -- or DUR, the computerized pharmacology insult comic -- is back with more CrAzY goodness:
Less than a month after a Palm Beach woman sued Walgreens for labeling her CrAzY!!" and "psycho" in its nationwide computer system, two more Floridians have come forward with similar allegations.
Along with her medication, one Palm Beach Gardens grandmother received the note "WATCH CONTROLS SHE SEEMS SHADY." She didn't appreciate it, but does anyone ever appreciate a humorous bit of tough love at the time it's given?
More upset was Erin Cutler of Ocala, whose worst fears were realized as she read the DUR that summed her up as a "Bitch!":
For years, Cutler patronized Walgreens when filling prescriptions for anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder as well as birth-control pills, she said. When she refilled her contraceptives on Nov. 7, the DUR was attached to the bag. Reading the slur prompted a panic attack, she said.
"I started crying and I ran to the drawer to get a pill to calm down," she said. "I talked to my psychiatrist. All my fears came out. Everything I always thought came out -- that nobody likes me and everybody talks about me."
I say people should take a pill a relax. It's just like getting a fortune cookie. When the fortune reads "YOU MAKE EVERYONE HATE YOU," or "YOU'LL DIE ALONE AND FORGOTTEN," you don't go running all around the restaurant like a Peking Duck with its head cut off. No, you sit and weep, and by the time you're done, you're hungry again.
I wonder what DUR messages other people might have received:
Britney Spears: "Funky Cheetoh breath"
Christina Aguillera: "Must BATHE in Monostat"
Ace: "Eats CheeseNips in store--hides empty boxes!"
What do you think is Orlando's most compelling feature: the rats or the bird poop?
Apply to the city the Japanese concept of wabi-- beauty made more beautiful by a flaw.
Beautiful Orlando is only made more beautiful by bird poop falling from the sky like hail. Beautiful Orlando is only made more beautiful by rats running along the power lines and into people's homes.
That's the way I look at it.
(Via Carl in e-mail.)
The searches are over and the family of a missing Orlando woman Jennifer Kesse are now on their own. They'll do what they have to do to keep the case in the public's eye, even if it means being human billboards.
I hope the case is resolved soon, one way or the other. That Miami resident Susan Billig spent 30 years searching for her daughter Amy is more tragic than the girl's disappearance itself.
In the latest step in Libya's international rehabilitation, longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi is taking on questions about democracy and academic freedom.
A Columbia University conference billed as the first major meeting of American and Libyan academics and officials in 25 years climaxes Thursday with Gadhafi's participation via live video feed in a panel discussion on the prospect for the spread of democracy.
And cherubs. Mo wants cherubs everywhere. "Who can resist the chubby cheeks of a fat, winged baby?" Gadhafi inquired.
In its zeal to lob grenades at the Bush administration, the NYT gets its comeuppance for shoddy journalism for the second time in a week:
For the second time in less than a week, The New York Times today admitted to a serious error in a story. On Saturday it said it had misidentified a man featured in the iconic "hooded inmate" photograph from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Today it discloses that a woman it profiled on March 8 is not, in fact, a victim of Hurricane Katrina--and was arrested for fraud and grand larceny yesterday.
The Paper of Record hadn't done even the minimum in factchecking on this Katrina "victim" before opening its pages to her railings against the federal government.
There sure are a lot of rubes and hayseeds taking tumbles off turnip trucks at the Times these days. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it's the first time those editors and reporters ever had shoes on their feet.
(Via Lucianne.)
Future Me has come up with the perfect solution for those time-travel complications that are always popping up. Through them you can e-mail yourself up to 30 years in the future. No more worrying about whether you'll have the same phone number for that voice mail warning to you, or if your future self will own the same house at which to send yourself a cryptic letter.
What a handy service!
Usually content with digging secret escape tunnels and carving guns out of soap, one band of penal miscreants sunk so low as to bring in a ringer so their softball team would win the big tournament:
The state Corrections Department put a former minor league baseball player on the payroll in a no-show job so that he could help prison guards win a softball tournament, investigators say.
The ringer, Mark Guerra, 34, agreed to repay $1,400 and complete 50 hours of community service, state Attorney General Charlie Crist said Wednesday.
Guerra was charged with accepting paychecks for work never done at a prison library. Investigators said he accepted the money to play on the winning team in a tournament held last May by Corrections Secretary Jim Crosby.
Crosby was fired by Gov. Jeb Bush last month.
“It is disturbing that a state agency would place so much importance on a team sport that it would stoop to committing crimes,” Crist said.
Some people are so disorganized. I'm going to have to give this family a class on how not to let a house fire become a total conflagration. I've set both my bedroom and a tent on fire and, with a bit of help from loyal henchmen, managed to have things not become a total disaster.
Interesting sidenote: people are amazingly quiet as they work to put out a house fire. My theory is that everybody is concentrating so hard on putting out all the burny things that uttering words would be a distraction.
(Via Carl in e-mail.)
These strange case of the total retrograde amnesiac who's captivated New York society.
Just think, everything is new to him! Give him a variety pack of cereal and watch the joy of his establishing a cold breakfast preference! Or just watch the documentary; your choice.
The Prime Minister of Sweden seems to be pretty lackadaisical about Freedom of Speech if this lady had an opportunity to resign from office instead of being publicly tossed out on her behind:
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds quit on Tuesday after a row over the closure of a Web site with cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, embarrassing Prime Minister Goran Persson six months ahead of elections.
Social Democrat (SDP) leader Persson, behind in polls that favour the conservative opposition in September's vote, had for months resisted calls to sack the unpopular minister over her response to the Asian tsunami, in which 500 Swedes died.
But she was forced to resign when it was revealed this week that she had not given full information about her role in the closure of a site belonging to a far-right political party which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad offensive to Muslims.
"Under the current circumstances I find it impossible to conduct my work and therefore choose to resign," Freivalds said at a joint news conference with the prime minister.
"It was her own decision," said Persson, who had criticised a junior foreign ministry official for putting pressure on a private internet hosting company to close the Web site belonging to an anti-immigrant Swedish political party.
Such pressure violates constitutional guarantees of free speech. Freivalds originally said she did not know her ministry had contacted the company, but documents published this week in the Swedish media proved that she had been informed.
Freedom of Speech isn't about guaranteeing people's right to talk about the innocuous.
This is why I have trouble with the topic of "European values." We're using the same terms, but they have different meanings.
From the Hourglass days: the Allman boys in matching shirts. Adorable!
Wail on, Skydog!
Also: more of Duane's clothes being sold on Ebay. The roadie who sold Duane's guitar strap a few years back is the Santa who gifted some chick with the jacket she's currently selling.
I don't think the daughter got a thing.
A conservative column at the online edition of the Washington Post? All those precious pixels wasted in the name of diversity of opinion.
Don't worry, it'll never contaminate the print edition.
(Via Michelle.)
"Turn The Beat Around"- Vicki Sue Robinson.
Did you know all those background vocals are her as well?
Since bullying is the hottest crime in town, cut this man some slack, jack. Buzzwords mitigate.
Don't want to pay taxes? Boy, does North Korea have a deal for you! So what if you have to augment your diet by rooting through horseapples looking for something it couldn't digest--there are no taxes.
No. taxes.
Life is happy in tax-free North Korea
Aid workers say North Korea is short of food, analysts say its economy is a mess and U.S. President George W. Bush says leader Kim Jong-il is a tyrant, but Pyongyang says life is wonderful -- and blissfully free of tax.
North Korea has one of the lowest per capita income figures in the world. Although it says it has free health care, it cannot supply enough electricity to keep its factories running or to light the country at night.
On Monday, North Korean official media sang the praises of living in the communist country.
"The people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea enjoy a happy life, not knowing what the tax is like," the official KCNA news agency reported.
DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea said it got rid of taxes in 1974.
"The tax system has been in force in all the countries for thousands of years with the appearance of states. Its complete repeal in the DPRK was the first of its kind in human history," KCNA said.
North Korea has demanded what would be billions of dollars in economic assistance for dismantling its nuclear weapons programmes.
It receives significant humanitarian assistance from the South, which uses taxes from its citizens to help feed people in the North.
(Via David.)
This is very cool. To honor his memory, a joint British-Norwegian military team is re-enacting the journey of Jan Baalsrud, the WW II Norwegian commando who recounted his tale of betrayal, escape, and survival in the book "We Die Alone":
A THREE WEEK long expedition is to take place later this month to commemorate one of the Norwegian heroes of the famous World War II Shetland Bus operation.
Eight British and Norwegian sailors and ski mountaineers will be following the same route Jan Baalsrud took after his boat was blown up near Tromsø, Norway, and he was forced to escape alone into the wilderness of the Arctic circle.
Leading the expedition is Alun Davies, a member of the Alpine ski club and an ex-Welsh guard from Cardiff. They will be setting sail from the Shetland village of Scalloway on Saturday (25 March) - the same day Mr Baalsrud left for Tromsø in 1943.
Mr Baalsrud's story is one of the most famous of the Shetland Bus sagas. After his boat the Brattholm was blown up, German troops killed the rest of the crew and he was forced to travel across northern Norway, Finland and Sweden to get to safety.
He had to use all aspects of his British commando training to survive against all the odds.
Among other hardships he survived an avalanche, lived in a snow-hole for almost a fortnight, killed a German officer with a single shot and was forced to cut off his own toes to avoid gangrene after he contracted frostbite.
It took Mr Baalsrud, 25 years old at the time, eight weeks to walk, swim and ski the 150 miles to freedom.
Wearing one shoe!
The "Shetland Bus" was the name of the secret operation to aid the Norwegian Resistance by sea. Happily, America was able to put her two cents in, or in this case, three sub-chasers in, and end the depradations of the German Navy that had plagued the operation. One of the ships, the "Hitra," is still being used by the Norwegian Navy.
A member of Mr. Baalsrud's family is on the expedition team, which is a nice touch.
We have an original 1955 copy of his story. If the tale wasn't exciting enough in itself, there's the epilogue: his going back to Norway after the war and facing the villagers who betrayed their countryman.
I went searching for Billy Jo Spears' "Marty Gray" and found a terrific radio statio with recorded playlists that you can download. There's a lot of good songs there, most of them almost impossible to find on the Internet or I-Tunes.
Those of you who grew up in areas where kids listened to Country and Rock interchangebly will especially enjoy it. Modern Country stations don't play oldies, so you probably haven't heard these in decades.
I'm still looking for a complete online copy of the studio version of "Thank God and Greyhound."
Dig these groovy anti-war Mercedes-lovers with their paper signs.
And here they are again, showing us the hand version:
The longer Dr Entisar Mohammad Ariabi stays in America, the better Saddam looks:
CODEPINK protest, March 6, 2006: "Thanks for the liberation from Saddam" Hussein, Dr. Entisar Mohammad Ariabi said, addressing the Bush administration, "now please go out."
CODEPINK protest, March 18, 2006: "Today, Iraq is worse off than it was under Saddam Hussein, Ariabi said."
A few more speeches, he'll be Thomas Jefferson.
"I wanted Saddam out," Ariabi said. "But Iraq would be much better off today under that regime. He was a brutal dictator and he was bad to people trying to take him down, but we had electricity, water, schools, police, government. We had order."
And the trains ran on time. Don't forget the punctual trains.
I am the Athena of Southern musical knowledge. You shall try but fail to solve my riddle:
A music legend who though blessed with a stirring voice, chose not to sing, and who though gifted with movie star looks, chose to stay out of the public eye. Although working mainly from a small hometown, this person still used music to become a millionair several times over.
**
Need another clue? This lady's always willing to shake the hand of a Texan, but might be too busy writing.
Here's her pic. Do you really mean to say you don't know her?:
**
Hamous answered correctly with Cindy Walker, the beautiful and talented lady from Mexia, Texas who is one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century. Her standard "You Don't Know Me" made her a BMI triple million-air (150,000 broadcast hours, 17 years of continuous airplay), and everybody can hum "You're From Texas" (Shake hands, it's grand you're from Texas!).
She had Top 10s in the '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. That is one successful career.
***
Previous postings:
Homefires: Southern Music XVI (Swamp Edition)
Homefires: Southern Music XV (Action Edition)
Homefires: Southern Music XIV
Homefires: Southern Music XIII
Homefires: Southern Music XII
Homefires: Southern Music XI
Homefires: Southern Music X
Homefires: Southern Music IX
Homefires: Southern Music VIII
Homefires: Southern Music VII
Homefires: Southern Music VI
Homefires: Southern Music V
Homefires: Southern Music IV
Homefires: Southern Music III
Homefires: Southern Music II
Homefires: Southern Music
Swabbie Anthony Gonzales didn't want to say he worked on engines in Hawaii. He left good duty and headed toward the sound of the guns:
Gonzales was an aircraft mechanic on a Marine base in Hawaii on Sept 11, 2001. When all the Marines left for war, Gonzales was left behind with a bunch of engines, he recalled.
“I realized I didn’t join the Navy to do this. [I thought] ‘I’ve got to get over there.’”
He switched rates, became a dog handler and eventually arrived in Atsugi [Japan]. When the kennel master asked for volunteers to augment Army dog handlers in the Middle East, he was the first to raise his hand.
“I thought, ‘If I can go out there and find one IED (improvised explosive device) that’s maybe 20 lives to save.’”
He did that, and more:
---
He worked downrange for long hours, a sailor in a soldier’s world with a weapon, rounds and body armor. But Gonzales had to carry Ben’s gear, too: special sunscreen, “doggles” and booties, 18-pound canine body armor and ample water.Ben proved worth it. He found 14 insurgents, 17 rifles, more than 1,000 rounds, a rocket-propelled grenade and a bomb-making kit during the deployment. But over two days in October, the two faced their most difficult challenges, which helped lead to Gonzales’ battlefield promotion.
On Oct. 2, amid rising pre-election violence in Iraq, Gonzales and Ben were squeezed into a Stryker in Mosul when an explosion shook them: An IED had hit their vehicle.
“It was so loud. You think you’re in an earthquake,” Gonzales said. As dust and debris covered them, the gunfire started. Ben was upset. “He was shaking pretty bad,” Gonzales said. Both lost part of their hearing for days. “I couldn’t eat for a few days I was shaking so bad.”
Their damaged vehicle chased and caught three suspect vehicles and Ben was called to investigate, according to the promotion certificate Gonzales later received. The dog found an improvised explosive-making kit and helped capture several insurgents.
The next day a suicide vehicle slammed into a Stryker in another convoy and gutted it. A gunbattle ensued.
Gonzales’ vehicle was rerouted to help. Ben and Gonzales spent nine hours on a rooftop until nearby snipers were stopped.
After the ordeal, Gonzales took Ben out to relax. He removed the leash and Ben ran through a field. A rocket-propelled grenade flew over his head, exploding a short distance away. Under gunfire, Gonzales raced out, called the dog and they ran behind a wall vibrating from the barrage of bullets hitting its other side.
Gonzales said he didn’t hesitate from saving the dog.
“Once you work with a dog so long … he’s part of me,” he said.
Throughout, the sailor watched for signs of stress from his 4-year-old partner. Small-arms fire barely bothered Ben, but he hated the deafening sounds of mortars. In the little trailer they shared at their forward operating base in Mosul, Ben would hop into Gonzales’ bed at night and burrow under him during explosions. “He’s just like a little kid,” Gonzales said.
Weeks later, with the elections behind them, Gonzales’ unit put him in for the combat meritorious advancement program.
When an admiral from the Multi-National Force-Iraq headquarters visited, Gonzales asked about the promotion. Weeks later, the admiral called and addressed him as “MA1,” petty officer first class, his new elevated rank. He said the chief of naval operations himself selected the sailor for promotion.
The admiral said someone else would be there the next day to congratulate him. He turned out to be Gen. George Casey, the top military official in Iraq.
“He said, ‘I appreciate you Navy guys coming out to help the Army,’” Gonzales said.
The sailor also walked away from Iraq with an Army Commendation Medal on its way, a Combat Action ribbon from the Navy and a special medal he wears hidden on his Navy uniform: the Army’s new Combat Action Badge.
Gonzales and Ben since have returned to Atsugi. Both are pretty well-recovered, Gonzales said, adding that it was harrowing but he’s ready to go back.
“Soldiers say no one will ever understand unless they’ve been there,” the sailor said, recalling that each night. “I just wanted to go to sleep and not think about it.
“But you can’t. You go to sleep to gunfire and wake up to mortars.”
He traded Hawaii for all that. Thank you, Petty Officer Gonzales.
(Via Dave in comments.)
George Clooney is now blogging in Greg Gutfeld's slot:
Abortion: I'm for a woman's right to choose - completely. Having kids is tough, especially for children. Hard even. If I were a woman, i would have had 30 abortions by now. it's almost unfair that I can't have them. Babies are cute i guess, especially for children, but it usually takes 16 years before they're really hot.
I knew there'd be a slew of Clooney faux-blogging after the Hufflepuff dust-up. I bided my time until I heard the voice of the master. Be sure to read the comments; the teeth-gnashing fury contained within is half the fun. I especially liked the one "You're so vain...I bet you read the comments section."
Tom Cruise may have gotten the re-airing of the Scientology episode of "South Park" canceled, but that's not going to make the show's creators shut up. According to the statment they issued to Daily Variety:
"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"
The duo signed the statement "Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu."
Expect many more Scientology episodes in the future. Hopefully they'll have a cartoon Cruise join the cast of characters on a permanant basis--as the new school chef would be good.
The entire "Trapped in the Closet" episode is here.
UPDATE:
Hollywood Interruped, who first ran the story, has been shut down in a Denial of Service attack.
Funnily enough, the only prick in the whole story is Norah Vincent:
Author Norah Vincent dressed up as a man to find out how men really behave in all-male environments. Surprise, surprise: They're nice guys.
(Via Fark.)
The Reader's Digest "European of the Year" award did not sit well in some quarters:
According to RD “Hirsi Ali is the person who best embodies the contemporary expression of Europe’s values and traditions.” Bob Low, RD’s European Bureau Chief of Reader's Digest, commented: “It has taken a young woman born outside Europe to show Europeans the sort of courage and determination that is needed to confront extremism and to uphold the values of tolerance and justice that we hold dear. We are proud to honour her.”
There is no doubt that Ms Hirsi Ali, a member of the Dutch Liberal Party VVD, is a courageous woman. There is no doubt that Europeans can learn from her courage. There is no doubt either that she embodies the contemporary expression of Europe’s values. And that is exactly the problem, because Europe’s contemporary values – contrary to America’s – are those of antireligious secularism.
I have a problem with anyone chosen as "embodying the contemporary expression of Europe’s values and traditions," because it's like winning the Miss Harlot contest. When you win, it just means you're an exemplary harlot.
I found this post when Googling for Hirsi Ali after reading the write-up on her in this month's issue of the Digest. Read the rest of Brussels Journal's take on the award and Ali, and also the comments, and see what you think.
I'll nominate this 7-11 clerk for the coveted Balls of Brass award:
At about 8:10 p.m. Wednesday, [Tyson] Morgan allegedly entered the store wearing a mask and brandishing a large knife.
Morgan reportedly demanded money from the clerk, who refused to give it to him. The clerk then chased the robber from the store with a long-handled squeegee, according to police reports.
After about a block, Morgan allegedly lunged at the clerk with the knife. The clerk then used the squeegee to disarm the robber and escort him back to the store where they waited until Boise police officers arrived in response to a hold up alarm.
Here's young Tyson's muggie.
(Via Lucianne.)
UPDATE:
Success has many fathers.
Who caught the robber?
A pair of jokers are in the news today, including our village idiot:
The former military intelligence chief at Iraq's Abu Ghraib says he regrets not setting ``appropriate controls'' at the prison, where detainees were bitten by dogs and assaulted and sexually humiliated by guards.
Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and early 2004, testified Wednesday at the court-martial of Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, of Fort Lauderdale, an Army dog handler charged with abusing detainees at the prison.
``If I had to list my biggest failure, I think it was not setting appropriate controls,'' said Pappas, the highest-ranking witness scheduled to testify.
``In hindsight, clearly we probably needed to establish some definitive rules and put out some clear guidance to everybody concerned,'' he said, testifying for the defense under a grant of immunity.
The MI colonel relieved of command of the 205 (My old unit!) for his sorriness was given immunity to testify about a dog handler. Think about that for a while.
A lowly handler applied techniques he wasn't authorized to use under the authority of an officer who was having his soldiers apply techniques he wasn't authorized to have them use. If the handler goes to jail while the colonel walks, I'm going to be ticked.
It's the death penalty for Joseph Smith.
Judging from all his tears when he begged for life in prison at his sentencing hearing, he has a great love for his own hide. In light of that, hopefully he'll spend minimal time on death row and be dispatched as soon as possible.
It's the best we can do.
After the sentencing, Carlie's aunt, Laurie Brucia, castigated the Miami Herald for their shoddy coverage of the case, including their repeated misidentifying of Carlie as "Carla," and for their captioning a picture of Carlie's father with the name of her murderer. Not such a good job, considering this is the biggest murder trial in Florida in quite some time.
***
Previous Carlie Brucia postings here.
These guys are so on the juice. Probably blood-doping too. No way they're that good.
Supposedly they just take whatever the trainer gives them. Yeah, right.
A beautiful and touching short film inspired by the photo storage site. Watch it all; it's good stuff.
Be sure to check out Jonathan's other offerings at his website.
(Via Stereogum.)
Another metaphorical head (You have to make the distinction) has rolled for daring to publish the Motoons:
An editor who chose to publish caricatures of Prophet Mohammed in the University of Illinois' student-run newspaper last month has been fired, the paper's publisher announced Tuesday.Acton H. Gorton was suspended, with pay, from The Daily Illini days after the Feb. 9 publication of the cartoons, which sparked Muslim protests around the world after they first appeared in a Danish newspaper.
At the time, Daily Illini publishers said the action was taken against Gorton not for publishing the cartoons, but for failing to discuss it with others in the newsroom first.
The board of directors, made up of students and faculty, voted unanimously to fire him.
The paper's opinions page editor, Chuck Prochaska, also was suspended for his role in publishing the cartoons. He declined to be reinstated, the board said.Prochaska said he and Gorton moved quickly to publish the cartoons because they were newsworthy.
"We had a news story on our hands, with violence erupting about imagery, but you can't show it because of a taboo, because of a taboo that's not a Western taboo but a Muslim taboo?" he said. "That's a blow to journalism."
The current Illini stance is that the cartoons are "hateful" and "anti-Islamic":
CAIR Web site defamed with hateful depictions
By: Christine Won
Issue date: 3/10/06 Section: NewsThe Council on American-Islamic Relations University chapter's Web page was vandalized Saturday afternoon. The Web site was hacked into and the Danish cartoons and similar anti-Islamic images were posted.
...
"The hacking and defacement of our Web site qualifies as a hate crime," said Reem Rahman, director of the University's Council on American-Islamic Relations and junior in LAS. "Every single one of these drawings is exactly that. Hatred. And it dehumanizes."The incident was filed with the University police who are aggressively investigating in conjunction with other University departments such as CITES, Assistant Chief of Police Jeff Christensen said.
"Hate-filled and inflammatory images only serve to encourage those who would turn bigoted views into violent or discriminatory actions against ordinary American Muslims," said Rahman. "It presents a view of Muslims that is highly inaccurate, unbalanced and entirely self-defeating in attempting to ensure safety and justice within America."
Duane in New York with various identifiable and unidentifiable objects/people/substances.
Wail on, Skydog!
Dan Rather's national career is bookended with lies.
He gained camera time as a local journalist covering national news at the time of the Kennedy assassination with this bit of yellow journalism:
It was a different lie--one delivered on national news, and at the expense of children--that caused Rather trouble at the time. As reporters from around the world descended on the Texas city, Rather went on the air with a local Methodist minister who made a stunning claim: Children at Dallas's University Park Elementary School had cheered when told of the president's death.
He knew the story was bogus, but went with it anyway. I wonder what other bullshit stories Rather fobbed off on us over the years. Whatever they were, he surely wouldn't want to be asked about them.
(Via comment at Captain's Quarter.)
When geeks get plastered, they rig up remote controls and on-board cameras and have themselves a good old-fashioned Roomba cockfight.
Come on, little Grey!
(Via James in e-mail.)
Topic: Are women walking vulvas?
Raise your consciousness over at the Cotillion.
(Complimentary Primal Scream Therapy provided in comments.)
***
Previous postings:
MOM Presents: Lunch and Lecture Series
It's time to start stringing SUVs up like homicidal circus elephants:
It was a morning like any other in the tiny burgh of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The overpowering stench of wet cigarettes and cow flatulence filled the salty sea air. Small children giggled with delight as they frolicked around the smoldering remains of last night’s cross burning. From the nearby cotton fields, the faint crack of horsewhips could be heard over the drunken whoops of hooded Klansmen.
At the town’s makeshift college, slack-jawed students gathered in the campus community area known as “The Pit”, perhaps to arrange dates with their sisters to the evening’s barn dance, or maybe to cram for the big exam in Tobaccy Chewin’ 101. Little did they know an insidious enemy lurked amongst them, secretly plotting their destruction, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike. It was an enemy allowed to roam freely within our borders for years, welcomed and even embraced by those sworn to protect us. Yet no amount of duct tape or visqueen could prepare the nine hapless Tar Heels for the two-tons of cold metal death that would rampage through their school like Dick Clark through Columbine High, scattering hogs, chickens, and empty cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon to the four winds.
It'd be interesting to see how many children (ages 0-35 by standard headline definition) are killed by SUVs each year, as their delightful innocence (and sheer ability to get the outragemeter's needle moving) is the sole important factor in any issue.
I bet that's data even the NSA doesn't collect.
Who spilled the beans about blog swarming? Was it you, Baron Bodissey?:
Just how much influence they had in the race isn't clear, but there's no question about the growing political influence of blogs _ Web sites created and used by thousands of people who post news, opinions, journals and anything else that may be on their mind at the time.
Blogging analysts call it swarming. Others say it's like a hurricane when hundreds of the bloggers' Web sites seize on a topic and then thousands and even tens of thousands of people read what they have to say.
Increasingly, political campaigns have had to adapt to the blogging era of political activism, and candidates and bloggers alike expect online opinion to have a big impact on the midterm elections this year.
So far swarms from the Right have been more successful than swarms from the Left, but I would definitely hesitate assigning any big blog as influential on another in regards to swarming. The Harriet Miers nomination was shot down in a Right-wing swarm that was in direct contradiction of what many supposedly influential conservative bloggers wanted.
As for influencing readers to effect change, the biggest blog in the world hasn't been able to get a single candidate elected.
Drink some beer as you ride in a St. Patrick's parade? In line with his campaign motto, I'd say, "Why the hell not?"
Would that all political press releases were as good as Kinky Friedman's:
"Guinness is the drink that kept the Irish from taking over the world. It would be unthinkable not to have a Guinness during a St. Patrick's Day parade. In fact, it would be spiritually wrong," Friedman said in a statement issued by spokeswoman Laura Stromberg.
A normal-looking Dennis Quaid has bravely stepped forward to say he's battling "manorexia," which he defines as "feeling fat and out of the spotlight." It's also known as "Hollywood dysmorphic syndrome."
To learn about actual male anorexics, here's the link.
You folks in Atlanta, Fulton County Animal Services has some dogs, including three German shepherds (Passion, Rainbow, and #A365994), that need families and a household to put in order.
You need a shepherd. You really, really do.
(Via Michele in e-mail.)
To help spread a peaceful social message, a musician in violence-wracked Colombia is making guitars out of guns. César López calls his creations escopetarras, a Spanish combination of "gun" and "guitar." While the escopetarra looks very cool, it sounds like pure hell. But hey, that could just be the guy's playing.
Music Thing has a page dedicated to the history of the gun-guitar; they go back quite a long ways.
(Via James in e-mail.)
If you need it, the login/pswd for the Herald is always crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice
Have a smile and a song.
Blog Idaho is importing strange little tests from Japan in hopes of catching Gwen Stefani's eye.
For a supposed employment test, people sure do get beat up a lot in this one. Kudos to the test-developer for the oddly satisfying thumping noise before they go down.
I wouldn't mind having a wax replica of a favorite Hollywood star hanging around the house, but at these prices who could afford it?
There's one thing I wouldn't want--a wax replica of my own father. That Chris Doohan is one odd duck:
Medical technician Chris Doohan was one bidder who went away disappointed. He'd hoped to buy the figure of his dad, James Doohan, who played Scotty in "Star Trek." But the bidding went past $4000, a little too rich for Doohan's wallet.
I suppose there's no harm in it, really. He'd just be owning a wax figure...that looked exactly like his dad...all dressed up in a Star Trek costume.
If Bettie Page is surprised by her enduring popularity, I'm more surprised by Harold Lloyd's old-goatedness.
If you can't count on the moral fiber of Hollywood silent-era comedians, what can you count on?
The revelation that WMDs were moved to Syria as told by Former Iraqi Air Force General Georges Sada in his book Saddam's Secrets is beginning to filter out into the mainstream media. It's about time.
Harry Chapin gets Shatnerized on TV and you are there.
It's awful, an aural Johnstown Flood, but you're safe and dry and you'll leave with only a vague, lingering feeling of having been somehow horribly wronged.
The early Rolling Stones in full lip-synching glory doing three songs for the Red Skelton show. Good stuff.
Their cover-period is my favorite part of their career. Back in the day there was no Amazon.com, and folks like me had to haunt records stores to luck upon an old, sought-after recording. The compensation for the inconvenience and toil was that it was really exciting when you actually found what you were looking for, though I suppose the Soviets could say the same for their old system. (I found potatoes for sale! Woot!)
Either Reuter's left out some punctuation in this Buddha-boy story, or they're reporting a scientific marvel:
Fifteen-year-old Ram Bahadur Bamjon has not been seen since early Saturday, said Hari Krishna Khatiwada, a district official of Bara, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Kathmandu.
The boy had been meditating there without food or water since May. Some of his followers are also missing.
Maybe they used up all their scare quotes on other stories.
These are the perfect resources for Muslim History Month.
The story of the amazing properties of the stick of wood Mohammed used to pick his teeth with turns out to be false, alas. One toothpick performs the same function as another, it seems.
As with reading the list of spectacular achievements of a group during their assigned Fabulous Month, toothcleaning by means of a stick is improved by adding salt. Even one grain is sufficient.
What did I tell y'all?
Hats off to the reporters who worked on this. They did a great job investigating and their reports kept our minds boggling for a whole year.
***
Prior postings:
FEMA's Generator Fetish
FEMA Funerals
FEMA Declared A National Disaster Area
FEMA: What Went Wrong
FEMA Fraud Investigation
Fraud, Waste, And Abuse
Corpse Gap
FEMA Fraud
Miami-Dade County FEMA Fraud Probe
FEMA Investigation
FEMA Miami-Dade County Fraud Probe
Miami-Dade Struggles In Aftermath Of Asian Tsunami
MOM has opened a debate on the "Roe v. Wade for Men" case and goes on a road trip to DU to watch philosophies of life fall like a house of cards. The argument behind the case is:
If a pregnant woman can choose among abortion, adoption, or raising a child, a man involved in an unintended pregnancy should have the choice of declining the financial responsibilities of fatherhood.
Putting adoption in that category is really no longer applicable. From what I understand, there's no more adopting a child out without the father's approval.
I know the men's rights groups have been looking for a case like this to use as test, but I think they have more important fish to fry; such as paternity fraud and the garnishment of wages. The criminal courts use DNA evidence to get people off death row, but many family courts don't want to use DNA evidence to get men off the hook for paying for children that are not theirs.
Eric Zorn's interesting take on it is here.
UPDATE:
Looks like I spoke too soon about adoption, and in Florida no less:
Critics call it Florida's best-kept secret, a law that allows babies to be adopted without notifying unwed fathers.
Now, two men are challenging rulings under a state law that stripped them of their parental rights because they weren't registered with a state databank.
Who says feminists don't have a sense of humor?
Over at the NOW store, a shirt with the enticing lead-in of "similar to one worn by Christina Aguilera," (available in sizes Chlamydia, Herpes, Syphilis and Xtra Syphilis) bears the slogan "A man of quality is not threatened by a woman for equality."
It's labeled as "humor."
Laugh, man-pigs, laugh!
As always, Dade and Broward think they can control the whole state:
A South Florida senator has reignited the nearly two decade-old battle to declare key lime pie as Florida's official state pie, but the Senate president's mouth isn't watering over the idea.
...
Two Broward lawmakers -- former state Reps. Norm Ostrau and Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- made previous attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to add key lime pie to the long list of state symbols, which include a state tree (sabal palm), state fruit (orange), state beverage (orange juice) and even a litter control symbol. Both went down after strong opposition from the supporters of pecan pie and sweet potato pie - popular desserts in North Florida.
Key Lime pie or Democratic presidential candidates--they're always trying to shove one or the other down the conservative populace's throat.
Did Bill actually post something non-ferret related? Good boy. Time to click and treat.
Is anybody else having trouble accessing WithCheese? I haven't been able to get in there for days. Is he using this opportunity to talk bad about me behind my back? Someone please go look and come tell me. Thanks.
Hail, groovsters! I'm out of Cracker's shoebox and ready to rock. How about a link shotgun?
*Alpaca Burger encounters Insta-syndrome and is left frustrated and unsatisfied.
*Dorkafork's death catchphrases. I'll save "Wail no more, CrackWhore" on a 3x5 card for you-know-who.
*Geez, won't Boston Irish feel silly when he finds out that Oomph, the German band he dissed, is fronted by Gary Oldman.
A videotaped example of how Lilly lost her leg.
She's quite the martinet and severely punishes bad behavior.
(Via Bill.)
Theater majors as joking church-burners:
Wench: "Dost thou like my fireplace?"
Benjamin Moseley: "Fire this place? Thou caluminous dizzy-eyed harpy!
Thou knowest I only fire churches."
It's not all glamour: Russell Debusk backstage with the accelerants.
"Thou foul and pestilent congregation of vapours," he said, "forsooth, I wish I knew how to quit thee."
Recent Comedic Arson Player productions:
"Fireman on a Hot Church Roof"
"Much Ado about Arson"
"The Importance of Being Mirandized"
"A Coupla White Dudes Goin' Around Burnin' Shit"
"The Flametasticks"
"The Effect of Bubba's Ways on Recently-Incarcerated Rectums"
Feel free to add your own in comments.
A smart-assed Cape Coral resident got City Hall's attention with a novel protest. Tired of phoning and writing in complaints to officials about "public copulation in your parking lot next to my Florida room"; Robert Payne collected all the used cruisers, stuck them on sticks, and planted them in the petunias in front of the yacht club.
In an explanatory e-mail to City Hall he wrote:
"I wanted to do my part as a concerned law-abiding citizen by removing the beautiful blue rubbers from the parking lot, but I was unsure what to do with them because they represent a biohazard waste product that should be properly disposed of.
"So to help you and your hazardous waste team out, I stuck each of them with a stick and planted them on Driftwood Drive in front of the welcome sign to the Yacht Club. There they hang tonight, flying in the breeze as a proud symbol of our freedom and the great traditions of Cape Coral. Much like our beloved flag."
In true Cape Coral fashion, the Mayor wants him cited for code violations.
Sometimes I find reading the paper delightful:
For years, Janey Karp has battled depression and anxiety with the help of prescription drugs. Though millions of Americans do the same, Karp admits she is intensely private and can't help but feel stigmatized for needing medication to feel normal.
So when the 53-year-old Palm Beach resident read the Walgreens printout attached to her prescription last week for the sleep aid Ambien, she couldn't believe her eyes. Typed in a field reserved for patient information and dated March 17, 2005, was "CrAzY!!" In another field, dated Sept. 30, 2004, it read: "She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when ... " The information continued onto another page but was not attached.
Oh hell yeah, Miss CrAzY's suing.
One of my favorite Duane pics. Probably high as a kite, but so intense.
Wail on, Skydog!
(Bumped for write-up.)
We've got the swampiest swamps going and we like to sing about them.
Two different singer/songwriters had popular songs in which characters meet their death in the swamp. Who are the singers, what are the songs, and who died in them?
**
Gmac remembered the line "The gators got your granny," which prompted Owen's correct answer of "Polk Salad Annie" by Tony Joe White.
One down, one to go.
Owen stomped back in with Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses," and
