If you're thinking about asking your brother to help you pull an inside-job, remind him to bring his cellphone. With him when he leaves the store after the robbery. So the police won't find the text-messages from you telling him to come rob the store.
For those that need a holiday read, you might choose something from The Invisible Library, a well put-together site on books that only exist in other books. If you can think of one you've come across during your own reading that's not currently on their shelves, send the librarian an e-mail to get it added to the collection.
Also, after reading Mahone Dunbar's in-depth review of William Harkan's "A Darkness Shines Through," you'll certainly want to beat the bushes looking for a copy or two.
Police give a wake-up visit to a woman who won't get her lazy bones out of bed.
(Via Baron in e-mail.)
An odd tale about double standards and a traffic stop in Parramore, Florida:
Juan Lynum, county-commission candidate with close ties to the mayor was stopped in the wee hours of the morning for driving with a broken headlight. Before the officer had reached his window, the candidate was on the line to his city-commissioner mother Daisy, saying he was being racially profiled. She immediately called the chief of police. No ticket was written.
Not satisfied, both mother and son claimed racial profiling as the reason for his having been pulled over and demanded an apology from the chief of police. When that was not forthcoming, the mother alleged a pattern of abuse and urged her constituents to write letters of complaint if they too had been victimized. She also called for the chief of police's resignation. He refused. In her talks with the media, the mother openly and repeatedly called the officer and other officers on the force a racial slur.
The hardest-hitting opinion piece in the paper called for the son to get his headlight fixed and concentrate on his political campaign. The chief of police was conciliatory, and said the mother didn't owe him the apology his supporters were calling for, but neither did he feel he owed her one. The officer in question was not asked whether he felt he himself was owed an apology.
One TV channel's investigation into the Lynums' charges showed their allegations had no merit and includes a segment wherein one of the commisioner's supporters, an Alvin Giles, gives voice to the latest definition of "racial profiling," which formerly meant being singled out for looking different from those around you. Stopped on the way to church for illegally cutting through a parking lot, Giles said, "I think they pulled me over because I was in a black neighborhood and I was black." Juan Lynum was also a black who stopped in a black neighborhood. Also included: letters from her constituents calling her ignorant.
Now for the exam:
1. True or false: "Black people can't even be racist."
2. Given this latest meaning of "racial profiling," what is the future of law enforcement in black neighborhoods?
All in all, an interesting month in Orlando, a place where nobody even notices a story about a candidate getting a ticket fixed by his politician-mama's calling a police chief at 1:00 a.m.
(Via FR.)
WaPo writers Charles Babington and Michael Abramowitz should stop pretending they're reporting news if all they're going to do is write editorials. From the headline all the way down, that's what they're serving up this morning. They've got the sheep and the goats all separated out for us so we don't have to bother with sorting through an issue and deciding for ourselves. It goes like this: "Republicans bad, President Bush bad. Democrats good, newspapers that disclose classified information good." They've got the whole matter settled for us before we've even taken a second sip of our coffee. Only, I'm a Democrat who doesn't like newspapers disclosing classified information, and I'm hardly the only one. I also don't like newspaper reporters who editorialize under guise of presenting a news story. They accuse the president of playing politics while at the same time they're trying to ink up a win for their own team:
President Bush rallied Republicans with another attack on the media last night, in remarks that highlighted efforts at the White House and on Capitol Hill to gain momentum from recent disclosures about classified programs to fight terrorism.Senior administration officials say the president was outraged by articles in the New York Times and other newspapers about a surveillance program in which the U.S. government has tapped international banking records for information about terrorist financing. But his comments at a Republican fundraiser in a St. Louis suburb yesterday, combined with new moves by GOP congressional leaders, showed how both are working to fan public anger and reap gains from the controversy during a midterm election year in which polls show they are running against stiff headwinds.
Chuck, Mike, trust me: President Bush doesn't have to "fan" public anger about newspapers who think they're the final arbiters on matters of national security; it's already plenty hot. And it's not just the President and the public criticizing the actions of the NYT, but other newspapers as well.
(If needed, WaPo login/pswd=pokemon@pokemon.com/pokemon)
(Via Lucianne.)
Guitarist Johnny Jenkins, whose playing greatly influenced Jimi Hendrix, has passed away at the age of 67 following a recent stroke. The singer in Jenkins' first band, The Pinetoppers, was fellow-Georgian Otis Redding. In 1969, what had been meant to be Duane Allman's solo album became Jenkins' Ton-Ton Macoute when Duane decided to focus on his latest band, the Allman Brothers. A remastered Macoute was released in 1997. Duane plays on 6 of the 11 songs of the record, one of which is "I Walk on Gilded Splinters."
"Splinters," "Rollin' Stone," and "Down along the Cove" can be found on the Duane Allman anthologies. The other three Duane tracks: "Voodoo in You," "Don't Want No Woman," and "My Love Will Never Die," I've only seen on the Macoute album. Perhaps one of you know more.
(News via YO in comments, song link via Manx Writers.)
The Tampa Tribune isn't buying the NYT's defense of its revealing of the secret government program monitoring international banking transactions to hunt down terrorists. They sum up their objections to the paper's action so clearly even Bill Keller could understand:
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, suggested in a letter to readers this week that the newspaper's decision to reveal the existence of a secret government program tracing international banking records in pursuit of terrorists had nothing to do with politics, only good journalism.We don't buy it.
Those who defend the newspaper say the revelation of the monitoring program lets the public know about the intensity of the government's scrutiny of private individuals. The media, it's true, should act as a check on government power.
But in this instance, there is no suggestion that the program is illegal or has been abused. And the assertion, made by the Times and other newspapers after discussions with the administration and national security experts, that exposure will not harm the program betrays a breathtaking arrogance. How do they know?
The administration tried to dissuade the Times from running the story. Even the leaders of the 9/11 commission, Democrat Lee Hamilton and Republican Tom Keane, asked editors to keep it under wraps. The newspaper dismissed their pleas.
Competition may have had something to do with the publication, since other newspapers also ran with the story.
But when the New York Times publisher recently spoke to a college graduating class, he apologized for the world we live in and the president who leads us. No politics?
"The Times and the far left are so completely out of touch with where the country is on national security and terrorism issues they probably thought this disclosure would hurt Bush politically," writes John McIntyre, co-founder of the political Web site RealClearPolitics. "They are clueless."
Yes, and shameless. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, a Times editorial called for the federal government to "disable the financial networks used by terrorists."
The government has been trying to do just that - until the Times undermined its efforts.
Kudos to the Trib for calling them on it, but the Times is so far gone only a formal intervention could even give them a glimmer that they've crossed the line. I hope the Justice Department nails them right to the wall.
Neither of two new owners are willing to give a pair of adopted Katrina dogs back to their original family. While one adopter declined to comment, the other states her case emphatically: "I legally fostered and adopted a dying dog who had a serious medical condition that long predated the hurricane. Just like a child that's adopted, I plan on loving him, caring for him and providing care for him for the rest of his life because that's what Noah deserves."
The original family has now driven down to Florida to hold a press conference:
Steven and Dorreen Couture sat before reporters Tuesday, trying to put a child's face on their Hurricane Katrina saga.On their laps sat their 7-year-old granddaughter Cassidy and 4-year-old grandson Steven.
After months of e-mails, phone calls and interviews, the Coutures drove two days from the New Orleans area to plead for their dogs, Master Tank the St. Bernard and Nila the shepherd mix.
"I'm making a plea," Steven Couture said as his grandson twisted and turned in his lap. "Please give me my dogs back."
Both sides have their hackles raised, but under existing laws the Coutures can only rely on the two adopters good will. While I don't see a custody battle happening over this particular case, another case in Pennsylvania looks headed that way.
Though I know they're desperate, a thump on the head to the Coutures for using their grandchildren as props; and though the adopters might be able to provide a better life for the animals, they need to go ahead and give the dogs back.
Robert Moran made a cry for help -- but it didn't have anything to do with ocean:
Federal prosecutors charged an unemployed tow truck driver Tuesday with making the phony distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard earlier this month that triggered a 48-hour, $350,000 search-and-rescue operation off Boynton Beach earlier this month.Robert Moran, 45, of Boynton Beach, was arrested Tuesday and charged with making a false distress call June 11. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a possible fine of $700,000, plus the costs incurred by rescuers.
An anonymous tipster who recognized the caller's voice led investigators to Moran, prosecutors said.
Reading the article, he sounds like a loser at the end of his rope: injured, unemployed, alone. Now he'll have long-term structure and the support of his correctional facility team. It's just what the doctor ordered.
Remember back in first grade when you sent your friend a note written in lemon juice? On the envelope you wrote "Open with big toe." You were so cute. The guys in the Supermax remember sending notes like that too. Too bad they don't have a readily available supply of lemon juice:
On another day, the government asked Danine Adams, the prison agent who monitored gang mail at the Supermax, to demonstrate how [leader of the Aryan Brotherhood T.D.] Bingham allegedly slipped a secret letter past security.Taking the witness stand, Adams held a blank piece of paper before the jury. The previous night in her hotel, she explained, she had written on it using a Q-tip dabbed in her own urine.
Then, amid the stately marble of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building, she flicked a lighter and waved it patiently under the paper. The judge had ordered the sprinklers turned off above jurors, to prevent them from being soaked should something catch fire. Finally, on the paper in Adams' hand, the word "URINE" magically began to materialize.
For a novel experience, pretend you're watching Perry Mason and it's Della Street on the stand giving the demonstration. Hamilton Burger would have a cascading series of strokes before even being able to launch an objection.
The Aryan Brotherhood also used interesting codes and ciphers to communicate, but wasted all that cleverness on running their little prison fiefdoms.
To thank YO for the link to the excellent video snippet of Duane and Thom Doucette playing at Chapel Hill, here's a pic of them playing in Atlanta.
Wail on, Skydog!
Some people have had an exciting car or two. If you're Some Cranky Guy, you've had a whole series of them, each with a story:
I owned two snot-orange colored Fiats. Two seaters. One was for parts. And that wasn’t enough. I had a poor battery connection, so my brother taught me this neat trick – hammer a steel nail between the battery cable and the battery post to improve the connection. It worked like a charm; the car never had a starting problem! However, when an electrical fire developed while the car was in the shop for minor repairs, my mechanic tried frantically to pull the battery cable away from the battery, only to discover that some yahoo had nailed it to the battery! He managed to push the fiat out of his garage before it burned his entire business down. He also banned me and all of my cars from his establishment.
I don't have any particular memories of cars I've owned, probably because I don't work on them. Buying the same make/model/color every time also might have something to do with it. They've had no quirky "personalities" and I've never called one "Bessie," "Annie," or anything else. They roll; I steer. That's about it. Another life-experience absent from my repertoire: a glimpse of orange-colored snot. How do you get that, exactly? Snorting the packet of dry cheddar that comes in the macaroni and cheese box would do it for sure, but I don't know anybody who snorts cheese. At least I don't think I do.
Maybe some of y'all have stories of cars and/or snot you'd like to share.
Al Gore's attempt at a little heart-to-heart with Earth doesn't work out the way he expected.
The good folks of Polk County were kind enough to host a weekend convention for child predators:
Another visitor was coming.Deputies watched as the blue motorcycle drew near the small, ordinary house in southern Polk County.
Four surveillance cameras captured the approach, feeding the images to a bank of flat-screen monitors inside. The deputies quickly strapped on vests before lining up near the door.Outside, Nicholas Arcahontakis took off his helmet, cut the engine but hesitated.
Before he could leave, deputies rushed out, tackling the 26-year-old Clearwater man to the ground.
Moments later, he was swept inside.
Arcahontakis was one of 20 people arrested in a weekend sting, accused of trying to seduce children over the Internet.
The supposed victims were really law enforcement officers posing online as part of a multi-agency operation.
You know that dreadful feeling you get when, as you're slamming the car door closed, you realize you've left your keys in the car? Arriving at a rendezvous point where you anticipated nailing a kid, only to be greeted by the sheriff's department must be kind of like that. Perhaps even a little worse:
Those arrested ranged in age from 19 to 61. They came from as far way as Gainesville to as close as Davenport. Only two arrests were of Polk County residents.As deputies brought them into the house, some became so emotional that they appeared to cry. One vomited.
That must be from the realization that your life has now officially turned to shit.
Good job, Sheriff Grady Judd and the Polk County Sheriff's Department. Congrats also to The Ledger for being able to keep mum that a sting was coming. That meant they got to be part of the welcoming committee and write us a good story.
(Via Owen in e-mail.)
This is why mediums will always have a place in society -- they're just so useful:
Chicago newspaper questions Corpus Christi man executed in 1983 slaying
Getting jailed for biting a security guard on the leg is pretty lame. Taking someone's nose or ear off during a knock-down drag-out I can understand:
"Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose was arrested in Stockholm early Tuesday after allegedly biting a security guard in the leg at his hotel, police said.Rose - who performed in the Swedish capital on Monday - was ordered held in jail by prosecutors on suspicion of attacking and threatening the guard, as well as causing damage to the Berns Hotel where the alleged scuffle took place, police spokeswoman Towe Hagg said."
They'll hold him in jail this week, but it's one of those nice Swedish jails. They're not as nice as a Comfort Inn, but they're upscale from a Motel 6. I hear the ghettofabulous Mr. Rose is glad he didn't get arrested in Corpus Christi.
It seems our own Baron Bodissey is preying on Vanity Fair associate editor and house-twit James Wolcott's tiny little mind.
Twice now the Great White Hunter has ventured into deepest, darkest Blogspotland on the tracks of the wily little blogger. If Wolcott's not careful, people will begin to suspect erotomania -- especially if he continues to toss out indelicate phrases about exploring Baron's ass.
To be fair, Wolcott gets followed in return. He leaves quite a heavy trail for someone who looks so very light in his shoes.
Courtesy of YO and Clay Pelland, a new snippet of Duane Allman and Thom Doucette at the UNC Chapel Hill concert, May 1,1971.
Clay promises more to come.
I'm very sad to write that Rob, who wrote as "Acidman" on Gut Rumbles, has passed away suddenly. My condolences to his family.
Did Walking Eagle foul his nest once too often?:
The University of Colorado announced Monday that it will dismiss controversial professor Ward Churchill."Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado Boulder," CU Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano said Monday afternoon.
Churchill has 10 days to make a request to have the university president or chancellor forward the recommendation to the faculty senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure. A special panel will then conduct hearings on the matter and make a recommendation to the president on whether grounds for dismissal are supported.
Another committee found Churchill guilty of research misconduct and another panel recommended that he be fired because of "repeated and deliberate" infractions of scholarship rules.
Churchill had vowed to go on the warpath if fired, and has ten days to appeal the school's decision.
(Via Hot Air.)
Sometimes you've got to make your own fun. That's when a neighbor comes in handy:
A gruesome discovery for a local resident at the Arbors Apartments Friday night, when she found a decayed human finger in her mailbox. Now, police are investigating where the finger came from.It was a very mixed reaction from some of the neighbors. Some were literally laughing when they learned what was going on.
Bet they then went out for some Wendy's chili and sent the plastic cracker-wrappers flying with their laughter.
Times like those are pretty special.
UPDATE:
Looks like the finger was from an ex-boyfriend who just wanted to touch her one last time. Aww. Sweet, sweet psycho.
Another senseless bow and arrow death:
Authorities have arrested a Nash man in connection with the weekend death of a neighbor, who police say was shot with a bow and arrow.Nash police investigator Tommy Davlin said Jerry Don Parker, who was in his 50s, was hit in the right side of the chest with an arrow Saturday afternoon. Bowie County authorities arrested James Shope, 49, a short time later. The bow was not immediately recovered.
Shope was being held Sunday night in the Bi-State Justice Building Jail on a murder charge, authorities said.
Davlin said in a story in Sunday's online edition of the Texarkana Gazette that Shope's wife told authorities the men, who lived next door to each other, had been arguing all day.
You can walk right into a department store and buy one of these things, no questions asked. Unbelievable.
(Via Fark.)
Two deputies responding to a complaint about a noisy party almost got shot by an obnoxious party-goer -- another deputy.
Deputy Howard Howell's belligerence initially earned him a pepper spray to settle. Instead he settled on shooting the cop who sprayed him.
He's now suspended and charged with a list of offenses, including aggravated assault with a firearm on a public official.
He was also cited for loud music.
Someone's stuck a note in the fence. Let's see what it says:
*The AP gives a demonstration on the art of selective editing. Look and learn! (Via Liberal Larry.)
*Candy Universe must have better taste than me as I find this car rather appealing. If it were only a Mustang instead of a Mercedes, I could live out all my fantasies.
*Real streets, real street magic. The Mayor of Mitchieville's got it.
*In an experimental ad revenue scheme, everytime you click this link, Yoko Ono and Teresa Kerry fight each other over a dime.
*Don't get extinct like him! A wooly mammoth brings you a global warming PSA.
*Want people to fork over $68,750 in moving expenses so your belongings can get from Seattle to San Francisco? You need to investigate the lucrative field of campus administration.
*Homemade Frosty Paws. Add one of these for the dog that's got the green monkey on his back. (Via Mitchieville.)
*Rainbow Family peaceniks are throwing down on the Man, both with rocks and their mighty pen:
Also Tuesday, an incomplete special-use permit application was submitted to the Forest Service, Ritschard said. She said the application contained profanity where the applicant was supposed to write the location of the gathering.
*Baron Bodissey has solved the riddle of the lost continent of Atlantis.
And
*The Fat Guy hits the bigs as one of the Real Men of Genius. Now when you hear "Mr. Way Too Proud of Texas Guy," you'll know who it's about.
(Pic via Deviant Art.)
How big a joke has Newsweek become? Enough to have taken stock of our nation and named Brad Pitt as one of the 15 People Who Make America Great. The journalism school dropout is lauded for reading about African trade issues. If only the rest of us were literate and could do that.
Speaking of lists and issues, here's another list with his name attached: The 100 Unsexiest Men In The World, due to hygiene and body odor issues.
The St. Pete Times takes a look at gubernatorial candidate Rod Smith and his decision not to prosecute in a famous 1999 rape case:
A rowdy group of university men hire a pair of strippers for a booze-fueled party. Hours later, one of the strippers turns up outside a fraternity house half-dressed and distraught.“They raped me,” she says.
The college community is swept into a national controversy with tough questions about class, justice and reasonable doubt. Stark divisions open over whether to believe the woman, and whether an ambitious prosecutor responded fairly.
This isn’t another story about the Duke University lacrosse team. This case involved the Delta Chi fraternity at the University of Florida in 1999. The Gainesville prosecutor who drew picketers and second-guessing from all sides was Rod Smith, now a strong contender for governor.
The local chapter of NOW was incensed by Smith's failure to prosecute, and brought in the ACLU to investigate. In a hilarious turn of events, after viewing the reams of film of the heavily-videotaped incident, not only did the ACLU support Smith in his decision not to prosecute, but said that the accuser should be prosecuted for filing a false rape charge.
The case lives on in the film Raw Deal: A Question of Consent.
A 60-year-old mystery...solved!:
Sixty years ago this summer, something scary happened on the beach. A monster emerged from the Gulf of Mexico and wandered around in the dark.The Clearwater Monster didn’t hurt anyone, but left tracks, lots of them, discovered the next morning on the sand.
The tracks looked like nothing anyone had ever seen. They weren't the kind of tracks left by dinosaurs, but they were large, about 14 inches long and 11 inches wide. They featured a narrow heel and 3 long toes. The tracks were more birdlike than reptilian, though not entirely birdlike. They were a dispatch from an unknown world.
The news made the papers. The news made the radio. The monster was the talk of Clearwater. A few citizens stepped forward to announce they had seen something mysterious on the beach that night, something alien, and if you didn’t believe them, why, you could jump in a lake.
Faith of choice of the Miami terrorists, the Moorish Science Temple is the forerunner of the Nation of Islam. Its central tenant is the belief that all blacks were originally Muslim. Its founder, Noble Drew Ali, had as disciples Wallace Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, and Fard's successor in the NOI, Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad employed Malcolm X as the NOI's spokesman.
If the Miami terrorists are convicted, they will likely go to the Supermax, where they find another of their brethren awaiting them: big-boy terrorist Clement Rodney Hampton-el, also known as Dr. Rashid.
Luckily for them, Timothy McVeigh is the gold standard in homegrown terrorism. "Fools" taking oaths to al Qaeda doesn't impress local newspapers.
I wonder what the papers would have made of McVeigh if he'd been caught during the planning stage of the Oklahoma City bombing. This is the guy, after all, who thought the government had planted a microchip in his buttcheek under guise of giving him a gamma globulin shot. I think the media has already decided these men are harmless kooks entrapped in a sting.
(Via Sweetness & Light.)
UPDATE:
Some freckle-faced kooks stung.
If you're looking for someone who's both a coward and a weasel, look no further than Miami-Dade School Board member Robert Ingram. Not only did he fail to stand up for his convictions when he voted to ban the controversial book "Vamos a Cuba," citing fear of getting his car blown up, but he now refuses to acknowledge that the only group he could have possibly been referring to was Cuban exiles:
In the moments before voting to remove a controversial children's book from school libraries, Miami-Dade School Board member Robert Ingram complained of massive intimidation that left him feeling that his children and grandchildren could be in danger and that fellow board members ``might find a bomb under their automobiles.''
...
He justified the car-bomb comment by saying Miami is ''a violent town -- statistics show that,'' although the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms said there have been only a handful of car bombings in South Florida since the early 1990s.Ingram insisted he was not speaking about Cubans or the Cuban-American community, though many of his comments may have left that impression.
''Heck, no,'' he said Friday. ``I was not reducing my commentary to any ethnic group.''
Cuban exiles were the driving force behind the effort to remove Vamos a Cuba from the schools, saying the book's inaccuracies and omissions failed to give a true picture of life under Fidel Castro.
He doesn't vote his conscience. He doesn't stand behind his words. Too bad his votes help determine the future of the fourth largest school district in the country -- he's really not up to the job. Heck, no.
Al Gore: chicks dig him; guys want to be him.
His experience at a recent book signing has given Gore a glimpse into what life was like for his former boss:
Gray-haired women crawled headfirst under tables lined with books Friday in Green Hills, doing anything to get a glimpse of former Vice President Al Gore at his book signing.
But there was more than the heady whiff of estrogen replacement therapy in the air. Much like Iron John, Gore's drumsong message also resonates deep within the masculine psyche:
Nathan Miller said, "Global warming has actually been an issue that has scared me to death. Ever since I was five years old, I remember crying myself to sleep, thinking the earth would be flooded. And it's true, it's really true.
With the frenzied female groupies and his man's man appeal, Gore struggles to come to terms with his arch-Druid coolness. As he gazed out among the admiring throng, he smiled, shook his head, and paraphrased Cary Grant: "Even I wish I were Al Gore." Softly, he added, This Al Gore, I mean. Not the bitter, failed politician."
(Via Lucianne.)
Due to the recent comments problem, among other things, I'm having this blog moved over to a new server tonight in hopes of improving performance. The move should begin around 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
UPDATE:
All systems are go.
Just in time for Breast Ironing Awareness Month comes this article from Cameroon; a nation whose ways are different from ours, but just as valid:
A nationwide campaign is under way in Cameroon to discourage the widespread practice of "breast ironing".This involves pounding and massaging the developing breasts of young girls with hot objects to try to make them disappear.
Statistics show that 26% of Cameroonian girls at puberty undergo it, as many mothers believe it protects their daughters from the sexual advances of boys and men who think children are ripe for sex once their breasts begin to grow.
The most widely used instrument to flatten the breasts is a wooden pestle, used for pounding tubers in the kitchen. Heated bananas and coconut shells are also used.
Favorite Cameroonian expressions:
"Built like a brick basket of tubers," and "pounding tubers."
Sadly enough, this is done by mothers in an attempt to keep their girls in school.
(Via Greg Gutfeld.)
If you get a chance to see Hail, Hail, Rock N' Roll, do. It's quite good:
Twenty years ago, a camera crew and some of the world's biggest rock stars ventured to St. Louis to help Chuck Berry celebrate his 60th birthday.They were lucky to survive the experience.
The famously prickly "father of rock 'n' roll" shook down the filmmakers for a big bag of cash every day, almost started a prison riot, belittled his protege Keith Richards, hit on the female producer and then lost his voice for the climactic all-star concerts before a hometown crowd.
I'd love to come across the 1992 issue of Spy that detailed coprophiliac Chuck's fondness for a morning link. His quote of "I want my breakfast!" was my platoon's rallying cry for a month.
Nam Dinh, South of Hanoi, Vietnam
May 25th, 1954
This is the last photo taken by Robert Capa. With his next step, he set off a landmine.
Capa made his name for himself (In this case, literally: "the famous photographer Robert Capa" was his invention) with his photo of a Spanish Loyalist soldier at the moment of his death.
18 years later, he came within a single frame of capturing his own.
Many more fascinating photos can be found at Requiem, a multi-media presentation on the photographers killed in Indochina.
The Sears Tower never captured the imagination like the Empire State building, but it did catch the eye of some bad guys.
From the Sun-Sentinel's AP story:
Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the United States, a federal law enforcement official said.The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations. He spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt news conferences planned for Friday in Washington and Miami.
From the Herald:
Five of those arrested are U.S. residents, one is a resident alien and one is an illegal alien, the source told the Miami Herald on condition of anonymity.Citing an investigation before Thursday's raid, the source said the group talked about an attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building in Miami -- but that they had no ``overt explosives or other things.''
The group thought that they ''were doing (the attacks) in conjunction with al Qaeda'' but were really dealing with'' undercover law enforcement, the official said.
There's local video on the story here.
The FBI conducted several raids in Liberty City, including swarming a warehouse there. For those of you not from here, it's an area where people set their own buildings on fire when irritated.
Maybe it's the gentle ocean breeze that makes southeast Florida such a good place to hatch terroristic plots.
The Associated Press write-ups on the raid contain quite a bit of extraneous editorializing on behalf of terrorist Jose Padilla, as well as conflicting with the Herald in regards to al-Qaeda and other things. Being an American is just a little bit different from being a "U.S. resident."
We'll see how this develops.
UPDATE:
From CNN:
Law enforcement sources told CNN that some of the suspects are members of a radical African-American Muslim group and that at least one had taken "an al Qaeda oath." They had carried out surveillance on the Sears Tower and FBI building in Miami, the sources said.Sources told CNN that the arrests culminated a monthslong undercover operation. The suspects believed they were dealing with an al Qaeda operative, but the person was actually a government informant, the sources said.
.
If there's one teaching my mother tried to impart to me that actually sunk in my head, it's "Go with what affirms life." It's helped me do a lot of sorting the wheat from the chaff.
This is chaff, baby. Hopefully it's just an aberrational rant after a bad day.
More discussion here.
Good news on the eminent domain front. After spending two years fighting the city of Hollywood's attempt to strip them of their family business and give it to a developer, the Mach family has prevailed:
The city can't take a family's downtown property and give it to a private developer, a judge ruled Thursday, ending a two-year legal battle and potentially jeopardizing a $100 million condominium complex.Broward Circuit Court Judge Ronald J. Rothschild's ruling in favor of the Mach family, which has owned a building on Harrison Street for decades, came as a blow to Mayor Mara Giulianti, who pushed the eminent domain battle over strong protest from residents. It also means that developer Charles "Chip'' Abele will have to alter plans for a 19-story condo and retail complex.
"This just shows that a lot of people unified can stand up to a bully, to a government that they don't think is doing the right thing,'' said David Mach, whose late father bought the building after immigrating from Hungary and died during the negotiation process with the city.
Mach said he and his mother have no intention of selling to Abele or anybody else.
In response to the infamous Supreme Court ruling, the state of Florida enacted a law outlawing the use of eminent domain for a third party's benefit. The law didn't apply to cases, such as the Mach's, that had already moven forward in the courts.
The Hollywood commission did a great impersonation of a robber baron. Had there been a river to dam up to drive the Machs out, I'm sure they'd have done it.
The Economist has an interesting take on the subject of 'Eurabia', with good and bad news.
The teriyaki chicken the Loretta family was having smelled so good, this South Carolina gator had to come ask if he could have a bite. At least he wasn't asking for a cocker spaniel.
From INDC Bill:
"There is a world of difference between reporting violence and using any given incident as an equivalent, contradictory element in stories that show progress in the war."
When reading a newspaper article on positive developments in Iraq, I know I will find bad news tacked on. I have no expectations for the reverse.
There's a good discussion here on the mutually beneficial relationship between the news media and terrorists.
The news media is the accelerant that begs to be used by the arsonist; the aerosol eager to be on the scene for the weaponizing of a virus. Since October 1993 I have seen them show all the moral restraint of a crackhead hunting up a rock.
The Florida Department of Corrections put a ringer on the softball team, but it looks like some Federal guards have one-upped them:
A federal agent and a prison guard were shot dead and another worker was injured in a gunfight during an arrest attempt at a federal detention center in north Florida on Wednesday, the FBI said.Federal agents were trying to arrest six prison guards on corruption charges, including charges that some gave prisoners alcohol and other contraband in exchange for sex and money, an investigator said.
One of the guards targeted for arrest opened fire and was shot dead, FBI spokesman Jeff Westcott said. An agent from the U.S.Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General was also killed, he said.
I have no trouble second-guessing them on this one: they should have arrested the guards separately and away from work. Losing an agent is a hard way to learn a lesson about finesse versus frontal assault.
Law enforcement isn't the only field where you have to cope with volatile situations and potentially dangerous people -- just ask a teacher, for one.
UPDATE:
"These agents were out just trying to do their job, trying to do an arrest in a very controlled situation, and it just didn't come down exactly as planned," FBI agent Michael Folmar said
Not so very controlled, I'd say. An investigation is underway.
It's so sad seeing a mother send her son off to war...
Good thing for his mom that this Cape Coral soldier was returning home for good.
A salute and a fresh box of Kleenex to Army Combat Medic Greg Kurbatoff's mom Diane, for making me laugh and cry at the same time.
"She had been dismissed. She didn't appreciate it. And her revenge was four to the head":
A 79-year-old grandmother who used a cane to walk to her seat in the courtroom Tuesday was painted by prosecutors as so consumed by a jealous rage last year that she shot her ex-boyfriend four times in the head.Lena Sims Driskell, wearing brown curls and costume jewelry in court, is charged with murdering her former beau, 85-year-old Herman Winslow, because their yearlong romance had ended and he had found another companion.
She used an antique pistol, as did Mr. Winslow.
Though when captured, she proclaimed "I did it and I'd do it again," the ladykiller-killing lady killer isn't willing to hold her head up proudly and march off to prison: her lawyer claims trying her is unconstitutional, as there's no jury whose members are old enough to be her peers.
Noting an explosion in robots designed for home usage and the prediction that their role will expand, roboticists are concerned about the safety implications for humans. I would probably concur with them, that the time to think of robot safety is now, were it not for my having my heart set on one day reading in the paper about a good sex-robot mangling.
Here's Duane in Piedmont Park perhaps, playing some tunes and having a puff.
Wail on, Skydog!
Comments are working again. Feel free to leave one expressing your undying love for me.
Thank heaven for the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Historically it has featured the baddest of America's bad-asses. Names like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd still echo through the hallowed halls of thuggery. You took your time studying the faces plastered on the post office wall because you knew those were the faces of men who were so bad, J. Edgar Hoover desired to personally crush out a cigar on the forehead of each and every one of them.
This makes the tale of Jesse Caron and the junior G-men at America's Most Wanted all the more laughable. That someone as low on the criminal totem pole as Caron was even featured on the show is sad; the way he was captured is simply pathetic. No betrayal by the Lady in Red at the Biograph Theater for him; instead we have a hands-on handicapped lady -- a lady who has him forever branded a weenie in prison exercise yards across the nation:
A man profiled on the TV program America's Most Wanted was arrested after he allegedly snatched a woman's purse and she chased him down, authorities said.Redlands police on Monday arrested Jesse Anthony Caron, 28, of Lewiston, Maine, for investigation of theft and discovered he had warrants in several eastern states for burglary, assault, auto theft and weapons charges.
Carl Baker, a police spokesman in Redlands, about 95 kilometres east of Los Angeles, said Caron allegedly grabbed Katherine Bolter's purse outside an Office Depot store Monday morning.
Bolter, 51, said she kicked off her shoes and chased after him. Two carpenters working nearby joined the pursuit and helped surround him, she said.
One of the carpenters tackled him, and Bolter held on to his belt until police arrived, she said.
"The officers were telling me, 'You can let go of him, ma'am. You can let go of him now,' " Bolter said.
That a young, healthy, experienced criminal could not even successfully make it as a bottomfeeding caser of handicapped parking zones is pitiable. Shall we be forced to rely on the illegal immigration of gangs like Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 to maintain our stock of truly hardened criminals? That he was splashed across our TV screens as a menace tells me it's time to either put America's Most Wanted to bed, or to send Katherine Bolter on the trail of bigger game.
Lone Sago mine survivor Randal McCloy, recently in Washington for the President's signing of new mining legislation, continues to show why he's got all the right stuff:
Though a man of few words, McCloy often speaks in a thoughtful, eloquent manner, [spokeswoman Aly Goodwin] Gregg said.Once, someone asked if he thought his wife looked beautiful.
Gregg recalled him saying, "Actually, she looks quite stunning."
Even with brain damage he knows how it's done. No excuses for the rest of you lot.
Six Meat Buffet posts a link to an outstanding photo-essay on the worker's paradise of North Korea. If you hate paying for laundry, North Korea is the place to go. No big electric bill for washing whites in hot, no using up your change down at the laundromat; just slap those babies in the river and scrub.
Scroll down the whole page, as people have inserted comments right in the middle of those great pics.
I traveled far and near, treking across all the continents, even going so far as stopping by Arecibo to listen into space; all in my quest to bring you the world's most ungrateful and low-class person. Get ready to celebrate with me because I've found her. It's Mary Travers, who after receiving a required bone marrow transplant for leukemia, insulted the person whose generosity made her survival possible:
"I had to have a bone marrow transplant. It's been a terrible year," she told me. "I just learned the donor's name is also Mary. She has two daughters. I have two daughters. See, just in case something goes wrong, you must wait a year before you can communicate with them.
...Mary laughed and added: "The problem was, I'm a lifelong Democrat. I was terrified that if she's a Republican, I could go into the voting booth and, like Dr. Strangelove, my whole brain could change around. When we finally spoke I asked her about this. There was a pause then she said, 'But I am a Republican.' So I said, 'Well, hell, I guess it's about time the Republicans did something nice for me.' "
I bet the donor got a good chuckle out of that, and as everyone knows, having a good laugh from a shot taken at you is much better than receiving a thank you from a person grateful for your life-saving kindness. It made the surgical procedure where, under anesthesia, the doctors used special, hollow needles to withdraw the liquid marrow from the back of her pelvic bones all worthwhile.
The millennial generation is so high-tech they even come equipped with personal helicopters:
Parents of University of Florida students log on to their children's personal Gator-Link accounts to check grades, then call deans when they don't like what they see.University of Central Florida parents call administrators to complain when their kids can't get into classes they want.
At Florida State University, parents of graduating seniors haggle with job recruiters. They want to make sure Junior gets a good salary and work schedule.
University administrators have a name for these baby boomer moms and dads who hover over their offspring's college lives.
"Helicopter parents," says Patrick Heaton, FSU's assistant dean of student affairs.
Though experts say that being your children's pal instead of being your children's parent cripples them, who among us hasn't felt disgust at the cruelty of so-called "mother" birds who push their offspring out of the nest to fly or die on their own? Despite Jeanna Mastrodicasa, associate dean of the UF honors college's, saying that "Our students are graduating, but they are not ready to go into the real world," we know that's not true. They have really good self-esteem and best-buddies to move right back in with after graduation.
We're experiencing a commenting problem. I've opened a ticket, so we'll see how it goes.
UPDATE:
The silver lining to this issue, of course, is that it's almost like shoving a tennis ball in INDC Bill's mouth and securing it with a couple of rolls of 100-mile-an-hour tape.
Why report news when you can editorialize?
For the past 42 years, Giuseppe Eterno has walked a straight line down the middle of a suburban life. He bought a house in Davie, grew mangos and avocados, married and divorced, took his kids bowling on weekends, and bred parrots in the backyard.It wasn't until the Italian brick mason applied for citizenship in 2002 that immigration authorities dug up the details of a drunken brawl almost half a century ago, when Eterno fatally stabbed a man with a letter opener. Instead of an invitation to a naturalization ceremony, he was summoned to a deportation hearing.
He must have forgotten to tell the judge he grew mangos, the universally-recognized sign of good character.
The article goes on to state that this is a Bush administration crackdown, and bemoans that plight of Mr. Eterno for a "long-forgotten crime." That the crime is probably not forgotten by the victim's family is not mentioned, as the reporter, the Sun Sentinel's Ruth Morris, doesn't seem to have bothered to contact them for their reaction. In fact, in this article the murder victim doesn't even rate a name.
But learning about Mr. Eterno's love of growing tropical fruit probably offsets those oversights.
An investment in medical training for young Belle paid off for an Ocoee man when he went into a diabetic seizure:
Belle Weaver is flying into the nation's capital Monday to receive an award for saving a family member's life. Before she leaves town, she'll meet with her congressman, accept a certificate and bow her head to receive a medal.Stories such as hers, of heroism and quick thinking, are always inspiring. But this one has a twist, and not just because Belle is 3 years old.
You see, Belle Weaver is a beagle. She used her owner's cellphone to call 911.
Kevin Weaver had her trained to lick his nose to check his ketone levels -- and to dial 911 in an emergency. Without her intervention, he would have slipped into a coma and died; or worse, not died. As dogs' role as man's right hand guy continues to expand, it will interesting to see in what other areas they'll be able to lend their assistance.
These are the videos for songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 for 1985. You'll see Whitney Houston when she was just a baby crackhead, Paul McCartney continuing to make people wonder whether the wrong Beatle got whacked, Sheena Easton working on her new career as a whore, Prince becoming pretentious, and Tina Turner kicking everybody to the curb. Also: way, way too much Wham.
Wham - "Careless Whisper"
Madonna - "Like a Virgin"
Wham - "Wake Me Up"
Foreigner - "I Want to Know What Love Is"
Chaka Khan - "I Feel for You"
Hall & Oates - "Out of Touch"
Tears for Fears - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
Dire Straits - "Money for Nothing"
Madonna - "Crazy for You"
A-Ha - "Take on Me"
Paul Young - "Everytime You Go Away"
Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - "Easy Lover"
REO Speedwagon - "Can't Fight This Feeling"
Starship - "We Built This City"
Huey Lewis & the News - "Power of Love"
Simple Minds - "Don't You Forget about Me"
Kool & the Gang - "Cherish"
John Parr - "St. Elmo's Fire"
Glenn Frey - "The Heat Is On"
USA for Africa - "We Are the World"
Tears for Fears - "Shout"
Stevie Wonder - "Part-Time Lover"
Whitney Houston - "Saving All My Love"
Bryan Adams - "Heaven"
George Michael - "Everything She Wants"
New Edition - "Cool It Now"
Jan Hammer - "Theme from Miami Vice"
Billy Ocean - "Loverboy"
Teena Marie - "Lovergirl"
Glenn Frey - "You Belong to the City"
Ready for the World - "Oh Sheila"
Debarge - "Rhythm of the Night"
Phil Collins - "One More Night"
Honeydrippers - "Sea of Love"
Duran Duran - "View to a Kill"
Duran Duran - "Wild Boys"
Chicago - "You're the Inspiration"
Pointer Sisters - "Neutron Dance"
Pat Benatar - "We Belong"
Commodores - "Nightshift"
Howard Jones - "Things Can Only Get Better"
Aretha Franklin - "Freeway of Love"
Corey Hart - "Never Surrender"
Phil Collins - "Sussudio"
Sheena Easton - "Strut"
Whitney Houston - "You Give Good Love"
Diana Ross - "Missing You"
Prince - "Raspberry Beret"
Billy Ocean - "Suddenly"
Don Henley - "Boys of Summer"
Murray Head - "One Night in Bangkok"
Sting - "If You Love Somebody"
Animotion - "Obsession"
Tina Turner - "We Don't Need Another Hero"
Madonna - "Material Girl"
Tina Turner - "Better Be Good to Me"
Tears for Fears - "Head over Heels"
Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F"
Sade - "Smooth Operator"
Mary Jane Girls - "In My House"
Phil Collins - "Don't Lose My Number"
Cyndi Lauper - "All Through the Night"
Bryan Adams - "Run to You"
Bruce Springsteen - "Glory Days"
Til Tuesday - "Voices Carry"
Eurythmics - "Would I Lie to You"
ABC - "Be Near Me"
Paul McCartney - "No More Lonely Nights"
Survivor - "I Can't Hold Back"
Bryan Adams - "Summer of '69"
Katrina & the Waves - "Walking on Sunshine"
Wham - "Freedom"
Julian Lennon - "Too Late for Goodbyes"
Julian Lennon - "Valotte"
Power Station - "Some Like It Hot"
Ashford & Simpson - "Solid"
Madonna - "Angel"
Bruce Springsteen - "I'm on Fire"
Hall & Oates - "Method of Modern Love"
Thompson Twins - "Lay Your Hands"
John Mellencamp - "Lonely Ol' Night"
Heart - "What about Love"
David Lee Roth - "California Girls"
Kool & the Gang - "Fresh"
The Time - "Jungle Love"
Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the USA"
Tina Turner - "Private Dancer"
Aretha Franklin - "Who's Zoomin' Who"
Sting - "Fortress around Your Heart"
Lionel Richie - "Penny Lover"
Don Henley - "All She Wants to Do Is Dance"
Madonna - "Dress You Up"
Night Ranger - "Sentimental Street"
Sheena Easton - "Sugar Walls"
Also that year:
A-ha - "Hunting High And Low"
Lone Justice - "Ways To Be Wicked"
Lone Justice - "Sweet Sweet Baby (I'm Falling)"
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - "Don't Come around Here No More"
***
See also:
Videos: Billboard 1988
Videos: Billboard 1987
Videos: Billboard 1986
Videos: Billboard 1984
Videos: Billboard 1983
Videos: Billboard 1982
Videos: Billboard 1981
Videos: Billboard 1980
Mr. Bingley has returned from his pilgrimage to Geno's Steaks, much in the news of late as the last bastion of the English language. The visit proved both illuminating and tasty; and you'll not want to miss his excellent presentation.
New Orleans is regaining some of its old flair! It may have been down, but it was never out:
Five people ranging in age from 16 to 19 were killed in a street shooting early Saturday, the most violent crime reported in this slowly repopulating city since Hurricane Katrina hit last August.All were believed to have been gunned down while inside a sport utility vehicle that was found rammed against a utility pole in the Central City neighborhood just outside the central business district.
Authorities said they were looking for one or more suspects but did not elaborate.
Capt. John Bryson said police think the shootings were either drug-related or some type of retaliation attack.
So why were the teens killed? A hint might be found in Captain Bryson's studied response:
"I think the motivation we're looking at is pretty obvious," he said. "Somebody wanted them dead."
Eye of the tiger, New Orleans! We know you can rise from your soggy ashes to be the storied murder capital of America you once were.
Yesterday when I took the dogs for a romp at the football field, a man pulled up and started doing what he's not allowed to do: hit golf balls. He had now effectively rendered the field unusable to other people. I got on the other side of the field from him and did what I'm not allowed to do: let the dogs loose. Our scofflawing detente was broken less than five minutes later. We were behind a conex on the edge of the field when the cheapskate golfer went to retrieve his meager supply of hit golf balls. I was watching Shiloh, and suddenly noticed Lilly was gone. I came around the side of the conex to see an odd sight: a man with a golf club was running across the soft, green grass of the field with a three-legged, partially-paralyzed German shepherd scuttling after him in hot pursuit. For some strange reason, he was running with legs splayed out and both arms waving straight up in the air; one holding his golf club. He looked like an animated pair of scissors. His gait was so bizarre, I had to ponder it for a few moments. Of the two, he was running in an even more unusual fashion than the crippled dog. From a human locomation aspect, it was intriguing.
I called Lilly back. Later when we left, we went right by him without his saying a word. He knew he was being bad and was probably content not to have a piece of buttock missing for his misdeed. And I was content he hadn't whacked my dog in the skull with a golf club.
South Mississippians, hit the hardest by Katrina but overlooked due to the media's obsession with New Orleans, continue to work to rebuild their communities. The Mennonites are in Pass Christian doing what Mennonites do best: building. The Pass Christian Rotary is providing all their supplies for this, so if you'd like to donate to a noble cause, here's your chance.
I wish our house had been built by Mennonites. My roof is a constant source of heartbreak.
I thought to avoid the whole Ann Coulter flap, but the story appears to have legs: really skinny ones in stilettos.
There's an interesting discussion on it over at INDC Journal, if you'd like to chime in.
Personally, I'd have said worse about the Jersey Girls, and already have. The families of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing never stuck their asses out there for us to kiss like these women have.
But Ann Coulter has a law degree and is supposed to employ biting, intelligent wit to make her point and instead used crude schoolyard taunts -- just as she's done in all her previous books.
One sad little point for the conservatives who are condemning her: I hope you're doing it from an inner sense of virtue without any expectation of appreciation from the left, because it will not be forthcoming. But I'm all about taking the high road, aren't I? Meanwhile, I notice all too many of you continuing to post links to a far more egregious offender than Ann Coulter. That would be the poor man's Ann Coulter, the Hustler to Ann's Playboy. I'm referring of course to that big split-beaver shot which is Debbie Schlussel. She's Ann Coulter if Ann were a venomous halfwit coward with a penchant for threatening to sue bloggers who criticize her and an inability to admit her excreta does indeed have an odor.
Too bad this contention has emerged during one of the few instances where I actually agree with Coulter: I can't stand professional widows who try to manipulate public sympathy for personal gain, be it for money or power; and that is exactly what the Jersey Girls have done.
I hope Paul McKenna, the cop Cynthia McKinney struck, sues her in civil court:
A grand jury has declined to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney in a March incident in which she admitted hitting a police officer who tried to stop her from entering a House office building.
If you or I had gotten cute with an officer we'd be in jail.
Plans by HUD to build mixed-income housing was met by squeals of rage from the Chocolate City race industry:
Public housing residents and community activists reacted angrily Thursday to the federal government’s three-year plan to bulldoze four public housing complexes in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and replace them with mixed-income developments.Activist Mike Howells, a member of United Front for Affordable Housing, said the plan unveiled by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials Wednesday effectively “cuts the throats” of several thousand displaced public housing residents desperate to return to the city.
“That’s tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” he said during the public comment portion of a meeting of the New Orleans City Council’s Housing & Human Needs Committee.
Throat-cutting and ethnic cleansing. Apparently he dropped one of his cue cards. That's the only reason I can come up with for his forgetting to employ the word "lynching."
You say your area's public housing is managed locally? That usually is the case, but this is New Orleans we're talking about: no way could they refrain from nibbling the cookie dough. The Feds had to take it over several years ago.
(Via Lucianne.)
It's a hard thing watching a young bear's dog food habit spiral out of control. The life of crime has begun for one Tennessean, and he's hit the same house twice in as many weeks. An intervention was performed, but "He wasn't listening." The only thing to do now is wait until he bottoms out -- if he doesn't get blown away during one of his robberies.
Sometime's videos just don't go on long enough. There's a nice lesson for the pickers in this 1978 Dire Straits promo.
As opposed to this actual lesson site, where I'm having a hard time getting a correlation between what the guy says he's playing and what I actually hear.
21 years ago today a young sailor showed his true colors and bravely faced death. He was the best of us, and I'm sorry that the terrorists who murdered him have been made to pay so little for their actions.
Like the flick Better Off Dead? Not as much as this guy. He went on a quest to find and restore Lane's Camaro.
He'd have the coolest car in town, but for that Pig Burger hat sitting in the back seat.
A guy is thoughtful enough to bring in doughnuts for former co-workers, and this is the thanks he gets:
[Joseph] Amburgey...went to the back door of the business, entered, placed a box of donuts on the table and left.He was later arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.
Sure, transfats are bad for you, but as this example shows, the food police have gotten completely out of hand.
Brainiac Stephen Hawking can't quite wrap his mind around some subjects:
The 64-year-old also said his unfulfilled ambitions, among many, were to find out what happens inside black holes, how the universe began and how the human race can survive in the next 100 years.Above all, he joked, he wants to understand women.
He's probably not joking. The shriveled little seahorse is still puzzling over why his heretofore devoted wife shoved him into a flowerbed and left him stranded there after he told her he was divorcing her for the nurse.
"What was that all about?" he wonders.
Why illegal aliens shouldn't torment snakes:
The events leading to Hernandez-Hernandez's death began Saturday evening in the woods behind Buffalo Chips restaurant west of Old U.S. 41 near the railroad tracks in Bonita Springs, deputies said.Hernandez-Hernandez and his friends were drinking beer and found a snake, a case report said.
Friend Daniel Gonzalez said he struck the snake several times with a tree branch.
Hernandez-Hernandez did likewise and was bitten when he tried to move the snake with his hands.
Hernandez-Hernandez then stomped the snake with his boots and cut it with a broken beer bottle.
Another friend, Jesus Moreida, was bitten while putting the snake into a plastic jug.
Moreida went to Bonita Springs Fire Station 1, where a firefighter identified the reptile as a coral snake. Moreida was taken to North Collier Hospital.
Hospital officials said they had no record of a person by that name being treated there or its affiliate, Naples Community Hospital, or at Lee Memorial Hospital.
Back at the camp, Hernandez-Hernandez collapsed a short time after he was bitten, Gonzalez said. Gonzalez went for help.
Medics pronounced Hernandez-Hernandez dead at the scene."The person who was with him told us he didn't last more than 15 minutes before he fell and started foaming at the mouth," said Noel Bautista, who lives in the woods.
Hernandez-Hernandez "was a hard worker and he liked his beer, but he was easygoing," Bautista said.
Friends identified the victim as Fernando Hernandez, but relatives Tuesday gave his real name to medical examiners.
Although a coral snake's poison is extremely lethal, deaths are rare because of anti-venom like that produced by his laboratory, Barden said.
The anti-venom was developed in 1967, said Dr. Robert Norris, chief of emergency medicine at Stanford University and a snake poison expert.
Since the anti-venom was developed, no deaths have been reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, he said.
The last mention of a coral snake bite death he could find in medical literature was in 1963 in Florida, Norris said.
"The reason this guy had a bad outcome is that he didn't seek treatment," Norris said.
When I was a kid, I was taught that coral snakes only kill drunks. It's interesting that the first fatality in 40 years proves that point. Coral snakes don't have fangs; they actually have to saw on you to release their venom. It takes bad judgement and extremely slow reaction time to get poisoned by one.
She's going to have to marry him now -- it's too good a story for the grandkids:
In an attempt to prove to her girlfriend that one should take risks in life, a man ran naked and was shot at with a .40-caliber handgun.The couple was discussing marriage early Wednesday when the woman said she wasn't sure if she was ready.
The man responded that taking risks is an important part of life and, to prove his point, jumped out of a first-floor window and ran naked across the street, Arbor police Detective Sgt. Jim Stephenson is quoted by the Associated Press as saying
Before he could return, he spotted a couple walking and hid in some bushes to avoid them but the man noticed the bushes rustling and bare feet underneath and ordered the naked man out.
But the naked man ran and got shot at with a .40-caliber handgun.
He suffered minor injuries and was not arrested. He did not want to press charges.
(Via Baron in e-mail.)
At the halfway mark through the decade, here's the list of videos representing the top songs of 1984, plus some others that were aired frequently on MTV. According to Orwell, 1984 was going to be a year when bad things were happening. He was right -- just look at The Romantics' pompadours.
Prince - "When Doves Cry"
Tina Turner - "What's Love Got To Do With It"
Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - "Say Say Say"
Kenny Loggins - "Footloose"
Phil Collins - "Against All Odds"
Van Halen - "Jump"
Lionel Richie - "Hello"
Yes - "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
Ray Parker - "Ghostbusters"
Culture Club - "Karma Chameleon"
John Waite - "Missing You"
Lionel Richie - "All Night Long"
Deniece Williams - "Let's Hear It for the Boy"
Bruce Springsteen - "Dancing in the Dark"
Cyndi Lauper - "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
Duran Duran - "The Reflex"
Cyndi Lauper - "Time after Time"
Pointer Sisters - "Jump"
The Romantics - "Talking in Your Sleep"
Laura Branigan - "Self Control"
Hall & Oates - "Say It Isn't So"
Thompson Twins - "Hold Me Now"
Kool & the Gang - "Joanna"
Stevie Wonder - "I Just Called to Say I Love You"
Rockwell - "Somebody's Watching Me"
Matthew Wilder - "Break My Stride"
Nena - "99 Luftballons"
Dan Hartman - "I Can Dream about You"
Sheila E - "The Glamorous Life"
Steve Perry - "Oh, Sherrie"
Elton John - "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues"
Cyndi Lauper - "She Bop"
Madonna - "Borderline"
Corey Hart - "Sunglasses at Night"
Billy Idol - "Eyes without a Face"
Eurythmics - "Here Comes the Rain Again"
Billy Joel - "Uptown Girl"
Night Ranger - "Sister Christian"
The Cars - "Drive"
Olivia Newton-John - "Twist of Fate"
Duran Duran - "Union of the Snake"
Huey Lewis & the News - "Heart of Rock & Roll"
Chicago - "Hard Habit to Break"
Scandal - "The Warrior"
Shannon - "Let the Music Play"
Billy Ocean - "Caribbean Queen"
Genesis - "That's All"
Lionel Richie - "Running with the Night"
Elton John - "Sad Songs"
Huey Lewis & the News - "I Want a New Drug"
Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - "Islands in the Stream"
Pat Benatar - "Love Is a Battlefield"
ZZ Top - "Legs"
Rick Springfield - "Love Somebody"
Culture Club - "Miss Me Blind"
Huey Lewis & the News - "If This Is It"
The Cars - "You Might Think"
Madonna - "Lucky Star"
Quiet Riot - "Come on Feel the Noize"
Hall & Oates - "Adult Education"
Bananarama - "Cruel Summer"
Wang Chung - "Dance Hall Days"
K.C. & the Sunshine Band - "Give It Up"
Pointer Sisters - "I'm So Excited"
Michael Jackson - "Thriller"
Madonna - "Holiday"
Ollie & Jerry - "Breakin'"
John Lennon - "Nobody Told Me"
Culture Club - "Church of the Poison Mind"
Debarge - "Time Will Tell"
The Police - "Wrapped around Your Finger"
John Mellencamp - "Little Pink Houses"
Ratt - "Round & Round"
Go-Go's - "Head over Heels"
Billy Joel - "For the Longest Time"
Kool & the Gang - "Tonight"
Christine McVie - "Got a Hold on Me"
Duran Duran - "New Moon on Monday"
Peter Schilling - "Major Tom (Coming Home)"
The Cars - "Magic"
Night Ranger - "When You Close Your Eyes"
Billy Squier - "Rock Me Tonite"
Also that year:
Nena - "99 Luftballons" (First version)
Dan Hartman - "I Can Dream about You" (Alternate version)
Teena Marie - "Lovergirl"
***
See also:
Videos: Billboard 1988
Videos: Billboard 1987
Videos: Billboard 1986
Videos: Billboard 1985
Videos: Billboard 1983
Videos: Billboard 1982
Videos: Billboard 1981
Videos: Billboard 1980
For the first time online, here is the puzzle used by NASA as the final hiring test for high energy physicists.
Not really, but it did make my head hurt; so I quit. It has a Rube Goldberg construction, which makes it complex; as opposed to a Jonah Goldberg construction, which would just make it geeky and Star Trek themed.
Florida veterans worried about theft after the VA fiasco have another tool to help them come July 1. The Sun-Sentinel has an informative article on the state's new credit freeze law and how it, combined with a preliminary fraud alert report and having your name removed from pre-approved credit card lists (888-567-8688), can help limit potential damage. It's harder than just making a phone call -- you have to send certified letters -- but it's something you can do to protect yourself.
21 other states also have a credit freeze law, so veterans outside of Florida should check to see if it's something they too can take advantage of.
