First haute couture, now ethanol. Is there nothing Floridians can't do with hurricane debris?:
Instead of throwing tree limbs and other vegetation into landfills following hurricanes, Floridians may be able to turn the debris into ethanol, state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Thursday.
...
“We are convinced we are the largest biomass producing state in the country. Because of our weather conditions, our rain, we can double and triple our crop in a year,” he said.Hurricane debris could also be processed for use in cellulosic biomass ethanol production, he said.
I'm so proud we produce more piles of stuff than anybody. Willie Nelson will be jonesing to be our energy czar, but we'll choose Charles freakin' Bronson. He'll beat that biomass into ethanol with his own two fists.
His 21st US Open and his last tournament. I've followed him in all his permutations: from the skinny hotdogging, shot-making wunderkind in denim shorts, to beefcake RoboAndre who ground down his opponents' legs, to senior Andre -- the frail last-man-standing of the generation that brought us Sampras, Courier, and Chang.
I'm savoring every minute he has left on court.
UPDATE:
A 36-year-old Andre into the third round! Suck it, Six Meat Buffet, suck it! ;)
UPDATE II:
Slideshow added.
I've not had an Internet connection today. I'd like the drama of blaming it on Ernesto, but since he's off menacing North Carolina at the moment, I'll have to settle with a more prosaic answer: my house was hit by an Israeli drone/missile. I've snapped a picture of the hole it put in the side of my house:
It flew from room to room frying all the electrical circuitry in its path -- its wind current alone messed up the starburst pattern I'd vacuumed into the livingroom carpet.
I'm sad to report my dog's lost one of her legs.
I don't know why the Israelis targeted me (Does anyone ever?), but I've new-found respect for what their drone/missile thingies can do.
And the Jews owe me a dog leg.
The TrekEarth site is full of wonderful photographs. The search on Berbers alone had me mesmerized for a couple of hours.
While I enjoy looking at lovely vistas, my preference is for an interesting face.
So the "secret hold" placed on the development of a porkbusting database that would benefit all Americans is all about the Bridge To Nowhere senator getting revenge?
I believe this was covered in the "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten" book in the chapter entitled "Don't Be A Prick."
The Kentucky airplane crash just keeps getting stranger:
The pilot and first officer of Comair Flight 5191 boarded the wrong aircraft minutes before they steered down the wrong runway and crashed during takeoff, federal officials said Tuesday.The flight crew had begun to power up the aircraft early Sunday when a worker at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington notified them that they were on the wrong plane, according to investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The answer to this accident lies in a brain box rather than a black box. It looks like pilot error, and the pertinent question becomes: "What were these guys thinking?"
The only survivor, first officer James Polehinke of Margate, is severely injured and has not yet regained consciousness.
More tales of human frailty in the cockpit and its consequences can be found here.
***
Previous postings:
The Show Must Go On
Duane waiting to perform at the Cosmic Carnival.
Wail on, Skydog!
I'll be interested in hearing how many points total this Afghani awarded himself:
As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said.Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said.
Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Omeed Aziz Popal, who has addresses in Ceres (Stanislaus County) and Fremont.
...
"It was like 'Death Race 2000,' " firefighter Danny Bright said at California and Fillmore streets, as an ambulance stood nearby. "Guys were walking down the sidewalk and the guy just came up and ran them over. The guy went crazy.''
I'll not bother my head with looking with looking for a terrorism connection, because it's been established that even trying to crush a bunch of people with a large, heavy vehicle to avenge your religion doesn't meet that standard.
Still, it's a big jump from traffic infraction to multiple and deliberate vehicular homicide.
(Via Drudge.)
He got some of the stuffing knocked out of him in the Cuban mountains, and will hopefully not reintensify while chugging over the Florida Straights and cruising up the Everglades.
My weather prediction calls for soggy.
Meanwhile, Val of Babalu gives invaluable advice for hurricane preparation and how he learned the hard way. Profit by his painful experience: hurricane recovery is made more difficult by tight underwear.
A New Orleans man gives his thanks for the charity of Utahns:
When the Andrews arrived at a displacement camp outside Salt Lake City in September 2005, they expressed cautious optimism about Utah but concern about how the largely white population would respond to the new blacks moving there.A year later, Larry Andrews is still filled with doubts.
"We (blacks) used to live in Africa and we were moved to New Orleans and we had to adapt there," he said. "Now we are in Utah and we have to adapt here. We're tired of adapting."
Asked if his apartment living room with two computers, a television, a stereo and a boom box indicated a better life materially, he said: "What's in here, in my heart, I'm not. I'm confused. We were living better where we was."
Theoretically, he could always get his act together and move wherever he likes; that's how it is with most people.
If worse came to worst, he could always put his stuff in a wheelbarrow and push it to the state of his choice. It's been done.
Hard to believe that's a 37-year-old man talking.
UPDATE:
Role models: Larry's not the only one who thinks someone else is supposed to wipe his behind.
I hear the dulcet tones of power drills lilting through the neighborhood, so I suppose it's time to check on Ernesto again.
Ft. Lauderdale seems to be in its path now, so that means it's time for me to go join in on the traditional hurricane raid on Publix.
We still haven't had our roof fixed from Hurricane Wilma, so hopefully the whole thing stalls out over Cuba. Castro will want more Baby Wipes, but all the stores will be closed. His track suit won't smell very fresh, his beard will be itchy, and he'll wish an air-conditioned helicopter would swoop down and take him somewhere where there's electricity.
There are hysterics in the Keith Richards camp as Scottish authorities look into fining the guitarist $95 for smoking on stage during a show. Keith's accountant was seen tearfully clutching his ledger book and counseling him that if he doesn't get hold of himself, he's looking at a fine in each city he performs, causing him to have one one-hundred-dollar bill less per show with which to snort cocaine off a whore's ass.
The only break in this bad financial news is that there will be no fines levied at any show in Arkansas.
C'mon. They're not going to delete a plane crash skit at the Emmys just because there was a plane crash in Kentucky. No producer on board, no big star, --not even Aaron Spelling's ashes riding along in the cargo hold.
BTW, the lone survivor, James Polehinke, is a Broward man. The Sun-Sentinel's article on him has this interesting opening:
David Norris heard about the plane crash in Kentucky, but he had no idea that it hit so close to home.That's until news reporters began showing up in his Margate neighborhood Sunday looking for his neighbor James Polehinke, the crash's lone survivor.
They didn't find him, of course. He's in the hospital. Big plane crash, you know.
The forecasted track for Ernesto has shifted closer to Miami. FEMA is now under a hurricane fraud watch, with the chance of it experiencing massive hurricane fraud within the next 48 hours.
Wait 'til Jack Murtha hears about this:
Toppled dictator Saddam Hussein is being tormented in jail – by being forced to watch HIMSELF in South Park.The evil tyrant is portrayed in the movie version of the cult cartoon as the Devil’s gay lover.
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut was banned in Iraq on its launch in 1999 for showing Saddam as a homosexual.
The film featured him trying to take over the world with Satan.
He is currently behind bars in Iraq as he stands trial on charges of genocide.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone yesterday revealed Saddam is made to watch the movie “repeatedly” by the US Marines guarding him.
Speaking at Edinburgh TV Festival, Matt said: “I have it on pretty good information from the Marines on detail in Iraq that they showed him the movie.
“That’s really adding insult to injury. I bet that made him really happy.”
A clip of Saddam's South Park demise is here.
(Via Fark.)
This is what they mean about the Internet being rife with inaccurate webpages. This map, for instance, is supposed to show an "H" for all the hospitals in Florida, but is only showing the one in my hometown. It's probably some middle-schooler's project that he never finished, yet it will be out there on the web for years.
A man of reason speaks:
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended Aug. 14. Five other Israeli soldiers were killed as they pursued the militants back into Lebanon.
"We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," he said in an interview with Lebanon's New TV station.
He's still got the hostages though.
I imagine that will be resolved now that Jesse Jackson's managed to insert himself into the situation. That Jesse can do anything -- except pay for his own lunch.
Via Hambone: The New York Times Pluto crisis edition.
The People's Cube did an awesome job.
As we note the lack of human decency in those on the left who've revelled in the kidnapping of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig simply because they're employed by FOX, let's also recall the vile and disgusting attacks made on kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll by right-wing pondscum Debbie Schlussel.
I sure haven't forgotten it.
Both sides need some compass in their lives other than their politics.
Welcome home, Jill, Steve, and Olaf.
Right now he's forecast to come in north of Tampa, but of course that could change. Charley was supposed to go in through Tampa Bay, but while churning close to shore, noticed how attractive Charlotte Harbor was.
Eye of the Storm is a great hurricane blog written by FSU meteorology student Charles Fenwick. He's an excellent resource, so visit him often this hurricane season.
Like Governor Jeb always says, get ready because you'll be on your own for at least three days.
Crybabies and people who expect to be carried through life on a velvet pillow, go find another state.
UPDATE:
Tourists in the Keys, move it on out.
To assist you in keeping your blog-reading Florida-centric, BlogNet News now has a Florida blog page. Just like alligators, there are a lot of Florida bloggers out there just waiting to chew the fat with you.
Also, for any of you bloggers who haven't signed up for the 2,996 memorial project, please consider doing so. There are still some victims who don't have anyone to pay tribute to them.
Max Mayfield, retiring director of the National Hurricane Center, is worried that elected officials won't use the sense God gave a goat and evacuate their cities when giant, killer hurricanes are bearing down on them. For Katrina he took the unusual step of calling officials to impress on them the urgency of the situation. Ray Nagin continued to dither:
The first forecast that placed New Orleans in the danger zone was issued at 4 p.m. New Orleans time on Friday, Aug. 26, not long after the storm left South Florida.For the next 28 hours, official forecasts from the hurricane center pointed Katrina -- by now a major and intensifying hurricane -- directly at New Orleans. The weather office for that city issued increasingly ominous predictions of local effects.
New Orleans is a soup bowl, surrounded by water, protected only by aging levees. A massive storm surge and intense hurricane winds were certain. Many of the city's nearly 500,000 residents and one million people living elsewhere in that metropolitan area were in grave danger.
The city's readiness plan called for a mandatory evacuation at least 48 hours before landfall, but by 8 p.m. Saturday, with Katrina's center only 36 hours away, Nagin had not issued that order. Three hours earlier, he had said his lawyers were still researching the city's liability for lost business revenue if he took such action.
An evacuation order has dual value. Along with telling people who live in vulnerable areas to flee from potential harm, it communicates a sense of urgency -- even a sense of inevitability -- to everyone in the region.
And time was running out.
Acting upon the advice of Clay Stamp, a key behind-the-scenes figure who was working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and has not been widely recognized for his role in this event, Mayfield took action that went beyond the usual call of duty.
Stamp, a former emergency manager in Ocean City, Md., was serving as a member of FEMA's Hurricane Liaison Team, assigned to the hurricane center. As Mayfield wrapped up a series of television interviews that night, Stamp caught the forecaster's eye.
He said, ``I have to talk to you.''
Last week, Stamp, now Maryland's deputy director of emergency medical services, said he was reacting to the ``gravity of Katrina.''
This is how he recalled the conversation:
``Max, I've been in public safety for 30 years and I know what happens when you come down to the wire and you're sitting with an elected official and you have to deliver what he needs to make a life-and-death decision.
``There comes a point when they have to talk to the most informed official. That time has come, and you need to talk to the governors of the states.
'And Max said, `Can you get them on the phone?' And we went from there.''
Mayfield, who confirmed the account and said that Stamp deserves much of the credit, made the calls from his office, its windows still shielded by metal hurricane shutters installed a few days earlier as Katrina approached South Florida.
He told the governors that Katrina was going to rival Hurricane Camille of 1969, one of the most powerful hurricanes on record. Camille produced a 25-foot storm surge and killed hundreds of people.
''This is going to be a big, big deal,'' Mayfield told Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, according to her recollection.
Mayfield said he told Nagin: ``This is going to be a defining moment for a lot of people.''
Later, Nagin said that Mayfield's message 'scared the crap out of me. I immediately said, `My God, I have to call a mandatory evacuation.' ''
LENGTHY DELAY
Still, Nagin waited for 15 hours, finally ordering the evacuation at 11 a.m. Sunday, just five hours before the storm's outer wind and rain began arriving. Katrina's core made landfall only 19 hours after the evacuation order, but many people did heed the order and escaped in time.
''It's not like I had any secret information,'' Mayfield said. ``I'm briefing about the most recent forecast. That's what I always do, whether it's the president or you or anybody. It's just the sense of urgency that comes from these calls.''
He recalls only one other time that he reached out in that manner -- when Hurricane Lili approached Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane.
NOT THE USUAL WAY
Still, the system is not supposed to work that way. Governors, mayors and emergency managers -- aided by their advisors -- are supposed to draw proper conclusions from public forecasts issued by the hurricane center and by local weather offices.
Now, Mayfield worries that some elected officials may sit by their phones, not taking the situation as seriously as they should, waiting for a personal phone call. During hurricane conferences this past year, he repeatedly urged them not to do that.
He also worries that his staff's laser-beam Katrina forecasts could pose a problem. All forecasts carry a broad margin of error that must be understood and acknowledged. The thin black line on forecast tracks marks only the center of a wider area that could absorb a direct hit.
''I don't want anybody to think we're always going to be that close, because we're not always going to be that close,'' Mayfield said.
Thinking about the long delays in taking action in New Orleans, Mayfield grimaced. Every year, more Americans move to the coast.
''That happened with a good forecast,'' he said. ``Can you imagine if we forecast it 30 or 40 miles east of where it actually made landfall? New Orleans may not have done a thing.
``Oh my goodness, I don't even want to think about that.''
Nagin was re-elected, so hey, guess there's no hard feelings.
(Login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice)
When everyone in the foreground of a photo reminds you of Flat Fatima.
The San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Hartlauber compares Ann Coulter to a very lovely horse. He was being kind.
A lunatic gunmen is on the loose in New York, shooting people at random in full view of witnesses. What does he look like? Evidently, he's a man:
The shooter was described as a man in a green late-model Cadillac or Toyota Camry with front end damage.
UPDATE:
Matthew Colletta takes "seeing red" to a new level.
In other will o' the wisp news:
According to CBS in New York, there's a violent rapist at large in Queens who poses as a police officer. He has freckles.
NBC narrows it down a bit.
After defending news agencies' doctoring of the news, Editor & Publisher editor Greg Mitchell is caught red-handed... doctoring the news.
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is the new unbiased reporter. It records everything.
(Via Ace.)
UPDATE:
Hot Air has more.
Australian writer Graeme Blundell, noting the disappearance from the media of the image of the Falling Man shortly after 9-11, decides it's because we're as wretched as he is.
CBS4 in Miami has obtained the undercover video of Liberty City 7 ringleader Narseal Batiste spelling out his plan for the attack on the Sears Tower in Chicago and afterwards.
This guy sounds almost as bloodthirsty as the Huffington Post's Russell Shaw.
(Via Cnsnnt Dd in e-mail.)
UPDATE:
WuzzaDem doesn't care for that deep-dish, Chicago-style reporting.
Ecologist and tourism consulant Richard Ladle is worried that blogs are harming both public support for pro-environmental policies and the minds of impressionable children. What to do about these people talking about science?:
This transition from individuals consuming their environmental news from traditional sources such as newspapers and television to selecting their news from the "electronic buffet" of the internet could have profound implications for the environmental movement and, for that matter, news providers such as the BBC.The challenge has been laid down: how to effectively communicate in this new virtual world of shifting environmental values and consumption patterns?
There are no easy answers but if we don't respond quickly we run the risk of creating a generation of eco-illiterate consumers and voters at a crucial time for the Earth's diminishing resources.
In a related story, the BBC reports that global warming is now causing glaciers to grow and summers to be cooler.
Is that bad or good?
UPDATE:
The climate goes retro!
Global cooling's all poised for a comeback.
Here come the cops, dee-dee-dee-dee, here come the cops:
An American helped foil a burglary in northern England whilst watching a Beatles-related webcam over the Internet, police said Friday.The man from Dallas was using a live camera link to look at Mathew Street, an area of Liverpool synonymous with the Beatles and home to the Cavern Club where the band regularly played.
He saw intruders apparently breaking into a sports store and alerted local police.
"We did get a call from someone in Dallas who was watching on a webcam that looks into the tourist areas, of which Mathew Street is one because of all the Beatles stuff," a Merseyside Police spokeswoman said.
"He called directly through to police here." Officers were sent to the scene and three suspects were arrested.
Nice of him to call all the way over there.
I wish everybody would stop talking about "dinky Pluto". It brings up painful memories.
A new Red State Update is out:
(Via Owen in e-mail.)
If I don't get an answer to this, I'll never do a guess-whose-crypt post again.
Don't deprive yourselves, people.
UPDATE:
We have a winner!
There was an old woman who lived in a welfare shoe;
She had so many orgasms she didn't know what to do.
Her tales to the media got her busted for fraud:
The supposed single mother,
Lived with a 22-year-old lover --
Not bad for an old broad.
In related news, INDC Bill sends a link full of lies about Miracle Whip.
In memory of Knack drummer Bruce Gary who passed away Tuesday passing, you know what's coming.
Not only did their debut album "Get the Knack" sell 6 million copies, but they also had a wall-eyed lead singer long before Men At Work came on the scene.
The Saudi Arabian religious police are ever resourceful in finding ways to suck the joy out of life:
The Makkah governorate, acting on a request from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has decided to prohibit the sale of pet cats and dogs. The commission made the request after it noticed many young Saudis going out in streets with their pet dogs in violation of the Kingdom’s culture and traditions.Saudi authorities in Jeddah have begun enforcing the decision.
The commission complained of Saudi youth, apparently influenced by Western culture, bringing their pets into public places, allegedly causing distress especially to families with young children.
Arab News learned that the Jeddah Municipality had received a letter from the Makkah governorate banning sales of pet dogs and cats in the city.
Wouldn't want to make any modifications to culture and tradition. That would be bad. Just look at the pernicious inroads made by the electric light.
Being wrapped that tight makes the religious policemen prime candidates for heart attack and stroke. Of course, they could always lower their blood pressure by petting a dog...
(Via FR.)
A blow destined to be a called a classic was landed in the Republican gubernatorial debate between Tom Gallagher and Charlie Crist:
At one point, Gallagher's offensive worked: Right after Gallagher accused Crist of taking the same position as John Kerry on abortion, Crist appeared at a loss for words.
John Kerry did so much flip-flopping on the subject, Crist's brain went into overdrive trying to figure out what position he was being accused of having.
If Krist were an android, he'd have flailed his arms, gone meep meep meep, and then his head would have fallen over to the side as his circuits went dead.
A language warning, naturally.
(Via Fazed.)
The time has come for NASCAR's first handicapped driver:
The Paradox of Michael Wiley is not that he can drive a car without arms. That is only the beginning. The paradox comes from how he drives. Not the physical method by which he turns the steering wheel, which involves the wedging of his left stump into a crevice near the horn, but the things he carries - illegal drugs, sometimes - and the things he smashes - other cars, occasionally -- and the speeds he reaches -- 120 mph in a green Corvette with deputies on his tail, at least once.The Paradox of Michael Wiley, then, goes something like this:
1. Driving makes him feel free.
2. Driving puts him in jail.
Michael's latest arrest, where he claims he was sitting keyless behind the wheel of a parked car, has him up in arms.
Sometimes hitting someone in the pocketbook is the best way get their attention.
Be it Sea Breeze High or Castle Heights Military Academy,
Duane was ready to get out and get on with life.
Wail on, Skydog!
(Thanks to Cheryl for reminding me about this one.)
Why would a beautiful crypt like this:
Have a mosaic like that?:
Any ideas?
***
Congrats to Mrs. Who for correctly guessing Louis Pasteur. In his crypt, important themes relating to his work are shown in polychrome mosaics. In addition to the rabid dogs, there's a mosaic of the infected bunny rabbits who desiccated spinal cords formed the basis for the first rabies vaccine.
Thank God this wife of a drunken rickshaw puller lives under Sharia law, because life just isn't hard enough for a poverty-stricken woman in India:
Islamic clerics in eastern India have ruled that a woman divorced by her husband in a fit of drunkenness can remarry him only after she takes another husband for one day, police said Monday.Ershad, a rickshaw puller, uttered the word "talaq," or divorce, three times earlier this month while he was drunk, and when news leaked out in their village in eastern Orissa state, the clerics said they must separate.
"The couple had kept it under wraps and continued to stay together but the clerics ruled that since Ershad uttered the word talaq three times, it constituted a divorce," district police chief Shatrughan Parida said over the telephone.
Under the rules, the woman, who is a mother of three, must marry another man and obtain a divorce from him before she can be reunited with Ershad, the clerics in the local mosque said.
The clerics have said the man the woman marries temporarily must be 70 years of age, Parida said.
As your resident Sharia scholar, I can tell you that Ershad, the tempermental human taxi, has uttered these words twice before:
[2:230]If he divorces her (for the third time), it is unlawful for him to remarry her, unless she marries another man, then he divorces her. The first husband can then remarry her, so long as they observe GOD's laws. These are GOD's laws; He explains them for people who know.
Now you are in the know. No word if Ershad got a flogging for drinking.
If you're still as thirsty for triple-Talaq info as Ershad was for liquor, here's a good place to get your fill.
UPDATE:
I ran across this video while I was searching, and I imagine it will be making the rounds. It's a Czech undercover documentary called "I, A Muslim." While there are some good points made, there are also quite a few cheap shots, and cheap shots made with the intent to persuade make my brain shut down. Put a few well-placed cheap shots in the middle of an otherwise sound argument and I can't even understand English any more. Watch it for yourself, if you're so inclined, and decide for yourself.
No hat tip for this one as the site has "anti" in its title and I don't do anti. Don't define yourself by a negative: be for something.
He spent a second swinging a camera toward the action and clicking, and the rest of his life honoring the heroism of the Marines who fought on Iwo Jima.
While he repeatedly stated that any photographer could have taken that shot, he was glad it was him because his children felt he'd done something worthwhile.
The rest of us think so too. Rest in peace, Mr. Rosenthal.
UPDATE
A video that includes the Bill Genaust footage of the raising.
In addition to the laying of formal charges, the British police are also detailing items seized for the general public and dunderheads to peruse at their leisure:
Eleven people have been charged today in connection with an alleged plot to blow up several transatlantic aircraft as police revealed that they had found bomb-making equipment and martyrdom videos during their searches.In a highly unusual move, the head of Scotland’s Yard’s Anti-Terrorist branch detailed some of the items seized during the huge investigation that saw 23 people arrested on August 10 in London, Birmingham and Buckinghamshire.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke said that in dozens of raids his officers had found the martyrdom videos, improvised explosives devices, suicide notes and wills of alleged co-conspirators and an annotated map of Afghanistan.
Video of the police press conference is here.
The dolphins of SeaWorld continue in their efforts to teach humans to keep their hands to themselves. Said Dolphin Cove spokesman [whistle, five clicks], "They just let their young do what they want, including putting their grubby little mitts on any dorsal fin they please. We're tired of it."
French governments love to modify good ideas and make them their own. Thus the Gallicization of a famous Teddy Roosevelt maxim has them first blustering, then waving their gelatinous national wienie.
I agree with this editorial that it is tempting to laugh about France's latest stunt. But you must pick and choose. If you laughed every time France acted the fool, you'd wear out your clothes from the inside out:
It would be tempting to laugh about France’s paltry commitment of 200 additional peacekeepers for Lebanon, if it weren’t so dangerous. After insisting for years that they be treated like a superpower, the French are behaving as if they have no responsibility for helping dig out of the Lebanon mess.When the Security Council agreed earlier this month on a cease-fire resolution, scripted by the French and the Americans, it was with the clear understanding that Paris would head the 15,000-member international force and contribute a large number of troops. Now President Jacques Chirac’s generals have cold feet. Such a condition is highly contagious. And there are serious concerns about whether the United Nations can field enough well-trained troops without the French to ensure that Israeli troops withdraw completely and Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel do not start again.
At least part of the explanation for Paris’s bait and switch is that Mr. Chirac is a politically unpopular lame duck, unable to keep his generals in line. But the French military command has also raised some legitimate concerns about the peacekeeping force’s lack of a clear mission. Most notably the resolution (might we note again that the French helped write it?) sidesteps the question of who, if anyone, will disarm Hezbollah.
Too bad this little farce is being played out at Israel's expense.
***
Previous Postings:
France A Player
No doubt this story will cause Andrew Sullivan much heartache, as it's about secrecy, national defense, and honor. It's a little peek into the work of WWII interrogators -- the men of P.O. Box 1142:
For more than 60 years, they kept their military secrets locked deep inside and lived quiet lives as account executives, college professors, business consultants and the like.The brotherhood of P.O. Box 1142 enjoyed no homecoming parades, no VFW reunions, no embroidered ball caps and no regaling of wartime stories to grandchildren sitting on their knees.
Almost no one, not even their wives, in many cases, knew the place in history held by the men of Fort Hunt, alluded to during World War II only by a mailing address that was its code name.
But the declassification of thousands of military documents and the dogged persistence of Brandon Bies, a bookish park ranger determined to record this furtive piece of history, is bringing the men of P.O. Box 1142 out of the shadows.
(Via FR.)
The German authorities have arrested one of the two Fritzbollah wannabombers they'd been seeking. I wonder if he was the one who misplaced his grocery list:
The devices, made with gas canisters, were found on board trains in Dortmund and Koblenz, both of which had stopped in Cologne. They apparently were supposed to explode simultaneously, 10 minutes before the trains arrived at those stations.A torn scrap of paper with Arabic script listing groceries and phone numbers in Lebanon was found in clothing surrounding one gas canister. Small bags of starch, also from Lebanon and available in Germany, also were found.
I bet in the grocery store he patted his shirt pocket and said, "Dang!"
No athlete who's failed a drug test was ever guilty. See if you can pick out their real excuses from ESPN's made-up ones.
I can't wait to hear Marion Jones's excuse for testing hot for EPO.
After inserting themselves politically into the UN ceasefire resolution, France gets boots on the ground in Lebanon.
News and music-wise, something sweet to make you end your rough work-week on a high note.
This move shows a lot of promise. Since the general public becomes concerned when small children are tased (Miami) or lead away in handcuffs (St. Pete) at school, the mental health angle might be the way to go. I give Pasco County authorities an A+, a gold star, and a smiley face sticker for creativity and "thinking outside the box":
Pasco county deputies say a six-year-old boy kicked, head-butted, threatened and cursed at a Schrader Elementary special education teacher Thursday morning.Teacher aide Sharon Rinkle said she noticed a student arguing with another over an MP3 player. As she approached the children, one boy began to leave the campus and head toward a drainage ditch.
She followed him, fearing for his safety. Deputies say he called her names, cursed at her and threatened to kill her with his bow and arrow. Deputies say he then pushed, kicked and head butted her - striking her mouth. Rinkle went to the Bayonet Point hospital emergency room for treatment.
Deputies are investigating incident. A deputy took the boy to the Harbors for treatment under the Baker Act.
Just think of it as a very special 72-hour "time-out."
***
Previous postings:
"Spring Break Should Have Been This Week"
My first experience with Andrew Young came when I arrived at college the week he was to speak at the student union. He was mayor of Atlanta, and the Atlanta child murders were all the news. Across the union stage was the banner "Stop Racist Murders."
A noble sentiment in general, but the presumptuousness of attaching it specifically to this crime was galling. A few months later a non-racist Wayne Williams was arrested for the crimes.
Young is back in the limelight, this time for making an unfortunate remark while serving as an image-builder for Wal-Mart:
Andrew Young, the former United Nations ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, said Thursday he has resigned as head of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a Washington-based group that supports the retail giant.His resignation followed the publication of comments he made to a reporter about Jewish-, Asian- and Arab-owned businesses.
...
In an interview published in Thursday's Los Angeles Sentinel, Young was asked to comment on whether he is concerned that Wal-Mart causes mom-and-pop stores to close."Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," the Sentinel, a newspaper serving the African-American community, reported. "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us — selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."
Young made a lovely apology and should be given credit for resigning with grace. He's had a bit of practice resigning under fire, and it has served him in good stead.
Good luck on your next endeavor, Andrew!
(Via Lucianne.)
So, crazy plane lady, also known as Catherine Mayo, did have a screwdriver in her bag after all. It was reported she had banned items, then they said she didn't, now it's back on again.
Mayo is a peace activist who's just come back from Pakistan. The banned items plus the scary stuff she was spouting on the plane, makes it very understandable why the pilot would declare an emergency. I'm going to have to give her negative terror style-points for peeing in the aisle though. Put it all together, and at the grocery store you'd find her in the dairy case under the brand name "I Can't Believe It's Not Terrorist!"
Since she's been described a flower child, I think her flower must be lantana, as it also produces a miasma of micturition when handled.
Via Allah, a link to some of Catherine Mayo's fine newspaper writing here.
***
Previous posting:
Distraught Passenger Alert
I guess Buddhist monks don't spend all their time meditating and drawing sand paintings:
Protesters calling for an end to recent violence in Sri Lanka found themselves brawling with hardline Buddhist monks today, after a rally dubbed a "peace protest" turned unexpectedly violent.Organisers said there were around 1000 people in a park in the capital, Colombo, listening to a range of speakers when hardline saffron-robed monks opposed to concessions to Tamil Tiger rebels mounted the stage and erected banners.
Some more moderate Buddhist monks, protesting for peace, were already on the stage when punches were thrown. Soon, monks' robes and fists were flying, although no one was badly hurt, witnesses said.
Could be a whole lot of nothing. I don't think any of us who aren't on the investigating team know if this is really the case-cracker. Suspect John Karr is being alibied by his ex-wife for the time of the killing.
Here's a video of a clinchpoop Bill O'Reilly fan getting stopped in Largo for speeding and having a loud stereo (playing O'Reilly).
As you'll see in the video, O'Reilly's favorite noun seems an appropriate moniker for this fatheaded "Factor" fan who heaped abuse on an officer who had him dead to rights.
After hearing him call the officer a "doughnut-eating animal" a few times, I was disappointed he didn't escalate the confrontation further so I could watch him dance to the music of a hot taser.
Everybody's going to get pulled over sooner or later; no need to be a jerk about it.
UPDATE:
Via Dorkafork in comments, a hilarious video on the topic.
"Distraught." I guess that means she's crazy:
Fighter jets escorted a diverted London-to-Washington, D.C., flight to Boston's Logan airport Wednesday after a distraught passenger pulled out a screw driver, matches, Vaseline and a note referencing al-Qaida, an airport spokesman said.United Flight 923 landed safely, Logan airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said.
The flight, with 182 passengers and 12 crew members landed safely, UAL Corp. spokesman Brandon Borrman said. Borrman said a female passenger was spotted engaging in some "suspicious" activity, but he could not immediately say what the activity was.
State Police and federal agencies took control of the plane after it landed.
How'd she get a screwdriver on the plane, and was it a Phillips or a flathead? Just so long as she wasn't sporting a Chechen pessary...
UPDATE:
Looks like passengers dealt with a nutty lady after she started acting out. The AP's saying she had banned items? Apparently that's an inaccurate report.
Follow up:
Micturating Moonbat
Poon Lim's record remains unbroken:
Three Mexican fishermen who claim they set out months ago from Mexico's western coast have been rescued near the Marshall Islands -- 5,500 miles to the west -- after surviving on rain water and raw fish.Eugene Muller, manager of Koo's Fishing Co., said by phone Tuesday that the company's boat picked up the three on Aug. 9. Muller said the men were recovering and would be brought back to Majuro, the islands' capital, in 10 to 14 days.
``We fished, and we ate the fish raw ... because there was no fire to cook with,'' survivor Jesus Vidana, 27, told Mexico's Televisa news network in a telephone hook-up to the ship's communications system.
They once went 15 days without food but had enough drinking water because ``it rained every day,'' he said.
He said the three read the Bible as they drifted across the Pacific.
``We never lost hope because there is a God up there,'' he said, sounding hoarse and sleepy. ``Our feet are swollen, our arms are swollen ... but we're not in that bad shape.''
Vidana said he and the other two men set off on Oct. 28, 2005, from San Blas, a coastal town about 410 miles northwest of Mexico City, to fish for sharks. But mechanical problems and adverse winds quickly pushed their 27-foot boat out to sea.
``It was nine months and nine days,'' Vidana recalled. ``One of the guys on the boat has a watch that shows the months and the days.''
There was no independent confirmation of the date when the men set out from San Blas; phone calls to port officials there went unanswered.
However, the government news agency Notimex interviewed relatives of the men in San Blas, who said they had only been missing for three months.
Cheap watch. And they passed up a perfect opportunity to make notches.
Once I was faced with a small boy who snarled at me "You you you...bucket!" He had a limited vocabulary to work with (he was only three), and his lexical choice was odd, but he did manage to imbue the word with a meaning that was decidedly unwholesome and uncomplimentary.
What not been made clear in this recent George Allen flap is that while he is physically an adult, the meconium he aspirated during the birthing process damaged his left frontal lobe, restricting the development of his language ability to the infantile. If, while attempting to verbally improvise, he recalls the traumatic event that has crippled his life, we should all try to be a little more understanding -- it's the poop talking.
Portrait of the artist with muttonchop.
Wail on, Skydog!
UPDATE:
Mark's found several photos from a fellow who went to school with young Duane in Nashville. Thanks for sharing them with us, Mark!
The captions are the originals:
(1st Grade Palmer School on Leake Ave near Belle Meade Mansion... Miss Sanders is the teacher) Duane is on first row seated center.
(2nd Grade same school... Mrs. Owen is the teacher) Duane is seated 2nd from right.
(3rd Grade same school... Mrs. Jones - not pictured - is the teacher) Duane is again seated 3rd from the left.
Duane's signature is center, 2nd one from top.
Are you four times faster than a snake, with a kick with more than 1,000 pounds of force, and able to punch through someone's chest, rip out his heart, and show it to him while it's still beating? National Geographic says bring it on.
Is your Ninja death punch up to snuff?
The most odious tribe in the film is the Kzamm.
I hate the Kzamm because they're cannibals. Hate is a strong word, but I'm not going to apologize for using it, and I'm certainly not interested in any root cause for their anthropophagia. They need to stop it. It's vile to kill people for food. I'd tell you cannibal-apologists to kiss my butt in the county square, but you'd probably bite a chunk out of it. It's impossible to have a meaningful dialogue with someone who wants to eat you.
I've watched this movie 20 times and each time I pop in that video, the Neanderthal Kzamms are still eating any Cro-Magnon they can get their hands on. Cro-Magnons are not for eating! They should be able to peacefully go about their evolving without some maniac with a club bashing them in the head then chowing down on it.
Yeah, yeah, I mentioned the cannibals are Neanderthals -- irate mail from Neanderthal supporters is going to come rolling in. I don't care.
Let me spell it out for the chronically offended: I don't hate all Neanderthals, just the cannibal ones.
One fact you can't get away from, though: while not all Neanderthals are cannibals, all cannibals are Neanderthals.
At least that's how it works in the Paleolithic world of "Quest for Fire."
I'm going to miss Florida State Senator Gary Siplin while he's in the stripey hole. He's a thief, but he was a fun thief. In the end, his comic talents exceeded his criminal ones. I'll say goodbye to him here, so I can remember him as he is now -- not shivering in some train station.
If they ever do a pay-per-view of Ray Davies singing this while wearing his suicidal clown outfit, I'm in.
An enlightening look beyond the language barrier. There are many more translated clips to be seen over at MEMRI.
Interesting perspectives on the subject here and here.
(Via Country Store.)
What? A machete-wielding woman outside the White House doesn't drop her weapon when ordered, yet doesn't get tased? Those Secret Service are Officer Friendlys. Florida police would have had her so full of prongs, she'd have looked like Pinhead:
A 32-year-old woman wielding a machete was arrested Sunday outside the White House, the Secret Service said.Spokeswoman Kim Bruce said Ashwak Saleh was taken into custody and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon after she displayed a 13-inch machete on the sidewalk outside the White House.
Saleh was arrested at 2:20 p.m. and taken to Washington Metro Police Department 3rd district for processing.
Witnesses said Saleh was sitting on the sidewalk when she pulled the machete out of a leather sleeve and began sharpening it on the edge of the sidewalk.
The witnesses said passersby then alerted Secret Service officers, one of whom approached the woman and told her to "Drop the blade."
To that, Saleh said, "What are you going to do -- shoot me?"
The witnesses said the officer repeated his command, then took Saleh into custody when she wouldn't comply.
This is what a machete of the size that Asswhack had looks like.
Is baby's milk too hot? Too explosive?
A husband and wife arrested in the British terror raids allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a mid-air suicide mission.Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.
The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.
(Via FR.)
***
Previous postings:
Terrorists Thwarted In England
And neither should Hezbollah.
After years of watching car-swarming Palestinians holding up entrails for the cameras, the suggestion of Hezbollah scheduling a few corpse photo-ops doesn't faze me.
Tim Rutten of the LA Times takes a look at Lebanon photo-doping and the U.S. news media's refusal to seriously examine the issue:
There are, however, two problems here, and they're the reason this controversy shouldn't be allowed to sputter to its inglorious conclusion just yet: One of these has to do with the scope of what strongly appears to be wider fabrication in the photojournalism Reuters and other news agencies are obtaining from their freelancers in Lebanon. The other is the U.S. news media's grudging response to the revelation of Hajj's misconduct and its utter lack of interest in exploring whether his is a unique or representative case.Thus far, only a handful of relatively brief stories on this affair have appeared in major American papers. The Times picked up one from the Washington Post, which focused mainly on the politics of Johnson's website. The New York Times, which ran one of Hajj's photos on its front page Saturday, reported that it has published eight of his pictures since 2003, but none were altered. It then went on to quote other papers about steps they take to detect fraudulent images. No paper has taken up the challenge of determining whether there's anything dodgy about the flow of freelance photos Reuters and other news agencies — including the Associated Press, which also transmitted images made by Hajj — are sending out of tormented Lebanon.
And they wonder why the polls continue to show that the American public doesn't trust them to accurately report the news.
Tested and found wanting. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should probably update his resume.
I don't understand why anything was approved that didn't include the immediate release of the kidnapped soldiers. The IDF has the rest of the week-end to do some snot-pounding; let's see how that shakes down.
They do more than track Santa on Christmas Eve: NORAD transcripts and audio exerpts of 9-11.
All I can say is that I hope there's no longer any way to turn off the transponder from the cockpit, because our side was hosed without beacons.
(Via Fark.)
Well, all right little girl of action:
"A quick-thinking student jumped behind the wheel and stopped a school bus after a crash south of Tampa knocked the driver unconscious this morning.Nine middle-school students were taken to the hospital along with the bus driver and another adult. The Hillsborough County school bus collided with a milk truck just after eight this morning."
That's one heck of a collision -- and one together little kid.
UPDATE:
Her name is Mariela Hernandez and on top of being able to keep her wits about her, she's adorable. Look at those dimples.
A lot of attempted reaching out and touching someone going on. There's been another big cell-phone bust, this one in Michigan:
Around 1:00am August 11th three men purchased cell phones from the Wal-Mart store on M-81 near the corner of M-24 in Caro. Wal-Mart places a limit on the number of cell phones that can be purchased at once, that number is three. The three men allegedly bought 80 by purchasing them three at time so that an alert wouldn't be triggered by the cash register. They also paid cash.
As seems to be the case in these stories, a clerk called the police. The same three faces eight times in a check-out line would raise my suspicions too.
Don't some Wal-Marts have self-check-out machines?
From North German Broadcasting, a certain green-helmeted "civil defense worker" at Qana is exposed as something else entirely. All the world's a stage.
(Via Michelle Malkin.)
(Via Tree-hugging Sister in e-mail.)
Practice what he preaches? Not Al:
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.
Good stuff from USA Today.
Paraphrasing an old friend of mine, "Al Gore's not polluting the whole world, just his part of it."
(Via Lucianne.)
[With updates]
The British authorities have been busy:
Police say they have disrupted a major plot to blow up planes in mid-flight with explosive devices smuggled aboard as hand luggage.Sky News has been told the plan was to hit around a dozen planes over UK and US cities.
Police are said to have arrested 20 people in London - the culmination of a major covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.
Passengers trying to board international flights from the UK are not being allowed to carry on hand luggage.
The Home Office's level of security - indicating public risk - has been raised from 'severe' to 'critical'.
Sky News' Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said he understood the threat was imminent and those arrested were mainly young, British-born Asian men.
He said the alleged plan involved people boarding flights and detonating explosives on planes over UK and US cities.
The swoop followed a pre-planned intelligence led operation by the Met's anti-terrorist branch and security service.
A police statement said: "This is a major operation which inevitably will be lengthy and complex. We will provide further information as soon as possible."
Not much info now, but by tomorrow morning we'll be able to read all about this a.) harmless gang of crackpots stung by police b.) disaffected group of youths driven to lash out against a racist society. Take your pick.
UPDATE:
It was liquid explosives. The ban on all carry-on luggage begins to become more understandable. The items you are allowed to carry in your hands must be inspected then wrapped in plastic. Baby food and formula is allowed, but must first be "tasted by the accompanying passenger." CNN has good video on what the airport procedures are:
British authorities said Thursday they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the United States using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. U.S.Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the terrorists planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and detonators disguised as electronic devices.
I believe we're going with choice "b." These are disaffected "Asian" and "South Asian" youths, in other words, home-grown Muslim terrorists.
A baby at Edinburgh airport carrying his pre-tasted food supply.
UPDATE II:
President Bush names names: "Islamic fascists."
Lots of good coverage in the Times of London, including an article on some rather bitchy British Muslim community leaders.
In light of the recent exposing of widespread photo-doctoring, photographing of staged scenes presented as spontaneous events, and miscaptioning of photos that deceive the reader, Big Journalism could well use its own anti-doping agency.
Reuters is starting to remind me of the East German women's swim team. After two decades of mockery of the success of their obviously steroid-ridden team, they were at last officially revealed as scammers.
People have long suspected the media of photographic chicanery. It's said that where there's smoke, there's fire; but in Reuters' case where there's smoke, there's more smoke -- big billowy clone-stamped clouds of it -- and the fire you see is in a photo of a garbage dump of burning tires that's been staged and captioned as a war scene.
Duane at Criteria Studios in Miami.
Wail on, Skydog!
Cynthia McKinney has lost her re-election bid. My heart is broken. If ever a large hook should appear from stage left and yank Mother Sheehan off the scene, my creative spark shall be extinguished forever.
Hopefully Ms McKinney will inspire me one last time by exiting politics with the explosive Cynthia craziness I've come to love. Top of the world, Cynthia!
Betty Crocker expands its line of cake mixes and frostings to include Dust and Ashes, among other flavors.
LA Times writer Claire Hoffman goes on a "Girls Gone Wild" tour with company founder Joe Francis, and arrives at the conclusion that he's not a very nice guy.
Her tale from her own high school days of what girls would do for a laminated card from a couple of computer geeks makes for an interesting background to a story of what girls will do for an actual t-shirt.
I've no doubt that with the maturity that comes with age, these so-called "wild" girls will be able to offer the wise counsel to their own daughters to hold out for the t-shirts made of good, thick cotton, and not the cheap, flimsy kind that shrinks in the dryer.
(Via FR.)
Anyone up for joining Randy Kerr on a motorcycle trip to Mount Doom?
Two brothers were killed in separate motorcycle accidents on the same road within two hours of each other on Saturday, authorities said. One was headed to the scene of his brother's accident.Steven Kerr, 37, died shortly before 9 p.m. when his motorcycle crashed into a speed limit sign on state Route 38, state police said.
Less than two hours later and about 100 yards away, 29-year-old Jeremy Kerr, was fatally injured when his 2004 Suzuki crashed into the rear of a vehicle stopped in traffic because emergency crews were still on the scene of his brother's accident, police said.
...
Randy Kerr said that his brother Jeremy was buying his motorcycle from Steven, who had received it in a will from a friend who died in a crash on the same bike, according to the Pittsburg Tribune Review.
Speaking of journeys, I wonder where these 11 missing Egytians who came in on student visas have got to. They seem to have changed their minds about attending school in Montana. Some people just don't appreciate a big, big sky.
(Via FR.)
Victoria's Secret spills the beans with its eye-catching new website. The theme seems to be "oral."
Congrats to Rusty for submitting the winning customer suggestion for Reuters' "Build A Better Photo Department" contest.
His prize is a lovely framed photo of a jackalope.
Some Brooklyn Marines are having a hard time catching a break from their backward, unassimilated Yemenese families:
A piece of the story is found near Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, where two sets of brothers and a young cousin share a singular kinship. They grew up blocks apart, in the cradle of a large Muslim family. They joined the Marines, passing from one fraternity to another. Within the span of a year and a half, they had all gone to Iraq and come home.Ismile’s cousin Ace Montaser sensed a new distance among the men at his mosque on State Street. He described it as “the awkward eye.”
Ismile’s older brother Abe, a burly New York City police officer, learned to avoid political debates.
Their cousin Abdulbasset Montaser took a different approach. He answered questions about whether he served in Iraq with a feisty, “Yeah, we’re going to Yemen next!” He has helped recruit for the Marines and boasts about his cousin’s medal to the neighbors.
“I want every Muslim in the military to be recognized,” said Mr. Montaser, a corporal. “If not, people will feel they’re not doing their part.”
It's an interesting story. A salute to all our warriors whose families are too disfunctional to appreciate them -- they could use the recognition.
The Dixie Chicks concert tour is shaping up well. Why play Ft. Lauderdale/Miami and Tampa when it's just a hop, skip, and a jump over to Australia? With today's global marketplace, it only makes sense that they've canceled all the Florida dates.
Also, by canceling concerts in places like St. Louis, Houston, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Memphis, they've freed themselves up to add shows in markets like Saskatoon, Canada. Saskatoon's just as much in North America as Houston, as is quite accurately reflected by Live Daily, which notes that reports that the Chicks would "dramatically downscale their North American 'Accidents and Accusations Tour' were greatly exaggerated."
Darn skippy, they were.
Posting will be so light you'll think your monitor ran out of toner.
Is anyone watching this episode?
Duane Allman goes primetime as he and Ronnie Van Zant menace a couple who made a wrong turn and ended up in Rock & Roll Heaven. Ah, me.
A few less brats in battalions to be ruling the streets:
Rocker Alice Cooper, notorious for on-stage beheadings and songs about dead babies, is opening a Christian youth center in Phoenix.
Cooper, 58, is establishing a $3 million facility with Grand Canyon University that will have a school of rock and roll, a concert hall and sports activities — all be with a Christian thrust, the Arizona Republic reported Tuesday.
Cooper, the born-again son of a Christian minister and grandson of an evangelist, said the project is still in the design stage and Cooper said he's looking to add corporate sponsors to help its funding with an eye toward starting construction next year.
The singer of "Dead Babies," "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Welcome to My Nightmare" said the club called The Rock will offer a variety of wholesome activities free of charge to youth ages 12-18.
Someone did a great job of splicing together a little film set to Alice's "Generation Landslide." Check it out.
The problem with antique stuffed animals is they always have some loose thread or button that needs to be pulled:
A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, during a rampage at a children's museum."He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.
Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor.
Completely out of control, Barney had to be wrestled to the ground to make him stop. In the aftermath of his destruction of the $900,000 collection of antiques, Barney announced he'd be checking into rehab.
UPDATE: "The callousness of the Blogosphere": a panderbear speaks.
For those of you who've never seen it, The Second Draft's short video "Pallywood" gives an enlightening and quite funny lesson on how street theater gets repackaged as hard news.
Dressed to kill, and comb at the ready, one more of Duane at the prom.
Thanks to Mike for sending this one along.
Wail on, Skydog!
Dogs can sniff out cancer. Evidence that was once anecdotal, tests have now shown to be true.
