Cynthia McKinney's not getting any respect from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Maybe it's the new hair-do. In fact, she disliked this Cynthia Tucker column so much, she's suing the paper for libel. Included in the list of alleged calumnies is a Tucker accusation concerning McKinney and our regional beverage:
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is suing an Atlanta newspaper for libel, after printing comments stemming from her run-in with police at the Capitol building.J.M. Raffauf, her attorney, has filed charges against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, editor Cynthia Tucker, and its publisher John Mellott following an article the paper ran on Sunday, July 30, 2006.
According to Raffauf, Tucker's editorial column "was untrue, defamatory and libelous" when it read "'she (the Congresswoman) slugged him (the officer) with her cell phone.' This false allegation is not supported by any witness or any other evidence. Additionally, Tucker is maliciously attempting to spin this into a felony by falsely alleging that she assaulted the officer with a deadly weapon."
The suit alleges that other misstatements were made, including the statement that Congresswoman McKinney "suggested that President Bush had known in advance about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing to stop them so his friends could profit from the ensuing war," and "She doesn't have the power or prestige to pass a resolution in support of sweetened ice tea."
The perfect gift for Cynthia McKinney this year might be a box of Luzianne.
BONUS: Need a new screensaver? Once the image appears, give it a click. You're welcome!
Here's a little reward for all of you being so good: a 1973 performance of a woman reflecting back on her hometown in Tennessee. It's Tina Turner and the town was Nutbush.
Since I've been a little bit of comment fairy on this story, I'll go ahead and post on it.
If Mel Gibson's choice of words during an alcoholic tirade is supposed to push my buttons, it doesn't. A schizophrenic off his medication acts crazy; an alcoholic on booze does the same. It doesn't have anything to do with who they are, it's the disease in the driver's seat at that moment.
In some quirk of demographics, a lot of you here seem to have up-close experience with the alcoholic mind. About how many episodes of crazed rantings have you seen? One, five, or too many to count?
Great video celebrating the release of Chris Anderson's book "The Long Tail."
The Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald have decidely different coverage of the Lebanon demonstration held yesterday at Bay Front in Miami. So what happened at the rally? Was it really a distant cry for peace or something less benign?
But the rally talk quickly moved beyond Lebanon. Speakers touched on the plight of the Palestinians and Iraqis, condemned Israel and criticized America's role in the Middle East.Joe Badran, a Deerfield Beach resident and vice president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in South Florida, said those matters are too intertwined to separate.
"This community is hurting because our family and loved ones are being murdered almost daily with U.S. arms," he said.
As the rally wore on, passions flared. Antiwar speakers decried the United States as a modern-day colonizer. Others criticized Israel as an oppressive force.
"I am Jewish and proud of it," said Paul Lefrak, a founding member of the Broward Anti-War Coalition, but "a people who have been historically oppressed are now oppressing others."
A few at the rally said they want to dissolve Israel permanently.
"That's always one of the themes of these rallies," Badran said. "If this was a just world, that would happen."
Badran was one of the more passionate at the rally. Speaking personally and not on behalf of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, he condemned the killing of civilians by Israelis, but not Palestinian and Lebanese groups considered terrorists by the U.S. government.
"Hamas and Hezbollah are committing acts of defense against the acts of the Israelis," Badran said. "The only weapons that we have are to strap bombs on our bodies and do whatever damage and destruction we can."
It's going to be hard for the ADC to combat negative stereotyping of Arab-Americans when it has as an officer the embodiment of the stereotype.
You'll just have to try to remember that this guy's a "peace activist."
(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice)
What to do when you need photos to illustrate police ignoring prostitution? Time to break out the Photoshop:
"A striking, five-column color photo was splashed across the Sunday, June 25 edition of El Nuevo Herald. It showed four spandex-clad prostitutes in Cuba hailing a foreign tourist. Just a few feet away, two policemen conversed with a little girl and a woman. The headline: "Hookers: The Sad Meat of the American Dollar."The cops obviously didn't care about the working girls — a clear sign of the hypocritically wanton ways of Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Problem is, the picture was a fake."
El Nuevo Herald, whose sister paper is the Miami Herald, has issued an explanation but no apology for the merging of the two unattributed photos into the one fab Photoshop that was so perfect for the article.
Why the Chinese shouldn't sing "China Grove" (or the Japanese, in this case).
The band's kicking out the jams, though.
Bowing to requests that I not post any more Eddie Van Halen photos, I bring you a charming photo of Eddie and Alex as young children.
Not too much of a surprise: Cindy Sheehan lied to buy land in Crawford.
Having a proxy present himself as a Katrina victim in order to effect the sale isn't far off the truth, really. Cindy was a victim of both Katrina and Rita's headline-stealing ways.
Oh, she's a clever minx.
Should a diplomat be using a word like "outrageous"? It's a bit undiplomatic:
The suggestion that the Rome conference on the Middle East gave Israel the green light to pursue its offensive in Lebanon is 'outrageous,' a senior State Department official said.'Any such statement is outrageous' said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli when asked about reports quoting Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon as saying the Rome meeting earlier this week gave Israel approval.
'The United States is sparing no efforts to bring a durable and lasting end to this conflict,' he told reporters.
It looks like wedge-driving time.
It's interesting that no matter how much criticism our government gets internationally, if we're perceived as disagreeing on something with Israel, we get to wear the white hat again. 'Cause Israel's just that bad.
In the Bahamas, what's stuck to the bottom of a pot of peas and rice is called "potcake." It's also what they call stray dogs. The folks at the Palm Beach Humane Society think this little batch of imported potcakes is delicious, and it looks like the feeling's mutual.
Warning leaflets are fine, but you've got to keep up with technology:
It was a phone call Ibrahim Mahmoud says he'll never forget.The woman on the other end, speaking in Hebrew-accented Arabic, accused the appliance store owner of being a member of Hamas and informed him the IDF would bomb his house. Hours later, after he had already moved 20 relatives out of the four-story building, she called back to tell him she had made a mistake.
"Be safe," she said and hung up, according to Mahmoud.
Dozens of other Palestinians have recently received similar phone calls, many of them on target, in a new tactic the army said is meant to reduce civilian casualties in its monthlong offensive in Gaza. Palestinian officials dismissed the army's claim that the phone calls are meant to reduce deaths.
Some folks like their reduction of civilian casualities with a side-order of Psy-Ops.
Still in the midst of a redesign. Watch your head.
I know everyone in Lebanon is an innocent angel, but when Hezbollah's southern Lebanon commander has an office next door to you, and the Israelis tell you to leave the neighborhood, you might want to go:
When the firefighters arrived they pulled a hose through the wreckage and quickly put out the remaining fires. As more and more journalists got to the location, about a dozen young men began pro-Hezbollah chants for the cameras, just as they did after missiles hit a house in the same area two days before.I asked one man that I had seen at the earlier missile-strike location why
Israel keeps targeting the neighborhood. He said something vague about a mosque being nearby, and then walked away."There was no Hezbollah in this building, man," another said to me. "None."
Later, the Associated Press reported that the building contained the offices of Kaouk — prudently empty, amid the mounting Israeli offensive.
The missile strike seemed to clearly illustrate two aspects of the conflict so far: first, Israel's willingness to use overwhelming force against Hezbollah targets regardless of where they are located, and second, because of the mounting civilian casualties, a gradual closing of ranks by many Lebanese behind Hezbollah.
Closing of the ranks or in the ranks? Israel seems to have its eye on that neighborhood for a good reason.
Ahmed Akkari, the lying imam who got the Danish embassy in Lebanon burned down, is now being evacuated from Lebanon -- by the re-opened Danish embassy.
Bibelin blog notes "So Akkari and his family are going to Denmark. This time Akkari is neither burning the Danish flag - nor trampling on it - but hiding behind it."
It's odd that Denmark would still have 5,000 citizens in a country that burned its embassy a few months ago. Especially when in the build-up to and the aftermath of the burning, they'd logically told their people to flee.
(Via Fark.)
Courtesy of Mike, a pic of Duane and the band paying their dues at the 1970 Columbia High School (Dekalb
county, GA) prom. Now we know the venue of this previous Duane pic as well.
Wail on, Skydog!
Not a bad year musically at all; there are quite a few keepers.
Visually, I think the oddest video of the bunch involves masked schoolgirls running in place holding globes.
George Michael - "Faith"
INXS - "Need You Tonight"
George Harrison - "Got My Mind Set On You"
Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up"
Guns N Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine"
Whitney Houston - "So Emotional"
Belinda Carlisle - "Heaven Is A Place On Earth"
Tiffany - "Could've Been"
Breathe - "Hands To Heaven"
Steve Winwood - "Roll With It"
George Michael - "One More Try"
Terence Trent D'arby - "Wishing Well"
Gloria Estefan - "Anything For You"
Cheap Trick - "The Flame"
Billy Ocean - "Get Out Of My Dreams"
Expose - "Seasons Change"
Whitesnake - "Is This Love"
Escape Club - "Wild Wild West"
Def Leppard - "Pour Some Sugar On Me"
Taylor Dayne - "I'll Always Love You"
Michael Jackson - "Man in the Mirror"
Debbie Gibson - "Shake Your Love"
Robert Palmer - "Simply Irresistable"
Richard Marx - "Hold On To The Nights"
Eric Carmen - "Hungry Eyes"
Johnny Hates Jazz - "Shattered Dreams"
George Michael - "Father Figure"
Samantha Fox - "Naughty Girls"
Phil Collins - "Groovy Kind Of Love"
Def Leppard - "Love Bites"
Richard Marx - "Endless Summer Nights"
Debbie Gibson - "Foolish Beat"
Aerosmith - "Angel"
Whitney Houston - "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"
Bangles - "Hazy Shade of Winter"
Michael Jackson - "The Way You Make Me Feel"
Bobby McFerrin - "Don't Worry, Be Happy"
UB40 - "Red, Red Wine"
Patrick Swayze - "She's Like The Wind"
Bon Jovi - "Bad Medicine"
Beach Boys - "Kokomo"
Rick Astley - "Together Forever"
George Michael - "Monkey"
INXS - "Devil Inside"
Richard Marx - "Should've Known Better"
Kylie Minogue - "The Loco-Motion"
Pet Shop Boys - "What Have I Done To Deserve This"
The Jets - "Make It Real"
Information Society - "What's On Your Mind"
Taylor Dayne - "Tell It To My Heart"
Debbie Gibson - "Out of the Blue"
Jody Watley - "Don't You Want Me"
U2 - "Desire"
Brenda Carlisle - "I Get Weak"
Terence Trent D'arby - "Sign Your Name"
Roger - "I Want To Be Your Man"
Pebbles - "Girlfriend"
Michael Jackson - "Dirty Diana"
Gloria Estefan - "1-2-3"
Pebbles - "Mercedes Boy"
Huey Lewis & the News - "Perfect World"
INXS - "New Sensation"
Pretty Poison - "Catch Me I'm Falling"
New Edition - "If It Isn't Love"
The Jets - "Rocket 2 U"
Peter Cetera - "One Good Woman"
Cheap Trick - "Don't Be Cruel"
Hall & Oates - "Everything Your Heart Desires"
Foreigner - "Say You Will"
Keith Sweat - "I Want Her"
Natalie Cole - "Pink Cadillac"
Tracy Chapman - "Fast Car"
Icehouse - "Electric Blue"
Bobby Brown - "Don't Be Cruel"
Pet Shop Boys - "Always on My Mind"
Brenda Russell - "Piano in the Dark"
Van Halen - "When It's Love"
Paul Carrack - "Don't Shed A Tear"
Sting - "We'll Be Together"
Joan Jett - "I Hate Myself For Loving You"
Foreigner - "I Don't Want To Live Without You"
Al B. Sure - "Night And Day"
Steve Winwood - "Don't You Know What The Night Can Do"
Whitney Houston - "One Moment in Time"
Gloria Estefan - "Can't Stay away from You"
George Michael - "Kissing A Fool"
Brenda K. Starr - "I Still Believe"
Cher - "I Found Someone"
INXS - "Never Tear Us Apart"
Steve Winwood - "Valerie"
David Lee Roth - "Just Like Paradise"
Poison - "Nothing But A Good Time"
White Lion - "Wait"
Taylor Dayne - "Prove Your Love"
***
See also:
Videos: Billboard 1987
Videos: Billboard 1986
Videos: Billboard 1985
Videos: Billboard 1984
Videos: Billboard 1983
Videos: Billboard 1982
Videos: Billboard 1981
Videos: Billboard 1980
What the heck? A paperboy tosses a newspaper in a bog, and archeologists get all excited. If they want, I'll loan them mine; it's cleaner:
Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.
...
The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.
Betty Williams, the Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner with all the class of pond scum:
NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.
"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.
Assassination is "feisty." Maybe the reporter would like to be a stand-in so Betty could brush up on her feistiness. Betty'd go for it: she doesn't care what she does around kids.
(Via Ace.)
Jules Sylvester turned his disgusting, disgusting snake hobby into a career, and now his little menaces are the stars of "Snakes on a Plane."
In a disheartening revelation, none of the snakes around Samuel L. Jackson are real; not even a measly little corn snake.
Tom Petty has a new album coming out. If you'd like to listen to samples of it, you can click here.
The ad to your right will take you to his MySpace page where you can listen to full copies of some of his older material and check his touring schedule. The Allman Brothers Band will be playing some of the dates with him.
When I moved to Gainesville back in 1985, the Welcome Wagon lady was his mother-in-law Jane. She was good friends with my next-door neighbor and we all watched the MTV awards together when "Don't Come Around Here No More" was up for an award. It won for best special effects.
She'd meet a lot of characters on her trips out to visit her daughter and grandchildren, and Mr. Cracker got a chuckle of this nice conservative Southern lady's description of Eurythmics' Dave Stewart as "that odd little man."
Anyway, it's always good to have a Florida boy still around making music.
Wuzzadem's putting on a show in his backyard. Good DAY, sir.
UPDATE:
They just keep remaking all the good movies.
For you jam fans, an interesting, illuminating old article from Musician magazine on what happens when you put the guitarists' guitarist Albert Lee on stage with consummate musician Steve Morse of the Dixie Dregs, and one famous shredder:
Eddie has balls of brass for getting into what's basically an Albert Lee set of demanding hoedowns. Most of the time he rises to it, but he simply doesn't have the right hand to keep up with these cats. What he can't tackle with melody he pounds out by hitting his whammy bar in time to the song, sticking to Hendrix themes and screams. Morse plays the life out of a slow one, squeezing some liquid lines that sound like a pedal-steel, and by the time the the baton gets to Ed he knows his number's up–he's got a lot of assets, but being a sensitive balladeer isn't among them. When it's obvious he can't cut it in the few moments, Ed resorts to the "elephant," a novel way of making a guitar groan by hitting three dissonant notes and swelling up the volume. The crowd responds accordingly. But when everyone starts trading fours on a high-velocity country blues, Ed begs off and watches aghast as Albert and Steve burn chorus after chorus, Steve flailing arpeggios, Albert just simply, unbelievably Albert. The country boys really stick it to the city slicker this time; Ed's got the wind knocked out of him. He throws his head back and blows his cheeks out in disbelief.
It's a fun read, and a little reminder of Duane Allman's treatment of encomiums thrown his way: there are nobodies sitting out on their porches playing better than anyone.
He'd really have loved throwing it down with Lee and Morse. Good things happened when he got in there and pushed people to play better.
A fellow-Tennessean examines the motivation behind Al Gore's Gospel of Doom:
Let me begin by stating for the record that I am not a scientist. I have not spent my life researching Planetary Climatology, and I really don’t have any personal insight into the mysteries of earth’s climate cycles or even any personal opinion about the pseudoscientific claims in Al Gore’s Gospel of Doom based on his politically motivated global warming via capitalist-pig doctrine.Of course, this makes me just as qualified to speak on the subject as Al Gore, who also is not a scientist or one who is any more in touch with earth’s many mysteries than the rest of us. Those who still believe that Al invented the internet, still bow at his feet. But as a fellow Tennessean who lives only miles from his alleged Tennessee home, (where he never lives), I see him as most Tennesseans do. An idiot prepared to say anything to win political power. (Need I remind you that those of us who know him best, his neighbors, voted for Bush in 2000?)
I am however, fast becoming an expert student in the art of politically fashionable fear-mongering, a pseudoscience of sorts itself. Al Gore, the self-appointed Carl Sagan of modern pseudoscience, certainly the Dali-Lama of politically fashionable fear-mongering, is my professor extraordinaire... and he has a very loyal subject pool, all equally politically motivated of course.
(Via Lucianne.)
Although he's serving life in prison, Charlie Manson continues to dream of being a rock star.
Seriously, EVH could use a few years locked up somewhere with no access to his favorite substances. While he's there he could visit the barber and get the dentist started on what looks to be a long restorative process.
A professional blogger using legions of false identities to counter criticisms of himself in comments on his own and other people's blogs? What a novel idea.
Like I once heard a sergeant say to her squad, "Buncha goddamned sensitive people; you're in the wrong damn job."
A cyber-construct outlives his journalistic usefulness. A veritable quote machine on matters related to the inadequacies of George W. Bush, Professor Harleigh will be missed by many.
From the Capitol Hill Blue FAQ:
"We insist that every story published on Blue have at least two independent, verifiable sources for any and all of the information in that story."
Now that I look at that quote sideways and squint, I can see how "sources" wouldn't necessarily have to mean actual real people.
This is some great, fun sleuthing on the part of Eric over at Classical Values. Good stuff.
(Via Obsidian Wings.)
I'll say it again: our criminal class just isn't what it used to be. This story out of Palm Beach makes me wonder what are we coming to as a nation if one of our young homegrown punks can't even lick a shrimpy middle-aged Guatemalan:
[Craig] Mack approached Mateo Perez, 45, in his yard as the Guatemalan immigrant returned home from an exhausting 12-hour day of landscaping and cleaning buildings. Police said Mack likely assumed Perez would be an easy mark.Not so.
Perez called out for his family, who rushed from the house to help Monday.
Perez's wife, Candelaria, beat on the man as 13-year-old daughter Imelta hit him with a chair and son Juan, 10, whipped the attacker with a stick, the family said. Perez continued to wrestle the man on the ground.
``I smacked him, and he went silent,'' Imelta said.
The final indignity? They tied him up with the little girl's jump-rope.
Could it be possible that global warming mavens don't know quite as much about what drives temperature as they'd lead you to believe?:
Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles.Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes in the ocean floor of the Santa Barbara channel –– called Shane Seep –– near an area known as the Coal Oil Point seep field. The blowout sounded like a freight train, according to the divers.
Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere, according to the study's authors, all from UC Santa Barbara.
"Other people have reported this type of methane blowout, but no one has ever checked the numbers until now," said Ira Leifer, lead author and an associate researcher with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. "Ours is the first set of numbers associated with a seep blowout." Leifer was in a research boat on the surface at the time of the blowouts.
So temperature change is all about an Inconvenient Toot? By Gaia's roiling innards, Al Gore has some explaining to do.
(Via FR.)
INDC Journal has an excellent film documenting the original evolutionary purpose of our now overly-wide clavicles. It also shows that our species is hard-wired to be bug-ass annoying.
UPDATE:
Oh yeah, and it's funny.
Julie Banderas of Fox News preaches the word to Westboran Shirley Phelps-Roper.
Although it seemed like a good idea at the time, Cynthia McKinney's putting a handful of loose change into the Chippendale dancer's g-string did not go over well.
McKinney forced into a run-off? Must be fraud. At least she got to enjoy a night out with gal pals Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin.
Looking at the pic, I think Cindy's fasted long enough, don't you? Smiles and laughter aside, she now has the bloated belly of a starving Ethiopian child. I'm afraid if she continues, the next pic will show flies drinking the Casey-tears from her eyes.
(login/pswd=nojuan@spamnot.net/nojuan)
Duane trying out a slide on his cig holder.
Wail on, Skydog!
An excellent Mark Steyn column on one of my favorite subjects:
Nicholas Wade's "Before The Dawn" is one of those books full of eye-catching details. For example, did you know the Inuit have the largest brains of any modern humans? Something to do with the cold climate. Presumably, if this global warming hooey ever takes off, their brains will be shrinking with the ice caps.But the passage that really stopped me short was this:
"Both Keeley and LeBlanc believe that for a variety of reasons anthropologists and their fellow archaeologists have seriously underreported the prevalence of warfare among primitive societies. . . . 'I realized that archaeologists of the postwar period had artificially "pacified the past" and shared a pervasive bias against the possibility of prehistoric warfare,' says Keeley."
One group of primitive people has had some pretty good script doctors give their history a rewrite. According to the Houghton Mifflin textbook company, American Indian tribes, when they weren't being utterly benign, always managed to imbue their warfare with spirituality and nobility:
Killing an enemy or torturing a captive to death was intended to repair the metaphysical imbalance caused by a death. Some Native American women literally "dried their tears" with the scalps of enemies killed in battle.
I bet! Scalps have outstanding lachrymal absorption properties. In fact, in pre-Columbian times some tribes went through them like Kleenex:
The scalping victims considered in this study came from the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Southwest. The Midwest is by far the region with the largest sample, estimated at between 400 and 500 scalped individuals. However, most of these victims came from Crow Creek Canyon, the site of a large-scale massacre involving a minimum of 486 individuals (Gregg et al 1981). The excavators report that not only were almost every person scalped, but they also were mutilated and dismembered, and many of their hands and feet appear to have been removed and taken as trophies. This custom has been documented historically for certain Native American culture groups in the United States (Friederici 1907). Thus, it appears that something quite different from small scale raiding activities was occurring at Crow Creek Canyon.
Whoever said history is dull never had a lesson on prehistoric man's adroit use of a sharp blade.
(Via Lucianne.)
A city torn and in crisis. It's not Beirut, it's New York:
The broadening violence in the Middle East is endangering a political species with deep roots in New York: the liberal Israel hawk.Although parts of the American left are more sympathetic to the Palestinian side of that conflict, "in New York the liberals are Zionists, because they're Jews," says Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn, Queens).
But the anti-war, anti-Bush, pro-Israel "progressive" political space occupied by the likes of the upper West Side's Rep. Jerrold Nadler and national Democrats such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is shrinking.
Israel's American allies are increasingly in the Republican Party, and leading journals of the American left have been skeptical of Israel's aggressive military response to the kidnapping of its soldiers.
Nadler said he sees "an increasing strain on the far left that is unreasonably anti-Israel, which I do not understand." An unwillingness to support Israel's right to defend itself, he said, could be tantamount for supporting the destruction of Israel. "If this kind of support for genocide of Jews continues to infect the left - that's not a left I want to be part of," Nadler said. The criticism of Israel's recent response as "disproportionate" has widened the gap between Democrats who back the Israeli government and their more critical allies.
"I think it's gong to end up pushing them farther apart," said Chris Owens, a Brooklyn congressional candidate who has called for negotiations between Israel and its neighbors.
Here are a few of the unreasonable far left.
The Democratic party's big tent is fast becoming a big top, and the clowns are taking over the circus.
In related news, Allah sorts them out over at Hot Air, Emily Post discusses table manners, Tim Blair shows his appreciation for both fine textiles and succinct phrasing, and a news search for "disproportionate" brings up some interesting articles; presumably not written by people whose cities have gotten rocketed by a private army.
Today's Herald gives a detailed account of how the authorities snared the Sears Tower terrorists. You'll never look at the foreign guy who runs the neighborhood convenience store the same way again:
The reputed ringleader of the Liberty City Seven was leery of the two Arabic men who promised to help him launch his terror war.So in January, he ordered his followers to strip-search them both to make sure they weren't wearing wires and drive them to Islamorada in the Florida Keys for a meeting on the beach.
Sitting inside a tent, one of the men boasted of his intimate ties to al Qaeda, bragging about his role in ''planning the attack'' by al Qaeda on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, a bombing that killed 17 sailors, and about his connection to an explosives expert in Europe at his beck and call.
He lied. The two men had, in fact, no ties to the terrorist organization but were moles for the Feds. But their performance was enough to erase Narseal Batiste's distrust -- thus salvaging a stalled FBI investigation. It would culminate last month in the high-profile arrests of seven young men from Miami who authorities say were hellbent on causing carnage across the country.
Newly obtained federal court documents, filled with transcripts of secret FBI recordings, tell how two unidentified informants risked their lives and describe one man's delusions of grandeur -- and determination -- to wage his own holy war.
It's an interesting tale. Give it a read.
(Login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice)
There's some redecorating going on, so don't look at anything; it's not ready. When it is, I'll open the drapes and y'all can all bring me over casseroles.
At the end of 1987 I ran off to join the Army in order to get away from The Bangles. Alas, Susanna Hoffs' eyes followed me there and were always messing up my locker.
The instructions for saving and converting videos are located at the link for 1980.
The Bangles - "Walk Like an Egyptian"
Heart - "Alone"
Gregory Abbott - "Shake You Down"
Whitney Houston - "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"
Starship - "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"
Robbie Nevil - "C'est La Vie"
Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again"
Bruce Hornsby - "The Way It Is"
Bon Jovi - "Livin' on a Prayer"
Los Lobos - "La Bamba"
Wang Chung - "Everybody Have Fun Tonight"
Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over"
Atlantic Star - "Always"
U2 - "With Or Without You"
Jody Watley - "Lookin' For a New Love"
Lisa Lisa & the Cult Jam - "Head to Toe"
Tiffany - "I Think We're Alone Now"
Billy Idol - "Mony Mony"
Chris de Burgh - "Lady in Red"
Whitney Houston - "Didn't We Almost Have It All"
U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
George Michael - "I Want Your Sex"
Duran Duran - "Notorious"
Debbie Gibson - "Only in My Dreams"
Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - "(I Had) The Time of My Life"
Peter Cetera & Amy Grant - "Next Time I Fall"
Club Nouveau - "Lean on Me"
Madonna - "Open Your Heart"
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - "Lost in Emotion"
Cutting Crew - "(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight"
T'Pau - "Heart And Soul"
Kim Wilde - "You Keep Me Hangin' On"
Georgia Satellites - "Keep Your Hands to Yourself"
Aretha Franklin & George Michael - "I Knew You Were Waiting"
Janet Jackson - "Control"
Prince & Sheena Easton - "U Got The Look"
Genesis - "Land of Confusion"
Huey Lewis & The News - "Jacob's Ladder"
Madonna - "Who's That Girl"
The Jets - "You Got It All"
Samantha Fox - "Touch Me"
Michael Jackson - "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"
Madonna - "Causing a Commotion"
Genesis - "In Too Deep"
Janet Jackson - "Let's Wait Awhile"
Chicago - "Will You Still Love Me"
Fleetwood Mac - "Little Lies"
Suzanne Vega - "Luka"
Bananarama - "I Heard A Rumor"
Richard Marx - "Don't Mean Nothin'"
Kenny G - "Songbird"
Europe - "Carrie"
The System - "Don't Disturb This Groove"
Madonna - "La Isla Bonita"
Michael Jackson - "Bad"
Cyndi Lauper - "Change Of Heart"
Expose - "Come Go with Me"
Billy Idol - "To Be A Lover"
Bruce Hornsby - "Mandolin Rain"
Swing Out Sister - "Breakout"
Ben E. King - "Stand by Me"
Genesis - "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"
Glass Tiger - "Someday"
ABC - "When Smokey Sings"
Levert - "Casanova"
Gloria Estefan - "The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You"
Bon Jovi - "Wanted Dead Or Alive"
Peter Gabriel - "Big Time"
Steve Winwood - "Finer Things"
Expose - "Let Me Be the One"
Survivor - "Is This Love"
Herb Alpert - "Diamonds"
Expose - "Point Of No Return"
Fleetwood Mac - "Big Love"
Lou Gramm - "Midnight Blue"
Crowded House - "Something So Strong"
Bryan Adams - "Heat of the Night"
Glenn Medeiros - "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You"
Bruce Springsteen - "Brilliant Disguise"
Smokey Robinson - "Just to See Her"
Pretenders - "Don't Get Me Wrong"
Huey Lewis & The News - "Doing It All For My Baby"
Breakfast Club - "Right on Track"
Kenny Loggins - "Meet Me Half Way"
Cutting Crew - "I've Been in Love Before"
Beastie Boys - "Fight for Your Right"
Pseudo Echo - "Funky Town"
Ready for the World - "Love You Down"
***
See also:
Videos: Billboard 1988
Videos: Billboard 1986
Videos: Billboard 1985
Videos: Billboard 1984
Videos: Billboard 1983
Videos: Billboard 1982
Videos: Billboard 1981
Videos: Billboard 1980
For all the Gram Parsons fans: some rare footage of Gram and a very young and energetic Emmylou Harris performing at Liberty Hall in Houston during the 1973 Fallen Angels tour.
If you haven't seen them yet, there are also two really nice professional videos of Gram with the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Let us no more speak of little green men on Mars. From now on, they're little green bastards:
A study of the ice caps on Mars may show that the red planet is experiencing a warming trend.After decades of thinking that the ice caps on Mars were mostly carbon dioxide (dry ice), planetary geologists are starting to think that those caps may be mostly fresh water ice instead.
Caltech planetary scientists have been keeping a close eye on the dozens of deep, wide pits in the southern martian ice caps. These pits have been growing larger every year, but they never get any deeper.
The scientists believe this means that there is a layer of dry ice that is evaporating off of a thicker layer of water ice. The yearly increases in evaporation may be caused by a global warming trend happening on Mars.
If both Mars and Earth are experiencing global warming, then perhaps there is a larger phenomenon going on in the Solar System that is causing their global climates to change.
I'm not going to let them off the hook that easy. Let me be first to not pull any punches and to lay the blame exactly where it belongs: The melting of the ice caps on Mars is martianogenic in origin. Little. green. bastards.
But the Martians are going to have to fix their own problems. We've got our own biscuits in the oven right here on Gaia -- and they're going to be incinerated by global warming. No, no; you won't be able to just scrape the burned parts off and soften things up with extra butter. Our biscuits are going to be charred beyond recognition; just like the bad drivers in the those Driver's Ed films they showed us in high school.
Speaking of charring, here's someone I'd like to put in a rocket and launch into the Sun: Christian Science Monitor contributor Julia Gorin of Las Vegas. On second thought, since she's in Vegas I might not have to go to the expense. I'll just make her ride the Big Shot at high noon in summer. Same difference.
Gorin has the idea that all this global warming activism is nothing but displacement:
Tough language is borrowed from the war on terror and applied to the war on weather. "I really consider this a national security issue," says celebrity activist and "An Inconvenient Truth" producer Laurie David. "Truth" star Al Gore calls global warming a "planetary emergency." Bill Clinton's first worry is climate change: "It's the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it."Freud called it displacement. People fixate on the environment when they can't deal with real threats. Combating the climate gives nonhawks a chance to look tough. They can flex their muscle for Mother Nature, take a preemptive strike at an SUV. Forget the Patriot Act, it's Kyoto that'll save you.
That's why in 2004 we got "The Day After Tomorrow" - so we could worry about junk science that may or may not kill us in 1,000 years instead of the people who really are trying to kill us the day after tomorrow.
She then goes on to imply that blaming America as the "chief culprit in the axis of enviro-evil " is like punching a pillow when you're too afraid to punch who you're really mad at.
Nonsense. It's just the latest thing in a long, long list that America is to blame for.
We could even help Mars if we wanted too. We're the ones with all the space technology, after all. But we won't. All the Martian children in those underground cities will be croaking out the Martian word for "water" and we won't bother to lift a finger to help them.
Because that's how we are.
(Via Lucianne.)
Not to be outdone by Time's spread on fashionable burkas, Newsweek will be devoting a section to fashion trends in Golden Lotus footwear.
For the style-conscious this year, culturally-mandated female seclusion and purity is hot.
(Via Michelle Malkin.)
Or the coaches will stick you with sharp pieces of metal.
Pain compliance is a totally unacceptable method of teaching gymnastics to children. Long-term verbal abuse, 80 hours a week in the gym, and starvation have worked just fine on girls.
A designer will be coming in and out of here all day, so mind the scaffolding.
David Lee Roth goes bluegrass. You'll not want to miss the video.
I've always believed that Diamond Dave and David Lee Roth were not just the other's alter ego, as was commonly believed, but actually two entirely different people. Now I have proof.
The band backing him sure can pick.
(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice)
Even with Hezbollah rocketing Israeli cities from southern Lebanon, and Israel hitting Beirut, this still isn't a war. For allowing terrorists to operate with impunity within its borders, Lebanon is getting a spanking:
Israeli forces intensified their attacks in Lebanon, imposing a naval blockade on the country and pounding its only international airport and the Hezbollah TV station in Israel's heaviest air campaign against Lebanon for 24 years.The shockwaves from the fighting began to be felt as tensions sharpened, with both sides playing a high stakes game after Hezbollah snatched two Israeli soldiers: Israel seeking to end once and for all Hezbollah's presence on the border while the guerrillas insisting to trade the captured soldiers with Arab prisoners.
Trapped between them was Lebanon, which Israel said it held responsible for Hezbollah's snatching of the soldiers. The Lebanese government insisted it had no prior knowledge of the move and did not condone it.
Hezbollah fighters operate with almost total autonomy in southern Lebanon, and the government has no control over their actions. But the government has long resisted international pressure to disarm the group — and two Hezbollah ministers are members of the Lebanese Cabinet, even though the majority are anti-Syrian politicians, some of whom are critics of the group. Any attempt to disarm the group by force could lead to sectarian conflict.
Lebanon would rather the private army attack the neighbor than turn on them. You can't blame the neighbor for thinking that a bad plan.
Two reasons not to take your dog out in a boat:
A New Smyrna Beach man who spent 24 hours in the Atlantic Ocean without a life jacket after falling off his boat was in fair condition in a hospital Wednesday night, authorities said.Brian Wallschlaeger, 34, wasn't wearing a life jacket when a wave knocked him off his 32-foot Albamarle sport fisherman boat around 8 a.m. on Tuesday as he was traveling from Ponce Inlet to Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday.
The Coast Guard said the boat was about 10 miles off shore when a large wave came by about 11 a.m. Wallschlaeger's Labrador retriever slid across the deck and knocked him into the ocean, Petty Officer 1st Class Mark Carstens, of U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Canaveral, said.
About 8 a.m. Wednesday, Cape Canaveral authorities found the boat beached with the motor still running and Wallschlaeger's black Labrador aboard. The dog was dead, apparently from the stress of seeing its owner in distress, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The man has two prosthetic hips and couldn't get back into the boat after he fell out. He hung on until he got near shore, then swam.
In some unexpected good news, like putting on your winter coat that first cold day and finding a ten-dollar bill in the pocket from last winter, scientists said today that Antarctica could soon be the lush paradise it once was:
Trees could be growing in the Antarctic within a century because of global warming, an international scientific conference heard.With carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere set to double in the next 100 years, the icy continent could revert to how it looked about 40 million years ago, said Professor Robert Dunbar of Stanford University.
"It was warm and there were bushes and there were trees," he told some 850 delegates in the Tasmanian capital Hobart, the national AAP news agency reported.
Through a combination of its own inhospitableness and pan-government agreements to keep it tidy, we'll be getting an entire mint-condition continent to move into once it reverts to its natural temperature.
"Shocking and cowardly." And that's just the reporting of Reuters.
One difference between Reuters and the Indian Express: when 7 bombs explode within 11 minutes of each other on crowded commuter trains, killing more than 160 people, the Express has no compunction calling the people who would perform such a deed terrorists.
Reuters sees militants, however, and never met a terrorist that didn't need to be nestled between quotation marks.
I really wish all those militants would stop unlawfully using or threatening use of force or violence with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.
If Mr. Webster were alive, I bet he'd agree.
My condolences to the families of those killed or injured in these latest attacks.
Duane with his goldtop and Dickey with his famous red guitar.
Wail on, Skydog!
(Song link via johndash.org)
Also, more footage from the 5/1/71 Chapel Hill concert:
Syd Barrett has entered yet another dimension.
"Baby It's You" - Smith.
(Via WavPage.)
Is it appropriate to send sympathy messages to someone detoxifying on a beneficial juice fast? Does Hallmark even make a card for that?
I'm just going to say, "Congratulations, Cindy Sheehan!"
I find traveling out of the country very challenging being on a fast. When I was on a layover in Madrid on my way to Venice, Italy yesterday, the closest thing I could find to a smoothie to get a little protein was a coffee with vanilla ice cream in it. Traveling for 22 hours is very taxing under normal circumstances--but then again, when have we had normal circumstances since the 2000 and 2004 successful coup attempts that have brought BushCo into power?I traveled from Venice to the frontier of Italy to the province of Udine which is right at the foot of the pre-Alps. I am here for a huge youth festival which includes many elements of social justice and peace work. It is beautiful and the air feels different from other places that I have travelled. It is strangely soft and gentle as is the natural light. However, there is not a Jamba Juice on every corner, so blended juice drinks with protein powder are impossible to find.
I have also received so many emails from worried, wonderful, and well-meaning friends and supporters in the US who are concerned about me and all of the others who are fasting. I don't like being on this fast, trust me...
Except for adding ice cream (it overstimulates mucous production and frankly, it's cheating) and the stimulant caffeine, Cindy Sheehan is well on her way to good health with this traditional juice fast. Jamba juice and protein powder are perfect for the on-the-go detoxifyer, but she can always purchase fruit and powder in sunny Italy to blend her own smoothies. I see she's performing her purification during the summer months as recommended. There's a good girl.
Some of the health benefits she'll receive from the juice fast are relief from: chronic sinus congestion, constipation, headaches, white or yellow tongue coating, bad breath, acne, flatulence, and postnasal drip.
Far from being the "hunger strike" described on her site, she's actually boosting her physical, mental, and spiritual well-being in the time-tested fashion of millions of other Americans whose cleansings have somehow failed to capture the camera's attention. I'm just glad that others are being exposed to the benefits of a detoxifying diet.
After this, I recommend the high-colonic.
(Via FR.)
I check their site every few days, but Owen is just too fast for me. He sends a link of Travis and Jonathan discussing World Cup soccer and which country is a shoo-in at this year's Snooty Ass Awards. As you might imagine, it's not Finland.
Bonus: Fred Mertz gives a musical presentation on how to win WWII.
Things to watch for when selecting a pre-school:
Do the children have daily outdoor play with access to age appropriate playground equipment?
Are the Director and teachers open to questions?
Is the Director running a meth lab?
The director of the La Petite Academy and her husband have been accused of running an illegal methamphetamine lab out of their Melbourne home while their two children were living there, according to reports.Liane Davis, 33, and her husband, J. Lawrence Davis, 39, were arrested last week by the Melbourne Police Department and charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, child abuse by neglect and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Good morning, Miss Whitney!
John Edwards is back with a new trick. This time, the bar will be raised even higher than the last one he stumbled over: the John Edwards International Pony Squad is in Iowa, gearing up for a run for the presidency. His platform nipped from LBJ's feedbag, he has announced a War on Poverty:
It's Friday night in Iowa and an old politician is trying some new tricks. John Edwards is back—back, with the familiar deep drawl, dark tan and honeyed hair. Gone, though, are the old catchphrases—"two Americas" and "hope is on the way." In their place: a long meditation on America's moral obligation to confront the plight of its poor. "Thirty-seven million of our people, worried about feeding and clothing their children," he said to his audience. "Aren't we better than that?" It's not the stuff of great sound bites, but it's part of Edwards's new political plan: a presidential campaign with fighting poverty as a central plank. It's a risky strategy in today's Democratic Party—Edwards may be the most viable national candidate since Bobby Kennedy to tie his destiny to a fight for the destitute. "Yeah, I heard all that stuff: 'Who cares?' or 'It's a dead end'," Edwards tells NEWSWEEK. "Well, it's what I want to do."
Question is, after having failed to carry his own home state, will the chief donkey and alpha nag of his own party want to share their sugar cubes with him?
(Via Lucianne.)
How do you prepare for an epidemic? Cape Coral has spent $15,000 getting ready for Bird Flu. I was interested to find out what it was they thought would help them. Turns out what they'd purchased was some freeze-dried food, cots for administrators to sleep on, and lots and lots of...masks.
This letter from a doctor present at Fort Devens during the Spanish Flu epidemic brought to mind an odd experience I had when I was there. On one wall of my third-floor room in the barracks were large windows overlooking the brightly-lit quadrangle. I slept at one end of the windows, my roommate at the other. Our room was right across from the dayroom, and because it got pretty loud in there sometimes, I slept wearing the foam earplugs they'd given us for the rifle range.
One night I was awakened by someone roughly shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes and it was a tall and fair-haired guy in uniform. I could see from the rocker on his collar that he was a sergeant. He was telling me something, but I couldn't hear what it was because of the earplugs. I started trying to get them out, and sat up. I assumed he was there for a Health and Welfare inspection (a middle of night room inspection for contraband and nefarious goings-on.) I got ticked then because it should have been a female sergeant waking me up and not this clown. And why hadn't he flipped the light switch on when he came in? I looked over at my roommate and saw she was still sleeping. What was going on? I started saying "What? What?" Meanwhile I'm still trying to dig the earplugs out and looking up at him while his mouth is going and he's gesturing with his arms emphatically. He's becoming angry at me, and I'm getting louder with my what, what, whats. Finally, he does a big "Bah, forget you" gesture and walks to the other side of the lockers where the door is. Now I stand up, put on some shorts, and at last get one of the earplugs out. I walk around the lockers, but he's already gone from the room. I look at my roommate and she's still sleeping. Why would the CQ (Charge of Quarters) just come in like that and what was he trying to tell me?
I went back to bed and in the morning told my roommate what had happened. She thought maybe it was a Red Cross message that had come for me. I went down to the orderly room, but no message. I checked the CQ roster to get the name of who was on duty the night before, and at formation asked that sergeant (who was tall, fair, and surly -- bingo) what was the deal with the previous night. He answered he'd been on duty, but didn't come to our room. I re-checked the roster for the CQ runner and went and asked him about it, but got the same response. Since only myself, my roommate, and the CQ would have a key, I was at a loss at who'd come in and woken me up. That afternoon as I was telling my roommate of the latest developements, she surprised me by suggesting I'd only dreamt it. What, what, what?
No, it couldn't have been. It was so real. Maybe, I thought, it was the ghost of one of the thousands of soldiers that died suddenly at Devens during the Spanish Flu epidemic. This sergeant had been angry. Maybe he was angry about being dead! Or maybe he'd come back to give a warning. Tied to the earth by some task he needed to perform, he kept running into knuckleheads like me who couldn't hear his message from the beyond because of rifle rangle earplugs, or playing Wilson-Phillips too loud on the Walkman, or something like that.
If one of you secretly planted electrodes on my skull and were monitoring my brainwave patterns that night, tell me what you saw.
Have any of you ever had something strange like that happen?
A little taste of the whip from their new masters:
The Islamic militiamen controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing together, witnesses said Saturday, describing the latest crackdown by a group feared to be installing Taliban-style rule in this African nation.The Islamic fighters beat band members with electric cables and confiscated their equipment, said Asha Ilmi Hashi, a singer with the group Mogadishu Stars.
Washington has already been contacted by interested parties requesting a Kevin Bacon airdrop.
In India, impoverished toads from the lower castes serve as amphibious rickshaws for their Brahmin masters.
They're just doing it for "the people."
(Via Lucianne.)
This year's theme will be Fenris Badwulf's classic "No Dad City and the Money Tree."
Saturday 10-4. Free babysitting and snacks provided.
We had a better class of people keep their missiles trained on us for decades. It would take a putz like Kim to launch one at us and have it be a dud:
A North Korean missile launched on Wednesday was aimed at an area of the ocean close to Hawaii, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday.Experts estimated the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile to have a range of up to 6,000 km, putting Alaska within its reach. Wednesday's launch apparently failed shortly after take-off and the missile landed in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, a few hundred kilometres from the launch pad.
But data from U.S. and Japanese Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and surveillance aircraft on the missile's angle of take-off and altitude indicated that it was heading for waters near Hawaii, the Sankei Shimbun reported, citing multiple sources in the United States and Japan.
North Korea may have targeted Hawaii to show the United States that it was capable of landing a missile there, or because it is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific fleet, the paper said.
It's just like the old days, only more pathetic.
*Liberal Larry's Rolling BlogFast: On July the 12th, 144 people will bring peace to the Middle East and usher in the new Age of Aquarius by not eating during his or her designated 10-minute time period. They will officially break their fast on July the 13th with a celebratory pancake breakfast at Rachel Corrie Memorial Hall in Seattle.
*Tim Blair, on the other hand, is hosting a Rolling Pig-Out in honor of Mother Sheehan. There's no reason you can't participate in both activities. You could probably even work in the Rolling Up-Chuck being held over at Ann Coulter's.
*Via Cowboy Blob, a video of a beautiful Angel Decoy maneuver in Iraq.
*Jack and Emma may be the most common names for babies in America, but Western Union knows the most common names for terrorists are Mohammed and Ahmed. They don't like doing wire transfers to them: "'Mohammed and Ahmed have become problematic names because they are so common on the list of terrorists,' said Nixon Baby, who runs a Western Union franchise in Bur Dubai, a neighborhood packed with South Asian businesses."
As a sidenote, a little ray of sunshine just peeked through my window at the news that there's someone in the world named "Nixon Baby."
and
*From tormenting injured soldiers and their families at the hospital to hijacking a busload of schoolkids on a visit to the White House, there's no end to the lengths that Code Pink will go to in order to get publicity for their beautiful, beautiful message of peace. Their next protest will be held at the National Zoo where they will sing "Give Peace A Chance" and "Imagine" while eating the brains of live monkeys.
(Pic via Litigation Leery in e-mail.)
I had no idea they used dogs for this:
A cadaver-sniffing canine on a boat pinpointed the area where the two men drowned, and divers retrieved the body at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Jim Walters, assistant director of Escambia Search and Rescue
I knew they could smell a drop of blood in a bucket of water, but this is a bay. What a good dog.
Speaking of smelling blood in the water, ticket sales for Barbra Streisand's climate change tour are so anemic, promoters are trying to get her an "in" on the lucrative supermarket grand-opening circuit to try to lessen their financial loss. It turns out not so many fools want to part with $800 for a ticket.
At this point, promoters are looking at losing $15 million on the deal.
A finished flood is a dull flood. What it needs is movement and action:
A television news cameraman paid a $145 fine after police said he enticed three teenagers to ride their bikes through waist-high floodwaters.The boys told police that Gary Abrahamsen of WEWS-TV in Cleveland offered to put them on TV if they rode through the water on a bridge, according to a police report. They said a reporter waded into the water so they would be riding behind her in the video.
Police cited Abrahamsen with misdemeanor disorderly conduct June 22. He paid the fine June 28, according to Norwalk Municipal Court.
Another option providing movement would have been to do the report from a canoe.
I suppose if worse came to worst, they could have even reported the news as it was, sans props and staging.
There's no end to the giving nature of Christiaan Briggs, peace activist and former "human shield" in Iraq. He continues to center his life around making others happy:
A New Zealand peace activist has been arrested in London and charged with punching a rising teenage pop star and putting him in a coma.Christiaan Taylor Briggs, 30, is accused of punching Billy Leeson, 19, the lead singer of young British band Les Incompetents after an argument on a city bus.
British media reports says Leeson was on his way home on a No. 29 bus after performing at a sellout gig when he confronted a man harassing his girlfriend.
The two men got off the bus together in Camden Road, north London, and Leeson was punched.
He fell to the ground, hitting his head on the footpath and fracturing his skull, just before 11pm on June 22. His attacker ran off laughing.
His reasons for going to Iraq were deep, profound, and reflective of his innermost character:
I am joining the Iraq Human Shield campaign because I believe in a very simple concept: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” But here in lies the twist. The change I wish to see is not simply that of countless Iraqi lives spared, but that of possibly inspiring just a small group of people I know; my family, friends, and community (Napier, New Zealand), illustrating to them an unbelievably important and simple lesson I learnt recently: Wanna be happy? Just centre your life around making others happy.
You can peruse Gandhi's website here.
Thank goodness somebody thought to invent taste buds.
More good stuff over at Some Cranky Guy's.
The headline almost gave me a heart attack, although I knew the Old Guard would never allow any nastiness toward our unknowns. Only a few years old, the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was desecrated. The nameless soldier symbolizing all the unknowns who fought and died at places like Ypres and Juno Beach -- was left all alone and unprotected for hooligans to get at. Poor Canada:
A lone, unemployed Canadian donned a Maple Leaf-red sweater Tuesday and stood guard under a blistering midday sun by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the National War Memorial.Authorities haven't decided yet how they'll improve security after the memorial was desecrated on Canada Day, but Don Dawson wasn't going to wait for them to make up their minds.
He draped a vintage Canadian Legion flag — a British ensign with a green maple leaf imposed in the centre — over his shoulder and stood rigidly at attention.
“I got up this morning and asked myself what I could do about this, and I decided to come here out of respect for all the soldiers who died fighting for the freedom of Canada,” said Mr. Dawson, who spent the whole day at the site.
Three young men were photographed urinating on the memorial on Canada Day. Police were looking for the three on Tuesday and asked them to come forward.
(Via Lucianne.)
A doctor clears up a little of the BS surrounding opiate addiction, and puts the spotlight back on a substance much more difficult to overcome: alcohol.
Duane with Berry, two Hourglass bandmates-turned Capricorn Rhythm section, and fellow Capricorn act Arthur Conley.
Wail on, Skydog!
UPDATE:
The other fellows from Hourglass have done a lot things, but sometimes you've got to keep things short and sweet.
Some pyrotechnic experts will be going to bed without their supper, as over here folks head out to a more pleasant light show.
Happy 4th, everyone.
Fireworks at the Old Fort, St. Augustine, Florida
First Miss America was stripped of her crown, now this. Great video accompanies this story of hubris and scandal.
Uneasy lies the crown worn by some heads.
(Via Dymphna.)
Things that naturally go together: peanut butter and jelly, vanilla ice cream and rootbeer, the 4th of July and firecracker injuries.
Somehow in all the hoopla over exploded fingers and vast tracts of scorched flesh, the humble sparkler gets overlooked. One sparkler can do a pretty amazing amount of damage to a car with a vinyl roof. How was I to know the things got that hot?
My favorite 4th of July story illustrates both the nature of the child as human wrecking ball and the ability of a small boy to withstand a series of injuries within a very short period of time. This boy began his holiday celebrations by lying in wait on the stairs for his sister, lit firecracker in his hand ready to throw at her. His timing was off and it exploded in his hand. Trips to the hospital being uncommon in those days, and all fingers still being attached, his mother wrapped his hand in bandages and told him to go sit down. Bored within a few minutes, he decided to play with the new Ben Franklin potbellied stove. Reaching inside to deposit a random available item to watch burn, his bandages burst into flames. His mother came and extinguished his hand and rebandaged it. Then she got out a belt and gave him a comprehensive beating. My dad got his hand blown up, caught on fire, and his ass beat all within about 30 minutes.
If you have any tales of 4th of July mayhem you'd like to share with us, feel free to add them in comments.
If Bananarama's 1986 video for their cover of "Venus" was silly, the 1970 original was frightening.
It's not very well known, but while it's true that when Norman Bates was in for the evening he liked to dress up as his mother, when he went out clubbing it was Grace Slick all the way. Sometimes he recorded videos in front of monkey cages.
Since her actual function was to sing and not to be gawked at, and she was an innocent victim of the fashions of the time, I suppose I'll add that Shocking Blue's Mariska Veres did have a better voice than either Slick or the girls in Bananarama.
The 1986 Effect: more and more videos that I'd never seen before = more and more songs that I'd always assumed were sung by women.
Trivia: In the Chinese calendar, 1986 is known as "The Year of the Giant Hair Bow."
Dionne Warwick & Friends - "That's What Friends Are For"
Lionel Richie - "Say You Say Me"
Klymaxx - "I Miss You"
Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald - "On My Own"
Mr. Mister - "Broken Wings"
Whitney Houston - "How WIll I Know"
Eddie Murphy - "Party All the Time"
Survivor - "Burning Heart"
Mr. Mister - "Kyrie"
Robert Palmer - "Addicted to Love"
