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January 31, 2007
BAStard !!
The Pequannock school board has nothing on THIS corporate tool.
Dear Wine Lovers of Florida,
Once again, legal, direct-to-consumer wine shipping is being challenged in Florida.Senator Burt L. Saunders has sponsored Senate Bill 126, which if passed, will impose a complete ban on winery-to-consumer shipments from any winery or wine company producing more than 250,000 gallons, or about 100,000 cases.
The cap applies to a wine company’s aggregate production total, and because some wine companies own several wineries, the bill will remove your ability to purchase wines directly from any of these individual wineries. Many wineries will be affected, and therefore, many wine lovers will be removed from mailing lists, wine clubs, etc.
ACTION: Please personalize and fax the sample letter below to Senator Burt L. Saunders. District Office Fax (239) 417-6223
And fax a copy to Jeremy Benson, Free the Grapes! at fax (707) 254-0433.
If this sounds familiar, it is because Senator Saunders sponsored SB144 in 2006, which also included a production cap. Fortunately, that bill died in committee.
We don’t want you to be suddenly cut-off from your favorite wineries, but we’ll need your help. So please write the Senator today and forward this email to your wine loving friends!
Jeremy Benson
Executive Director
(707) 254-1107
Sample letter in extended section.
Sample Message to Personalize to Senator SaundersSenator Burt Saunders
District Office
3301 Tamiami Trail
Suite 304
Naples, Florida 34112
Fax (239) 417-6223Dear Senator Saunders,
As an adult voter of Florida, I strongly urge you to remove the production cap provision in Senate Bill 126.A cap that bans winery-to-consumer shipments from wineries that produce more than 250,000 gallons is arbitrary, discriminatory, and will likely be challenged in court. Three states (Arizona, Kentucky and Massachusetts) have passed similar laws, and all three are being challenged in court. While these cases wind their way slowly, expensively through the court system, wine lovers in those states are prevented from purchasing wines directly. The effect is a complete shipping ban.
Let’s not let that happen in Florida. I believe that wine lovers like me should be able to purchase directly from any winery, regardless of size. Please don’t put a cap on consumer choice!
Please let me know if you will remove the cap, and if not, provide a legitimate reason for discriminating against a winery based on how many gallons it produces.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Street Address
City, FLORIDA Zip Code
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:08 PM | Comments (1)
Maybe They'd Chill Out
...if they could loosen up.
Predominantly Muslim Pakistan, where most people are banned from drinking alcohol, is set to get a domestically produced, 20-year-old single malt whisky, an official at the company making the drink said Wednesday.The malt whisky is due to go on sale in July to non-Muslims and its makers are not expecting huge sales.
"There is also a ban on export of alcoholic beverages abroad so this whisky will only be available to a few in Pakistan," said Mohammad Javed, general manager at the Murree Brewery.
I give that factory about a week and a half before barrels go up in flames.
And is THIS the kind of religious mollycoddling/appeasement we have to look forward to, once Islamic cab drivers get their way?
...Muslims, who make up the vast majority of Pakistan's more than 150 million people, have been banned from drinking alcohol in the country since 1977.Until then, alcohol was legally available for Muslims in bars and restaurants but then prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who is said to have enjoyed an occasional drink, imposed the ban to shore up support from Islamists.
Oh, in a pig's eye!
Throttle your bottle and shout:
"Hell NO, we won't let go!!"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:35 AM | Comments (3)
I'm Not Sure It Was a 'Gang-Style Clothing' Crackdown
Student Forced To Remove "Gang-Style" Gators ShirtTwo Osceola County parents said their son was humiliated at school when he was suspected of wearing "gang-style" clothing. Saint Cloud Middle School said only a handful of students were searched last week when they got a complaint.
The parents told Eyewitness News, if their son was wearing low baggy pants or a bandana, by all means he should have been sent home, but he wasn't. He was wearing a Florida Gators t-shirt.
Robert and Sara Crosby can't understand how their son could be connected to gang activity, especially by wearing a Gators t-shirt.
I'm sure it was just a simple gut reaction to the picture on the shirt. Like the way our dogs never have to poop during a walk until they're in front of a lawn with a Gators flag flying. Then it's bombs away ~ no stoppin' 'em. Like it's a mission and a mandate. (In all fairness, it's the exact same reaction when they spot FSU colors. 'Animals are dumb and colorblind'. Yeah, right.)
So Mom and Dad ~ cut the school board a huss and put the kid in Spongebob. He shouldn't pay for your questionable loyalties, errors in judgement and downright offensive taste.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:25 AM | Comments (6)
Being a Master of 'Fuzzy Math', I Declare This to Be
...'fuzzy'.
Parents left in a lurch by new city school-bus routes refused to roll with the changes yesterday, with some defiantly sneaking their children onto buses and others keeping their little ones home in protest.... "I'm not taking any chances with my children," said Denise Neibel, one of a handful of parents in the Roxbury neighborhood, who put their kids on a yellow bus bound for PS 114, even though they were told to take public transit.
"Anyone who thinks that it's appropriate for a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old to take public transportation to school made a really bad error in judgment," Neibel said, referring to her daughter, Isabella, and son, Sam.
... The department had estimated that the restructuring, which initially included cutting 250 routes and consolidating hundreds of others, would save the city $20 million. It has since lowered the estimate to $12 million annually based on 116 route cuts.
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein defended the scheme before Queens parents last night, saying the first two days of the rerouting "went very smoothly" and that $16 million paid to the consulting firm of Alvarez & Marsal to identify the cuts was worth it.
Sure it was.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:02 AM | Comments (3)
January 30, 2007
While the Pequannock School Board Is At It
...why don't they just crawl up the randomly selected freshman a$$ to check for proof of consumed transfat laden french fries?
Students at Pequannock Township High School in New Jersey will soon be subjected to a new sort of pop quiz, one that alerts their parents if they have been drinking.They face a random urine test for alcohol, but unlike saliva swabs or Breathalyzers, the ETG urine test can detect whether a student has had a drink anytime in the last 80 hours, so a Friday night party would register on a Monday morning test.
...Now Pequannock and several other schools around the country are using government grants to step up their alcohol monitoring, as underage drinking and driving kills about 2,000 people under the age of 21 each year.
Doesn't this cost boatloads of M-O-N-E-Y? New Jersey schools are so W-E-A-L-T-H-Y, they have leftover cash to fund this fascist little witch hunt? (Of course, it's 'for the chi-dren', so that makes it okay.) And the end is result is "I'll call your mommy"?! Sorry, folks ~ I'm with the ACLU on this one.
We can't get Bingley in situ soon enough.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:23 AM | Comments (19)
The Devil's
...in the debit. Disclosure: I've never used mine ~ never felt the need to and, as time goes on, really look askance at the whole concept. The Red Tape fellow points out more things I wasn't aware of. In the comments about the smarmy world of debit card fees there are tons of know-it-all "don't spend more than you have/try balancing a checkbook/duh-keep track of your transactions/learn to add" one liners. They ARE common sense in a checkbook world, but they're really not applicable to debit carding, because of what you don't know is going on in the electronic hell energized when you swipeth.
Your running bank balance ~ however scrupulously calculated on your part ~ is rendered moot by a dirty little trick gas stations in our neck of the woods use. When you tender your debit card for purchases, they authorize a larger sum, which is NOT reflected by your receipt, or what eventually posts to your account. You THINK you've bought $20 worth of petrol, but they've authorized $35+, which stands until the ACTUAL charges have been paid. Now, that's an additional $15 out of your account that you have no clue has been temporarily debited. So, like our starving college student Ebola did, knowing you'd only spent $20, you go buy a movie ticket or swipe your card at the Winn-Dixie and you're overdrawn. And going INSANE trying to figure it out. And HAMMERED for the additional $30 friendly overdraft, which never REALLY was one to begin with. Over and over again. It wasn't until a short piece our local news ran exposing and explaining the practice that we had a clue. And cold comfort to his poor wallet hundreds of dollars later, not to mention all the abuse he took from us about "Jesus, how hard can it be to keep track of?!"
I've also started run across this from different institutions when, as an artist, I've run a customer's debit card. They'll call me in a panic because, after checking in a day or two, the transaction has posted TWICE on their online screen. I've only run it through once. Their BANK posted it twice. It quietly goes away AFTERwards. But, if they hadn't checked... And at least their bank posted both, instead of ~ like Navy Federal in Ebola's case, for instance ~ just posting the transaction amount, not the authorized deduction.
I think that all should be illegal. It's certainly unethical. If I'm to be penalized for an overdraft, I think I should KNOW that I've actually BEEN overdrawn. Gas stations (or whatEVER businesses do something this foul) should be forced to put signs on the pumps with a disclaimer that the authorized amount for your purchase with a debit card will temporarily be increased by whatever over the actual purchase, for 'this time period'.
Where else is charging someone for services NOT rendered/delivered, with no warning ~ especially with the potential for such dire consequences for the unknowing victim ~ legal?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:01 AM | Comments (1)
If It's Easier to Put Ethanol in Your Tank
...the chicken is your pot is gonna cost more.
Tyson, the world's largest protein producer, on Monday warned that boosting US ethanol production would spill over into higher global food prices.The US group said consumers would bear the brunt of domestic price increases being pushed through to compensate for the near-doubling of corn costs last year, spurred in part by the competing claim on the crop to make ethanol.
Food producers have expressed concern about the effect of ethanol-driven corn prices for months but calls for a food-versus-fuel debate have grown louder in the wake of last week's White House plan for a five-fold rise in renewable fuel production over the next decade.
I'd noticed that last week at our little natural food co-op. El pollo loco had gone up almost a dollar a pound, seemingly overnight.
When it was already at $3.49 lb, that's a bad thing. $4.49 lb puts it in the 'get something else' thing.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:54 AM | Comments (1)
January 29, 2007
Presented Without Further Comment
My vote for headline of the day:
Cats lose visiting privileges at women's prison
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:52 PM | Comments (1)
Damn, Damn, Damn
They had to put him down.
What a big, brave guy he was and bless his owners' hearts for doing everything they could.
We've all been there having to make that decision. And tearing our hearts out.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:37 PM | Comments (4)
Quote of the Day
"How in the world is cold air blowing on an out-of-shape sweaty dude’s genitals supposed to make you feel like drinking a lemon-lime beverage?"I give up. Ask Bingley.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM | Comments (2)
Gobble-Dee
...gook.
Advocates hopeful Congress will ban racial profilingThe repercussions of an airline's decision to remove a group of imams from a commercial flight in Minneapolis could be heard in Congress this year, where newly dominant Democrats are ready to consider a national ban on racial profiling.
..."I'm convinced that once the body of evidence of racial profiling occurring in our nation is presented before the U.S. Congress and the American people, that indeed they'll be compelled to do something about it," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington Bureau.
...Feingold's bill, the End Racial Profiling Act, didn't come up for a vote in the GOP-controlled Congress in the last session, and there was no House version. The bill would have banned racial profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement, defining profiling as "the practice of a law enforcement agent or agency relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion" during investigatory activities.
It included an exemption when specific information "links a person of a particular race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion to an identified incident or scheme."
...Peter Gadiel, of Kent, Conn., president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, mocked the legislation.
"The 9/11 atrocity was committed by 19 young single men from Arab nations. If you want to hand this country over to terrorists, why don't you say it right out front?" said Gadiel, whose son, James, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. "We don't have to worry about 80-year-old ladies with bleach-blonde hair and southern accents."
I dunno about that statement. Our 80 year olds here are usually from Sheboygan.
UPDATE: Like, if you look back on it, WAS 9-11 such a big deal? I mean, really? Worth all this fuss afterward?
Really, cooler heads should prevail.
...Yet as the comparison with the Soviet experience should remind us, the war against terrorism has not yet been much of a war at all, let alone a war to end all wars. It is a messy, difficult, long-term struggle against exceptionally dangerous criminals who actually like nothing better than being put on the same level of historical importance as Hitler — can you imagine a better recruiting tool? To fight them effectively, we need coolness, resolve and stamina. But we also need to overcome long habit and remind ourselves that not every enemy is in fact a threat to our existence.
Via Crittenden.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:29 AM | Comments (8)
Sometimes They ALL
...Republicans feel withdrawal of troops must begin in the next six months for their party to have any chance at retaining the presidency in 2008...
By God, when hanging on to the White House is driving policy ~ vice conscience, duty and honor ~ we've doomed ourselves.
I guess no one worries about having to live with themselves afterwards, as long as afterwards, they still get to live in Washington.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:00 AM | Comments (7)
When I Get My Award For Environmental Excellence...
Will they send a private train for me, too?
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall arrived in New York from Philadelphia by private train and visited the Harlem Children's Zone's Promise Academy.The royal couple are on a weekend visit to the United States focusing on youth development, urban renewal and environmental stewardship.
...Earlier in the day, the couple waved to adoring fans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as they walked to a private church service. The couple spent Saturday and early Sunday in Philedelphia.
Afterward, they boarded the New York-bound private train, accompanied by the dean of Temple University's School of Education, C. Kent McGuire and several other Philadelphia-area community leaders.
"The prince was gracious and engaged," said McGuire, who said the prince talked about urban redevelopment and other issues his 17 foundations address.
On Sunday evening in New York, Prince Charles is scheduled to receive an award from Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment. He also is expected to give a speech on environmental issues. Last year's recipient, former Vice President Al Gore, is scheduled to present the award.
Well, Sis might get me a bottle of Night Train to celebrate, I suppose. And I'd raise a toast to Chuck, as well, because that's the kind of big-hearted guy I am.
Unlike these fellows:
While Charles has won kudos from environmentalists for his calls to action on global warming, British environmentalists have said the prince should have abstained from flying to the United States. In response, Charles' office said it would cancel a skiing trip to Switzerland, a gesture that would reduce his carbon footprint -- the carbon dioxide created by his travels.
The sacrifices that he is willing to make really brings a tear to my eye.
I'm too choked up to continue.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:57 AM | Comments (3)
January 28, 2007
I Guess If I Were the New York Times
...and someone who worked for me had the nerve to appear on TV and say something like THIS...
Times editors have carefully made clear their disapproval of the expression of a personal opinion about Iraq on national television by the paper’s chief military correspondent, Michael Gordon.The rumored military buildup in Iraq was a hot topic on the Jan. 8 “Charlie Rose” show, and the host asked Mr. Gordon if he believed “victory is within our grasp.” The transcript of Mr. Gordon’s response, which he stressed was “purely personal,” includes these comments:
“So I think, you know, as a purely personal view, I think it’s worth it [sic] one last effort for sure to try to get this right, because my personal view is we’ve never really tried to win. We’ve simply been managing our way to defeat. And I think that if it’s done right, I think that there is the chance to accomplish something.”
...I'd be compelled to whack his peepee, too.
...I raised reader concerns about Mr. Gordon’s voicing of personal opinions with top editors, and received a response from Philip Taubman, the Washington bureau chief. After noting that Mr. Gordon has “long been mindful and respectful of the line between analysis and opinion in his television appearances,” Mr. Taubman went on to draw the line in this case.“I would agree with you that he stepped over the line on the ‘Charlie Rose’ show. I have discussed the appearances with Michael and I am satisfied that the comments on the Rose show were an aberration. They were a poorly worded shorthand for some analytical points about the military and political situation in Baghdad that Michael has made in the newspaper in a more nuanced and unopinionated way. He agrees his comments on the show went too far.”
It is pretty diametrically opposed to what I'm assuming the NYT editorial staff is used to getting from him. And how dare he offer his personal opinion when asked for his...personal opinion.
What I want to know is, since his personal opinion is also based on his experience but is an anathema to the NYT and (apparently) their readers...what does that say about his reporting? Is that fashioned to suit his employers then and not a reflection of what he actually sees?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:07 PM | Comments (1)
January 27, 2007
A Cautionary Tale: When Making Plans for That 'BIG' Weekend
...of Lounge Lizard fantasies, remember to bring a spare if things go wrong.
Mozart, an iguana with an erection that has lasted for over a week, will have his penis amputated in the next couple of days.Veterinarians at Antwerp's Aquatopia had sought to treat the animal's problem, but decided removal was the only solution because of the risk of infection. The good news for Mozart and his mates is that male iguanas have two penises.
Mozart, sitting on the shoulders of his keeper as camera crews focused on his red, swollen erection, seemed unperturbed by the news.
"It doesn't bother him. He doesn't know what amputation means," said vet Luc Lambrecht, adding that Mozart's sexual activity should be undimmed by the operation.
"I don't think so. That's all in his head."
I think that's true of males in general.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:03 AM | Comments (3)
January 26, 2007
Oh, ICK! It's Raining
...bodies!! I don't think I'd recover, either.
Jumpers leave workers sleepless in Seattle
A bridge over Seattle is becoming hazardous to the mental health of the dot-com employees and other office workers below, who keep seeing people jump to their deaths from the span.Thirty-nine people over the past decade have committed suicide off the 155-foot-high Aurora Bridge -- eight in 2006 alone -- and counselors are regularly brought in to help office workers deal with the shock of seeing the leap or the bloody aftermath.
At least one woman, Sarah Edwards, drives on the left side of the street near her office ever since a body landed on the hood of a co-worker's car.
I'd never sleep again.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 PM | Comments (4)
The Islamic Version
...of "Baby Boom"?
A dramatic surveillance video released today by Scotland Yard shows a suspected terrorist placing his explosive-laden backpack next to a mother and her child riding on a London subway car.
...On the tape, other passengers on board the subway car can be seen trying to get away from Mohammed except for a fireman, Angus Campbell, who bravely stayed to confront Mohammed.Prosecutor Nigel Sweeney told the jury, "Mohammed said not that it was a bomb but rather, 'What's the matter? It is bread; it isn't me,' pointing at the backpack."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:45 PM | Comments (4)
Set the Professor's WayBack Machine to
...1994.
Irony, thy name is "Rather".
A warm Swill salute to Mike.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:21 PM | Comments (2)
By-the-Bye, OUR Rules
...are here.
In order to ensure that the additional combat troops being deployed to Iraq can achieve their objectives, we must change the current restrictive rules of engagement (ROEs) under which they are forced to operate. The current ROEs for Baghdad -- including Sadr City, home of the Mahdi Army -- have seven incremental steps that must be satisfied before our troops can take the gloves off and engage the enemy with appropriate violence of action.(1) You must feel a direct threat to you or your team.
(2) You must clearly see a threat.
(3) That threat must be identified.
(4) The team leader must concur that there is an identified threat.
(5) The team leader must feel that the situation is one of life or death.
(6) There must be minimal or no collateral risk.
(7) Only then can the team leader clear the engagement.
These ROEs might sound fine to academics gathering at some esoteric seminar on how to avoid civilian casualties in a war zone. But they do absolutely nothing to protect our combat troops who have to respond in an instant to a life or death situation.
If our soldiers or Marines see someone about to level an AK-47 in their direction or start to are receive hostile fire from a rooftop or mosque, there is no time to go through a seven-point checklist before reacting. Indeed, the very fact that they see a weapon, or begin to receive hostile fire should be sufficient justification to respond with deadly force.
I feel better already.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:12 PM | Comments (12)
Oh, Great
NOW...
...he decides to grow a pair.
UPDATE: In a further spin on this concept, Allah has posted on this WaPo story about the authorization to terminate Iranian agents with extreme prejudice. I would offer that, as major dad has always said, we need to understand that ALL these guys play by "Hama Rules"...
...When Syria's Baath regime feels its back up against the wall, it always resorts to "Hama Rules." Hama Rules is a term I coined after the Syrian Army leveled - and I mean leveled - a portion of its own city, Hama, to put down a rebellion by Sunni Muslim fundamentalists there in 1982. Some 10,000 to 20,000 Syrians were buried in the ruble. Monday's murder of Mr. Hariri, a self-made billionaire who devoted his money and energy to rebuilding Lebanon after its civil war, had all the hallmarks of Hama Rules - beginning with 650 pounds of dynamite to incinerate an armor-plated motorcade.Message from the Syrian regime to Washington, Paris and Lebanon's opposition: "You want to play here, you'd better be ready to play by Hama Rules - and Hama Rules are no rules at all. You want to squeeze us with Iraq on one side and the Lebanese opposition on the other, you'd better be able to put more than U.N. resolutions on the table. You'd better be ready to go all the way - because we will. But you Americans are exhausted by Iraq, and you Lebanese don't have the guts to stand up to us, and you French make a mean croissant but you've got no Hama Rules in your arsenal. So remember, we blow up prime ministers here. We shoot journalists. We fire on the Red Cross. We leveled one of our own cities. You want to play by Hama Rules, let's see what you've got. Otherwise, hasta la vista, baby."
How do we answer to "no rules at all"?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:41 AM | Comments (1)
Break Out Your Bestest, Shiniest Kilt
They're gonna be highland flinging in Philly.
Of course Bingley...
...has been left off the guest list thanks to his penchant for smirking in a ghastly and untimely fashion (check the last photo).
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:52 AM | Comments (4)
As Mean As He Is to Them, Should Bingley's 'Adventures in Art' Ever Become Public Knowledge?
The ACLU would gladly cover his backside. Or best side.
Whatever.
A high school art teacher has hired the ACLU to challenge his firing after a video of him moonlighting as a "butt-printing artist" was widely circulated among his high school students.The executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said a public employee such as former teacher Stephen Murmer has a right to free expression outside the workplace as long as it does not interfere with his job.
Is 'ass' a noun, adverb or adjective in this case ? (The art teacher ~ not Bingley. He's gonna be governor.)
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:20 AM | Comments (1)
When Visiting the Garden State, DON'T Drink the Water and ESPECIALLY
...don't eat the squirrels.
New Jersey has warned squirrel hunters near a toxic waste dump about consuming the critters because they could be contaminated with lead.It is the first time the state has cautioned Ringwood residents, many of whom are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe who hunt and fish in the area, about their squirrel intake, said Tom Slater, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Senior Services.
...“We've known for a long time something was wrong here, we just didn't know what it was,” resident Myrtle Van Dunk said.
What we need in that state is a little regime change.
Toxic rodent ingestion will be allowed when Bingley gets elected governor.
I promise.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:04 AM | Comments (10)
I'm Sure This is Comforting to All Concerned, BUT
...if I remember correctly, they can't handle the ones that are already there.
Plan to tighten UK border controlsMoves to strengthen Britain's borders may see more passengers checked by immigration staff before they even get on a plane, under new legislation.
A leading immigration expert said that he expects the Government's UK Borders Bill to include plans to introduce more passport checks by British staff based overseas.
Similar schemes already operate on the Eurostar train service from France.
Checking that a traveller is allowed to visit the UK before they set off eliminates potential illegal immigrants from being able to claim asylum when they arrive in the country.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:08 AM | Comments (3)
How About "You're Fired"?
Man, I am so tired that this crap is still going on
In the past five years, 5,400 would-be taxi passengers at the airport were refused service for this very reason, said the Metropolitan Airport Commission, or MAC. Last May, passenger Bob Dildine says he waited for 20 minutes, and five cab drivers would not give him and his daughter a ride. He was carrying wine he bought on vacation...."It is expressly stated," said Kahlid Elmasry of the Muslim American Society. "Transportation of alcohol for Muslims is against the Islamic faith, and therefore forbidden."
Last September, airport officials sought a compromise, and suggested that distinctive lights could be put on the roofs of cabs operated by drivers who will not transport alcohol. That way, taxi starters -- airport staff who direct people into cabs -- could send passengers with alcohol to those drivers who have no objection.
"But the feedback we got, not only locally but really from around the country and around the world, was almost entirely negative," said airport spokesman Pat Hogan. "People saw that as condoning discrimination against people who had alcohol."
No sheet, Sherlock. It's also the State forcing a set of religious beliefs upon someone, which you would think might upset someone in the People's Republic of Minnesota. Oh, wait, those beliefs aren't Christian.
Right now, MAC says any cabbie who refuses a passenger carrying alcohol must go to the back of the line. No small thing, given cabbies often have to wait at the depot up to three hours for the next fare.But because MAC officials have received thousands of complaints, they're considering stiffer penalties: a 30-day suspension for a first refusal, a two-year suspension for a second.
"We're now at a point where the drivers may have to make a choice," said Hogan.
Hello? They made a choice when they became cabbies: to serve the public, all of the public. They can not discriminate. They should be fired. Not 'sent to the end of the line'.
The interview with Adan took a long time. Our fare came to $150, a very good day for him. Normally, he makes about $100 a day, so it became more clear to us that refusing a fare is a big loss. But Adan said he won't accept the idea that in America a cab driver should allow something his religion forbids.
Well, you have to, Adan. That's what America is about. In your private life you can do mostly whatever your religion demands. But when you are in public, especially when you are licensed by the State to provide a service to other citizens, you render unto Caeser.
However, I hear that cabbies on Mogadishu can refuse whomever they'd like.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:31 AM | Comments (8)
Criminals "Fearful" Of Law
Heck, I'm "fearful" when I run a red light, but at least I 'fess up that I'm the one in the wrong, not the cops
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Cook Rosa Maria Salazar's eyes dart anxiously to the door as customers file into the Salvadoran cafe in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles."We're terrified. The police could come for us at any time and deport us," she said in Spanish earlier this week as diners fingered maize tortillas stuffed with beans and pork scratchings and chatted softly.
The 55-year-old undocumented worker from Guatemala is among many Hispanics deeply shaken by recent immigration raids at the heart of Latino communities in southern California.
The-seven day Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep, dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," targeted jails across five counties in the Los Angeles area, where police took 423 of what they called "criminal aliens" into federal custody for deportation, after being held on charges unrelated to their immigration status.
They really can't complain about people being deported for reasons beyond their illegal immigrant status.
"We used to feel secure here," Nicaraguan electrician Manuel Salomon told Reuters as he sipped coffee in a Mexican bakery in the city. "But it looks like that honeymoon is over."
With 10-12 million illegals here, there is simply no way to deport them all. It is not possible without Nazi-like rail cars scooping them up and dumping them at the Rio Grande, and that's not a road we should ever even consider going down (unless, say, we suddenly get a huge influx of illegals from, say, France). But we need to secure the border immediately and deport absolutely any of those here that commit a crime while here or have outstanding warrants from wherever they're from, and let the balance work towards citizenship.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:12 AM | Comments (7)
January 25, 2007
What Unspeakable
...EE-VILLE.
Gnome, gnome on derange.It's being called the "Gnomesville Massacre" and emergency workers in Western Australia are offering a reward for the capture of vandals who smashed their way through a local tourist attraction.
An unknown number of attackers lopped off the heads or smashed several dozen of the pot-bellied statues this week at Gnomesville, a collection of more than a 1,000 colorful characters deep in a forest south of Perth.
"We are incensed by the damage done to the gnomes and willing to pay a reward to catch the culprits," State Emergency Service Volunteer Association President Phillip Petersen told Reuters.
Six orange-colored gnomes depicting emergency workers were among those destroyed, Petersen said, adding the reward was A$500 ($390).
The population of Gnomesville has grown from a handful of statues placed covertly in the forest a few years ago, making it a popular stop off for tour buses visiting nearby vineyards.
Look at those cheerful pudgy faces...::sob::...the BASTARDS.
I hope Tim hasn't seen this yet, bless his tender heart. It'll ruin his day. Global warming and polar bear gonads shrinking pale in comparison.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:32 AM | Comments (9)
Straight Shooting
...Robert Salter Jr. originally told investigators that he was driving by OBO Auto Sales, 3222 Fordham Parkway in Pensacola, the night of Jan. 6, when he saw lights inside. When he went into the office to check, a burglar shot him in the leg, he claimed.It turns out that Salter's injury occurred after he and Paul Dean burglarized the business, and Dean attempted to open the safe in a wooded area by shooting it with a .45-caliber pistol, law enforcement officers said. The shot ricocheted off the safe and struck Salter in the thigh.
Lucky thing he wasn't a six-shooter. He'd be dead.
The safe escaped with minor injuries.
And will be interviewed on Friday's 'Oprah'.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:55 AM | Comments (3)
January 24, 2007
Michael Gerson
...in Newsweek.
...Whenever a politician puts out to the media that he has thrown away the speechwriters’ draft and written the remarks himself (as Webb did), it is often a sign of approaching mediocrity. This was worse. Senator Webb made liberal use of clichés: the middle class is “the backbone” of the country, which is losing its “place at the table.” I am not even sure there is a literary term for a mixed metaphor that crosses two clichés. And Senator Webb’s logic was as incoherent as his language (the two are often related). No “precipitous withdrawal”—but retreat “in short order.” Fight the war on terror vigorously—except where the terrorists have chosen to fight it. It is, perhaps, a good thing that James Webb earned a job as senator. As a speechwriter he would starve.Perhaps the most compelling argument of the day was not made by President Bush or Senator Webb—and it was made in five words. Earlier in the day, General David Petraeus testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. When asked if he could get his job done in Iraq without additional troops, he replied: “No, sir.” When asked if a congressional resolution of disapproval of the “surge” could encourage the enemy, he said, “That’s correct, sir.” ...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:05 PM
They Should Have Asked Me
Group attempting to simplify terror alertsFor the sake of clarity, I would have suggested:
Current system of notification called chaotic, confusing
...and the always popular....
Easy cheesy.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:42 PM
Courtesy of major dad
...a primer. It explains everything you never knew you needed to know about the various sects of Islam. You know ... in case you get a Congressional Committee Chair, need a cab at the airport or want to order mats for your unit from a Pakistani in Milwaukee.
Stranger things have happened.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:35 PM | Comments (3)
Lyin' (?) Eyes
...get second sight.
A Michigan woman who lost a small-claims case because she refused to remove her veil while testifying has been granted a new hearing, court officials said.Ginnnah Muhammad, 42, will appear before the same judge who told her last October that she had to remove her niqab -- a veil with only a small opening at the eyes -- so he could gauge whether she was telling the truth.
When Muhammad refused, Judge Paul Paruk ordered her to pay a rental car company for damage to a vehicle she rented. Muhammad appealed his ruling.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:16 PM | Comments (3)
Mi Casa
Federal agents taking a break from an unrelated assignment yesterday arrested 24 illegal aliens at a Fells Point 7-Eleven after the men attempted to solicit "underground" employment from the agents....Of those arrested, 10 were Honduran, eight were Mexican, five were Salvadoran and one was Peruvian, ICE officials said. Six of the men have criminal records in the United States, eight of the men have failed to comply with final removal orders from an immigration judge and one man had been caught at the border on four occasions, ICE officials said.
...CASA sue ?
...The nonprofit immigrant-advocacy group CASA of Maryland called the arrests an "illegal raid" that was beyond ICE's authority.
"Asking a bunch of people about their immigration status is well beyond the confines of a specific warrant," CASA spokeswoman Kim Propeack said.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:13 PM | Comments (1)
Ya THINK?!
The return of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political bloc to the Iraqi government is a "positive sign" but could be a tactic to help its militia survive a US-Iraqi crackdown, the US ambassador to Baghdad said.That kind of bull-Shiite is exACTLY why I have a huge, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
And why I didn't watch the chief architect last night on the telly.
So as not to beat an innocent and perfectly good TV monitor with a shoe.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (2)
About Those Flying Carpets
...in our story. Heidi's done a lot more digging and every rock seems to turn over with a new rock underneath. So what happens next?
HAHAH!! WE’VE BEEN HACKED.
AND WE’RE BEING SLAMMED BY PROXIES OUT OF CHICAGO AND MILWAUKEE.
YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?
WE’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK.Our website was hacked and this article was removed. Everything was gone - trackbacks, comments, etc. See our post management page? GONE. All of it.
Sounds like a nerve was touched somewhere. And oh, how clumsy! Maybe in Pakistan it goes away for good, but here?
Just darn pisses people off, doncha know.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:56 AM | Comments (2)
January 23, 2007
It's a Sanitation Snake Pit
...that would make Tony Soprano proud. Only it's not Newark ~ it's New Orleans, Nagin and another taxpayer mugging.
Now, budda bing ~ follow the bouncing garbage truck carefully, cher.
New Orleans officials traded a zoning waiver needed by Waste Management to operate the Chef Menteur Landfill for the promise of a portion of the landfill’s revenue, according to a federal audit that deems the deal inappropriate and concludes the city should pay the money back.Because the federal government was paying 100 percent of the cost of debris removal, the report says, the city was in essence helping itself to an unauthorized federal grant. To cover the cost of paying the city, the landfill’s operators inflated their prices, which was in turn paid by the federal government.
As it turns out, the city hasn’t received any of the approximately $860,000 it is owed under its agreement with Waste Management, which opened the controversial and short-lived Chef Menteur Landfill in eastern New Orleans. But if it’s ever collected, the money should be treated “as a credit to be deducted from the city’s claim for other disaster costs,” said the report, conducted by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Under the city’s agreement with Waste Management, signed by Mayor Ray Nagin in February 2006, the trash hauler promised to “donate” 22 percent of its revenues from the new construction landfill to the city. In a separate document, signed the same day, Nagin used his emergency powers to grant the company a six-month waiver from the city’s zoning law, allowing the landfill to open....“Common sense tells us that the beneficiary of a voluntary donation would not normally require the donor to (1) sign a notarized agreement; (2) submit calculation of donated amounts to the beneficiary for validation; or (3) continue donations so long as the donor operated a business that required the beneficiary’s authorization,” the report says. “These requirements provide convincing evidence that the landfill operator’s ‘donation’ of 22 percent of gross revenues was contingent on the city’s approval to operate the landfill.”
Damn. This whole time I thought Hizzoner was emulating someone else.
He needs to cut back on his cable.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 PM | Comments (2)
Pardon Me While I Barf
The Scientoiletgists aren't just a bunch of ego-intense nutjobs.
Really they're not:
TOM Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientoiletgy, according to leaders of the cult-like religion.The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been “chosen” to spread the word of his faith throughout the world.
And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion.
A source close to the actor, who has risen to one of the church’s top levels, said: “Tom has been told he is Scientoiletgy’s Christ-like figure.
“Like Christ, he’s been criticised for his views. But future generations will realise he was right.”
Cruise joined the Church of Scientoiletgy in the ’80s. Leader L Ron Hoover claimed humans bear traces of an ancient alien civilisation.
I simply don't know where to begin.
Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot
Update: I see Emily was way ahead of me on this.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:40 PM | Comments (9)
What a Beautiful Baby Boy He Was
And what a magnificent human being he grew up to be.
It's hard to sign the guestbook through the tears.
The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously toCORPORAL
JASON L. DUNHAM
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the followingCITATION: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham's squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander's convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an
insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:17 AM | Comments (3)
For a Second Here I Thought They Were Talking About
...the avaricious charismatic evangelicals across the street from us.
Snake charmers hold council for survival
They danced in a trance, writhing serpents draped around their necks, oblivious to the fear -- and venom -- their cobras, vipers and boas impart.Swaying to the sounds of flutes and hisses, more than 150 snake charmers gathered in the southern Pakistani city of Hyderabad for a grand council to appeal to the government to help them preserve their livelihood, which many see as a divine gift.
Whew ~ in Pakistan! So traffic won't be any worse than usual. Hallelujah and pass the rattlesnake.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:52 AM
January 22, 2007
I Can't Decide If This Is the Coolest Idea Ever
...or if I should just slit my wrists and get it over with.
Moral of the Story: If you have to sell out, at least do it for something manly.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:01 PM | Comments (4)
ABC News
...has more on the al-Qaeda exchange student program.
Mimicking the hijackers who executed the Sept. 11 attacks, insurgents reportedly tied to al Qaeda in Iraq considered using student visas to slip terrorists into the United States to orchestrate a new attack on American soil....The plot was discovered six months ago, roughly the same time that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was killed by coalition forces. Sources tell ABC News that the suspects involved in the effort to launch the U.S. attack were closely associated with Zarqawi.
The plan also came only months after Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2, had requested that Zarqawi attempt an attack inside the United States.
"This appears to be the first hard evidence al Qaeda in Iraq was trying to attack us here at home," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, former chief counterterrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council.
Gosh, I just feel so wonderful about the 'amnesty for illegal immigrants' policy. 'Bring the boys over on a student visa and fade into the background' is hardly original. What's sad is that it's STILL plausible.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:20 PM | Comments (1)
Um
...WOW.
From: SGT Jason Hess
Sent: Tue Jan 16 3:25Do you ship to APO address? I’m in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first.
*****************************************************
From: contact@discount-mats.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: Feedback: from discount-mats.comSGT Hess,
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com
Now, normally I'm not big on passing along this stuff, but they've got Snopes involved. That's the first step. Then they've tracked down the owner of the website and ~ lo and behold ~ there's a bunch of them all run by Milwaukee [ths]
...A Vice President with Bargain Suppliers, the website's parent company, confirms the email was sent. He says the employee who sent it is being held accountable and will be dealt with.In addition, the spokesperson says the address and phone number that are now being circulated around the world are someone's home in West Allis. He says they've been bombarded with phone calls and as you can imagine they're getting plenty of complaints.
Oh, no doubt! (That 'will be dealt with' is rather ominous, n'est pas? Was he a cab driver at an airport or something?) The poor sergeant is getting his rugs regardless and I feel safe in saying the carpets won't be flying out of Mr. Faisal Khetani's warehouses any time soon.
If CAIR wants to keep Muslims off '24' and the front pages, it might help if they sent a memo about "Public Relations: Answering Emails in a Small Business Environment" to their members.
Via The Big Dog.
UPDATE: Oh, well, dang. According to the latest Snopes update, people are going batsh*t crazy on the guys. No need for death threats, for God's sake. (Like a$$holes who come out of the woodwork using 'Timothy McVeigh' as their commenting name and then espouse Daily Kos talking points. Hello? You don't get the 'ick factor' in that, Rocket Man?)
"That was rude and I'm not buying your rugs" would suffice.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:32 PM | Comments (6)
The 'Thigh Master' Has NOTHING
...on this sixpack.
Europeans Rushing To Bulgaria To Buy "Breast-Boosting Beer"European men are rushing to Bulgaria to buy Boza beer, which is said to boost women's breasts, after Bulgaria's accession to the EU abolished prohibitive customs duties on the drink.
The Bulgarian Boza beer, which is made from fermented wheat flour and yeast, has become popular among bar owners, shopkeepers and shoppers across Europe. The beverage is popular among men as gifts for their wives and girlfriends to benefit from its reported ability to make women's breast grow bigger.
One buyer from Romania said he travelled to Danube so he could buy the famous beer in the Bulgarian town of Rousse, according to Ananova news reports.
Ananova reported he said, "I've bought a case for my wife to try out. I really hope I see an improvement."
A Swill salute to That 1 Guy for pointing out yet another cogent reason to support free trade.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (4)
In This Week's Version of "Been There, Seen That"
...to the world's complete shock and awe, Moqtada has directed his minions in a ad-hoc production of his
"Scuttle Off to Mosquello" routine. 
...In a desperate bid to fend off a feared all-out American offensive, the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, last Friday ordered the 30 lawmakers and six Cabinet ministers under his control to end their nearly two-month boycott. They were back at their jobs Sunday.Al-Sadr had already ordered his militia fighters not to show weapons in public or at least when U.S. or Iraqi forces might see them. They have not, however, ceded control of the formerly mixed neighborhoods they have captured, killing Sunnis or forcing them to abandon their homes and businesses.
“We announce our return to parliament, we will attend today’s session, and the ministers will resume their work to serve the people,” Bahaa al-Araji, one of 30 lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr, said during a news conference attended by Sunni parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Al-Sadr also has six loyalist ministers in the 38-member Cabinet.
An old favorite by Iraq war standards, the crowd-pleasing, face-saving strategic retreat dance has worked time and time again and NO one ever seems to catch on. But this is a new round of chest thumping and loin girding by the administration, in cahoots with the always trustworthy Iraqi Prime Minister Now al Take-aliki. Are we gonna fall for it again? NeGOTIATE? Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. Fool us thrice...maybe it's time to leave, 'cause we're too STOOPID to stay.
So. Will the fat cleric get to keep his hottie Mahdis? Or will the Americans stick to their guns (literally) and schmear him like tub of mosquepone cheese?
Whuddaya gonna do, George?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:13 AM | Comments (6)
January 21, 2007
I Can No Longer Waggle My Thumb and Forefinder in a Loser "L"
...when major dad talks about Peyton.
And that's a good thing.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:51 PM | Comments (1)
January 20, 2007
The REAL Reason Becks and Anorexic Spice
...are starring in "Coming to America"? No one loves her at home anymore.
Spice World The Movie has been voted the worst film of all time.
Maybe if she wasn't always such a sour puss poser...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:54 AM | Comments (10)
If You Don't Like the Weather
...move.
World weather impacts
Protest over lack of European snow
18 Jan 2007Romanian snowboarders have staged a protest at the lack of snow in front of the country's weather institute.
Blocking traffic, the snowboarders sat in the road and only moved on when weather officials said that their complaint at the lack of snow "would be passed on to a higher authority"...
At least out of the road, yo.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:46 AM | Comments (5)
January 19, 2007
Did Anyone Else Catch "Scrubs: The Musical"
...last night?
All I can say is, "freakin' brilliant".
UPDATE: "Everything Comes Down to Poo" and "Guy Love" videos in the extended section.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:51 PM | Comments (2)
Heh
...Really annoying is the woman who, as soon as she takes her place on the dining couch, praises Vergil, excuses Dido's suicide, compares and ranks in critical order the various poets, and weighs Vergil and Homer on a pair of scales. Grammar teachers surrender, professors of rhetoric are defeated, the entire group of guests is silent; neither a lawyer nor an auctioneer nor even another woman will get a word in. So loud and shrill are her words that you might think pots were being banged together and bells were being rung...Like a philosopher she defines ethics. If she wants to appear so learned and eloquent, she should shorten her tunic to midcalf! . . . Don't marry a woman who speaks like an orator - or knows every history book. There should be some things in books which she doesn't understand. I hate a woman who reads and rereads Palaemon's treatise on grammar, who always obeys all the laws and rules of correct speech, who quotes verses I've never even heard of, moldy old stuff that a man shouldn't worry about anyway. Let her correct the grammer of her stupid girfriend!
A husband should be allowed an occasional "I ain't."
An early version of "Care for some cheese...
...with that whine?"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 AM | Comments (2)
Color Me a Blue-Eyed Skeptic BUT
...I think al-Maliki is tucking all these guys away now, just in case the rest of Fat Boy's minions get blasted.
...Maliki, however, has said this month he will crack down on Shi'ite militias and said 400 Mehdi Army members had been arrested in mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq over recent days.
Oh yeah? 400? Show me their ugly mugs behind bars with weeping women at the prison gates and I might start to swallow that pill. MIGHT. And why can you scoop up legions of foot soldiers without protest but when the U.S. is involved in an ACTUAL arrest...
U.S. and Iraqi troops seized a prominent spokesman for Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday, confronting a movement that has a key role in the ruling coalition but is accused by Washington of running death squads.The midnight raid near Baghdad's Sadr City district, which Sadr's aides angrily called an "American provocation", came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew in to the southern city of Basra to meet the commander in Iraq, General George Casey.
...all hell breaks loose?
Because those 'detained' Mahdi troops cooling their heels in the slammer are just getting a break from the action.
..."We have picked up probably five or six death squad leaders here in the last three to four weeks at very very high level," [Gen.] Casey told reporters at a joint news conference with Gates.
Well, if it's that easy, why weren't we doing it to begin with?
- Right Wing News '04Smoke and mirrors, my friends.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:02 AM
Searching for Answers Friday
If, God forbid, we'd lost Ebola when he was 11 ~ had years on end to torture ourselves with what might or might not have befallen him, and what we might or might not have done to prevent it all ~ and then had our baby boy returned to us in a miracle moment...would we have spiffed ourselves up shortly thereafter to go on Oprah? To put aside the damage and hurt that has to be festering to answer questions best asked by investigators and mental health experts vice an empathetic, concerned-head-tilting, multigazillionaire TV talk show host? (Because no matter how she was abused as a child, how many books she's written on weight loss or how she bought herself a whole Third World country full of uneducated little girls, she's STILL...just a talk show host.)
And as you bare your family's soul on that foreign stage in your new suit, clean hair and fresh shaven face, what makes you think that it's okay to throw in that you think your son has been sexually abused?
The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn't told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing."OK, I'm going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?" Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.
Both nodded and said, "Yes."
She can ask you, but you don't have to answer. Or don't you think you should wait to answer because YOU DON'T KNOW FOR SURE? Or maybe, just MAYBE, it's nobody's business but the family's and law enforcement's? That maybe your kid has enough to handle in his life without 60 million viewers listening to his parents speculate on something so horrible and so very, very personal?
Pam Akers said she did not know when Winfrey asked if her son was tortured, but her husband, Shawn's stepfather, stressed that something happened to dramatically change the boy."I have no doubt that mentally he's not the same boy he was," he said.
Ergo, you're supposed to protect him, protect that fragile shell, give him a chance to recover. Not trot him out like a science experiment. Not like a limited installation at the freak museum, where you can talk about any aspect of his life in front of him for millions of TV voyeurs, because he really doesn't understand anyway.
Besides, who in their right mind would blow a shot at being on Oprah.
The kid'll get over it.
ths note: Hmmm...strange how some great Florida minds think alike.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:55 AM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2007
Just One More Reason to Thank GOD
...you live HERE, in THESE UNITED STATES. It's THAT time again...
Sumo: Main bouts for 14th day of New Year Grand Sumo Tournament+
Makuuchi division bouts for Saturday, the 14th day of the 15-day New Year Grand Sumo Tournament at Ryogoku Kokugikan (+ denotes juryo division wrestler): Toyozakura x - x +Tochiozan Tamakasuga 12 - 6 Tokitsuumi Otsukasa
The damn tournament lasts for a damn year and CONSUMES every second of broadcast airtime. Sunup to sundown, it's non-stop Pavarotti in a rice spangled thong. The only thing in Western culture close to being AS excruciating is the National Indoor Badminton Championships on the BBC.
And I speak from personal experience, hence my absolute moral authority.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:42 PM | Comments (8)
Then There're These OTHER Assholes
At a recent debate over the battle for Islamic ideals in England, a British-born Muslim stood before the crowd and said Prophet Mohammed's message to nonbelievers is:I am GOBSCHMACKED CNN chose to open this article with those words. It's almost like they want you to know what these guys are really like and what they're really saying."I come to slaughter all of you."
major dad believes the English are going to lay back and...um...something to do with a codpiece.
UPDATE: Holy schamoly! It looks like MSNBC is actually reporting the another Australian Religion of Peace (post below this) 'Cat Meat' kinda cleric!
An Australian Muslim cleric has urged children to be martyrs for Islam and referred to Jews as pigs in a series of DVDs, sparking condemnation by the government and further straining tensions with the nation’s Muslims.Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Center in Sydney’s western suburbs, is the second cleric to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia with controversial comments.
Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly, the imam of Australia’s biggest mosque, was accused of justifying rape in November after a Ramadan sermon in which he said unveiled women were like uncovered meat.
Gobschmacked, I yam.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:02 PM | Comments (2)
Is It Just Me
...or does this guy look like Eminem...
...at first glance?
'Twould seem the old "ALL anti-social, neanderthal, misogynist assholes look alike"* rule holds true.
A Swill salute to Tim.
(* see "BINGLEY, Birthday" pose below)
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:48 AM | Comments (8)
With Enough Love and Support, This Twisted, Piteous Child
...could live a normal life.
Unfortunately, Bingley had neither. But I just love him to death...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BINGSTER !!
...anyway.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:55 AM | Comments (33)
Two More Reasons To Favor Global Warming
We won't have to worry about this or this anymore!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:07 AM | Comments (5)
January 17, 2007
We Have A Card On File
Courtesy of Sheila
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:31 PM | Comments (5)
I Wonder If The Zoo Would Notice...
If I swapped my daughter for Judy
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- An escaped chimpanzee at the Little Rock Zoo raided a kitchen cupboard and did a little cleaning with a toilet brush before sedatives knocked her out on top of a refrigerator. The 120-pound primate, Judy, escaped yesterday into a service area when a zookeeper opened a door to her sleeping quarters, unaware the animal was still inside.As keepers tried to woo Judy back into her cage, she rummaged through a refrigerator where chimp snacks are stored. She opened kitchen cupboards, pulled out juice and soft drinks and took a swig from bottles she managed to open.
Keeper Ann Rademacher says Judy went into the bathroom, picked up a toilet brush and cleaned the toilet. Rademacher says the 37-year-old Judy was a house pet before the zoo acquired her in 1988, so she may have been familiar with housekeeping chores. Judy wrung out a sponge and scrubbed down the fridge.
She does household chores and no college costs. Seems like a deal to me.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:00 AM | Comments (9)
January 16, 2007
"You Have to Live Like a State Within a State..."
'...until you take over."LGF has UK Channel 4's documentary "Dispatches: Undercover Mosque" covered.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:35 PM | Comments (1)
Melt The Glaciers Quickly!
Don't do it for me or my need for teetimes in January. No, do it for the Dolphins
Dolphins Stuck In Shallow Waters Of East Hampton(CBS) EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. About two dozen dolphins are struggling for survival in the unlikeliest of places, and thanks much in part to the unseasonable winter weather. Rescuers in East Hampton have been working to free the mammals from shallow waters, worried they will die from hunger.
Drive those SUVs! Drive , I say!
But cooler weather -- with temperatures expected to drop more than 20 degrees on Tuesday, according to CBS 2 Meteoroligist John Elliott -- could raise the water level enough to give rescuers another chance to save the dolphins from the cove.
What does Al Gore know? Cooler weather=higher oceans!
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:45 AM | Comments (10)
January 15, 2007
It's Not That We Don't Love Our Schwan's Guy
It's just that he thinks 7:30 a.m. is hilarious...
...and it's a *^#*in' HOLIDAY.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 PM | Comments (4)
January 12, 2007
Shake It
...UP.
...“Practicing Muslims who live by the word of the Koran and the Koranic books — of course they limit their own opportunities,” she said. “A lot of people who live like me, or practicing Muslims who respect that religion is a private matter, have had it easier than those who think religion should be part of a larger society.Ms. Subuni said many say, “ ‘I need to pray five times a day because my religion says so.’ ” But she added: “Which employer will accept that? Or, ‘My child shouldn’t take part in music class, because my religion questions this.’ O.K., then we have a problem.”
AS the minister for gender equality, she is particularly troubled at evidence that young Muslim girls are wearing the veil. “I would like to know what is happening in our society that makes families want to put a veil” on our children, she said. “Maybe we don’t need a law. Maybe we need something else so that people don’t feel so insecure that they need to manifest their religion by using their children.”
Ms. Sabuni would be SWEDEN's recently appointed minister for integration and gender equality and "the daughter of a frequently jailed opposition politician in Congo, then Zaire, who fled to Sweden as a political refugee." You know...an immigrant.
And Swedish Muslim groups have a problem with her.
Go figure.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM | Comments (1)
Don't Let the Door Hit You
...in the a$$, you a$$.
Duke Professor Quits Committee Assignments Over Lacrosse Players Being Invited BackA Duke University professor resigned from her committee assignments, saying she was upset by the administration's decision to invite two lacrosse players accused of sexual assault back to campus.
"The decision by the university to readmit the students, especially just before a critical judicial decision on the case, is a clear use of corporate power, and a breach, I think, of ethical citizenship," Karla Holloway, an English professor and former dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, wrote to Duke's black faculty caucus.
While on the subject of 'ethical citizenship'...once again...don't let the door hit you in the a$$, a$$hole.
EXCLUSIVE: DA in Duke Rape Case Asks to Be Taken off Case
District Attorney Mike Nifong has requested that he have himself removed from prosecuting the Duke Lacrosse rape investigation, ABC News has learned.A source close to the investigation said Nifong sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper asking his office to assume responsibility of the case. Calls to the Attorney General's office and Mike Nifong's office were not yet returned.
Question for our Swilling lawyerites: Will this free him up for the families to start action against him?
On another front:
Nifong Subpoenas Woman Accusing Duke Lacrosse Players of Sexual AssaultThe embattled district attorney prosecuting three Duke University lacrosse players in a sexual-assault case has served his key witness a subpoena forcing her to testify during a Feb. 5 hearing, FOX News has confirmed.
On Thursday, District Attorney Mike Nifong met for several hours with the woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by the three players during an off-campus party in March, WRAL reported. It was there she was served with the subpoena.
I wonder if the meeting had anything to do with the quitting.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:21 PM | Comments (6)
Gobschmacked
ALL these people are crazy with the heat...
Gore's 'Truth' restricted at schoolsThe school board in this suburb south of Seattle has restricted showings of Al Gore's movie on global warming, including requiring that it be balanced with an adequate opposing viewpoint.
..."Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who doesn't want the film shown at all.
..."The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is," Hardison told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."
WTF?! Guess there shouldn't be discourse on shrinking polar bear gonads (the technical term), either. (I mean, they're not in the Bible, right? Polar bears, not gonads.) And of course someone named 'Frosty' doesn't like Al Gore! But I get her Gore/condom connection. Completely.
And, from the Gore-ites, a rousing endorsement of 'truth' as we know it...
..."I am shocked that a school district would come to this decision," the movie's co-producer, Laurie David, said in a prepared statement. "There is no opposing view to science, which is fact, and the facts are clear that global warming is here, now."
WOW, that is an ASTONISHING statement! Calling Tom Cruise ~ one of your aliens is loose!
I'll tell you what theory these two sterling examples of rational thought give lie to and it ain't 'global warming'.
Jeez Louise, primates. Chill out.
UPDATE: In the comment section with this article, someone was mentioned who caused me to go a Googling. Michael Crichton? Global Warming? Yes. And it's genius.
"Aliens Cause Global Warming"...And so, in this elastic anything-goes world where science-or non-science-is the hand maiden of questionable public policy, we arrive at last at global warming. It is not my purpose here to rehash the details of this most magnificent of the demons haunting the world. I would just remind you of the now-familiar pattern by which these things are established. Evidentiary uncertainties are glossed over in the unseemly rush for an overarching policy, and for grants to support the policy by delivering findings that are desired by the patron. Next, the isolation of those scientists who won't get with the program, and the characterization of those scientists as outsiders and "skeptics" in quotation marks-suspect individuals with suspect motives, industry flunkies, reactionaries, or simply anti-environmental nutcases. In short order, debate ends, even though prominent scientists are uncomfortable about how things are being done.
When did "skeptic" become a dirty word in science? When did a skeptic require quotation marks around it?
To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: "These results are derived with the help of a computer model." But now large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world-increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward. There can be no observational data about the year 2100. There are only model runs.
This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right. Because only if you spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen can you arrive at the complex point where the global warming debate now stands.
Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we're asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:03 PM | Comments (17)
ABC News Asks
No.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:20 PM | Comments (6)
All I Can Say Is
...you GO, girl.
...The fact that Nifong withheld the information and knew it before he indicted their sons has outraged the parents of the accused. "You felt like someone hit you with a baseball bat. … It was almost too much to bear, as we sat there," says Kathy Seligmann, whose son, Reade, is among the three indicted players. "And [Nifong is] sitting 10 feet away from us."It enraged Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, another indicted player. "I think [I felt] one of the strongest feelings of rage that I've had … I literally had to turn to my husband, because I was shaking from my head to my toe, and say, 'Hold me down,'" recalls Finnerty. Adds Seligmann, "And we had to hold on to each other because when you sit there and put two and two together and realize that it was calculated … set up to make these boys appear to be guilty of something they didn't do."
When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, "I would say with a smile on my face,
'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.'"
For the sake of every citizen who ever has to face 'justice', here's hoping.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM | Comments (5)
When I Grow Up
...I hope I write half as well as the Dragon Lady.
The Michael Nifong Scandal
The Duke rape hoax is redolent of past decades' phony child-abuse cases....In his role of avenger of a young black woman alleged to have been brutalized by white males, Mr. Nifong proceeded with similar assurance. His was a crusade. Who but enemies of the good would object?...
...Neither Mr. Seligman nor the other accused Duke students will ever have to contend with a punishment like the one meted out to Gerald Amirault, who was sentenced to a 30- to 40-year term for something that never happened--atrocious sex crimes that never took place, of which there was no physical evidence, or anything resembling a credible allegation. What did it matter that the child's testimony that resulted in Gerald's conviction had claimed rape with a large butcher's knife--one that had magically left not the slightest injury? The jury's most important duty was, the prosecutors informed them, to believe the children and show that they honored their testimony. The same young witness also testified that Gerald was accompanied by a green, silver and yellow robot, R2-D2, from "Star Wars."
What did it matter, either, that special judicial hearings about the Amiraults' prosecution had concluded that it was a travesty, that a tough panel of former prosecutors, the Governor's Board of Pardons, had virtually declared Gerald Amirault innocent and voted for commutation of his sentence--or that he was finally granted parole nearly three years ago, after nearly 18 years' imprisonment? He was almost immediately classified by Massachusetts's Sex Offenders Registry Board as a Level 3 offender. The kind, that is, deemed the most dangerous and most likely to re-offend. This bizarre classification, the board made clear, had to do with the number of counts of sex abuse charged to him--and the fact, too, that he continued to deny guilt. He now has to wear a large tracking device around his ankle, and obey a curfew confining him to the house from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. He has, not surprisingly, been unable to find a job. He is sustained, as ever, by the unstinting devotion of his family, and he grieves now mainly for the loss of the chance he had dreamed of in prison--of earning a salary and finally lightening the burden his wife had carried, uncomplaining and alone, during his years in prison. (He has recently been advised of pending legislation that will require him to pay $10 a day for the global positioning tag on his leg, that tracks him.)
The accused Duke students can be grateful that the case against them has collapsed, and that Mr. Nifong now confronts a serious ethics complaint filed by the North Carolina State Bar. They will never have to face anything like the malignant force which descended on the happy and ambitious Amiraults in 1984, and turned their lives to dust. But Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty have this year had a look into an abyss that has claimed many others, and that is never less than terrorizing. It is a piece of their Duke education they are unlikely to forget.
A Swill salute to Dr. Helen.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:13 AM | Comments (4)
Being Short on 'Practiced Voice', I 'Bout Blow Out My Vocal Chords
...singing along. But I can't help it.
Pavoratti ~ Nessum Dorma
Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!
If you've got to have a 'signature' song, make it a doozy.
Thanks Fausta.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:45 AM | Comments (3)
Bend It Like Boredom
So David Beckham and Anorexic Spice are coming to America. Pardon me if I yawn. They'll get all snuggly wrapped up in some ginormous digs in Hollywood so Anor can shovel boatloads of cash directly into the gaping maw that is her Scientoiletgist friends, who will promptly praise her 'acting'.
And David. David David David. He'll get $250 million or so over the next 5 years to play a sport everyone plays here as a child...and never thinks about or watches again until forced to schlep their own kids about on Saturday mornings in the Fall. The only people taking more interest in professional soccer matches these days are INS agents.
And even they don't care about who's on the field.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:16 AM | Comments (19)
The Naked Truth Is
...yes, you did.
Sergeant in trouble for Playboy photos
Air Force blasts her steamy pictorial as ‘not representative’ of service"Drop and give me 20!" is something you might hear Air Force Staff Sgt. Michelle Manhart yell to airmen trainees at Lackland Air Force Base. Drop her trousers is what Manhart did for Playboy magazine, and now it's landed her in trouble with the military.
"Of what I did, nothing is wrong so I didn't anticipate anything, of course," Manhart said Thursday of the pictorial. "I didn't do anything wrong so I didn't think it would be a major issue."
You were fine doing anything the photographer wanted and that your little heart desired, right up to this part...
...In a six-page spread in February's issue, hitting newsstands this week, Manhart is photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline "Tough Love." The following pages show her partially clothed wearing her dog tags while working out, as well as completely nude.
Your uniform doesn't belong in Playboy. And that's where they're gonna get you. Years ago Playboy did a 'Women of the Services' feature and the only one in any piece of her actual uniform was the WM. Guess who was the only one out of all those girls to be charged?
Exactly.
Sorry.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:49 AM | Comments (10)
It Sucks to Wind Up Being Right
...after you've been hung out to dry, huh?
New Strategy Vindicates Ex-Army Chief ShinsekiAfter President Bush told the nation on Wednesday night that he was ordering a rapid increase of American forces in Iraq, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki was not among the retired officers to offer instant analysis on television.
But the president’s new strategy, with its explicit acknowledgment that not enough troops had been sent to Iraq to establish control, was a vindication for General Shinseki, who as Army chief of staff publicly told Congress as much just before the war began in 2003.
First vilified, then marginalized by the Bush administration after those comments, General Shinseki retired and faded away, even as lawmakers, pundits and politicians increasingly cited his prescience.
“We never had enough troops to begin with,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said just before the president’s televised address. “A month or two ago we found out the Army is broken, and they agreed that General Shinseki was right.”
Gen. John P. Abizaid, the departing commander of American forces in the Middle East, told Congress late last year, “General Shinseki was right that a greater international force contribution, U.S. force contribution and Iraqi force contribution should have been available immediately after major combat operations.”
In his prime-time address on Wednesday, even President Bush said the main reason past efforts to stabilize Baghdad had failed was that “there were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents.”
The acknowledgment was far different from the harsh administration rebuttals after General Shinseki electrified Washington with his blunt warning that victory in Iraq would require more troops than were being deployed for the invasion.
He was the target of immediate rebuke from the Pentagon leadership, in particular from Donald H. Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense, and his deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz. Mr. Wolfowitz dismissed the testimony as “wildly off the mark.”
If it's any consolation, General, you have your fans here.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:35 AM | Comments (1)
January 11, 2007
Oh, That's Lovely!
Investors Sue to Block Former Home Depot CEO's $210 Million Severance PackageHome Depot Inc. (HD) investors on Wednesday asked a Georgia state court to issue an injunction blocking the retailer from paying former Chief Executive Robert Nardelli a $210-million severance package.
"Nardelli's severance package is a final, indefensible step by the board of directors in wrongly over-compensating an unsuccessful chief executive," plaintiffs said in papers asking for a temporary restraining order.
And truer words were never spoken. A warm Swill salute to our Real JeffS for the heads up!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:52 PM | Comments (8)
Note to Self: If Ever Beaten During a San Francisco SingSing
...make SURE you insist a SFPD type interview you at the SCENE.
It could get expensive otherwise ~ ain't no 'free-to-go' about it.
...It especially troubles Johnson that the police failed to take photographs of the injuries. The couple who owned the home where the party took place took these pictures. And it bothers him that police failed to interview the victims.Now, 10 days later, investigators are demanding that the young men pay their way back to San Francisco to be interviewed. One investigator told a parent, "the kids are affluent, so they can afford it." The Baker's Dozen's attorney says it's ridiculous.
Whitney Leigh, Gonzalez & Leigh Law Firm: "The notion that the police should now put the burden on the families or on these kids to fly back to San Francisco, a place they're now afraid to come to frankly, doesn't seem to make any sense to me."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:13 PM | Comments (3)
I Saw This Headline and Thought 'WOW!!'
He signs with an American team and obviously isn't the disgustinglyshallowbraindeadsoccerloveGod studmuffin I thought he was.
Beckett hails troops plan for Iraq
My bad. Entirely.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:18 AM | Comments (2)
In the Continuing Saga of "Yes, No, Schmaybe"
...the defense once again throws the bullsh*t flag.
Motions Call for Dismissal in Duke Lacrosse Case
Accuser changes story again about who, where and what happened....Based on today's motions, Reade Seligmann could be off the hook -- The Duke Lacrosse accuser's December 21 statements to District Attorney Mike Nifong have just been made public in a 76-page defense motion.
It was because of her statement in that interview that Nifong subsequently dropped rape charges against the indicted players.
According to the filing, in that interview the accuser now claims the attack took place between 11:35 and midnight, which contradicts the accuser's own cell phone records and the cell phone records for Reade Seligmann and his girlfriend.
She recants her April statement that Reade Seligmann was the man who stood in front of her and made her commit a sex act. Now she says Evans was that person and further admits that Reade Seligmann did not commit any sex act on her.
The motion goes on to point out how she recants her April statement that the attacker who looked like Dave Evans had mustache.
The motion also states that the accuser recants her March and April statements that "Matt" Kadam" and "Brett" were three separate people, and now says that they were only two people.
In her December statement, the accuser recanted her statement that she was certain that two of her attackers used their penises to penetrate both her vagina and her rectum, and now claims that she cannot be sure about penile penetration at all.
You know, neither Nifong nor anyone from his office interviewed this poor girl until last month. I'm thinking schmaybe they should have talked to her a smidge earlier, saving the Duke guys' more heartache, their families how many hundreds of thousands in additional legal bills and Nifong himself some tattered shred of reputation.
But, no. Dang if he isn't an incompetent, ornery cuss.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:56 AM | Comments (2)
Blame Canada!
Global Positioning Coins?
In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.
...Top suspects, according to outside experts: China, Russia or even France -- all said to actively run espionage operations inside Canada with enough sophistication to produce such technology.
"Even France"
I'm shocked.
I wouldn't worry about this too much if I were the government, as most Canadian coins end up in US vending machines anyway, as opposed to secure government facilities.
Update: Oops! I see the Cracka' was on this late last night. That Miracle Whip-induced agita is really cutting into her shuteye.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:22 AM | Comments (1)
They're Planning a Huge Rally in New Orleans Today
And ~ in the Bywater/Marigny at least ~ let's just say the 'natives are restless'.
10098. WDSU
by JerseyNOLA, 1/11/07 9:41 ETReports that our Beloved Mayor, Count Chocula, and his minion, Chief "The Life of" Riley will address the rally.....
I suggest that when these Bozos speak, we turn our backs.....Silence might be more effective than expressing what we really feel!
10098.2. Drown him out
by kmsoap, 1/11/07 9:43 ET
Re: WDSU by JerseyNOLA, 1/11/07Chants of
"No more lies."10094. March with tomatoes
by critterSays, 1/11/07 9:30 ETif Nagin shows, well say no more.
(I think you might be hard pressed to find someone willing to admit they voted for this guy.)
On the upside, I've heard the lycopene in tomatoes is good for prostate problems.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:00 AM | Comments (2)
"Emerald Isle"
...or "Emerald City"?
Irish banknotes massively tainted with cocaine
Irish researchers found traces of cocaine on every single banknote contained in a random sample tested in a study of drug contamination of currency, Dublin City University (DCU) has said.Researchers voiced suprise Thursday at the 100 percent figure, which compares for example to a recent US study which found two thirds of dollar bills tainted by the drug.
..."The most recent survey carried out in the US showed 65 percent of dollar notes were contaminated with cocaine. However, the 100 percent rate uncovered in this project was surprising.
"Although not a quantitative measure, the presence of illicit substances on banknotes in general circulation provides an indication of the degree to which substances are being used by the community".
Well, my hands are clean.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:59 AM | Comments (3)
Courtesy of Bahrain TV, The Islamic Version of
..."Shalom in the Home".
A Swill salute to The Big Picture.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:58 AM | Comments (4)
La-La-La-Wyer Land
One of my favorite blogs is The Volokh Conspiracy. I don't comment there much, because most of the discussion is way out of my league, but many of the posts and comments provide interesting explanations and views on things legal in a manner that is pretty accessible for average idiots like myself. Eugene Volokh is especially brilliant, but sometimes he gives little hints that he's spent just a tad too much time teaching law instead of living with the real-world effects of it (and certain types of lawyers) on our society and how it operates:
Restaurants and Aspirin (and the Like): On occasion, I've found myself with a nasty headache in a restaurant; and when I've asked the front desk whether they had any aspirin (or whatever else, but I'll just say aspirin for now) I could have, they've always said no.Now my sense is that, like most employers, they do have some aspirin for their staff, likely in those little individually wrapped packets. It's also probably in their interest to help out with it: If I've got a bad headache, I'm going to have a less pleasant dinner, and while I probably won't consciously resent them for not helping, I'll be slightly less likely to come back soon (since often one comes back to a restaurant because of memories of recent pleasant dining experiences there). And of course giving me some of the aspirin would cost very little money and time. So why not help out, especially given that they're in a service industry where the presumption (I'd think) is that they should try to help the customer with simple requests that could make him happy?
One possible theory, which I recall having heard a couple of times from restaurants, is that they don't want to give out aspirin for fear of product liability should anything bad happen to me. But I don't really see the real liability risk: There's nothing negligent in their giving me something that I could buy over the counter at a gas station — it's not like they're giving me medical advice. Given that they're not negligent, the only extra risk is strict product liability, but that only arises in the extraordinarily rare circumstance the aspirin was somehow defective; and even in that rare case, it's likely that the payment would come from the manufacturer, not the distributor, with the distributor being on the hook only if the manufacturer is insolvent.
So is it that the restaurant just doesn't want the hassle of helping me? That, contrary to my assumption, they don't have aspirin around for the staff? That they fear liability without much foundation, because there's some industry myth about it afoot (or because they just haven't looked into the legal question, and err on the side of caution)? That, contrary to my sense of tort law, they may in fact be legally on the hook if I react badly to the aspirin? Or something else?
One of the commentors said that
You're living in "la-la-la-wyer" land if you believe that a restaurant won't be sued for a bad reaction to the aspirn, much less found liable.
which to me exactly sums it up. Because of the way trial lawyers have been allowed to run amock you can and will be sued for everything and anything now in this country, and we are forced to read and sign 'legal disclaimers' before doing damn near anything. The result is that more and more people, and most businesses, are afraid to do anything extra to 'help' anyone because they know they will get sued, and even if they 'win' the case they will be out thousands of dollars in legal fees plus whatever bad press is generated. This is a perfect example of why our system needs to be reformed immediately. First off the loser should pay all the legal costs in civil suits. This would eliminate a lot of these nuisance lawsuits that pop up constantly and force businesses to fear any sort of extra service to clients (like aspirin or pepto-bismol type stuff). Secondly judges should be given wide discretion, and be encouraged to use it, to dismiss such lawsuits before they even go to trial. Third, people like John Edwards should be taken out to the most convenient woodshed and severely paddled. Actually, do this first. And third. And...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:08 AM | Comments (5)
January 10, 2007
Quote of the Day
Although contained in George Will's excellent "The Last Word" column this week, it's NOT the MacArthur quote:
...And if it is judged a disaster, that will be because the responsible officials were too late in remembering what Gen. Douglas MacArthur said. He said that in war, all disasters can be explained by two words: "too late."
No, the QOD contained in the article is from a far less grandiose source, but is no less affecting, incomprehensible or chilling.
...Exchanging anecdotes with an Iraqi friend, Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post recounted this one: "Insurgents stopped a driver at a checkpoint. They opened his trunk.'Why do you have a spare tire?' the insurgent asked solemnly.
'You don't have trust in God?' "
Can't wait to hear what the President has planned.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:11 PM | Comments (1)
Has the Left Coast Gone MAD?!
I mean, they were (no pun intended) WHACK bastards already, but enough is EEEEEEnough.
Yale barbershop singers recovering after ambushMembers of a close-harmony group from Yale University are recovering after being ambushed and beaten up while on tour in California.
Members of the a cappella Baker's Dozen were performing at a party in San Francisco at the new year when their rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" apparently sparked taunts and threats from fellow partygoers.
As the group left the house, they were attacked by dozens of assailants, suffering scrapes, black eyes and concussions, said Connecticut's News Channel 8.
"Besides any bruising or scrapes to the face, the main injury I suffered was I broke my jaw in two places," one of the singers, 18-year-old Sharyar Aziz, was quoted as saying.
Yale is a liberal school!
They were singing the NATIONAL ANTHEM!!
One of the guys' name is AZIZ, for Chrissakes!!
Arnold's socialist medicine plan doesn't cover them yet!!
UPDATE: You really have to question San Francisco's 'inclusive' image after this. As I said in the comments, this group looks like they had every ethnicity covered and got pounded for...dressing conservatively...among other things.
...The trouble started at midnight after The Baker's Dozen sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Witnesses say a few local young men didn't appreciate the attention the Yale students were getting, made fun of their conservative dress and began taunting them and making threats.Leanna Dawydiak, Hosted Party: "They had something here special that these other fellas obviously didn't have and that irritated them."
Witnesses say 19-year-old Richard Aicardi was the most aggressive.
Sharyar Aziz: "'You're not welcome here,' he called a few members of the group, whether it was fag or homo, very, I would say, juvenile taunting."
Aicardi took out his cell phone and called in reinforcements.
Reno Rapagnani: "He said, 'I'm 20 deep, my boys are coming.'"
One of the vehicles that brought the attackers was captured by surveillance camera at a church across the street. As The Baker's Dozen left the house, they were ambushed -- five, six, seven assailants attacking each member.
...What especially concerns the Aziz family -- when police arrived, they detained four of the attackers who were identified by members of The Baker's Dozen, but officers did not make an arrest. And a full week later, they still haven't made an arrest.
...Police investigators didn't even bother to photograph the injuries to The Baker's Dozen. The couple who held the party that night took pictures.
Leanna Dawydiak: "Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems as a citizen in San Francisco that something should be done a little more than has been."
Next from the chorus, a stanza of "I Left My Heart, Three Teeth, a Pair of Glasses and What's Left of My Jaw...in San Francisco".
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:11 PM | Comments (6)
Is It a 'Sadr City'
...or a Sadder one.
Police plan to set up checkpoints beginning Wednesday to help curb a crime wave that has claimed nine lives since the start of 2007, Mayor Ray Nagin said, stopping short of imposing a curfew on this tourism- dependent city.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:23 AM | Comments (3)
On 'News Hour' Last Night
...one of the guests during the 'Surge' discussion mentioned that the U.S. troops will have carte blanche to go into Sadr City (or wherever they need to), for however long they need to, unlike the 'last time'. I hope to God that's true. For ONCE.
For those who ask '¿que?', this is the way it went 'last time'.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:12 AM | Comments (3)
If You Have to "Help Them Interact"
...their imaginations are NOT being engaged.
New York City, with its rich history of public playgrounds, is on the verge of a bold experiment in the way children play, one that could accelerate the trend away from monkey bars, swings and seesaws used by generations of city children.In an unusual public-private partnership, the city is developing a playground near the South Street Seaport that will have trained “play workers” on hand to help children interact with features of the new playground: water, ramps, sand and specially designed objects meant to spur the imagination.
Sweet JESUS, people!! LET THE KIDS PLAY BY THEMSELVES.
Confronted with a puddle, WHAT child has EVER stopped, looked to an adult and asked "Excuse me, sir? What is the specific purpose of this?" Sand and water features ~ damn. That sure is a stretch for today's kiddies, right?
I promise you ~ within five minutes they will have worked things out their OWN way, be intently busy for HOURS and have a helluva lot more fun than if you showed them...how to have fun.
I'm gobschmacked.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:58 AM | Comments (18)
Higher Math And The AP
I saw this and I thought, wait a minute
New Jersey Ranks 2nd for People Moving Out
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- New Jerseyans appear to be on the move -- out of the state.An analysis of migration trends by the nation's largest mover shows the Garden State second with nearly 61 percent of customers leaving last year.
United Van Lines says Michigan and North Dakota tied for the most outbound migration.
North Carolina had the highest inbound migration with 64 percent of moves going into the state. Oregon was second.
Eight of the ten winners in inbound migration were from the Southeast or West.
Now, don't get me wrong, having all these folks leaving is a drag, because it means that my taxes will keep going up to pay for all the people the government keeps hiring in their effort to 'streamline government', but what got me most about this is the headline.
If "Michigan and North Dakota tied for the most outbound migration" then New Jersey is number 3, not 2, you dopes.
But maybe this story was reported by Jamail Hussein too.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:56 AM | Comments (10)
January 09, 2007
Of Course
...they were.
Helicopter gunships attacked suspected al-Qaeda fighters in the south Tuesday after U.S. forces staged airstrikes in the first offensive in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed there in 1993, witnesses said.Witnesses said 31 civilians, including two newlyweds, died in the assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in an area of forested hills close to the Kenyan border 220 miles southwest of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. The report could not be independently verified.
Newlyweds could never be terrorists.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:45 PM | Comments (2)
It's 1978 ~ Take Couple of Twelve Year Olds & a Super 8 Camera
...and get an epic film.
SHARK
Production Note: Apparently the shark sank during it's first appearance, resulting in a disembodied fin slicing through the roiled waters for the rest of the movie.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:34 PM | Comments (3)
The Picture
...says it all.
With at least eight slayings [ths note:our morning paper says 9 now] in the city in the first week of the new year, officials are considering a curfew to help stem the violence, the police superintendent said Saturday."It's something we're just sort of talking about, to see if that will make a difference," police Superintendent Warren Riley said.
...Nagin and Riley both tried to reassure residents that they were doing all they can to make the city safer. Riley said some covert operations were under way and Nagin said he hoped to have details sometime next week on a "more creative, aggressive" plan developed in talks he has had with local ministers.
Riley said the slayings are a part of a chronic problem that goes back to the city's school system and what he sees as the city's failure, over many years, to adequately educate and provide job opportunities for residents.
Blogging New Orleans notes a random thought from Superintendent Riley not mentioned in the AP report and...um...the randomness of it...
...Riley mentioned imposing a curfew citing the low murder rate post Katrina and the curfew imposed during that time. I'm not sure that I follow his logic there as the city was pretty empty for a couple of months after the storm and most of the people who inhabited New Orleans during that time were there because their home was relatively unscathed and because they had a job to do...I'm not sure that sending everyone home at 11 PM will stop armed men from wandering around the Marigny in the early morning.
Well, BNO is right, you know. It's hard for guns to kill people when there's no people to be killed. Chalk one up to statistics! Think, think, think. They're sure doing a lot of thinking and idea kicking around, while residents seem to think they're getting their asses kicked. Think, think, think. Our local paper even takes a shot at Nagin's thinking cap this morning...
...For New Orleans to make it, the city must be viewed as safe to visit. There has been growing concern about the city's safety since Hurricane Katrina rebuilding got under way. It came to a head last week in a spree of seven murders -- including the deaths of a well-known local band leader, Dinerral Savers, and a filmmaker, Helen Hill; Hill's husband, a doctor, was shot three times during a robbery at their home.And just as after Katrina, Nagin is not distinguishing himself. According to reports in the Times-Picayune, there is growing unhappiness not just with Nagin, but with the city's police chief and the district attorney.
Saturday, the Times-Picayune reported, during a press conference to react to the killings, Nagin "left ... in a rush, en route to the city's annual king cake party in Gallier Hall, an invitation-only event for Carnival captains and tourism executives that kicks off the carnival season in New Orleans."
While still at the press conference, Nagin called such "upticks" of murders in the city "unfortunately not that unusual for New Orleans."
He sure knows how to instill confidence!
I hope there were armed guards outside the party. It's a shame the residents aren't as privileged as the mayor, security wise. I'll suggest a new slogan:
One a day...keeps the tourists away.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:34 AM | Comments (1)
The Glass is Half Empty
...and there is no spoon.
ETA Claims Bombing, Maintains Cease-FireThe Basque separatist group ETA said Tuesday a cease-fire it declared in March still stands, even as it claimed responsibility for a Dec. 30 car bombing that killed two people in Madrid.
In the immortal words of Neo:
"Whoa."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:48 AM | Comments (2)
Putin On The Risk
Like we've talked about before, the Russkies have one weapon these days and they ain't afraid to use it
Europe’s oil supplies from Russia were being held to ransom last night as the Kremlin fell into bitter dispute with a former Soviet satellite state.Moscow abruptly halted millions of barrels of oil destined for the EU via Belarus in an increasingly hostile wrangle with its neighbour.
The move raised further questions over whether Western Europe can trust Mr Putin for its energy supply. Experts said that Russia had a deeply entrenched habit of manipulating oil and gas supplies as a substitute for diplomatic policy.
Typical Euroappeaser crap though, isn't it? "Raised further questions" my butt. But this is why Europe has made such a mess of things in the world of late by their complete inability to recognize things as they are and act. If someone pulls a gun on you in an alley, does that "raise further questions about their intent" or does it confirm that they want to rob you?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:57 AM | Comments (3)
January 08, 2007
"Puff"
...takes out the weasels.
A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.
The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States.
Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command.
If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.
Oh, I'll BET there were 'a lot of bodies on the ground' and that they looked pretty much like catfood.
Come on baby, LIGHT MY FIRE.
You GO, guys.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:37 PM | Comments (6)
Oh My GOSH ~ We Have a Swaddling Swiller!!
Our very own Mike Rentner and his beautiful wife have welcomed an equally beautiful young lassie into the world. Mike assures me via email ...
Ten fingers, ten toes, eating sleeping and doing all other things
thereunto pertaining. Probably coming home tomorrow.
How wonderful.
Congratulations to Major and Mrs. Mike from ALL of us!!
(And those pictures BETTER be quick, Dad...)
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:27 PM | Comments (11)
My Turn
Yes, he's hanging out with his blond girlfriend.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:36 PM | Comments (4)
And Why Does Everyone Think of Bingley
...when something stinks in Manhattan?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:43 PM | Comments (5)
On Top of Everything Else, Now I Subject You to SHAMELESS
...puppy blogging.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:40 PM | Comments (11)
"Even Covered in Mustard, Bingley Wouldn't Tempt the Most Desperate of New Orleans Cannibals"
...is one of my favorite commenting 'handles'. "But ths", you ask,"Tres true and hilarious as that is, why you bring it up, cher?"
Well, truth is stranger than fiction, these days. Like, given to hyperventing hyperbole that he is, I'm still sure no one would think Barney Frank would accuse a president of 'genocide' concerning a natural disaster. His ignorance of all things 'emergency' might lead him to say 'ineptitude', 'indifference' or 'racist', but genocide? Good grief. Once and for all, neither George Bush nor Karl Rove control the very waves in the sea or the wind in the air. Only this guy does. 
And it's pretty arbitrary where the bad stuff winds up, depending on His mood.
Granted, we're sort of responsible for preparing just in case He's ornery and sends sh*t our way for whatever reason ~ gays, strip clubs, Mardi Gras, ad nauseum ~ regardless, it's still HIM/Nature/Thor the Thunder God doing it, not the White House. A couple bottles of water, box o' crackers, cans o' tuna ~ all covered by food stamps ~ will go a long way to making your situation palatable. And just to let you know that rising water isn't exclusively a Rovian plot to wipe the Democratic voting poor black man from the face of the earth, take a listen to some of these 911 calls during Ivan ~ those are white people climbing on their washers and kitchen counters, trying to break into the ceilings as the water comes up. "Can someone come get us?" (No dumba$$, they can't. The winds are steady at 140mph.) And. Some of them drowned. Now, I know that doesn't count as 'genocide', because it's white 'rednecks' from the Panhandle,
but we've got feelings, too.
MY question to Rep. Frank? So if THIS round was presidential 'genocide', who catches the blame for Round Two? YOU'RE 'in charge' now and those are OUR tax dollars, so...?
New Orleans Repeats Mistakes as It Rebuilds
Many Houses Built in Areas Katrina Flooded Are Not on Raised FoundationsBy ones and twos, homeowners here are reinhabiting neighborhoods, even the most devastated ones, and many view their return as a triumph over adversity.
But experts involved in the rebuilding believe that the helter-skelter return of residents to this low-lying metropolis may represent another potential disaster.
...Moreover, while new federal guidelines call for raising houses to reduce the damage of future floods, most returning homeowners do not have to comply or are finding ways around the costly requirement, according to city officials.
"It's terrifying: We're doing the same things we have in the past but expecting different results," said Robert G. Bea, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and a former New Orleans resident who served as a member of the National Science Foundation panel that studied the city's levees.
"There are areas where it doesn't make any sense to rebuild -- they got 20 feet of water in Katrina," said Tom Murphy, a former Pittsburgh mayor who served on an Urban Land Institute panel for post-Katrina planning. "In those places, nature is talking to us, and we ought to be listening. I don't think we are."
Who has the cajones (the technical term) to be the adult in the room here, Congressman? Have you said ONE WORD about what's ACTUALLY going on in the city at this moment, instead of your pitiful, recycled urban legends? Do you even know? (Note to Barney: see Popular Mechanics for FACTS. Don't be intimidated ~ they have pictures and pie charts.) New Orleans had a DEMOCRATIC government before Katrina and, to the voters' utter, eternal SHAME, all the same good time boys are there again...
...New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) so far has favored allowing evacuees to inhabit their old neighborhoods as they wish.
Mike Centineo, the city's building chief, said, "Legally and morally, we're doing the right thing," but he acknowledged that most returning homeowners are not raising their houses to meet the new flood guidelines. "You wouldn't want to put people through more than they can endure. It's a catastrophe that happened. No one wants it to happen again. But they're just rebuilding as best they can."
...doing the politically expedient thing again. My best guess would be that New Orleans laissez faire will win out. And when they're all backstroking again ~ as they someday inevitably will be ~ it won't fall on the black Democratic administration's head for not acting like grown-ups who gave a damn about preventing another catastrophe. Who gave a damn about their people's safety. (I'm sure Randy Ray Noggin has kept that choice piece of property in Texas just in case...) Nah. It will be that the uncaring white folk in the White House LET the Ray Naginites LET them stream back into the bowl, build their houses free of pilings or stilts or concrete blocks where there was once 20 feet of water, knowing they could call up another storm and clear them all out...again.
Ain't nuffin' like havin' yo'sef de plan, cher.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:39 AM | Comments (3)
Now You Too Can Tell a Stranger to 'Sacre...
...your bleu'.
A Paris tourism agency is ready to concede what many Americans and Britons have long contended: The French are rude....France's famed indifference toward outsiders is actually part of the country's charm and can be a marketing asset, says the Paris Ile-de-France tourism office. The office has launched an online ad campaign called "C'est so Paris" — "It's so Paris" — designed to show foreign tourists "how to cop the Parisian attitude."
The campaign was put together to address concerns that the British — France's biggest source of tourism revenue — have begun to find the French so off-putting that they are visiting in fewer numbers.
The campaign's English-language website — www.cestsoparis.com — shows British tourists how to decode and mimic the gestures of condescending waiters, indifferent taxi drivers and pouting mademoiselles. It encourages Britons to "act" French, even if they can't speak a word of the language.
The "Red Cards" (a little Zidane there...?) are especially rude and come with a 'not for polite company' warning.
It's comforting to know that, since there just AREN'T ENOUGH rude people in the world, someone is willing to go the extra Flash presentation mile to make sure we have a chance to be as effortlessly rude as the French. If this helps you achieve one of your own personal a$$pirations...beat yourself over the head with this popular French icon, s'il vous plaît.
See how easy it is to be polite?
UPDATE: Avec!! Le warnings!
If this fair place were inexplicably and horribly transmogrified into France, I would NOT be so queeks to tell Msr. Summairs to "bite moi". I am wonderings what gesture le dinnair made to le snacker wheech peesed heem offs? Oui oui in le cage aux folles?
Prisoner probably ate parts of cellmateA French prisoner who killed his cellmate "very probably" ate some of the victim's body parts, a prosecutor in the northern town of Rouen said on Friday.
In all seriousness, I do have the polite phrase to handle this situation, complete with pronunciation guide. Repeate vous:
"For dessert, what would you suggest to get the taste of the main course out of my mouth?""Comme dessert, que me suggereriez-vous pour effacer le goût du plat de resistance de ma bouche?"
(com de - zert com - en ke me su - zhair - er - i - ay voo poor eff - ah - say le goo du pla de re - zi - stans de ma boosh)
Lord, you can just about take me anywhere and I'll make friends.
I thank Msr. Crittenden for le heads
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:58 AM | Comments (14)
January 07, 2007
And Has Anyone Else Noticed the Latest GE Commercial
...is using a Cat Stevens' song? Of course, that was before he found Muhammed and started blaming the British school system for Muslim bombs and tapdancing around pretty simple questions.
Questions for Yusuf Islam
Singing a New Song...[NYT] Right, the Islamia Schools, which are among the few Muslim schools in London. What do you make of the widespread discontent among Muslim schoolchildren raised in Europe?
[YM] The atrocities of 7/7 made everyone look very deeply at themselves. It’s noteworthy to recognize that none of those people involved in that horrific attack came from Muslim schools. They went to government schools.
Which means what? It sounds as if you are blaming British public schools for breeding violence among young Muslims.
There is a lack of a curriculum where the student could understand his role in society rather than be estranged.
...How do you support yourself these days — off your old hits?
I think we sell about 1.5 million albums a year.
...For all your devotion to education and good deeds, government officials in various countries have tried to link you to extremist groups, including Hamas. What do you think of Hamas?
That’s an extremely loaded question.
Can you try to answer it?
I have never supported a terrorist group or any group that did other than charity and good to humankind.
O.K., but many of us here in the States would like to see moderate Muslims make more of an effort to denounce the extremist fringe of the faith. Very few mainstream Muslims have publicly criticized their radical brethren.
If I am not an example of that, then tell me, Who is?
So would you say you have contempt for a terrorist group like Hamas?
I wouldn’t put those words in my mouth. I wouldn’t say anything on that issue. I’m here to talk about peace. I’m a man who does want peace for this world, and I don’t think you will achieve that by putting people into corners and asking them very, very difficult questions about very contentious issues.
Followed by a moonshadow? No. Just a note to customer service.
"Dear GE ~
I won't be helping you bankroll this guy...
thsister"
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:59 PM | Comments (6)
I Don't Want to Hear "SISter! THAT'S SO..."
"...STOOPID".
'Cause I dont care.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:36 PM | Comments (6)
A Heartfelt Congratulation To Paco
And our thanks
HE'S A MARINEPaco’s boy graduates. From everyone here: congratulations.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM | Comments (1)
January 05, 2007
Quote of the Day
Police found new caches of explosives in the Basque region Friday, nearly a week after a massive car bomb at Madrid's international airport killed two people and ended a nine-month cease-fire that separatist group ETA had said would be permanent.Police said they had recovered 130 pounds of explosives inside a backpack, as well as bomb-making manuals, in the valley of Atxondo near the Basque towns of Amorebieta and Durango. Police found 44 pounds of ammonium nitrate, detonators and timers in a small hole underground during a search of the area earlier Friday.
On Thursday, authorities discovered 220 pounds of explosives in the area that they said were ready for immediate use, lacking only a detonator.
Where on EARTH did all those nasty extra BOOM BOOMs come from? The Spanish government ~ much given to insightful p
...The governing Socialist party acknowledged Friday the bombing betrayed the government's lack of communication with the Basque militant group, despite the cease-fire that had raised hopes of an end to four decades of separatist violence.
"We have to recognize that there was a problem of information and no dialogue," senior Socialist party official Jose Blanco told radio station Cadena Ser. "We have to analyze what happened to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future," he added.
I blame 'lint'.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:22 PM | Comments (10)
"Hold That Thought" Addendum
Put another body on the pile.
In the sixth New Orleans murder in less than 24 hours, a woman was killed and her husband shot in their home Thursday about 5:30 a.m., said police, who found the bleeding man kneeling at the door of the couple's Faubourg Marigny home, clutching their 2-year-old son....Including another murder on New Year's Day, the latest violence brings the new year's total to at least seven slayings in four days, though one of the apparent killings -- a woman's body found Wednesday rolled up in a throw rug on a Lower 9th Ward street -- remains officially an unclassified death. In the past week, 12 people have been murdered in the city.
...The Marigny shootings -- for which police offered no motive -- capped a wave of bloodshed severe even by New Orleans standards, and came three days after Police Superintendent Warren Riley called a year-end news conference to put a positive spin on the 2006 murder total of 161, which he called the lowest in 30 years. On a per-capita basis, however, even the most optimistic projection of the post-Katrina city's drastically shrunken population makes that figure an increase from previous years.
major dad, Kcruella and I used to love wandering the Bywater and the Marigny.
Damn.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:04 PM | Comments (4)
The National Guard in This Country
...just can't catch a break, bless their overworked hearts.
A warm Swill salute to LGF
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:28 AM
I'm Not Sure How Many of Our Thousands of Swillers
...are from Bangla-cola, less mind Escambia County District 2, but...if you are...call or email this guy (our newly elected commissar) and let him have it. The new guy thinks this...
Escambia eyes fuel-tax hike
Extra 5 cents would raise $7 million for public transitEscambia County could raise its gasoline tax by 5 cents a gallon to help fund its struggling public transit system.
It would require two public hearings and four out of five county commissioners voting for it before the increase could pass. It could not take effect before Jan. 1, 2008.
The county's current gasoline tax is 6 cents a gallon. Adding another 5 cents could be a tough sell as record-high fuel prices remain fresh in commuters' minds.
...is a good idea.
...County officials want to offset the pain at the pump by lowering property taxes by whatever amount they raise the fuel tax."We will not double-dip the taxpayers," County Administrator George Touart said.
...Commissioners Grover Robinson, Gene Valentino, Mike Whitehead and Marie Young said they would vote for the increase if it came with an accompanying reduction in property taxes.
Hmmm, let's see,
* You'll notice that there's not much going on in the upper reaches of the county, as well as our oft neglected West Pensacola. Mr. "Just a Nickel More" Valentino was elected to represent our district by...somebody. God knows who. (For scale, it's just about 60 miles from the Gulf to the FL/AL line and about 662 sq. miles total.) The county's population is just under 300K. 56K or so live in Pensacola proper. Amazingly enough, that corresponds exactly with the yellow bus service outline! The rest of us drive.
I'm sure the Commissioner will be all too happy to let the oil companies take the PR hit for the 5 cents that suddenly appears at the pump. Mr. Touart can take his dip, double it and stick it...anywhere but our backs. Jeez, I can't stand that guy. While I've got him on the phone, I'm telling Mr. "Just Another Nickel" that, too.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:09 AM | Comments (4)
January 04, 2007
Yeah.
That's about the size of it. It's Friday ~ be cruel.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:40 PM | Comments (3)
"Calculation Error"
...my a$$ets.
Former Duke Lacrosse Player Sues School
A former Duke University lacrosse player sued the university Thursday alleging that one of his professors unfairly gave him a failing grade because he was a member of the team.Kyle Dowd graduated in May 2006, two months after a woman said she was raped by three of his teammates at a lacrosse party...
...Dowd, who was not charged in the case, claims in his lawsuit that visiting professor Kim Curtis gave him an F in a politics and literature class that nearly prevented him from graduating, even though he had earned C's on his assignments to that point.
"Defendant Curtis engaged in extreme outrageous and unethical conduct ... due to personal bias and prejudice," the lawsuit says.
The university later changed Dowd's grade to a D, citing a calculation error.
I'd be curious if a certain professor's name is one of the 88 on that little letter...
UPDATE: And thank you, dear Gateway Pundit, for pointing out that she is indeed a member of that verbose and august group of reactionaries, whose well reasoned, ethical and courageous stand inspired this rhetorical gem from a concerned and similarly well -educated college student:
In today’s Newsweek, a student at predominantly African-American North Carolina Central carried the Duke 88’s thinking to its logical, if absurd, extreme. The student said that he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted “whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past.”
And I'll be jiggered! There she is!!
Doncha just wanna hug her? And naturally, after reviewing her field of study, she has no natural bias toward jocks or jock straps.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science,specializes in political theory with particular concentration in contemporary continental work and feminist theory. She has written Our Sense of the Real: Aesthetic Experience and Arendtian Politics. She has also published articles on multicultural education, ethical debates among feminists over new reproductive technologies, and the early women's liberation movement. She is currently at work on a book on the feminist movement in the United States that examines the relationship between theory and practice.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:29 PM | Comments (3)
Speaking of Love Hurting, Mullah Omar and the Somali Taliban
...those frickin' taxi drivers are at it again.
Booze, dogs too much for some Muslim cabbies
Drivers refuse service to passengers, Minn. airport officials put up a fightSome Muslim cab drivers are refusing service to a growing number of passengers with alcohol or dogs, and officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport are trying to fight it.
"Our expectation is that if you're going to be driving a taxi at the airport, you need to provide service to anybody who wants it," said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airport Commission.
Each month, about 100 people are denied cab service at the airport, and refusals for religious reasons have grown in recent months, airport officials said. About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at the airport are Somali, many of them Muslim.
...Last year, the airports commission received a fatwa, or religious edict, from the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society saying "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to Islam."
Stick to your guns, my man!! If that same Somali cab driver wanted to rent your apartment and you told him no because eating GOAT is against YOUR religion, welllllllll...that'd be tough on you, right? Not to mention the discrimination lawsuit he'd lay on your a$$ just about that quick.
Turn about's fair play, I'd think. It's almost worth the airplane ticket, liquor tab and chihuahua rental to have one of them tell me "NO" at the curbside.
I'd sue them AND the cab company AND the airport authority AND the city licensing hack office so fast you wouldn't have time to spit out "Mogadishu".
"FATWA" THAT.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:31 PM | Comments (3)
More Spam Filter Goodies
Erectile C. Catalina Ah, those Californians
Gruel C. Anglicizes
Proclamations P. Hacked
Stiffing K. Firebreaks
Admonishing U. Scripted
Intermediate Q. Provost
Loathe S. Milieu Sounds like a disgruntled English Major
Evict B. Shabbily Chuck!
Spiritualist U. Ferrules
Dewar O. Diploma Damn! I only got a BA!
Crystalline G. Ales A kidney stone in every pint!
Hiatuses E. Iraq Saddam???
Horns I. Deceitfully
Tit U. Researched And I got a grant, too!
Proportions B. Matching See above
Sociology H. Idiocies sort of says it all, no?
Misnomering H. Stagecoach
Flirtatious Q. Vistula But what would Delaware?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:18 PM | Comments (2)
I Love This
It's like he's an NBC consultant or something.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:35 PM | Comments (1)
Hold That Thought
Days after the police chief said he believed his department was bringing murders under control in New Orleans, the city logged at least five killings in 14 hours.They brought the 2007 total to six, including one on New Year's Day.
Um...oy.
At a New Year's Day news conference, Superintendent Warren Riley said homicides in the city had spiked in April, May and July, and he believed new initiatives have brought the problem under control in recent months.Police spokeswoman Bambi Hall said Tuesday that, after 19 killings in October and another 19 in November, December's total had been 15.
There were 161 murders in the city in 2006.
161 murders with three quarters of the city's population GONE.
-".357 magnum with those fries, ma'am?" ©TPI
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:17 AM | Comments (6)
The Statue Of Liberty
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:47 AM | Comments (8)
There Sure Was Some Sugary Smiting
But it wasn't quite what Sis was hoping for
Russell thoroughly outperformed Brady Quinn and sent Notre Dame to another postseason meltdown, leading No. 4 LSU to a 41-14 rout of college football's most storied program Wednesday night.The Sugar Bowl returned to New Orleans with a Cajun-style party, which left the 11th-ranked Fighting Irish with a most unwanted spot in the record book. They lost their ninth straight bowl game, more than any other school.
"That's quite a shiner yer sportin' now, Father; hand me yer flask and we'll remember happier times, doncha know."
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:54 AM | Comments (5)
January 03, 2007
Dear Sweet Baby Jesus, Part Deux
Okay, so say Thou can'st swingeth the Home depot CEO type deal. I can understand. So many worthy contenders, so few seats to go around. I would like to say that I can settle for less, being a 'simple life' kinda gal. If not the boardroom, Thou mayest hooketh me up with this teflon bunch.
New Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced his picks for two of the top posts at the United Nations this week — and one of those choices is controversial.Ban, the former foreign minister of South Korea who started his new job Tuesday, named Mexican Alicia Barcena — Kofi Annan's former chief of staff — to the key post of administration and management, a job previously held by American Christopher Burnham.
...The under-secretary-general for administration and management has for years been an American and is traditionally responsible for some of the most important financial matters at the United Nations: The world body's debt, executing personnel cuts to balance budgets and pursuing countries who are behind in paying dues.
The position is also responsible for the U.N. watchdog that ensures the secretariat's integrity — the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) — and the U.N.'s legal and human resources departments.
BINGO-eth! If your most humble servant shalt inherit Thy post at the U.N., I might still partake of the world's bounty free from even the oversight of viperous creatures like Spitzer.
And please heareth my continued prayers for the vanquishment of dubious and evil Cajun type Tigers tonight, which are as heartfelt and fervent as ever. Smite-teth them with the ass's jawbone of righteous vengence and good defense.
In Thy team's name we pray.
Amen.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:43 PM
Offered Without Comment
...as I'm still gasping for air.
French politicians are loath to admit they have anything to learn from other countries, particularly on social policy. But Dominique de Villepin, prime minister, on Wednesday conceded that Paris had copied Scotland's legally enforceable right to housing, as he promised to introduce a similar measure in France.The law would allow homeless people to sue public authorities and force them to provide accommodation. It follows an assertive campaign by homeless associations that has pushed a growing public concern up the political agenda four months before France's presidential elections.
...Jacques Chirac, France's president, promised a right to housing in his new year's speech last weekend, winning some praise but raising questions over why he waited until his twelfth year as president to take action.
...Mr Sarkozy, the campaign's only self-proclaimed economic liberal, has been peppering recent speeches with more socially conscious policy ideas. At his latest rally he promised to house anyone who did not want to be homeless within two years.
...The Insee statistics agency puts the number of French homeless at 86,500. This suggests the issue is being exaggerated in a country of 60m, compared with the 40,000 homeless recorded among Scotland's 5m residents.
But the Abbé Pierre foundation says the French figures, based on data from soup kitchens and hostels in 2001, exclude thousands who live in hotels, caravans, tents, sub-let or live with friends. It estimates there are 934,000 French people without their own home.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:57 PM | Comments (5)
Sweet Baby Jesus
In the coming New Year, help me land something even remotely close to this guy's gig.
Thanks in advance,
thsister
Amen.
Home Depot CEO exits with $210 million
...Nardelli, who became CEO in 2000, has been criticized by investors for the company's lagging stock price. Shares of Home Depot (HD, news, msgs) have fallen 7% since December 2000, when he became CEO.Despite the stock’s poor performance, Nardelli collected an estimated $240 million during his time as CEO, and his compensation drew fire from shareholders and the press. His severance package, reportedly valued at $210 million, includes a $20 million cash severance payment, the acceleration of $77 million of deferred stock awards and options valued at $7 million. The Wall Street Journal reported that the exit package includes amounts that have previously been earned or vested.
UPDATE: P.S.: If it pleaseth Thou,
Mightily smite LSU (yea verily) upon the sugary field of collegiate combat this very evening whilst Thou art at it.
In Thy team's name we pray.
Amen again.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:50 PM | Comments (8)
Love Hurts
Pakistani loses ears, nose for love marriage
Members of wife's tribe assault man for marrying without family's OKArmed men cut off the ears and nose of a Pakistani man who married one of their tribe for love after he and his family refused to hand over his wife, police said on Wednesday.
The attackers also chopped the ears off the man’s brother and severed his mother’s hand in the latest “honor” crime to hit Pakistan’s conservative rural areas.
...has a whole different meaning in Islamic Shari‘ah. On a related note, Florida Cracker notices the Woebegon Somali citizens of Minneapolis are lamenting the "rode outta town on a rail"-ness of their Somali Taliban counterparts, setting back assimilation plans for their own fair burg's randy inhabitants....They made the whole country a respectable place," said Salah Warsame, 47, of Minneapolis, another of the rally's organizers. "Once they started being accepted throughout the country, the enemies of Somalia started getting worried."
Maybe they should talk to this guy. He's gonna be in Congress shortly and seems to be singing off the same sheet of minuret music.
("THRILLS" the crowd, even.)
1st Muslim congressman thrills crowd in Dearborn
Speaking in Dearborn late Sunday night, the first Muslim elected to Congress told a cheering crowd of Muslims they should remain steadfast in their faith and push for justice."You can't back down. You can't chicken out. You can't be afraid. You got to have faith in Allah, and you've got to stand up and be a real Muslim," Detroit native Keith Ellison said to loud applause.
Many in the crowd replied "Allahu akbar" -- God is great.
...But Ellison, speaking at the annual convention of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, said that Muslims can help teach America about justice and equal protection.
"Muslims, you're up to bat right now," he said. "How do you know that you were not brought right here to this place to learn how to make this world better?"
Hang in there, Dearborn. Help is on the way.
UPDATE: The Gateway Pundit is pleased to report the groom had his nose sewn back on. Unfortunately, everyone else is still missing digits and appendages.
Aren't these just the loveliest people?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)
They Rolled Over for Al-Quaida
So why be shocked the same thing's not working now?
A powerful car bomb exploded early on Saturday at Madrid's Barajas airport, breaking a nine-month ceasefire by Basque separatist group Eta and prompting the government to halt a faltering peace process aimed at ending four decades of violence.José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, said: "With violence, there is no dialogue."
...The attack represents an embarrassing political defeat for Mr Zapatero, who has staked a lot of political capital on the peace process he launched in June, following Eta's March ceasefire.
Mr Zapatero has been adamantly optimistic about the process, despite the lack of concrete progress and relentless criticism from the right-wing political opposition, who believe there should be no negotiations unless Eta disarms. He expressed a determination to continue dialogue as recently as Friday.
"Are we better off now with a permanent ceasefire, or when we had bombs, car bombs and explosions?" Mr Zapatero asked a press conference. "This time next year we will be better off than we are today."
Sure you will. Hostages can easily convince themselves of most anything.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 AM | Comments (1)
Where Is Ken's Pogo Stick
When I need it?
Cheese is to be treated as junk food under new advertising rules for children's television.Commercials promoting it will be banned during children's TV programmes and those with a large proportion of young viewers.
"I did it for the children, Gromit!"
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:43 AM | Comments (5)
January 02, 2007
State's Rights...
Without being a state?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After more than 200 years of paying taxes, fighting in the nation's wars and abiding by sometimes arbitrary acts of Congress, Washington residents are close to getting a full-fledged representative in the House.The turning point in this long battle for enfranchisement may be an unlikely partnership with the people of Utah.
The new Democratic majority, in the first months of the new Congress, is expected to take up a bill that would increase the voting membership of the House from 435 to 437, giving new vote each to Utah, a Republican stronghold, and the District of Columbia, dominated by Democrats.
I just don't see (in the case of D.C.) how this is legal.
Some progress was made: The 23rd Amendment in 1961 gave D.C. residents the right to vote in presidential elections. In 1971 Congress allowed the district to send a nonvoting delegate to the House. Currently, along with delegates from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton can cast votes at the committee level but not on the House floor.Congress also gave the district limited home rule in the 1970s, and in 1978 approved a constitutional amendment extending voting rights. The amendment died when it was not ratified by three-fourths of the states.
Most -- but by no means all -- scholars say an amendment is unnecessary. The Constitution says that the House shall be composed of members chosen by "the people of the several states." But it also gives Congress the power "to exercise exclusive legislation" over the seat of the federal government, interpreted by some to mean that Congress can, if it wants, give D.C. voting rights.
How can an amendment not be necessary? Look, don't get me wrong, I think that all citizens should have all the rights of every other citizen, but the Constitution is to my reading very very clear:
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.
...but each state shall have at least one Representative;
You sensing a theme here? It doesn't say 'city'. It doesn't say 'territory'. It says quite clearly and solely "state". I don't see how you get around that. Here's the other passage the article references:
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--AndTo make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
This passage clearly gives Congress the power to issue legislation governing D.C., but it seems a pretty creative read to say that it gives Congress the ability to give D.C. full voting representation in Congress.
If this goes through then how do you deny D.C. 2 Senators, as well?
If the citizens of D.C. desire congressional representation then they should petition Congress to be admitted as a state, or Congress should write an Amendment to the Constitution specifically granting D.C. a Representative but not two Senators and submit it to the states for ratification.
But this unconstitutional method should not be allowed.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:02 PM | Comments (8)
January 01, 2007
"Ridiculous" As I Might Appear
...it does seem I wasn't the only one who wanted him dead...just not THIS way.
...The American role extended beyond providing the helicopter that carried Mr. Hussein home. Iraqi and American officials who have discussed the intrigue and confusion that preceded the decision late on Friday to rush Mr. Hussein to the gallows have said that it was the Americans who questioned the political wisdom — and justice — of expediting the execution, in ways that required Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to override constitutional and religious precepts that might have assured Mr. Hussein a more dignified passage to his end.The Americans’ concerns seem certain to have been heightened by what happened at the hanging, as evidenced in video recordings made just before Mr. Hussein fell through the gallows trapdoor at 6:10 a.m. on Saturday. A new video that appeared on the Internet late Saturday, apparently made by a witness with a camera cellphone, underscored the unruly, mocking atmosphere in the execution chamber.
... The cacophony from those gathered before the gallows included a shout of “Go to hell!” as the former ruler stood with the noose around his neck in the final moments, and his riposte, barely audible above the bedlam, which included the words “gallows of shame.” It continued despite appeals from an official-sounding voice, possibly Munir Haddad, the judge who presided at the hanging, saying, “Please no! The man is about to die.”
...The Shiites who predominated at the hanging began a refrain at one point of “Moktada! Moktada! Moktada!”—
Oh, that's f*ckin' great. Wouldn't you agree?
And who delivered the carcass home? It wasn't the much vaunted 'Iraqi' Airforce.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 AM | Comments (9)