But will there be any repeat business to the pumpkin juice stands?
J.K Rowling, who became the world's first billion dollar author on the back of
Harry Potter's success, has given the go-ahead for the creation of a Florida theme park dedicated to the schoolboy wizard."The plans I have seen look incredibly exciting and I don't think fans of the books or films will be disappointed," Rowling said of the Orlando park that is scheduled to open in 2009.
...
In a statement rich in entertainment hyperbole, the builders of "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" said they planned to "create the world's first immersive Harry Potter themed environment."
This will be a special hot and bright Harry Potter themed environment. Nice and muggy for the Muggles.
I feel like I'm waiting on Christmas:
Fred Dalton Thompson is planning to enter the presidential race over the Fourth of July holiday, announcing this week that he has already raised several million dollars and is being backed by insiders from the past three Republican administrations, Thompson advisers told The Politico.
Fred's going to need to make up for lost time, but it'll be exciting watching him do it.
I don't brake for yard sales and I don't pull levers for Yankees or boiled tomatoes. The election was looking pretty grim from where I am. That is until now, when Fred Dalton Thompson lit the flame of hope within my tender heart.
"He digs himself right into their families."
-Sgt. Rich Mankewich, Orange County sheriff's sex crimes unit
The FBI wanted to know why Michael Dale Mankamyer had jumped 70 feet off a cruise ship into the hypothermia-inducing Atlantic Ocean.Then: Why was he on board alone with a 16-year-old boy who wasn't a relative of his? And why had he cruised with three other teens on separate occasions?
Mankamyer's answers prompted the FBI and local authorities to dig more.
On Tuesday, Mankamyer, 35, was arrested on sexual assault charges.
It's not easy being a kid. I wish more people would extend a corner of the blanket of parental caution they have for their daughters over to their sons. The boys could use it.
(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice.)
I love those people who when they see or hear something that makes them feel uneasy, instead of dismissing it, pick up the phone and let police know what the heck is going on:
When federal authorities announced charges against six young men accused of plotting an attack at Fort Dix, they kept secret the name of the tipster who first came forward.On Tuesday, Brian Morgenstern went public, breaking his silence on CNN's "American Morning" and later in other interviews. The 23-year-old Circuit City employee told The Associated Press he was alarmed in January 2006 when two customers brought him a video of 10 men at a firing range with handguns, rifles and what he thought were fully automatic rifles.
Morgenstern said authorities asked him not to divulge some details of the video. But they have said the men were chanting "God is Great" in Arabic.
"I was considering whether or not this was really a threat, or something serious," he said. "I came to the conclusion that that's not my job or decision to make."
The next day, after talking to his family, he went to his managers at the Mount Laurel store. A call to police led to a 15-month investigation and the May 7 arrests of six men accused of plotting the attack on Fort Dix, which is being used largely to train reservists bound for Iraq.
More Brians, please, of all ages -- at home, at work, at school, and all points in between. They make the world a nicer place.
***
Previous postings:
Pick-And-Choose Law Enforcement
Give Us Your Crazed Psychos
News Clues
The red on the manager's smock wasn't chili sauce:
A Wendy's restaurant manager almost lost his life to a disgruntled customer early Tuesday morning.The cause?
Chili sauce. The shooter wanted more.
According to Miami-Dade police, just after midnight, a man was going through the Wendy's drive-through at 18181 NW 27th Ave. As he picked up his meal, he told the attendant he wanted extra chili sauce.
When he didn't get his sauce right away, he began arguing with the attendant.
Then, when he did get his sauce, he wanted more.
The attendant told him restaurant policy prohibits a customer getting more than three packets.
The customer insisted on 10.
The female attendant complied, but the customer continued arguing.
The attendant asked the customer to pull up so the manager could come out and speak with him.
''The manager came out to inform him of company policy, and he shot at him several times,'' said Mary Walters, a Miami-Dade police spokeswoman.
The manager was struck in the left arm. He was taken to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital and is expected to recover.
The customer fled in a brown four-door vehicle with a female passenger.
Sadly, the corporate office won't appreciate the branch's rigorous adherence to policy as they sign the manager's worker's comp checks.
The moneyed eco-conscious need not make any personal sacrifices at all:
If you plant some trees, is it OK to drive a sports utility vehicle that is not fuel efficient?The question is not as silly as it sounds. People worried about global warming increasingly are trying to "offset" the carbon dioxide -- the leading greenhouse gas -- they spew into the atmosphere when they drive, fly or flick on a light. One idea popular with the eco-conscious is to have trees planted for them. You get to keep driving and flying, but those trees are supposed to suck in your trail of carbon.
Whole forests have been funded by tree-loving celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and the band Coldplay, and more modest packages tailored to typical consumers are proliferating.
But some researchers say planting trees -- while a good thing _ is at best a marginal solution to global warming. Still others decry tree planters who continue to jet off to Cannes, drive their SUVs or generally fail to reduce their fuel-hungry lifestyle. To those critics, plantings and other carbon offsets are like the medieval practice of selling indulgences to wash away sins: It may feel good, but it doesn't solve much.
"The sale of offset indulgences is a dead-end detour off the path of action required in the face of climate change," says a report by the Transnational Institute's Carbon Trade Watch.
As you might expect, heads of tree-planting offsetting organizations feel differently. Eric Carlson of the tree-planting nonprofit Carbonfund.org responds with "the worst thing is to do nothing," having apparently never heard of bloodletting, self-flagellation, drinking powdered gold, sacrificing virgins to the sun god or moon goddess, or any other useless act meant to ameliorate an unhappy condition. Not all actions are helpful. Their accepting money to plant trees so an eco-conscious jet set can feel as innocent as newborn lambs as they leave their climate-controlled mansions to wing off to Europe for a few days is a laughable practice that becomes downright irritating when it's accompanied by their clients giving conservation lectures to the hoi polloi who individually use a fraction of the resources they do.
Will Barack Obama reveal his artistry and fashion an RPG into a barack obonga? It would be like Michelangelo freeing an angel from a block of marble.
The fury John McCain would surely feel at such a ingenious riposte to his camp's claim that Obama "wouldn't know the difference between an RPG and a bong" would cause McCain to look even more like a boiled tomato than usual.
I hope Obama goes for it. He may have no military experience, but that tokin' black senator could smoke McCain any day.
When pushing a pile of trees with your Bobcat, watch out one don't push back:
Fairview Heights [Missouri] Fire Chief Bryan Doyle said Jack Weir was trying to clear a spot for a new pond when he was hurt. While Weir was pushing a pile of trees, one spun up and hit the bucket of the Bobcat, then went through his lower abdomen, Doyle said. The tree was about 4 to 5 inches around."We cut the tree — it was still 25 feet long — to get him out of the Bobcat," Doyle said. "He was sitting up in the Bobcat."
The rescuers sawed off the tree until only a 3-foot section remained. Jack Weir was transported to the hospital by helicopter with that section of tree still in him.
"One of the EMTs (emergency medical technicians) — her only job was to hold that log in Jack," Julie Weir said. "All the way up to the waiting helicopter and all the way to the hospital, she held that log in him, which was remarkable."
Julie Weir said her husband was conscious throughout the rescue. "He was very calm, but he did say a bunch of times to get it off me, just cut it off of me," she said. "But of course they couldn't do that because the pressure was what was allowing him to continue to be alive."
The Weirs didn't know until later how much worse things could have been. None of Jack Weir's major organs was hit.
The tree "entered above his left knee and scraped all the way to the inside of his left thigh and then impaled into his lower abdomen and tore all of the oblique muscles — ripped them to shreds — but didn't hit kidneys, intestines, liver, spleen, nothing — which is totally remarkable," Julie Weir said.
Another miracle is that the Bobcat stayed put after the tree went through Weir.
"He said he tried to back up the Bobcat," Julie Weir said. "My standing joke is God leaned on the back of the Bobcat and said there's only so much we can do here. Because if he had backed up that Bobcat he would have pulled that tree out of him, and he surely would have bled to death."
He's all kinds of lucky to be alive, and if they're not keeping him under sedation for the time-being, he'd have to be in all kinds of pain. His wife says he's not "with it" yet, so with those injuries and three surgeries in a week, I'm figuring that's what they're doing.
Now retired from the Army Reserve, he'd just come back last year from a tour in Iraq. Watch out if those insurgents ever leave farm machinery outside the gates.
A huge creature carrying a shell dropped by our kitchen today. That shell must be heavy -- heavy enough to give that poor reptile what looks to be a raging 'rhoid:
Marc, the Greta Garbo of the blogosphere is yet again fleeing admiring fans. You'll find one of the most original bloggers ever at Lenin's Tomb. Stay behind the velvet rope and no flash photography.
Back in the news, my exasperating former co-worker Bill:
Ex-Fort Lauderdale librarian William [C.] was all smiles Wednesday as a judge condemned him again to die for the 1997 murder of girlfriend Gloria Gomez.Broward Circuit Judge Alfred J. Horowitz ruled after reading [C.]'s chilling, handwritten 25-page confession. In it, [C.] repudiated his trial defense that the crime was not premeditated, explaining how he had planned for a month to murder Gomez.
''I am writing this letter to disclose the truth about the murder, and why I believe I should have been sentenced to death,'' [C.] wrote.
Horowitz originally sentenced [C.] to death in 2002.
Last October, in a 5-2 vote, the Florida Supreme Court overturned [C.]'s sentence -- faulting Horowitz for rejecting expert testimony from six witnesses who claimed [C.] was too mentally ill to control himself after Gomez rejected him.
They might have been able to better make their point that he was touchy about rejection had the defense not gotten excluded from testimony the fact that he'd also hammered to death the last girl who told him she needed her space.
The judge reconsidered that testimony, but found it was far outweighed by the cruel nature of the crime. The Supreme Court wrote that [C.] beat Gomez 57 times with two hammers, then stabbed her 87 times. The medical examiner said Gomez was alive throughout 143 of the 144 those wounds.[C.], with two public defenders, served as his own lawyer Wednesday.
Even with a law degree he still has a fool for a client.
The day the crime was discovered, the first police officer who came in to talk to us was there but a minute, and it was a long time before another came by to give us more info. That meant we had a couple of hours to ponder his question "Does he wear earrings?"
[C.] met Gomez, a native of Colombia, in 1996 while working at the Broward County Library. She stayed with [C.] for a time, but on July 11, 1997, after they split up, he lured her to his Victoria Park apartment by telling her he was dying of cancer.''Gloria fell for it completely,'' [C.] wrote.
[C.] said he surprised Gomez with a hammer blow from behind as she was going through a closet looking for her dresses. After clubbing her to the floor, he wrote, ``I began slowly and unhurriedly to stab her, beginning at her lower tummy and working my way up.''
[C.] explained to Horowiz he previously excluded ''everything that would indicate a premeditated murder.'' He also told the judge, ``At no time did I ever have a psychotic break from reality.''
He wins an appeal on Death Row, then goes and tells the judge he murdered in cold blood. That was a rather crazy thing to do.
Even though [C.] told Horowitz he deserved to die, he also asked the judge in his letter to ``grant me a life sentence.''But it didn't seem to matter to [C.] when Horowitz instead ordered him shipped back to Death Row. Walking out of court, [C.] wore a beige jumpsuit, silver chains and a big, toothy grin.
Sadly for me, I was on Bill's crew. When he was a no-show for work that Saturday, that left the burden on me and two little-old-lady co-workers. When they became so worried about him they left work to check his apartment, I was forced to bear the entire workload for our floor. To make matters even worse, the next day he and I were scheduled to be the skeleton crew for our department, with a few, sometimes clueless, outsiders brought in to fill out our complement. I ended up being on the desk all day. Bill's first weekend on the lam had me working my behind off! So when you think of it, I was his victim too.
This lady is worried her actions make her look like an animal:
Joann Godt tortured Jay Godt. Police say she cut his genitals, pulled his teeth out and eventually beat him to death. Neighbors witnessed the verbal and physical attacks outside their mobile home in Belleville. If Jay didn't mow the lawn correctly, neighbors say she punched him in the head with her fist. Co-workers at the Belleville News Democrat noticed Jay looked bad. He was hospitalized about six weeks before he died. Police could tell he had been beaten then, but Jay blamed a neighbor.Friends say Jay was afraid of Joann. In July 2005, Joann beat Jay to death with a bat. His legs, hands, and ribs were broken. His head suffered blunt trauma. Police videotaped their interview with Joann in the hospital. She admitted to killing him, but would later recant her confession after she was charged with first degree murder. Joann eventually plead guilty to second degree murder and received a 20 year prison sentence.
Who was Jay Godt? Her husband. As the saying goes, she was killing him for years.
Are you to blame for the death of St. Louis Cardinals' pitcher Josh Hancock? Judging from this lawsuit (pdf), you might be. See if you can spot all the potential defendants in this story:
The father of Josh Hancock filed suit Thursday, claiming a restaurant provided drinks to the St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher even though he was intoxicated prior to the crash that killed him.The suit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court by Dean Hancock of Tupelo, Miss., does not specify damages. Mike Shannon's Restaurant, owned by the longtime Cardinals broadcaster who starred on three World Series teams in the 1960s, is a defendant in the case along with Shannon's daughter, Patricia Shannon Van Matre, the restaurant manager.
Other defendants include Eddie's Towing, the company whose flatbed tow truck was struck by Hancock's sport utility vehicle in the early hours of April 29; tow truck driver Jacob Edward Hargrove; and Justin Tolar, the driver whose stalled car on Interstate 64 was being assisted by Hargrove.
So a restaurant and its employee served too many drinks to an "involuntarily intoxicated" Hancock, but why are these other defendants to blame?:
The lawsuit claimed Tolar was negligent in allowing his vehicle to reach the point where it stalled on the highway, and for failing to move it out of the way of oncoming traffic. A police report said the car became stalled when it spun out after being cut off by another vehicle.Police said Hargrove noticed the stalled vehicle and stopped to help. The report said he told officers he was there five to seven minutes before his truck was hit by Hancock's SUV.
So many guilty people whose blood-stained hands need to be reaching for a wallet. I don't know much the millionaire player's family expect to get out of a guy who drives a Geo Prizm, but they're willing to give him a squeeze.
Here's one fellow though who's not guilty:
Authorities said the 29-year pitcher had a blood content of nearly twice the legal limit for alcohol in his system when he crashed into the back of the tow truck. He was also speeding, using a cell phone and wasn't wearing a seat belt, Police Chief Joe Mokwa said after the accident. Marijuana also was found in the SUV.
It seems to me the person responsible for the death of Josh Hancock has already payed with his life.
Toys that die:
Every $11.00 toy comes with a secret code on its tag that allows children to log-on to the Webkinz website to adopt the virtual pet, to feed it, dress it and love it.
...
Of course with every obsession comes a potential dark side. Therapist Beth Roman takes issue with the fact that if you don't buy another Webkinz within a year, your pet expires. She also worries about children as young as pre-schoolers spending too much time playing with these virtual pets online."These toys die. In order to keep them alive you have to pay more money," Roman said. "If you have a lot of money or alot of guilt, the game will go on."
Audacity! That's thinking outside the toybox.
Another in the series of Duane fishing. The real series, not that other one.
What kind of tree is Duane? A tall, skinny cypress with Spanish moss standing in the cool, swampy water.
Wail on, Skydog!
I'm sure The Six Million Dollar Mansioned Man meant to turn over his speaker's fee to the local food bank and just forgot:
John Edwards has an example to teach University of California at Davis students how to avoid poverty — charge $55,000 for a speech.That's how much the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate negotiated for his fee to speak to 1,787 people at the taxpayer-funded school in January 2006, according to financial disclosures.
According to Joe Martin, the public relations officer for UC Davis' Mondavi Center, the fee for a speech entitled, "Poverty, the Great Moral issue Facing America," was worth it to school officials.
Yeah, they'd been dying to see what a $400 haircut looked like.
There are updates on the Missouri kidnapping case. The wheels of justice are doing their slow, fine grind with kidnapper Michael Devlin being returned to the scene of the crime in Washington County yesterday to answer the latest and final charges there in his crimes against young Shawn Hornbeck. 
He'd already answered charges in Franklin County for the kidnapping of Ben Ownby. These two cases are on track and should be rolling along fairly close together. His further prosecution for crimes against both boys in St. Louis County would follow after, and the Federal case involving the victimization of Shawn alone will go last.
My hope is that there will be a plea bargain, so that Ben doesn't have to go through two trials, and Shawn four. However, when you're dealing with a narcissistic sociopath defendant who wants to tell "his side of the story," you might not get anything so humane. It's not as if he's suddenly going to start taking his victims' feelings into consideration.
The happiest update is that the boys are enjoying life safe in their own homes, and are receiving therapy. Ben, held for four days, is back in school and took up his life where he left off. Shawn, held for over four years and all that time without schooling, is being tutored at home. There is currently a bill in the Missouri state senate to pay for tutoring for young crime victims such as Shawn, who were deprived of the education the state would have provided and who clearly cannot be dropped back into the public education system.
Remembering my teaching internship and the "nest" an English teacher had built in her office for a sexually abused boy going through a trial against his scout master to pass his school days, I know how hard it must be for a kid to concentrate on academics when he's going through so much personal turmoil. It seems amazing now that that was something a teacher had to take on herself.
This kid has excellent timing:
A ten-year-old southeast Missouri boy is cited in juvenile court after allegedly punching his teacher in the face.It happpened last week at Alma Schrader Elementary School in Cape Girardeau. Authorities say the boy, who has a history of behavior problems, became disruptive in the classroom and first struck the teacher in the leg.
Soon, the boy began throwing things. When the teacher told him he needed to stop making bad choices, the boy allegedly punched her in the face.
So who's the better comedian, him or Jim Jones? They're both good at punchlines.
I remember this from the I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel went glove shopping and let Ricky and Fred babysit little Ricky. I think they gave him a mohawk first though:
Police in Galveston say a 19-year-old man has confessed to putting his 2-month-old daughter in a microwave and turning it on.Joshua Mauldin of Arkansas was put in the Galveston County jail early Wednesday. Mauldin, whose bond is set at $250,000, is set to go before a grand jury Wednesday.
...
At the time the child was injured, her mother and Mauldin's mother were picking up dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Lucy divorced Ricky after this episode, calling him a "monster," and focusing on building a new, safe life for the burned and badly coiffed little Ricky far away from his demented father. This Galveston mom's adding a little twist to keep things fresh.
Kid's a hundred years from now will hear that and ask "Who's Rudy?"
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani reported a whopping $16.1 million in earned income over the past 16 months, most of it in speaking fees, according to financial documents filed Wednesday.Democratic hopeful John Edwards reported earned income of $1.25 million, the biggest single source of which was a hedge fund that employed him part time. He and his wife, Elizabeth, reported $29.5 million in assets, including millions invested in the hedge fund _ the Fortress Investment Group.
Giuliani's report provides the first detailed picture of his vast holdings and income since his term as mayor of New York ended more than five years ago. Since then, Giuliani parlayed his image as an in-charge mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks into lucrative speaking fees and business enterprises.
He reported $13 million to $45 million in assets, including his share in Giuliani & Co., a partnership that provides an array of consulting services. He also listed income from dividends and interest on many of those investments of at least $411,332 and as much as $3.3 million.
The reports were part of a flurry released Wednesday by the Federal Election Commission. The deadline for filing was Tuesday, though several candidates received 45-day extensions, including Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Mitt Romney, John McCain and Tommy Thompson. Republican Jim Gilmore asked for and received a 30-day grace period.
I'm all for anybody's earning an honest buck, and I like Rudy. Minting a million a month from the events of 9/11 is still going to get my attention though. Churchill should have died a bazillionaire at that rate.
This sounds like an X-File:
Law enforcement and fire officials are investigating an apparent sword and arson attack yesterday evening at a church in Lakeview Terrace that left one man with slight injuries.LAPD Officer Karen Smith says police received reports at around 6:45 that a 35- to 40-year-old sword-wielding man with tattoos on his face and arms had barged into All Nations Church.
She says the suspect attacked a man who was practicing drums in a room at the church, leaving him with a superficial two-inch cut to his arm. The suspect then set several fires in the church before fleeing when police arrived.
Smith says officers pursued the man on foot into a storm drain, where he evaded capture.
She says a task force of local and federal agencies is investigating the incident.
A quick-thinking parishioner drew a sketch of the scene:
She can't sleep on the cold, hard carpet.
She still doesn't understand why INDC Bill cut off her leg. But then, who can?
There's a bit of an update (and analysis) on that strange story we had out of E. Ft Myers a while back about eight "skinned" skeletons they found buried. We knew it would take a long time to get official answers because anthropologists are having to study the bones, and you know there's no such thing as a fast anthropologist. In fact I don't think I can even think of slower-paced job than theirs. Brush, brush. Look. Ponder. Reflect. Brush, brush. What we have heard through back channels though is that all the bodies were male, and you know what that means. That's right, it means they found another of the dumping grounds for a serial killer they already caught and put on Death Row and who I knew nothing about 'cause I've been away from home so long.
So we had our first serial killer and I was completely out of the loop. He was not a local boy -- that would be an impossibility-- but rather out of the Carolinas. The quaint moniker for him was "The Hog Trail Killer," given because to a reporter anything in SW Florida that isn't sidewalk must surely be hog trail. Apparently the Amidst The Trees Killer found it convenient to do both his killing and disposing away from prying eyes, and he might have been on to something there.
The Crime Library has a good write-up on the Flora And Fauna Killer, in real life less-colorfully known as Daniel Conahan. The best part of the story: The investigators first learned who their suspect was when they visited a man in prison who had escaped him. He'd escaped Conahan by taking off in The Loden Weald Killer's car at the last minute rather than heading into the woods with him. A stolen-car report was filed and the would-be victim was sent to prison for auto theft.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell collapsed at his campus office and died Tuesday after a career in which the evangelist used the power of television to transform the religious right into a mighty force in American politics. He was 73.
As a young woman I saw him speak once when he was in Ft. Myers. I was underwhelmed. I grew up seeing the visages of radical priests splashed across the news and to me this was the Janus face of the same phenomenon: ministers doing something a little more exciting than what their calling was intended for, which is tending to the spiritual needs of their Christian flock and spreading the Gospel of Christ. In one of my mother's fever dreams she wanted me to attend Falwell's college. My main objection was the mandatory attendance at televised Sunday services, which seemed to me forced students to serve as props for the camera. Perhaps a bit prickly, I didn't think it was his business whether I attended his church or another Baptist church in town. In a more conciliatory mood, the conclusion I came to is that while mandatory attendance of chapel at a religious school is understandable, having television cameras there that pan out to the crowd isn't.
Taking a page from the Fred Phelps school of disrespect, John Edwards seeks to politicize ceremonies meant to honor those fallen in conflict. Not surprisingly, the American Legion objects:
Here is a surprise, I am not going to defend the Iraq war. I won’t even explain the importance of the war on terrorism. VA budget? Not today. That’s because this column is about Memorial Day, a hallowed day that should be about honoring the more than one million men and women who died in the service of this nation in wars and conflicts dating back to 1775. It should be above politics. Period.Yet one presidential candidate has blatantly violated the sanctity of this most special day. I recently received an e-mail from a group called “Supportthetroopsendthewar.com.” It included a video of former Sen. John Edwards. He calls on Americans to use Memorial Day weekend as a time to “bring an end to this war.” Shockingly, the video is titled “A Memorial Day Message from John Edwards,” with the smoking gun note, “Paid for by John Edwards for President.” Moreover, the e-mail recommends that Americans bring signs with the message “Support the troops, End the War” to local Memorial Day parades. Revolting is a kind word for it. It’s as inappropriate as a political bumper sticker on an Arlington headstone.
Edwards is hardly the first politician from either political party to exploit this day, a holiday that was consecrated with the blood of American heroes. But the e-mail makes me sick nonetheless. It needs to stop. This isn’t about Edwards, it’s about everybody. As national commander of The American Legion, I implore all candidates to refrain from politicking on Memorial Day.
The families of those killed in war should not be led to believe that their loved ones died for a less-than-worthy cause. They died because they took an oath to defend this nation and its Constitution. The sacrifice is the same whether it’s for a “popular war” or an unpopular one. Memorial Day should be an occasion to bring Americans together to honor these heroes.
It brings to mind the words of Army Sergeant First Class Jack Robison, who recently wrote from Iraq, “Sometimes I think God must be creating an elite unit in heaven, because He only seems to select the very best soldiers to bring home early.”
If you want to honor these heroes, visit a veterans cemetery on Memorial Day. Attend a parade without the divisive political signs. Make cards for the comrades of the fallen that are recuperating in military and VA hospitals. Lay a wreath at the stone of a departed hero.
We Americans need to remember why Memorial Day is special. It’s not about picnics or trips to the beach. It’s not about making pro- or anti-war statements. It’s not about supporting political candidates. It’s about honor, duty and the ultimate sacrifice. It’s about people who have decided that the United States is worth dying for.
Memorial Day is meant to honor the soldiers from all our wars who have made the ultimate sacrifice. There is only one message appropriate for that day and it is "Thank you." People have 364 other days in the year and millions of other locales where they can make their point.
Scientists flock to study the skulls of the INDC Bill famiglia.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook has "bully victim" as a wide-open new line of work. It requires no training, has a great income, and you work from wherever you want:
A bullied teenager will receive substantial damages and an income for life after a Supreme Court judge found NSW educational authorities failed in their duty of care to deal with playground assaults and bullying.Benjamin Cox's mother, Angela, sued the State of NSW on behalf of the Hunter Valley teenager.
He will receive at least $220,000 for pain and suffering.
She said the bullying, which started in infants school, had resulted in her son having little education and being unable to work.
Outside court his barrister, Dennis Wheelahan, QC, said the judgment had implications for the education system.
"The implications are that pupils in our school systems who are the subject of this type of conduct [if liability is established] can expect to recover substantial damages as is the case for Benjamin Cox."
In her judgment, delivered today, Justice Carolyn Simpson commented that Mr Cox's "adolescence has been all but destroyed; his adulthood will not be any better. He will never know the satisfaction of employment. He will suffer anxiety and depression, almost certainly, for the rest of his life".
During the case, the judge heard that, while at Woodberry Public School in 1995, Mr Cox was "throttled" by an older boy, and received compensation from the Victims Compensation Tribunal over the attack. By the time he went to high school, his mother said he thought school a "scary proposition".
"He didn't like crowds, he didn't like teachers, didn't like the work," she said.
The court heard Mr Cox, who is now 18, was a virtual recluse. He had only completed schooling up until the end of year 7, and an attempt at home schooling had failed.
His mother said he rarely went out, had no friends, and was on a pension.
"He just locks himself in his room playing PlayStation games," she said.
AAP reports: While the exact amount of damages has not yet been calculated, Mr Cox's legal team expects it to be about $1 million, thought to be a record in a school bullying case.
There's so much that is wrong with this situation. That "an attempt at home schooling failed" tells me there's as much bad parenting going on as anything else. She's repeatedly sued the schools for damaging her son, maybe one day he'll sue her for doing the same.
Do you know what it's like to live in a cage with a tiger? Martin Andrews does. In 1973 the then thirteen-year-old Virginia boy spent eight days in a 4' by 8' underground box with his abductor, Richard Ausley. In survival mode, the prey studied the predator for clues that would aid in his survival. Martin talked for all he was worth to stave off death, and inside he prayed constantly. The sands of time (and good counseling) have scoured his narrative of raw emotion and what is left is a clear window into the mind of a boy trying to keep himself alive.
While the written story is interesting on its own, the video interview caught my ear for the artistry of his narration. His recounting of his ordeal is in the tradition of Southern storytelling, with its sense of timing and irony, and interesting turns of phrase. It's a harrowing story and one told very well.
Pt. 1 Pt. 2 Pt. 3 Pt. 4 Pt. 5 Pt. 6 Pt. 7
Justice is sometimes served in the most unusual way:
The cousin of famed skier Bode Miller who shot and killed a Franconia [New Hampshire] police officer was then shot and killed by a witness who used the slain officer's .45 caliber gun to do it.Liko Kenney, 24, of Franconia, convicted in 2003 of assaulting Franconia Police Cpl. Bruce McKay, shot him dead Friday night and then ran over him with his Toyota, authorities said yesterday at a Concord press conference.
Passer-by Gregory W. Floyd, 49, a former Marine, witnessed the shooting and came to the officer's aid.
Floyd positioned his pickup truck to shield the fallen officer, grabbed McKay's .45 caliber gun and shot Kenney, who was in his car, holding his Colt .45 caliber handgun.
The passer-by had his adult son in the car with him. I imagine he's looking at dad in a whole new way this weekend.
Condolences to the family of officer McKay -- he sure didn't deserve to get shot in the back four times.
Pariahfishing requires patience and optimism. You spend many hours waiting, sometimes in vain. You don't mind though, because you know there will always be another day, another tournament, and another chance to land the big one:
It started with a tip. A fisherman and his son told police they had seen [Gary Lee] Jones on the lake on Saturday, April 28, the day before the tournament. Many fishermen make practice runs. But Jones spent his time next to a floating duck blind, raising officers' suspicions.Just before dusk, after the lake was clear, state conservation agent Mic Plunkett and a state water patrol officer set out in a boat to investigate. They found two live bass with red nylon cords looped through their mouths and tied to the duck blind, Plunkett said. They marked the fish, with Plunkett punching a tiny hole in one fin on each bass. They formed a plan, but they needed to hurry.
At 6 a.m. the next day, the 2007 Angler's Choice/Bass Quest Tournament kicked off.
Thirty-eight boats pushed off into Lake Wappapello, a sprawling man-made lake. Everyone fished in pairs, except for Jones. He told organizers his daughter was unable to make it.
Jones headed for the duck blind cove in his red Ranger bass boat and waited until the other competitors had cleared out, according to authorities.
Plunkett and Jeff Johnson of the water patrol, dressed in camouflage, waited on shore about 60 feet away. Plunkett lay behind a log with a video camera — also camouflaged — poking over the top.
They watched as Jones reached into the water, pulled up the bass, cut the line and placed the fish in his boat's aerated holding tank, according to Plunkett.
At the official weigh-in that afternoon, Jones turned in four bass for a total of 11.55 pounds — good enough for second place. He also had a single five-pound fish to take third in the Biggest Bass category. Jones was awarded a silver trophy plaque and his check. Organizers snapped his photo while authorities inspected Jones' catch. They found the marked fish.
Rodney Enderle of Jackson, Mo., stood in the crowd. He finished in 12th place. He looked around and noticed several water patrol officers and deputy sheriffs. "I guess everybody is interested in bass fishing this year," Enderle recalled thinking.
As Jones accepted congratulations, a water patrol officer stepped forward. Jones was under arrest. Word of the undercover operation quickly spilled through the crowd. Applause broke out. Several fishermen shook the officers' hands.
"I've never had that large of a crowd be that enthusiastic about someone getting arrested," Johnson said. "That was something different."
His reputation in tatters, Mr. Jones is having a hard time living in his little town these days. Meanwhile Mic and Jeff, policing a sport where every tournament winner has to take a lie-detector test, bide their time, knowing it won't be long before they land another big one.
Sexist. Racist. Ageist. According to CBS News Senior Vice President Linda Mason, that's you if you're not watching Katie Couric on the ratings-deprived CBS Evening News:
“I’m just surprised at how, almost 30 years after I worked on the “Evening News” as the first woman producer, that Katie is having such a tough time being accepted by the public, which seems to prefer the news from white guys, and now that Charlie’s doing so well, from older white guys. I guess they want the reassurance of a Walter Cronkite.I had no idea that a woman delivering the news would be a handicap. And I’m afraid that Katie’s paying a price for being the first woman. But I think it’s a great trail that she’s blazing, and I think if the broadcast continues to be as good as it has been, if we continue to break news, if we continue to tell interesting stories, people will start to watch. It takes time, I think. But I was surprised that there was an obvious connection between a woman giving the news, and the audience wanting to watch it.
It's sad that prejudice has blinded so many to Katie's gravitas.
When I saw on another state's news site "Armless, One-Legged Driver Leads Chase," I knew it could only refer to Florida's very own Michael Wiley:
Authorities were led on a high speed vehicle chase by an armless, one-legged man, and they said this wasn't the first time the 40-year-old eluded police.
Michael Francis Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He spent time in prison for kicking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. He led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998.
On Tuesday, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, Garman said.
Wiley was arrested the next day on charges of fleeing from police and habitually driving without a license. He also is awaiting trial on separate drug charges and traffic violations. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Defense attorney John Hooker said his client has paid off previous traffic fines that got his license suspended and tried to get a new driver's license, but he was rebuffed by state officials. Wiley's license has been revoked so many times it is now a felony to drive.
"What makes him do it?" Hooker said when asked why Wiley keeps getting behind the wheel. "I think it's an urge he has that makes him feel as important and as good as anyone. It gives him a sense of self-esteem."
Hooker said he had not had a chance to talk to Wiley about the most recent charges.
Even before Wednesday's arrest, prosecutors were seeking to send Wiley to prison for at least five years for felony drug and traffic charges.
"He has a hideous record," Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis said after an August 2006 arrest. "It's just got to end."
Wiley was being held in the Pasco County jail on $500,000 bond.
He drives like the Dukes of Hazard boys, but can he hood-slide like them?
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Previous Postings:
Handicapable
Career-Change Needed
Sanctuary cities: haven for jihadis:
Three brothers charged in the alleged Fort Dix terror plot have been living illegally in the U.S. for more than 23 years and were accepted as Americans by neighbors and friends who had no idea they would scheme to attack military bases and slaughter GIs.A federal law enforcement source confirmed to FOX News that the three — Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23 — also accumulated 19 traffic citations, but because they operated in "sanctuary cites," where law enforcement does not routinely report illegal immigrants to homeland security, none of the tickets raised red flags.
The brothers entered the United States near Brownsville, Texas, in 1984, the source said, which would put their ages at 1 to 6 when they crossed the border.
19 interactions with law enforcement as illegals. Who exactly is minding the store? Besides video store clerks, I mean.
***
Previous postings:
Give Us Your Crazed Psychos
News Clues
An update on our lovely guests in Jersey:
One drove a cab, three were roofers. Another worked at a 7-Eleven and a sixth at a supermarket. Their alleged plot to attack Fort Dix was foiled by another blue-collar worker: a video store clerk.Six foreign-born Muslims were accused Tuesday of planning to assault the Army base and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
The unidentified clerk is being credited with tipping off authorities in January 2006 after one of the suspects asked him to transfer a video to DVD that showed 10 men shooting weapons at a firing range and calling for jihad, prosecutors said.
"If we didn't get that tip," said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, "I couldn't be sure what would happen." FBI agent J.P. Weis called the clerk the "unsung hero" of the case.
Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting the men to any international terror organizations such as al-Qaida. But several of them said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," prosecutors said in court papers.
Weis said the U.S. is seeing a "brand-new form of terrorism," involving smaller, more loosely defined groups that may not be connected to al-Qaida but are inspired by its ideology.
"These homegrown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so. They operate under the radar," Weis said.
Four of the arrested men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Jordan and one came from Turkey, authorities said. Three were in the United States illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay in this country permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.
The six - Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; Eljvir Duka, 23; Serdar Tatar, 23; and Agron Abdullahu, 24 - were ordered held without bail for a hearing Friday.
A very long and interesting article follows from there, It wouldn't be complete though without a jack-in-the-box Muslim lawyer popping up to say this has nothing to do with Islam. This one's the silliest yet, saying that using the term "Islamic militant" sends the message that the two are synonymous -- as if the mention of "rye bread" suddenly makes you forget about the existence of whole wheat. These men were from three different foreign countries -- in their case Islam was the unifier. That they yelled "Allahu Akbar" and not "Remember the Alamo!" while they honed their marksmanship offers no small clue as to what they're about.
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Previous postings:
News Clues
A slicked-up Duane in Central Park, 1971.
Wail on, Skydog!
Here's a short video interview of Roger Hawkins and David Hood talking about what it was like to work with Duane at FAME studios.
Also, below the jump, an MSNBC article written on the 35th anniversary of Duane's passing.
35 years gone, Duane Allman still among best
Oct 30, 2006
No matter what the circumstances, deaths in the world of rock and roll tend to become romanticized over the years. It has less to do with the tragedy itself than it does with the warm memories that the music of the artists in question have continued to provide, and the sharp reality that there will be no more such music on the way.
What creative frontiers would Jimi Hendrix have explored if he lived beyond the age of 27? Where would Janis Joplin’s music have taken her if she didn’t pass away at 26? Exactly how would we have been entertained if Jim Morrison, Jeff and Tim Buckley, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, John Bonham, Sid Vicious, Keith Moon, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Otis Redding, Berry Oakley, Kurt Cobain, Bob Marley, Gram Parsons and Frank Zappa, as well as many others, had been allowed to hang around a little while longer?
Outside of niches occupied by guitar fanatics and Southern blues-rock devotees, the name Duane Allman is often ignored. He wasn’t flamboyant. He didn’t live the stereotypical life of rock and roll excess. His most notable work came either as a session player for other artists, or as an unassuming member of a band he co-founded with his brother Gregg. And he is probably recognized the most for his work on the slide guitar, practically a lost art today.
Yet Duane Allman — who died about a month shy of his 25th birthday, on October 29, 1971, 35 years ago — was one of the most influential guitar players of his generation. His untimely passing in a motorcycle accident only a few months after the release of the now classic album, “The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East,” was as much of a blow to the world of rock as any of the aforementioned icons.
Man on a mission
The blues represents the fertile ground from which rock sprouted, and Duane Allman was on a mission from an early age to become a respected part of a tradition that included guitarists like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. He first grabbed a guitar at the age of 13, got an electric guitar from his mother on his 14th birthday and became entranced.
Eventually he was discovered by the owner of a recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Ala., which led to a full-time gig playing for other artists. But it also allowed Duane to be discovered by more prominent members of the rock world, including Eric Clapton, who heard him wail at the end of Wilson Pickett’s cover of “Hey Jude” and just had to meet him.
Clapton and Duane Allman met up and played together in the studio after the Allman Brothers Band performed a show in Miami in 1970. That led to their collaboration in the seminal Derek and the Dominos’ album, “Layla.” The bond between Slowhand and Skydog became so strong that Clapton asked him to become a permanent member of his band. Of course, the bond between brothers proved to be stronger, and Duane politely turned down the invitation.
While Clapton is exceptionally good on “Layla,” Duane Allman’s slide transformed the album from an earnest homage to the blues that would provide filler during a lull in Clapton’s career into one of the landmark works of rock and roll.
The Allman Brothers Band and Derek and the Dominos both began to heat up in 1970, bringing Duane the attention he deserved. But it didn’t last long. Riding his motorcycle one day in Macon, he couldn’t swerve quickly enough to avoid a truck that had made a turn in front of him. He died a few hours after impact.
Clear and precise, like his playing
The memories of Duane Allman are clear and precise, just like his playing. There were few bells and whistles associated with him, no fuzz or tremelo effects to enhance the natural sound of his Gibson Les Paul. His picking was pure, much like that of the blues gods he emulated.
That unadulterated style reflected his personality. He was, by almost all accounts, a good-natured soul with a big heart and a carefree spirit. It seemed that whoever came into contact with Duane Allman liked him, although he wasn’t very tolerant of nonsense and especially media attention. He was a pleasant individual, but a forceful and intense presence as well.
Duane Allman wasn’t just a blues mimic. He developed his own Southern-fried rocking version of the blues. Fellow blues greats like Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughn — two Texans with generous splashes of Southern Comfort on their licks — became known more for the speed in which their hands picked and their fingers moved across the frets, although they are considered geniuses in their own rights.
Duane’s strength was in his blues instincts. He chose his notes carefully, allowing space to breath between them, but still capable of hitting the accelerator when necessary and wailing. While some guitarists overwhelm a song with their power, Duane’s playing perfectly complemented the songs he played on while still projecting strength. Some of his long improvisations exhibit impeccable blues, rock and jazz influences, which is why “At Fillmore East” is such a staple in most music fans’ libraries.
The South owes a special debt of gratitude to Duane Allman and his brother Gregg. Naturally, there had been lots of acts that emerged from that region that went on to gain acclaim. But before the Allman Brothers Band, there hadn’t really been a rock band from the South that became a true success story. As a result, Duane and Gregg became inspirations to legions of Southern musicians. Over the years, the work of the Allman Brothers Band has influenced lots of artists, most notably the Marshall Tucker Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
He had the confidence and passion of an accomplished artist, but he also radiated the loyalty and trust of a good brother and friend to those who admired him. Although it has been 35 years since he passed, his presence is still felt and his music is still relevant.
Weather girl Kate Bilo loves everything about the weather, and it shows in her weather girl video loop. Let her weather blog (and monsoons) inspire in you "a pure, and unadulterated joy at the wonders of nature."
(Via Chris Judd in e-mail.)
Man from Lone Sock State seeks mate:
A Belleville [Illinois] man whose hankering for women's hosiery has landed him in prison is in trouble again -- once more for his apparent lust for leggings.St. Clair County prosecutors charged James Dowdy on Friday with felony attempted burglary for his uninvited visit of a parked car. He also was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for dropping socks in a neighborhood where witnesses say they saw him slinking.
The 36-year-old Dowdy is jailed on $50,000 bond.
Dowdy has been sentenced to prison in 2004, 1997 and 1994 for various periods, all reportedly for burglary-related charges tied to his efforts to get women's socks.
Belleville police Captain Don Sax says there's been no evidence Dowdy is threatening, and that he seems to be only after women's socks.
I thought Hosiers were from Indiana? In any case, it's quite a yarn.
On those days when I want to imagine myself a Soviet citizen, forced to read between the lines of the censored Pravda to find out what's going on, I turn to CBS:
Six nationals of the former Yugoslavia were arrested early Tuesday on charges they plotted to attack the Fort Dix Army base and "kill as many soldiers as possible," federal authorities said.The plot was in the planning stages only and no attack was imminent, CBS News has learned. Officials said this is more of a "homegrown" plot with no ties to al Qaeda or any other international terrorist organization, CBS News reports.
"...Nationals of the former Yugoslavia," gotcha. Say no more. Say no more.
But from a different news source we see those thoughts in print:
Officials raided the homes of the men, described as Islamic radicals, and said there is video showing some of the alleged planning.
There's a threshold where omission becomes lying. The public shouldn't have to train their ears to listen for the dog that didn't bark.
This would be a perfect made-for-TV movie if it were about a gang of misfit kids hatching a plot to steal treasure from under the nose of pirates or about a feisty bunch of octogenarians in a nursing home angling to destroy the creature who sucks the life of residents while they sleep. It just doesn't work as well when it's middle-aged friends launching an undercover operation to retrieve a stolen 12-year-old bike:
When Dory Van Fleet stepped out of the REI store, the black mountain bike he had locked up on the street was gone.In a steady drizzle, Van Fleet walked across the city to his home, upset about his misfortune.
But within days, Van Fleet began to take action, bolstered by friends' and co-workers' ideas. Soon Van Fleet, 38, and a network of friends devised a sting operation to get his beloved bike back.
While checking Craigslist six days after the theft, he found 10 listings for an REI Novara Arriba bike, including a posting three hours old asking $200. It matched his bike's description. "It was just too suspicious," Van Fleet said.
Van Fleet and four female friends in their late 30s and early 40s hatched a plan, complete with hand signals and code words, to try to recover the bike.
Maybe I'm too jaded in thinking that all the really great movies about 38-year olds and their beloved bikes have already been made.
Will Celine Dion make an impassioned plea to let them have the loot?:
Four soldiers and a reserve police officer were arrested Sunday on suspicion of looting cigarettes and alcohol from a store in this tornado-ravaged town, state officials said.In a separate incident, two people wearing Red Cross jackets who were not members of the relief agency were arrested Sunday on suspicion of looting, said Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the adjutant general's office. She did not have any additional details.
The soldiers from Fort Riley Army base and the reserve police officer had come to assist on their own and were not part of any official detachment, said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general.
"These were people who weren't supposed to be there," Bunting said.
Watson said the five were arrested at a Dillon's supermarket and were being held at the Pratt County Jail without bail. They have not yet been charged.
If I find mugshots taken after this particular rock got turned over, I'll post. Meanwhile I'll share Grey Villet's haunting 1957 Pulitzer photo of three young creatures at their tornado-destroyed Hickman Mills, Missouri home:
Their global field testing continues:
A syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in antifreeze. It also is a killer. And the deaths, if not intentional, are often no accident.The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.
Many of them are children, poisoned at the hands of their unsuspecting parents.
Over the years, the poison has been loaded into all varieties of medicine — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste, and other products.
Toxic syrup has figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the origin of the poison hasn't been determined.
But records and interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China .
Panama is the most recent victim. Last year, government officials there unwittingly mixed diethylene glycol into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine — with devastating results. Families have reported 365 deaths from the poison, 100 of which have been confirmed.
...
The toxic pipeline ultimately emptied into the bloodstream of people like Ernesto Osorio, a former high school teacher in Panama City. He spent two months in the hospital after ingesting poison cough syrup last September.Just before Christmas, after a kidney dialysis treatment, Osorio stood outside the city's big public hospital in a tear-splattered shirt, describing what his life had become.
"I'm not an eighth of what I used to be," Osorio said, his partly paralyzed face hanging like a slab of meat. "I have trouble walking. Look at my face, look at my tears." The tears, he said apologetically, were not from emotion, but from nerve damage.
And yet, Osorio knows he is one of the lucky victims.
Poison wheat gluten and rice protein, antifreeze cough syrup -- it's quaint the Chinese additive we used to worry about consuming was MSG.
Gayle McCormick of Smith had it going on.
I'd only seen stills from this video floating around before, so it's nice someone finally uploaded the real deal.
WARNING: This video contains crimes against fashion, including multiple fringed leather vest infractions.
Not-yet candidate Fred Thompson:
Millions of Americans know him as "Law & Order's" take-charge District Attorney Arthur Branch, and he's played statesman-like characters ranging from the CIA director to General Ulysses S. Grant, but is actor Fred Thompson really auditioning to become president of the United States?That is the political drama unfolding the day after 10 Republican presidential hopefuls held their first televised debate and as Thompson, 65, a former Tennessee senator, prepared to address an audience of 400 at the Lincoln Club of Orange County.
With eight months until the first 2008 presidential primaries and caucuses, and an already-packed field of GOP presidential hopefuls, Thompson's entry into the campaign would dramatically reshape the race. Polls show that Thompson -- although not yet a candidate -- already places third behind Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
The polls are evidence, some Republicans say, of just how many of the party's faithful voters are hungry for new choices.
"He may have been the real winner of (Thursday's) GOP debate,'' said Pete Snyder, CEO of Washington D.C.-based New Media Strategies. Snyder said the advance buzz regarding Thompson's Friday night appearance in Orange County was something other Republican candidates would love to have.
He's writing columns over here, if you'd like to check out what beliefs go along with that naturally calm and commanding presence and sonorous, Southern-honeyed voice.
Have a laugh at this blast from the past. Programming central knew what it was doing when this song never got set for rotation on the golden oldies stations. I don't think I've heard it since it was a hit in 1971.
Someone should tell the guides of this survival course that even the French Foreign Legion doesn't tell you to march or die anymore:
By Day 2 in the blazing Utah desert, Dave Buschow was in bad shape.Pale, wracked by cramps, his speech slurred, the 29-year-old New Jersey man was desperate for water and hallucinating so badly he mistook a tree for a person.
After going roughly 10 hours without a drink in the 100-degree heat, he finally dropped dead of thirst, face down in the dirt, less than 100 yards from the goal: a cave with a pool of water.
But Buschow was no solitary soul, lost and alone in the desert. He and 11 other hikers from various walks of life were being led by expert guides on a wilderness-survival adventure designed to test their physical and mental toughness.
And the guides, it turned out, were carrying emergency water on that torrid summer day.
Buschow wasn't told that, and he wasn't offered any. The guides did not want him to fail the $3,175 course. They wanted him to dig deep, push himself beyond his known limits, and make it to the cave on his own.
This is the survival school's blurb for this trip:
Field Courses
The BOSS Field Course has been our signature trip since 1968: Ultra-light travel through Southern Utah's mountains, mesas and canyons with little more than a blanket, poncho, and a knife. No tents, sleeping bags, stoves, or backpacks, and definitely no watches, radios, or cellphones. Your goal is to learn to 'live in the now' as your small group hikes many miles and learns the skills of traditional Puebloan cultures. Not for the faint of heart, a BOSS Field Course is for those seeking a challenge and a chance to renew; offered in 7, 14, and 28-day formats.
They should know then that Pueblo Indians carried canteens; also, if they met someone dying of thirst, they'd probably offer him a swig from one.
While regretting the tragedy, the school, known as BOSS, has denied any negligence and instead blamed Buschow, saying the security officer and former Air Force airman did not read course materials, may have withheld health information and may have eaten too heavily before leaving River Vale, N.J., for the grueling course.Noting Buschow signed liability waivers, the school said: "Mr. Buschow expressly assumed the risk of serious injury or death prior to participating."
As found by those who caused a woman's death through an opposite extreme, the "hold your wee for Wii" contest where a woman died of water intoxication, a liability waver doesn't prevent a wrongful death suit when there's gross negligence.
Their site says:
BOSS is not offering you a risk-free wilderness experience. The wilderness is beyond our control. Nature is beyond our control. We hope that you will understand this and embrace the opportunity we are offering you: a chance to live in the moment and experience the wilderness to the fullest. (We are, of course, safety-conscious but you should understand the realities of being in remote wilderness.)
It's understandable that nature and the wilderness are beyond anyone's control. I don't think there's an expectation of "safety-conscious" guides as also fitting into that category though.
While the passage of time and advances in technology have made many activities which were once commonplace outmoded, some old-fashioned pursuits were stranger than others. For instance, only a few short decades ago a segment of the populace routinely combined perusing art while cleaning marijuana.
From Rolling Stone's list of all-time great album covers, seeds and stems swept aside, here's what was voted as the best ones from the 70's, with commentary on the first 28.
The cover I found the most eye-catching, the one which had struck me enough to make me pull it out of the bin even though I'd never heard of the group, didn't make the list at all. It's after the jump:
There's a story behind ELO's Eldorado, as given in drummer Bev Bevan's book:
"In Los Angeles an artist had been working on the cover for about two months and one morning I got a very excited Sharon Arden on the telephone: "I have just seen the cover and it's the best cover ever," she started. "It's so fantastic that I know it's going to win awards over here. I have put it up on the wall of the office cause I can't take my eyes off it - I love it so much. Wait until you see it, Bev. You'll freak out!" So the cover arrived a few days later and I find I'm staring at a red pair of shoes with a golden flash and a pair of green hands. IT'S RUBBISH! I turn it over and it's exactly the same thing on the other side. I just can not believe anything can be so bad. I took it over to Jeff and his reaction was the same: "What a load of crap," he said. "This has got to be stopped immediately." I telephoned Sharon: "Neither of us can stand it," I told her. "But.... but don't you know what it is?" - "No idea" - "It's from The Wizard Of Oz!" - "So what?". "The Wizard of Oz" is one of the biggest cult movies in America and just about everyone has seen it. The album cover to them - and the title - meant gold at the end of the rainbow. People's reaction was that they loved the movie...... they loved the album cover..... and they must love what's inside. (They bought it in the hundreds of thousands, making it ELO's first Gold Album and our first American Top Ten album place.) Everyone, it seemed, had recognized the cover as the green hands of the wicked witch trying to
