May 09, 2008
“Saturday night, all I heard was 12 cracks in a row.”
So said 78 year old WW2 vet Dale Davis, who on Saturday night bowled his first perfect 300 game. Oh, by the way, he's blind
A perfect game. The most difficult achievement a bowler can accomplish.It’s even more impressive when a blind World War II veteran does it.
That was the scene at Saturday evening’s All-League Playoffs at Century Lanes in Alta. Dale Davis, just three months from his 79th birthday, his sight stolen years ago by macular degeneration, rolled 12 consecutive strikes in front of an enthusiastic and supportive crowd. The effort was the first-ever 300 game at Century.
“It was quite a thrill,” Davis said of the achievement. “When I got to the tenth frame, I said ‘Lord, let me throw three more good balls.’ When I did, people on other teams were yelling and cheering. A few guys were hugging me and almost broke my skinny bones.”
With his neatly combed back hair and 115-pound frame, Davis is proud of the fact he still uses the heaviest ball available, explaining that he and his ball “weigh over 130 pounds together.”
God bless him.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:40 AM | Comments (1)
Burmese Bastards
My god, those poor people in Myanmar. The dictatorship is stealing the aid
The World Food Programme has halted aid shipments to Burma after the contents of its first delivery were impounded on arrival in the military-ruled country.The UN body says the Burmese government seized aid material flown in to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which has killed tens of thousands.
The WFP said it had no choice but to halt aid until the matter was resolved.
I'm sure the UN is getting ready a very strong letter even as we speak.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:29 AM | Comments (2)
May 08, 2008
"Mugabe"
...ring a bell? Why foreign real estate is always an 'iffy' thing. One socialist president and there goes the farm.
American Rancher Resists Land Reform Plans in BoliviaFrom the time Ronald Larsen drove his pickup truck here from his native Montana in 1969 and bought a sprawling cattle ranch for a song, he lived a quiet life in remote southeastern Bolivia, farming corn, herding cattle and amassing vast land holdings.
... After armed standoffs with land-reform officials at his ranch this year, Mr. Larsen made it clear which side he was on, emerging as a figure celebrated in rebellious Santa Cruz Province and loathed by Mr. Morales’s government, which wants to reduce ties to the United States.
“I just spent 40 years in this country working my land in an honest fashion,” said Mr. Larsen, who resembled Clint Eastwood with his weathered features and lanky frame. “They’re taking it away over my dead body.”
Could be.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:40 PM | Comments (1)
"Overweight, Binge-Drinking Reality TV Addicts"
As a famous bloke once said,
“I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken.”
Unfortunate as 'twould seem, apparently there's been no mistake.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Spring!
The vineyard is growing
the bushes are flowering
and Claude wants a treat for taking a dump
ain't life grand?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:19 PM | Comments (3)
A Burqa In Manhattan
So I'm walking to catch the bus home today, and as I round the corner onto Broadway right there by the naked bull in Bowling Green what do I damn near bump into but some scowling fellow wearing muslim garb and a woman in a toe-length burqa. I was stunned.
You know, I'm a big believer in the freedom of religion. You can worship, or not worship, whatever deity floats your boat. And I will defend that right until my dying breath.
But you do not, no matter what your god or prophet or spaghetti monster says, under any circumstances, have the right to enslave another human being. We've spent hundreds of years, and spilled the blood of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans, as we've stumbled towards the dream f all of us being equal before the law and each other, and I will be god-damned if I'm going to quietly sit around and allow people to be treated like chattel in our country.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:52 PM | Comments (9)
Using Spain's Own Twisted, Rapacious Logic
Spain demands return of $500 million treasure
Court battle over U.S. deep-sea firm's shipwreck haul intensifiesSpain is demanding a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm turn over the entire $500 million treasure it salvaged from a shipwreck, saying Thursday it has determined the vessel is definitely Spanish.
James Goold, a Washington-based lawyer who represents the Spanish government, said the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of a dispute with Odyssey Marine Exploration is without a doubt the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes — a Spanish frigate sunk by a British warship southwest of Portugal in 1804.
...WHY then wouldn't the wreckage technically be British because it's a war prize?
Don Massaredo: Mmm... I wonder if their excellencies realize they're setting free a man who will doubtless be a thorn in their side for many years to come.Hornblower: I shall endeavor not to disappoint them. sir.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:33 PM | Comments (15)
The Next Senator From Pennsylvania?
He's getting the rightresume together
NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. -- A local principal was arrested in a sex sting.Kim Sean Crummie, the principal of Valley Middle School in the New Kensington-Arnold School District, has been charged with sex crimes.
According to police, Crummie met with the undercover officer in the men's bathroom at Harrison Park in Harrison Township. It was there that Crummie allegedly made his indecent proposal to the officer.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)
Shockingly, His Name Isn't McCartney
Though I'm sure Macca was often tempted
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A Florida man is accused of ripping off his wife's prosthetic leg during a fight after leaving a sports bar.Officers in Port St. Lucie said they found a 29-year-old woman in a sport utility vehicle Tuesday night with a bruised eye and missing a leg and pants.
Police then questioned the woman's husband, Luis Ramirez, 35, who said he was arguing with his wife after leaving a bar, TCPalm reported. He denied stealing her leg.
The woman told police that Ramirez became possessed and started screaming.
Ramirez was jailed on battery charges, Local 6 reported.
For those non-lawyers amongst our readership: "stealing a leg" in Florida is not a felony...it's a "misde-femur."
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:24 AM | Comments (14)
Capt. Von Trapp He's Not
I really have refrained from commenting on this horrific story in Austria because it's just too disgusting for words, and it just keeps getting more bizarre. Now today we hear that the poor fellow is upset about his image
Fritzl's lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said his client had access to a television in jail and was closely watching coverage of his case, which has garnered worldwide attention.Mayer said Fritzl was bothered by the fact that he was being made out to be a monster. He said Fritzl told him, "I'm only being portrayed as a monster and not as someone who committed monstrous acts."
I love the parsing. I'm not a monster; no, no, no; I'm just a person who has done monstrous things for decades. Really, I'm aces.
Blech.
Oh, and there's this gem
Mayer made his comments when asked to confirm a report Wednesday by the newspaper Oesterreich that quoted Fritzl as saying he was not a monster and that without him, his 19-year-old daughter Kerstin would no longer be alive.
Well, quite frankly, you disgusting scumbag, the poor dear would not be alive in the first place if you hadn't constructed a dungeon to drug, rape, impregnate and imprison your own daughter for decades. Repeatedly. So don't try and wrap yourself in this "Oh, but I saved her" cloak of complete and total bullshit.
Is there any reason why this complete and totally vile despicable thing, who has confessed to all of this intentional, premeditated horror, is not just taken out and shot?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:50 AM | Comments (4)
May 07, 2008
"We Need to Get Everybody Out"
Oh. NOW the guy develops a sense of urgency.
Brilliant.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 PM | Comments (6)
Because I Need A Laugh Tonight
Via Damian Penny I proudly present this link to our Cultural Superiors in Europe and their leading lights, the Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Choir doing "Sweet Home Alabama"
I really love the addition of the "Volga Boat Song" at the end there. Really makes the piece for me.
Remember, folks: it's the high opinion of these folks that our political class is so desirous of winning back...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:57 PM | Comments (3)
Warning ~ Sympathy Meter Pegged!
Frustrated owners try to unload their guzzlersAfter paying $75 to fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck for the third time in a week, Douglas Chrystall couldn't take it anymore.
Feeling pinched at the pump, and guilty as well, Chrystall, a 39-year-old father from Wellesley, is putting ads online to sell the truck, and the family's other gas-guzzler, a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
WAAAAAA.
SUVs were, ARE and EVER WILL BE a stupid indulgence for your everyday ride.
Continue reading "Warning ~ Sympathy Meter Pegged!"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:21 PM | Comments (12)
If I Were the "Supervisor of Teachers"
...I'd watch my ass.
Florida Substitute Teacher Fired, Accused of Wizardry...Jim Piculas said he made a toothpick disappear and reappear in front of students at the Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes, Fla., Local6.com reported. He said he later got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he had been accused of wizardry.
Wizard bytes kan be pretti nasti...
A warm Swill salute to Sad Old Goth.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:05 PM | Comments (6)
"Lick My Swizzle Stick"?
Sorry.
I'm a sucker for bad pick-up lines.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 PM | Comments (4)
When "Courage" and "Heroine" Weren't Used So Lightly
...this sweet, brave lady personified both. In the name of love.
For marrying the only man she ever loved, Mildred Loving paid a price: She was arrested, convicted and banished from her home state....[But] in Caroline County word spread to the commonwealth's attorney, the equivalent of a district attorney, that the two had married. He obtained a warrant for their arrests. One July night, the Lovings woke up about 2 a.m. to the see the sheriff and deputies surrounding their bed, shining flashlights and demanding to know who Mildred Loving was.
Loving explained: "I'm his wife." Richard Loving rushed to show the men their marriage certificate. The sheriff was not moved.
"That's no good here," he said."They told us to get up, get dressed. I couldn't believe they were taking us to jail," Loving said.
The Lovings were indicted by a county grand jury and pleaded guilty to violating the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, another version of the state's anti-miscegenation law. Judge Leon M. Bazile sentenced the couple to a year in jail but suspended the sentence for 25 years on the condition that they leave the state and not return together during that time.
To avoid jail time, the Lovings moved to Washington, D.C., but the years in exile were difficult. Loving missed her family, her friends, the rural life. In 1963, she wrote to Robert F. Kennedy, then the U.S. attorney general, and asked for his help.
Mrs. Loving died this past Friday.
We are ever so grateful to her.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:59 AM | Comments (6)
Socialist BASTARD!!!
New London mayor bans booze on public transportThe common man is skeptical...
..."Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done," he added.
Be careful what you wish for, Earthling.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM | Comments (1)
Uncle Walt
...is spinning like a top.
Andy Marlette strikes again.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:41 AM | Comments (3)
Tick Tick Tick For Billary
So Obama won NC convincingly and Hill barely won Indiana, with the result being that Obama has slightly increased his lead in the delegate count. Mind you, I guess it shows that there are still deep racial divisions in this country for Michelle O. to bemoan about when Hillary wins the white vote 59 to 36 (I'm guessing the balance of folks rightly refused to answer the question) but it shows unity and pride, not racially-based voting, when Obama wins the black vote 91 to 6.
Whatever.
I'm so tired of this endless campaign. It's been going on literally for years, and at this point we have 3 very unsatisfactory candidates.
And still 6 freakin' months until the election.
Where's my drink...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:59 AM | Comments (5)
May 06, 2008
Yesterday It Was 4,000
...today it's more than 22,000 dead
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- A Myanmar government radio station said Tuesday that more than 22,000 people are dead and the U.N. estimates up to a million could be homeless after the catastrophic cyclone that battered the country.A news broadcast on the state-run station said Tuesday that 22,464 people had been confirmed dead from Cyclone Nargis. The broadcast added that thousands more were missing.
How awful. And how awful that the military dictatorship there evidently was rather slow in getting storm warnings out to people.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:18 AM | Comments (4)
Sveinbjörn Halldórsson
Via Tim, how can you not love the manly tale of a fellow whose name does not mean "hold the door, pig boy"
Sveinbjörn Halldórsson, a 44-year-old real-estate agent from Reykjavík, drives a Chevy S10 pickup with a souped-up engine, 44-inch tires with spikes, and four kinds of radios and phones on the dashboard. Filling up the truck's 240-liter tank (about 63 gallons) for the weekend costs him nearly $500, with gas costing $7.84 a gallon. He rolls with one of many so-called gangs on Iceland's highly competitive 4x4 off-road vehicle scene....Samúel "Wolf" Thór Gudjónsson, a lanky 21-year-old electrician with long blond rocker's hair, joined with dozens of other jeep fans earlier this month to protest climbing fuel prices, blocking oil companies' depots. Others drove their jeeps through the city's streets at 5 miles an hour to demand cuts in fuel taxes.
Demonstrations are rare in stoical Iceland, a country of only 300,000 people. But the threat to jeep habits is just too much. Alfred "Spotti" Bergisson, a 26-year-old plumber who drives a beefed-up Toyota Land Cruiser, is willing to fight for his right to party. "I just want to go where I want to go," he says. "I get energy in the mountains. I think there."
Reykjavík's 6,000-strong 4x4 Club has clout. It previously talked the government into letting its once-outlaw trucks pass inspections, despite supersized wheels with studs that rip up roads. Many of the trucks wouldn't be street-legal elsewhere in Europe.
That's 2% of the population; the equivalent of a group in the US with 6 million members. That's some clout, folks.
And who says local craftsmanship is dead?
Many 4x4 enthusiasts wield their own blowtorches, rebuilding big American and Japanese 4-wheel-drive off-roaders to suit their taste. Local innovations include exhaust-fed balloons that can lift cars out of snowdrifts, and the "bumper dumper" -- a flip-down toilet seat on trucks' rear end for use in the wild.
A toast to you, my lads!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 AM | Comments (2)
May 05, 2008
Just What We've All Been Waiting For
The McGreevey divorce trial!
TRENTON — She claims she was duped into marriage by a closeted gay man who needed the cover of a wife to advance his political career. He says he gave her a child and the coattails she rode to the governor's mansion, thus fulfilling the marriage contract....McGreevey, 50, who now lives with a male partner and is studying to be an Episcopal priest, says in his book the marriage was "a contrivance on both our parts."
It was "your parts" which caused all this mess to begin with, buddy.
"Inherit The Wind" this ain't....
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:48 AM | Comments (7)
London's New Mayor
Born in New York
The 1990s were a decade of brilliance for Boris, capped in 1999 with the editorship ofThe Specator.He was still only 35 but this prize was far from the limits of his ambition. As a youngster, he once confided to a friend that he would like to be President of the United States. (His birth in New York made this possible, albeit ludicrous).
So long Red Ken!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:04 AM | Comments (1)
May 02, 2008
Cannonball Express
...to Heaven's Gate, unfortunately.
Civil War Buff Killed By 19th Century Cannonball
Collector Sam White Was Restoring Cannonball When It Exploded...But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway.
More than 140 years after Lee surrendered to Grant, the cannonball was still powerful enough to send a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house a quarter-mile from White's home in this leafy Richmond suburb.
...White estimated he had worked on about 1,600 shells for collectors and museums. On the day he died, he had 18 cannonballs lined up in his driveway to restore.
Note to self: when told to "put that thing back"...do it.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:25 PM | Comments (4)
We Love You, Son
If ever someone stood for Semper Fidelis...
Miracle Marine Dies...The former turret gunner was dubbed the "Miracle Man" for his determination in facing his wounds, which cost the former saxophone player his fingers and rippled his face with scars. He endured more than 40 surgeries, spent 17 months in a hospital and had to learn to walk again.
"Sometimes I do think I can't do it," he told The Associated Press last year. "Then I think: Why not? I can do whatever I want. ... Nobody has ever been 97 percent dead and survived, and lived to walk."
Bless your brave, brave heart, Leatherneck. And our deepest thanks to your family.
What a man they raised.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:10 PM | Comments (11)
My God, How Awful
I can't imagine what this poor girl's parents must think about this
MADISON, Wis. — A college student apparently called 911 from her cell phone shortly before she was killed but a dispatcher hung up, failed to call back and never sent police to investigate, authorities said Thursday.Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said it was too early to know whether a better response could have prevented the April 2 slaying of Wisconsin-Madison student Brittany Zimmermann or helped police capture her killer.
Authorities refused to release the content of the phone call, but Wray said it should have been enough for the Dane County 911 Center to take it seriously.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:47 AM | Comments (2)
