Page created 23 Sep 2003 by pedro
URL: http://www.cnn.com/
This is for things that are Yet Another Reminder of where this big rock ball is headed, assuming that you think it's heading to either a bang or a whimper. No optimism here please. You'll also have to decide where to put your items, since some things that COULD go here also could belong in Apple Pie or in World Events... but I liked this name so much, and I post things like this often enough, that I just had to do it.
solid proof
Read only if you've not eaten recently and therefore won't vomit. This is a REAL baptist church website, though I don't think these people are Christian, in my opinion.
The first page is bad enough but my head hurts from viewing the second page. I can't imagine people who fill their lives with the fuel of hatred as those people do. The weird thing is that I don't think of myself as a hateful person but I actually do feel hatred toward them when I see how horribly vile the people in that organization are.
those people have some serious issues, and need something better to do with their lives, if they were being assaulted for their beliefs I bet they wouldn't feel that way about other's.
It makes me want to do something positive in the world.2 kids killed with bat; mom steps in traffic
Associated Press Published September 25, 2003
LAS VEGAS -- A woman bludgeoned her two children to death with a baseball bat, then stepped into the path of a truck in what was thought to be a suicide attempt, authorities said Wednesday.
Sylvia Ewing, 40, was hospitalized in critical condition. Police Lt. Tom Monahan said she will face murder charges if she recovers.
Monahan would not disclose the contents of a note found in the two-room apartment where Ewing's husband discovered the bodies of his children, Phillip, 8, and Julie, 4, when he arrived from work Tuesday.
However, Monahan said the note "left little doubt it was her intention to take the children's lives."
"There is evidence that she was in the depths of a deep depression," Monahan said.
Monahan said that about an hour after Ewing's husband went to work early Tuesday, Ewing took the children to a nearby Wal-Mart and bought the bat.
A few hours later, Ewing was struck by the tractor-trailer, police said.
"There were witnesses who watched her step into the path of the oncoming truck," Monahan said.
He said the family was renting the apartment while their house was under construction in the Las Vegas area.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
Student cuts off penis and tongue after drinking hallucinogenic teaA student cut off his own penis and his tongue after drinking an infusion of the latest drugs craze to sweep Germany.
The 18-year-old, only named as Andreas W, from Halle in Germany drank a tea made with the hallucinogenic angels' trumpet plants.
His mother said: "Andreas was behaving normally the whole day until he left the house and disappeared into the garden for a couple of minutes."
When he returned to the house he was wearing a towel wrapped around him and was bleeding heavily from his mouth and between his legs.
The emergency doctor who arrived a few minutes later said the student had cut off his penis and his tongue with garden shears and it was impossible to reattach the organs.
Dr Andreas Marneros, from the local psychiatric hospital the student was admitted to, said: "Andreas will have to receive psychological help for years. Tea from Angels' Trumpets is extremely dangerous as the drug cannot be dosed."
Angels' Trumpets, known for their fragrant and trumpet shaped flowers, have increasingly become popular as an alternative drug in Germany.
Suddenly waking up the next morning with a hangover doesn't seem so bad. Heck, I'd even call it refreshing by comparison.On a slightly different note: First World Championships Challenge Yoga Karma
Toddler survives three weeks alone on ketchup, dry pasta
Rock band vows to defy law with onstage assisted suicide
That story about the two-year-old little girl alone for three weeks is sad, so very sad.... She reminds me of Bean from Ender's Shadow.
amy, did i completely miss the fact that you have read these books? or did we discuss it so long ago that i forgot? bean is a sad character...
That poor little girl. I keep having visions of Anna alone for ONE day let alone 19. That poor, poor child. I hope she recovers, emotionally... and I hope they find a new, caring, attentive home for her. I can't even imagine the horror.
California
Michael Moore apparently released a new book today.
This is ridiculous
Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol.Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to the nurse's office.
Out of concern, Kivi let her use his inhaler.
"I was trying to save her life. I didn't want her to die on me right there because the nurse's office (doesn't) have breathing machines," Kivi said.
"It made a big difference. It did save my life. It was a Good Samaritan act," Ferguson said.
But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district's no-tolerance drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police.
The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges.
and every single time it completely disgustes me. If that girl had dies he probably would have been sued for NOT giving her his medication when he knew it would save her life.
what bullshit. why is it criminal to give someone a legal drug? one that has been prescribed for them? i don't understand this. although still ridiculous, it's one thing to violate the 'no tolerance' policy and a completely different thing altogether to bring criminal charges for this. it just doesn't make sense.
exist to remove the requirement that people actually think.
They don't have to think about ethics or rational judgment because the law tells them exactly what to do.
Full ArticleOKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) -- An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies.
Board officials met Friday to discuss the fate of suspended sixth-grader Nashala "Tallah" Hern, who was asked to leave school in the eastern Oklahoma town of Muskogee on October 1 because she refused to remove her head scarf, called a "hijab."
School officials instituted a dress code in 1997 prohibiting the wearing of hats and other head coverings indoors. Officials said they implemented the code to stem gang-related activity. Hern declined to remove her hijab, saying it would violate the way she observes her religion.
Officials at the school, the Ben Franklin Science Academy, previously summoned Hern to the office on September 11 to inform her she was no longer allowed to wear the scarf. She had worn it since the school year started a few weeks earlier.
A school attorney said federal education rules adopted in 1998 do not allow for exceptions for religious beliefs.
"As I see it right now, I don't think we can make a special accommodation for religious wear," said school attorney D.D. Hayes. "You treat religious items the same as you would as any other item, no better, no worse. Our dress code prohibits headgear, period."
Oklahoma City -- that says so much.
This is messed up. I've posted the article in full below:Suspected penis snatcher beaten to death
Fri Oct 10,12:12 AM ETBANJUL (Reuters) - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's penis through sorcery has been beaten to death in the West African country of Gambia, police say.
A police spokesman told Reuters on Thursday that Baba Jallow was lynched by about 10 people in the town of Serekunda, some nine miles from the capital Banjul.
Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.
The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.
Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in 1997.
And let me tell you, if a guy stole my penis through sorcery I'd beat him to death too.
do you think they checked to see if it was actually gone before crying "penis snatcher! let's get him!"? and why do so many people there believe in sorcery? do you think it's possible that some phenomenons exist in only a very small part of the world and the rest of us, because of ignorance, think they're all cracked?
I mean, superstition obviously exists, but on the other hand, unexplained phenomena do too, so I think just for objectivity's sake, you have to ask that question. That said, if I was in the "penis snatching" business, I wouldn't physically snatch anything, but I would just cast a spell on it making the person impotent or infertile. Much harder for the victim to verify. Or put a futuristic snatch spell on so it wouldn't actually disappear for a week or something.
that the alleged penis snatchers make the penii[?] reappear elsewhere? maybe they should call them penis collectors.
There was a hypnotist at North Park when I was an undergrad who made people believe there were birds in their hands on stage. It was pretty freaky. Then he told the people to go back to their seats and that their belly buttons had disappeared. About 30 minutes later when they were back in their seats and he had done a bunch of other stuff he asked all the people in the audience to check their belly buttons. The look on the participants faces (in the audience) when they "realized" their belly buttons were gone was crazy. So, anycrap, the ending thing is that there's something definately convincing about hypnosis.
On Friday, school officials decided to expel Kivi but not press criminal charges. They said it was an amicable agreement."I'm happy. Everything's final," Kivi said. "I'm expelled 'til after Christmas and I can come back after Christmas, but I won't."
woman crashes SUV into home.
So, Medicare, the taxpayer-funded government healthcare program, has it's own blimp that "will provide aerial television coverage for selected sporting events and make appearances at major community events and senior activities throughout the fall." Does this strike anyone else as completely and senselessly wasteful?
That is RIDICULOUS.
it's part of some new advertising campaign for the 800 number which may not be the best way to blow your ad budget, but I'd bet they are spending a lot more on tv and radio ad buys.
You'd think they could like, make an arrangement with McDonalds and other national chains to hand out a flyer with any Senior Discount or something.
this really makes me sad.
It'll be dancing by the Book Wheaton College students look for a graceful way to hold first dance in school's 143 yearsBy Meg McSherry Breslin Tribune staff reporter Published October 24, 2003
The exuberant faces of the Wheaton College students swing dancing on a suburban dance floor don't give it away, but nothing short of a revolution is about to take place on the quiet evangelical college campus. Dancing.
Throughout the school's 143-year history, students have been banned from drinking, smoking, gambling and social dancing on and off campus during the school year.
But after years of student pressure to lift the dancing ban, the college administration introduced new guidelines for campus living in February, shocking students with news that an official on-campus dance would be held for the first time in school history this year.
With the big event just weeks away--the date will be announced during the college's family gathering this weekend--Wheaton students are testing out their moves at area dance halls.
But they're far from bumping and grinding. The dance of choice for this group of devoutly Christian students seems to be the old-fashioned swing dance. Many students hope college leaders will follow that interest by selecting swing as the theme for the first dance.
For Wheaton, the new policy represents a monumental turnaround. Just six years ago, the same college president who lifted the ban, Duane Litfin, told the Tribune that most contemporary social dancing was "very sensual ... the kind of thing that doesn't add to the Christian atmosphere on campus."
Wheaton's decision is likely to prompt changes at a number of the 127 members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, said Bob Andringa, the council president. Already, a number of Christian colleges have ended dancing bans in recent years and others may soon follow suit, he said.
"Wheaton is one of the flagships in Christian higher education, so it always gets more attention," he said.
Until now, Wheaton students were allowed to dance only with members of the same sex or to square dance, as the country-western line dance gave students little or no chance of getting too intimate with the opposite sex. In 1997, a small policy change allowed students and teachers to dance with spouses or relatives at family events.
Clearly, many students are excited about the change. While there have always been some students who danced, those who faithfully followed the ban are thrilled they can dance without facing discipline. They no longer have to feel like they're doing something wrong, even sinful.
Jesse Armerding, the grandson of former Wheaton College President Hudson T. Armerding, was an enthusiastic participant at a recent Sunday night swing session at the Willowbrook Ballroom in Willow Springs. He said swing dancing is hardly erotic and that it was unfair to lump all kinds of dancing into one category. "I love music," he said. "And sometimes you just can't help it."
Still, there's much apprehension about the first dance.
Bethany Jones, the student leader who is organizing the event, is feeling pressure to produce "something fun but wholesome--good, clean fun."
Litfin emphasized that the new code of conduct is hardly a loosening of the college's standards. The new guidelines state that on-campus dances will take place only with official college sponsorship. Students are asked to use good judgment, avoiding behavior "which may be immodest, sinfully erotic or harmfully violent."
Yet Litfin is cautious as preparations get under way.
"On balance, I know the decision was the right one, yet I'm eager to see to it that we don't do anything to drag down the spiritual environment on campus," he said.
There's also the potential for an outcry from alumni and college backers.
After the new policy was announced, Litfin got 300 calls and e-mails, a third of which were angry outbursts or confusion over the change. Some alumni and supporters felt lifting the dance ban wasn't in keeping with the Wheaton they knew, Litfin said. So far, though, campus leaders said the decision has not affected contributions.
Wheaton's new policy, dubbed the "Community Covenant," also lifted a longtime ban on drinking and smoking in private for faculty. Litfin said a key factor in that change, along with the new dancing rule, was the 1991 Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act, which some feared left the college vulnerable to a lawsuit.
The law prohibits discrimination against employees who drink or smoke off the job unless there is a strong religious belief against the practice. Litfin said Wheaton's former policy was based more on tradition, not biblical beliefs, thus prompting college leaders to put rules in place--for faculty and students--that more closely reflect the Bible's teachings.
Another incentive was concern that the college's previous guidelines did not allow students to think through their choices in preparation for a Christian life after college.
"Are you really growing your students in terms of discernment when suddenly they walk out of college and they don't have easy rules?" Litfin said. "There's something to be said for this being part of their education."
Still, some Wheaton supporters remain unconvinced, said Marilee Melvin, vice president for alumni relations.
"[Some] alumni are legitimately concerned that our students be challenged, taught and motivated to live the kind of life Jesus Christ asks of us, and they fear that some of these things ... will really get in the way of that," she said.
Other Christian college leaders say they were not surprised by Wheaton's move.
"In some important respects, the morals of evangelical Protestants are changing," said Joel Carpenter, provost of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and a scholar of American religious history. "There's dancing all over in the Bible. It seems to be a legitimate God-given cultural conveyance of feeling."
For a campus that claims as its motto, "For Christ and His Kingdom" the no-dance policy was as much a campus fixture as the volume of tributes to a famous alum, Rev. Billy Graham.
The ban helped define the campus as the antithesis of modern college life. Missing were coed floors, heavy drinking, the "sinfully erotic" dancing.
Students did find creative ways to let their hair down and still abide by the ban. At one social gathering, students put tape on the floor to create a separate female and male section, because it was OK to dance with a member of the same sex. At another party on a women's floor recently, students pulled the shades and danced with abandon to "Bohemian Rhapsody."
Though many followed the old rule, pressure mounted over the years to lift it. Some student leaders said the ban seemed increasingly out of pace with more modern Christian values.
"It makes us seem less like a subculture in our own little world," sophomore Julia Stampfl said of the new policy.
Out on the dance floor, Wheaton students say concerns about the new policy are overblown. After all, this is a campus where students speak freely about their love of Christ, where they attend mandatory chapel three times a week, and where the campus cafeteria is flooded with news of missionary trips and local spiritual meetings.
Even the swing dancers at the Willowbrook Ballroom hardly seem like rebels. Sipping water from plastic glasses, they discuss the virtues of dance as an _expression of their love of God.
Sophomore Chad Hauge is all style and energy on the dance floor, swinging in his tuxedo, his shoulder-length blond hair flipping from side to side.
Off the floor, he turns serious, talking of how he was attracted to Wheaton because of students' values, including a respect for abstinence and an openness to more spiritual friendships.
Days after he left the dance floor one recent Sunday, he composed an e-mail about his views.
"What I, and really most of the college students here, care about more than this college, more than dancing, more than anything, is Jesus Christ," Hauge wrote. "I love the covenant because it is true to God's word, and seems to place the focus on Jesus, not the college.
"It gives me freedom, but asks that I use that freedom responsibly. That seems like a good deal to me."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
5 men charged with multiple assaults on teenBy Jeff Coen Tribune staff reporter Published October 24, 2003
Charges have been filed against five men accused of raping a 14-year-old girl who was picked up from her school Monday, attacked over 18 hours at different locations and then left on a street corner, authorities said.
doctors call anderson's estimates "inflammatory" -- they're phones are ringing off the hookOf course, she is not following the conventional remedies, so who knows. It makes me sad not because I care about Pamela Anderson as a celebrity... but as an example of the human condition.
whoops
...but how is Pamela Anderson's medical status a reflection on the human condition?
It just makes me sad to see someone who obviously either didn't think that she would get sick, or didn't care, end up suffering from her actions. I wish that she would not have made the decisions that led to her contracting Hepatitis C, and it makes me sad that we live in a society where some lifestyles that are glorified and can be lucrative and fame producing often lead to personal self destruction. It's not that I don't think she's responsible for herself, I just pity her and the flawed world that created those possibilities.
I understand. I also share your frustration that personal self-destruction doesn't seem to be viewed as a very high price to pay for fame, glory and material wealth.Tangentially...
About 15 years ago, I turned down a good job at Sun Microsystems, and a promising career in programming, for an uncertain future in television. I did this because I was worried that programming would be too stressful, cost me some of my identity (my brother was a programmer) and that I would burn out early. Though it was a hard decision I have never regretted it. My first real job after making that decision was at USA Today on TV, and people there actually looked down on me because I had turned down such wealth. It didn't make any difference to them that I was *happier* where I was, they still essentially turned their noses up.
Yeah, I know all about the inflated emphasis on material wealth.
Jeez, Wheaton dancing? What will the "Carlson Crazies" do to mock our adversaries now?Wheaton Girls, Will You Please "Come To The Hollywood Lounge" / "Skip Chapel" With Us?
and they are both really cool, down-to-earth, funny, good people. this sounds so awful, but i always had these misconceptions about everyone at wheaton being very strange and puritanical. despite the fact that my favorite-ever professor is also a wheaton alum. in fact, i mentioned this to one of the wheaton alums in my office and she said, "Professor So-and-So? But she's so...normal." yes, my sentiments exactly. anyway, the two ex-wheatonites in my office were rolling with laughter when they read the article. it is all strange to me. i feel badly for having such ignorant misconceptions, but hey, it's wheaton.
In a report published Monday, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, detailed its findings of a four-month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush. Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the educational communityon each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report among others. There have been twelve presidents over the past 50 years, from F.D. Roosevelt to G.W. Bush, who were rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors, which were then scored using the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking. The study determined the following IQs of each president as accurate to within five percentage points.In order by presidential term: Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D]142, Harry S Truman [D]132, Dwight David Eisenhower [R]122, John Fitzgerald Kennedy [D]174, Lyndon Baines Johnson [D]126, Richard Milhous Nixon [R]155, Gerald R. Ford [R]121, James Earle Carter [D]175, Ronald Wilson Reagan [R]105, George Herbert Walker Bush [R]098, William Jefferson Clinton [D]182, George Walker Bush [R]091
In IQ order: 182 . . William Jefferson Clinton [D] 175 .. James Earle Carter [D] 174 . . John Fitzgerald Kennedy [D] 155 .. .Richard Milhous Nixon [R] 147 . . Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D] 132 . . Harry S Truman [D] 126 . . Lyndon Baines Johnson [D] 122 . . Dwight David Eisenhower [R] 121 . . Gerald R. Ford [R] 105 . . Ronald Wilson Reagan [R] 098 . . George Herbert Walker Bush [R] 091 . . George Walker Bush [R]
The six Republican presidents of the past 50 years had an average IQ of 115.5, with President Nixon having the highest at 155. President George W. Bush rated the lowest of all the Republicans with an IQ of 91. The six Democrat presidents had IQs with an average of 156, with President Clinton having the highest IQ, at 182. President Lyndon B. Johnson was rated the lowest of all the Democrats with an IQ of 126. No president other than Carter [D] has released his actual IQ (176). Among comments made concerning the specific testing of President G. W. Bush, his low ratings are due to his apparently difficult command of the English language in public statements, his limited use of vocabulary [6,500 words for Bush versus an average of 11,000 words for other presidents], his lack of scholarly achievements other than a basic MBA, and an absence of any body of work which could be studied on an intellectual basis. The complete report documents the methods and procedures used to arrive at these ratings, including depth of sentence structure and voice stress confidence analysis.
"All the Presidents prior to George W. Bush had a least one book under their belt, and most had written several white papers during their education or early careers. Not so with President Bush," Dr. Lovenstein said. "He has no published works or writings, which made it more difficult to arrive at an assessment. We relied more heavily on transcripts of his unscripted public speaking."
The Lovenstein Institute of Scranton Pennsylvania think tank includes high caliber historians, psychiatrists, sociologists, scientists in human behavior, and psychologists. Among their ranks are Dr.Werner R. Lovenstein, world-renowned sociologist, and Professor Patricia F. Dilliams, a world-respected psychiatrist.
It would have been more plausible if Dubya's Dad hadn't been assigned such a low value. I don't think you get to be the head of the CIA with a value like that.
in the dictionary, but i think there is some truth in that report. the "average" IQ is 100, and from what i can tell, that guy is far below average.
Dubya's value is plausible indeed (or maybe he just has problem communicating). I think the perpetrators of the hoax were trying extra hard to fool people by making Bush senior's value low so that folk might think junior's specialness was inherited.
By Capitol Hill politics. You want the really really smart people at CIA to be in the low and middle grades, the people who are doing field work, getting and evaluating intelligence so people like I usetabe aren't getting nasty pointed surprises.Cabinet level and just below positions (like the top four people at the CIA, the Director, the Deputy Director, and then the two other deputy directors for intelligence and operations--all have to be approved by Congress and vetted in Senate confirmation hearings.)
Just like if I ever make major--at the rate I'm going, and in my branch, they'll have to issue me a cane with my gold leaves--that promotion slate will have to be approved by the Senate, and it will have on it majors at the bottom, and full 4-stars at the top.
What you want at the top of government agencies are good administrators who can protect your people from Congress and the GAO, be able to feed at the budget trough, and still be able to provide intelligence (in the case of the CIA) or reasonable federal law enforcement (the FBI).
What you don't want are people who are only angling for the slot to check off a box on the way to higher. In this country, a government agency hiccups and jobs vanish, the stock market plunges, and worst of all, in some cases people die who shouldn't have.
and here is the article
It's blindly obvious where pedro's interests lie, isn't it?I mean, you can't get any more obvious about screaming la la la and running away than changing the subject to Britney Spears.
I yield the field.
When i post something like that, it's almost always meant as an aside -- a smaller piece of poop floating by a bigger piece of poop.
Britney Spears for head of the CIA!
I'm Not a Woman, Not Yet Joint Chiefs of Staff
I think Britney probably has her eye more on UN Secretary General.
I am now beginning to believe lieutenant because, pedro, you seem to have given the subject waaay to much thought.
I don't think Hit Me Baby, One More Time would be a good presidential campaign song. Or go over well with Homeland Security, for that matter...
but was "Bring 'em on" any better?
Bombastic Foreign Policy?
no. no it wasn't.
Thanks, nutella. Really got to meet you face to face someday. . . .Capitol Hill Lobbyists and All Special Interest Groups; I'm A Slave4U
We have a 4U "slave," it's our backup firewall... no, actually maybe it's only 1U, now that I think about it.
Whenever I start to feel like the world is too nice a place, I visit a message board devoted to the childless, or, as they call themselves, the childfree. It is a collection of people, so says the introduction, who have decided that they don't want children. The introduction goes on to state that it is a support community, not a debate community, and that posts about parenting won't be tolerated.That's fine, I can accept that. I know that society can sometimes be a little hard on people who choose not to have children, and I can see why they might want a safe haven.
But truth be told, it's one of the most abrasive, mean-spirited communities I have ever seen. Yeah, I read the disclaimers that said that people's language can be harsh when they know they are venting to like minded people, that they would never consider actually doing some of the things they post about wanting to do, that the harsh sounding jargon is borne of frustration, yadda yadda yadda.
Why am I posting this here? Because today I saw a post that for me tipped this bunch of people past that fine line between the victimized and the victimizer. Seems that one of their members has a friend whose wife was feeling the urge to have a child. The husband, who doesn't want children, went to his friend, the Childfree board member, for advice. The member's solution was to take his friend and the friend's wife to a mutual acquaintance's home, where there were children present, for a weekend. Apparently it wasn't a totally functional household; the Childfree poster noted that the children were shrill and undisciplined, and by the end of the visit, the poster's friend happily reported that his wife never wanted to consider having children again.
But that is not the end of the story. The title of the post was, "Won one for the team," and the thread continued with woo-hoos and attaboys from the regulars on the board. The overwhelming sentiment was that the poster had done a good deed, perhaps even a heroic one, by saving this couple from the lifetime of misery that is raising children. One poster even commented that he had probably saved their marriage.
I came away from this with en empty, depressed feeling in the pit of my stomach, and not for the reason you might expect.
I used to not want kids. I can relate to almost every reason the people there give for not wanting them. So it's not that I'm upset that people choose not to have kids. Heck, I'll be the first to admit that a lot of people who have them are not qualified to be parents.
What bothers me about this board is twofold: first, there's the raw venom. Yes, I know that people rant privately in ways they would not talk publicly and that it's partially my fault for venturing into this snake pit in the first place. But I think you can tell a lot about someone's personality from the way they talk in private, too, and from that I detect an awful lot of anger among their members, and I have to wonder, what makes them so enraged that they feel this pathological need to lash out. Second, and I was REALLY bothered by this, I can't stand the hypocrisy of retreating to a support message board so as to be able to talk about childfree issues in private, yet not seeing any problem with one of their members reaching beyond their borders to mess with the life of someone on the outside, then being so presumptuous as to theorize that this interference constitutes saving someone else's marriage -- a marriage that was already in trouble the minute that people who disagreed about such a major issue tied the knot in the first place.
I know, I know. I shouldn't read over there. *sigh*
is that people think that the desire to be childless is such a defining factor in their lives that it is appropriate to create a special community for it... I mean, if I decide to start communicating with a community of random strangers, I might want try to share something in common with them other than "childless"... I don't know if I'm making sense, but that to me is very sad.
is that once you reach a point in life where all your friends and peers are having children and you've decided you do not want kids, it becomes quite a bit of a defining factor. [as having children also defines the people's lives who have them] another notion is that a portion of people who join those groups probably CANNOT have children, rather than simply not wanting them. they probably gain a level of justification for the situation they are in and can convince themselves to some degree that they don't want children anyway. in other words, if there is a level of difficulty involved there is probably a support group for it. and that's okay. i just wouldn't suggest venturing into those support groups unless you share their difficulties.
Isn't the goal of a typical support group to offer support, and not to bash the outside? What I witnessed would be like someone going to AA meetings and bragging about how he stole the key to his friend's booze cabinet.Of course you're right about not venturing in there. I suppose I derive some sort of perverse fascination from it.
I find that disgusting, for any support group to feel that making others feel the way they do is abhorrable. And putting his wife in a situation where she only sees the negatives of children is also down right nasty. She didn't get to see the I love you's, or the crawling in bed to cuddle, or other adorable things kids do, but instead was brought into a disfunctional situation and shown that as the norm. Makes you wonder how one of them would feel if someone from a ChildFull support group went and impregnated one of their Childfree members, just to win one over the the childbearing side.
story
but this is classy.
This is crazy:
LAUDERHILL -- The clock may soon run out on a purple and gold house whose summer paint job has upset neighbors, attracted the attention of city commissioners and is the main reason every homeowner may have to conform to a color palette.City officials heard neighbors' cry over the purple and gold hues, and promptly set about drafting an ordinance that would restrict the colors residents can paint their homes.
Should commissioners approve the new law today at a 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, homeowners with homes not matching the city's color palette will have three years to repaint. Those who can prove a financial hardship will be given five years to change the colors.
There's a picture of the house if you follow the link. I'm not exactly crazy about the purple and gold, but legislating the color of houses seems incredibly pointless and wasteful to me.
If they tried the same thing in S.F. the city would run out of paint overnight (unless they chose a very generous palette).
Well, this sort of thing goes on all the time when you've got condo boards and housing covenants, but this is the first I've heard of a city doing it.
This is the best argument I have yet for abolishing retirement and working folks into their graves.
s/I have//
The Rescuers
cleft palate serious handicap
That's just sad.
stupid
loathsome
interesting how a major advertisement stunt is requiring people to pay to watch it.sex sells on such a deep level that people will pay to see sexy advertisement.
reprehensible, in my opinion.
Actually I'm pretty sure there is no right place
Actually, Pammy, when your entire livelihood is centered around your breasts, people have low expectations of you. Blonde has nothing to do with it.
when you are stupid, you think that you hair color is actually a a meaningful factor in anybody's decision.
Quite gross
Seriously, don't click on the link above if you have a weak stomach or if you become emotional about animal rights.
the animal was dead already, had been beached and died of seemingly natural causes, and was being transported for research. that still doesn't take away from it being possibly the nastiest thing i've ever seen.
The Jacskson Effect.
D.C. Mother Faces Cruelty Charges In Neglect CaseBy Henri E. Cauvin Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 7, 2004; Page B01
The mother accused of leaving her six children alone in the family's decrepit apartment has told police that she promptly spent the month's entire $719 public assistance check without paying the rent or the gas bill or even buying food, prosecutors said in charging papers filed yesterday.
Instead, Colleen Hooks, 29, who was charged yesterday with cruelty to children, said she spent the money on her "personal needs," leaving the children to manage for themselves in the family's apartment in Southeast Washington, the charging papers stated. The documents do not say what she bought.
The filthy home, she told police, was the fault of the children and was their responsibility to clean up, according to the charging document filed as Hooks made her first appearance in the criminal case late yesterday in D.C. Superior Court. Her name was made public with the filing of the criminal charge.
Magistrate Judge J. Dennis Doyle ordered that Hooks be kept in a halfway house while her case is pending. The children are now under the supervision of the city.
When police arrived at the apartment Wednesday, they said they found a nearly uninhabitable place, with no food in the refrigerator and the floor hardly visible among the soiled clothes and diapers.
The youngest child was just 3 months old, and the oldest in the home when police arrived was 7. Police would later learn that the oldest two children, ages 9 and 12, had gone to school.
When the officers asked if the children knew where their mother was, they said they did not know, according to the charging papers. And when police asked when they had last had a meal, they were unable to say, the papers state.
The children were not supposed to be in their mother's care. Last month, after a report of neglect, the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency placed them with their maternal grandmother to give Hooks a chance to straighten out her home. But within a couple of weeks they were back in the apartment, in the 1300 block of Morris Road SE.
It was not the first time that the mother had come under investigation. Cases were opened on the family in 1998, 2002 and last year, agency officials said. Each time, the agency stabilized the family and closed the case, they said.
After another report of neglect came in last month, Child and Family Services apparently believed it could fashion yet another remedy. The plan called for the agency to be contacted once the mother had cleaned the house and was ready to have the children back.
The charging papers said that Hooks told police that she knew she was not supposed to have the children in her custody but that she had taken them back anyway. The papers also said that she admitted using PCP, but they do not say when. A separate court report, filed by the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency, quotes Hooks as saying she used drugs in the past week but provides no other details.
The apartment was in even worse shape when police found the children on Wednesday morning, after a neighbor's call.
Police said they found a bowl containing two raw chicken pieces with barbecue sauce on the floor, along with a heap of chicken bones. A slightly opened can of beans was also discovered, and from the sauce around one child's mouth, it appeared the child had been eating the beans.
During a hearing Thursday on a neglect petition filed against the mother by the city, Magistrate Judge S. Pamela Gray asked the city social worker and the city attorney involved in the case why the family's troubles had not been brought to the court's attention.
Without court intervention, city social workers cannot check on families outside the District.
They made five follow-up visits to the D.C. apartment last month to check on Hooks, but no one was home and they failed to contact her, a social worker said.
Mindy L. Good, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that the Hooks case was handled in a "diligent and caring" manner. Nonetheless, the agency will revisit it.
"We're going to be looking at this whole situation to see what we could have done better," she said.
Killer of pregnant 10-year-old set to die tonight By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated PressHUNTSVILLE -- Shakeisha Lloyd was 17 weeks pregnant when she was killed with a shotgun blast to the head at her home in Fort Worth in a rampage that also took the lives of two great-aunts.
She was 10 years old.
Edward Lagrone, the father of her unborn child and the man convicted of killing her, was set to die tonight for the 1991 slaying.
"He's a poster child to justify the death penalty," said David Montague, the Tarrant County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Lagrone.
Lagrone, 46, twice convicted of murder, would be the fifth Texas inmate executed this year and the first of two on consecutive nights this week.
He refused to speak with reporters as his execution approached. His attorneys had asked state and federal courts to review the case and stop the execution. An appeal also was challenging the constitutionality of the state's use of lethal injection.
Lagrone, who lived in Arlington and had worked as a cook, was known in Fort Worth's Stop Six area as a drug dealer who employed youths to hustle drugs. He already had a murder conviction and prison term on his record when he was arrested for the attack that also claimed Zenobia Anderson, 83, and Caolo Lloyd, 74. Lloyd was deaf and blind and bedridden with cancer. Another relative, Dempsey Lloyd, was wounded.
The girl's mother, Pamela Lloyd, once dated Lagrone. She filed a sexual assault complaint against him after discovering her daughter was pregnant and had been assaulted several times.
Lagrone denied impregnating the girl, who completed the fourth grade the day before she was killed. DNA evidence, however, excluded 99.99 percent of other men as the father. Eight genetic tests could not exclude him, a DNA expert testified.
Pamela Lloyd testified that Shakeisha was concealing her 19-month-old sister behind some boxes and shouting at her mother to hide when she was shot.
Peak Oili'd be willing to live with any/all of you in a commune.
but First human embryos successfully cloned (and grown past the point of IVF)Egads.
...but I'm planning to clone myself for an organ source as SOON AS POSSIBLE!Besides, the world could use a few more of me.
Make sure you do it sequentially and call them all Peter.Peter "Peter" Peterson
Peter "Peter" Peterpeterpeterson
Peter "Peter" Peterpeterpeterpeterpeterson...
Okay, the humour level is beginning to peter out here...
Peter PetersonPeterson Peter PetersonPeterson IX Peter [Drone-19X] PetersonPeterson MCVXLIetc.
Of course by then, you'll all be dead and I'll be ruling Mars with an iron fist.
That looks better without the line breaks.
it's not what it's cracked up to be.
I've been wondering where would be the best place to hunt & gather...
kamchatka?
now I want to play Risk.
We could definitely grow enough food on my parents land to last all year. It would be hella hard work, but it could be done.
Marc DutrouxUnbelievable.
Also, do we ever have trials where the defendants are behind bulletproof glass?
Mother Charged With Stillborn's MurderThursday, March 11, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY -- A pregnant woman who allegedly ignored medical warnings to have a Caesarean section (search) to save her twins was charged Thursday with murder after one of the babies was stillborn.
Prosecutors said Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, didn't want the scars that accompany the surgery.
An autopsy found that the baby died two days before its Jan. 13 delivery and that it would have survived if Rowland had had a C-section when her doctors urged her to, between Christmas and Jan. 9. The other baby is alive, but authorities had no further information.
The doctors had warned that without a C-section, the twins would probably die, authorities said. A nurse told police that Rowland said a Caesarean would "ruin her life" and she would rather "lose one of the babies than be cut like that."
"We are unable to find any reason other than the cosmetic motivations by the mother" for her decision, said Kent Morgan, spokesman for the district attorney.
Court documents give no address for Rowland, and she isn't listed in area telephone books.
The charges carry five years to life in prison. She was jailed on $250,000 bail.
It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney.
According to the documents, Rowland went to LDS Hospital (search) in Salt Lake City in December to seek advice after she hadn't felt her babies move. A nurse, Regina Davis, told police she instructed Rowland to go immediately to one of two other hospitals, but that Rowland said she would rather have both babies die before going to either place.
On Jan. 2, a doctor at LDS Hospital examined Rowland and recommended an immediate C-section based on an ultrasound and the babies' slowing heart rates. Rowland left, the doctor told police.
The same day, Rowland allegedly saw a nurse at another hospital, saying she had left LDS Hospital because the doctor wanted to cut her "from breast bone to pubic bone," a procedure that would "ruin her life." The nurse also told investigators that Rowland said she would rather "lose one of her babies than be cut like that."
A week later, Rowland allegedly went to a third hospital to verify whether her babies were alive. A nurse there told police she could not detect a heartbeat from one twin and advised Rowland to remain in the hospital, but Rowland ignored the advice.
Girl, 12, in coma after kissing boy From correspondents in Baltimore 12 mar 04A 12-year-old girl was beaten into a coma by a group of other girls and women after she kissed the boyfriend of another girl on a dare, police said.
Three adult women and two teenage girls have been charged in the beating of Nicole Townes, who remained in a coma Wednesday more than a week after the attack at a February 28 party.
"I have seen people beaten to death, but not a child and not for no apparent reason," Detective Donny Moses said. "This is a hideous story."
The attack happened after an unidentified boy, also 12, was dared to kiss Nicole. After the kiss, his 14-year-old girlfriend attacked Nicole, and others joined in, beating the girl for at least 30 minutes.
Monique Baldwin, 36, and Erin Baldwin, 19, were charged with attempted murder and assault, said Moses, who said he didn't know the relationship between the two. Kenya Keene, 25, was charged with assault and conspiracy to commit child abuse.
Two unidentified teens, ages 13 and 14, also were arrested, but Moses said he did not know the specific charges against them.
The adults are also accused of giving false statements about what happened, telling authorities Townes fell and hit her head on a wall.
Dex, you should turn the news off for at least a week and dive into any one of the books recommended to you in this forum, or better yet, take the hour you use to watch the news and pray for the world . . .
People like this make people like me go crazy.
me too.
Amazingly strange.And lieutenant - I took your advice. No news is good news for the time being.
I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on online gambling. it seems that some in the government want to 'crack down' on it - make it illegal, stop it, regulate it, etc. mostly, it seems they want to be able to make a huge chunk of money off it like they do other casinos or shut it down entirely. it's really lame, i think.i read an article, which i will try to repost here, about it. it seems in NY state the Attorney General is trying to stop people from gambling online. citing technicalities in landmark cases that have really given the anti-gambling mavens a leg up on this fight, the AG of NY has the 'problem' of online gambling to deal with on a state level. the thing that's stupid is that it is 'gambling' if the level of skill outweighs the element of chance. so now they're trying to ban online poker, which i think is ludicrous. just because some people don't know how to play poker well doesn't mean that it's a game of chance.
anyway, just wondering if anybody had any opinions...
Has problems with gambling, especially since NY has a high Native American reservation population, and perennial fights with said nation governments. The Seneca Indians, 45 min from the home of my boyhood, have since put a casino at Niagara Falls, and Gov. Pataki practically had a coronary infarction (Gotdangit, Hank, I'm havin' an infarction!) trying to stop them from doing so. I think he's more incensed at the loss of the revenue to the state, not on moral purposes.Does anyone know? I thought NY had a state casino @Saratoga Springs but that also may be Native American . ..
yikes.
The band "Jet"
Sorority e-mail stains blood-donor effort By Scott Charton Associated PressApril 13, 2004
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Members of a sorority were urged to lie about their health to qualify as donors in a competitive blood drive at the University of Missouri, a school that once set a record for blood collection.
In an e-mail sent last Tuesday to about 170 members of Gamma Phi Beta, Christie Key, the chapter's blood donation coordinator, wrote: "I dont care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I dont care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE."
The sending of the e-mail was first reported Sunday by the Columbia Missourian and the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Sororities and fraternities conducted the competitive blood drive last week. It is a campus tradition that took in 3,156 units of blood in 1999, earning the feat recognition from the Guinness Book of Records as the largest single-site, single-day blood collection.
Jim Williams, a spokesman for the American Red Cross, said the organization discourages any actions that could jeopardize the blood supply, including donations from the sick or those who recently received tattoos or piercings.
"We have emphasized from day one it is not necessary for each girl to donate, so it is a waste," Williams said Monday.
About 3,300 units were collected in the recent event.
In her e-mail, Key wrote: "We're not messing around. Punishment for not giving blood is going to be quite severe."
Key declined comment Monday and referred questions to Gamma Phi Beta's chapter president, who did not return a call. A vice chancellor said the university had begun an inquiry.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
the whole prisoner torture/abuse thing is so depressing. i could post it any other entrees but i figure stories and photos that make me cry and well up with anger belong in here.
convenience is the new god
in the new national geographic that arrived yesterday. Also in a new book by Paul Roberts The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World that was reviewed by salon today. The nat'l geo article was well written and informative and had lots of great pictures and charts. I only wish it would have gone even more in depth, especially about china's insanely fast growth of oil consumption.
ken asked how much we imported
from someone in orange county to an online friend of mine and her oust-bush protest:"you tree hugging douche bag....maybe in the city of brotherly love they tolerate your lame ass bullshit, but if you came out to orange county, a high-income, republican, surburban, non-wellfare, non-communist areahe kind of place that actually has a SAY in american politics), everyone would laugh and tell you to go a couple hundred miles north to san fransisco, the REAL city of "brotherly" love (every other person is a gay hippie). i hate to tell you but bush is winning this election, so get used to have a president who is has mainstream beliefs and normal values and who is trying to protect the best interest of America as a whole, not just your flaming liberal, anti-American, communist ass. Go to Canada. that's where all you rejects belong. Cause here in America, we care about the economy more than trees, we care about people more than animals, we care about the majority more than a few psycho individuals, and we care about our own citizens more than we care about terrorists. wow, what a concept. if you dont like it leave. America is a white, christian, republican nation, and it always will be. no low-income white trash tree hugging PETA member crackhead is going to change that. sorry :("
i mean, this girl really seems to know what america is all about right?
now that is one completely ignorant paragraph. I'll counter it with a simple, "I thought in the last election the majority vote went to the Democrats, huh funny."
And here I thought valuable political dialogue was dead.
The O.C., a good place for a high-income, republican, surburban, non-wellfare, non-communist. When I think of America, I think of the The O.C. Oh, and that realistic TV show too.
May 20, 2004A shoplifting charge was dismissed today against a Northwestern University student accused of eating 41 cents' worth of bulk candy at an Evanston convenience store without paying for it.
Cook County Assistant State's Atty. Larry Krulewich dropped the case against Alison Baenen after she agreed never to return to the White Hen Pantry.
Baenen was handcuffed and arrested at the White Hen in the 800 block of Emerson Street on May 2 after she allegedly snacked on two or three pieces of gummy candy.
"I was just filling a bag of candy and had a piece or two," Baenen said. "(A store manager) said stop eating the candy. I apologized and continued to fill the bag with more candy."
When she got to the register to pay, the manager had locked the door to the store and called police.
White Hen owner Peter Mueller said he agreed not to pursue the case because he didn't want Baenen to have the misdemeanor offense on her record. The store manager said he warned the student twice to stop eating candy before he called police.
Baenen, who expects to graduate from Northwestern next month, plans to teach English in Thailand.
"I'm just glad this is over," she said. Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
I think if he did pursue charges and it made the news the manager probably would have gotten in trouble for the really bad PR move.
To see what actually happened. Did she disregard the manager's request to stop eating the candy? Or did the store manager just decide that he was going to bust her even though she stopped? If you read that again, there is no clear picture what happened.It's definitely overkill either way, but if the student kept eating it after the manager asked her to stop, I'd say the manager had the right to call it shoplifting.
true...I like to know what really happened. In the meantime, I'll be more careful in the bulk section, because I've done the same thing many times myself.
if she was filling a bag, that means she intended to pay for a bag of candy. if there was a problem, t hey could have tacked on the 41 cents to her bill. I mean, if I was doing that, I would just expect to have to pay for the 2 or 3 pieces I ate as well as the stuff in the bag.I'd have laughed at that manager for calling the police on me.
It sounds like Owen Wilson doing the voiceover. It's all about this guy who is moving in with his gf -- but he has a "film collection" and doesn't know how to sneak it into the apartment without her noticing. The voiceover guy tells him to take her out to a really nice dinner, etc. then when she's sleeping or out with her friends or something, sneak in the pornos and put them somewhere where she'll never find them. Oh, and voiceover guy will hold on to the collection for a while if he needs.That's not only totally disgusting, but it's not even that creative of advice!
to my question about the decline of society in general...or the world is going to pot pie entree.Yep, not even funny at all. I'd suggest asking the wife; one might be surprised!!
but this guy seems to be a connoisseur.Canada's Pot Still Poor, Patient SaysPOSTED: 10:57 am EDT July 13, 2004 OTTAWA -- The Canadian government is promising better dope for legal pot smokers.
The government is under a court order to supply medical marijuana to people authorized to smoke it, but the first batch of pot was panned by users.
Now, a second effort could be going up in smoke. User Marco Renda says it's no good, either. He said he took a couple of hits and snuffed out his joint. Renda added that the government pot didn't taste right and had no effect.
But a spokeswoman for Health Canada said the new pot is a purer smoke and has less twigs.
Health Canada maintains the medical case for marijuana remains unproven, but the agency has been ordered by the courts to make the weed available to certain patients.
the iowa channel
I like the part about how it "didn't taste right". I just feel like taste is something you worry about if you use it recreationally, medicinally, of course not, medicine isn't supposed to taste good, and besides, the gov't probably does everything it can to make it taste bad the last thing they want is to become known as a source of some good buds.
That may be the most ironic post (name of entree) I've ever seen.
...from Guantanamo Bay.
Has anyone been following the Scott Peterson trial? Any thoughts? Think he did it? Didn't do it?
But I haven't been following it for a long time. What's happening?
I think he's guilty, very guilty and very disgusting. I stopped following because he just made me feel too yucky.
The prosecution (sp?) is doing a poor job of trying to bag the guy. From what I can tell, they can't get enough evidence against him, witnesses are fibbing, and all the while Scott Peterson shows very little emotion.What's most disturbing how he reacted after his wife/child went missing. Most would be beyond distraught, yet the guy didn't seem to care. You think he'd at least try to act the part of a worried husband/father...but nothing. He seems so guilty, but who really knows for sure. I can't understand his motive, unless he just hated his wife and didn't want her getting half of what he owned after a divorce. Every report prior to the trial seems to say he was rich, selfish person.
I also think he's guilty but it could be the influence of the media on me since all the media outlets also think he's guilty. What's weird is that in a supposed complete coincidence another pregnant woman in the area about a year earlier was also found dead in a similar fashion to Lacy and her child. The media doesn't play that up though. I'll try to find a link and post it.
they're saying it would be imposible to dump a bod off of his boat without tipping it, and that there's no blood evidence on anything on the boat. I heard someone on the radio who's been covering the trial saying that the more evidence he sees the more he looks innocent.
Similar homicide
Be all you can be and more! <person>lieutenant</a>, does this mean you're eligable for breast enlargement? Or is there a gender bias?
how about some ass enahncers (or whatever they are called)
They wouldn't pay for braces when I was a kid, but now they'll turn you into Brad Pitt or Britney Spears. That's sad. (Speaking of sad, it's been too long since anyone mentioned Brad Pitt's hair...)
Yeah, Tricare Dental is less than stellar.Lipo? Get thee behind me, Satan. I have to get on the Official Pedro Run-Excess-Flesh-Off Tastytronic Diet and get this cage of flesh offa me the right way.
I don't find this surprising at all, smax. After all, it's their lives that are forfeit, in a very real sense, and so generally the perks are pretty good.
However, I would think that these aren't surgeons who primarily have focused on plastic surgery, more surgeons who are prepared to deal with the reconstructive side of heavy trauma necessitated by military combat care and triage. So there's a distinct difference from your man/woman whose practice is Beverly Hills-based and the man/woman who's done the reconstructive program at Fort Sam Houston . . . .
for the impending peak oil disaster.
shit, i'm pretty steamed about that.
briefly.
Farewell to free speech (we knew that was coming), but in a Las Vegas casino?
she said something they didn't like. the paying customers decided they weren't happy with the entertainer's...whatever...and left. the casino didn't stop the performance, but they decided that they didn't want to upset their customers in the future, and therfore decided not to hire Rondstadt again.where was a citizen's right to free speech infringed upon?
don't get your panties in a bunch because people at a vegas performance by linda rondstadt disagree with your political views and decided to leave the performance because of it.
part of 'free speech' is the right of people not to stick around to hear what you are speaking freely on, no?
What steams me is when people think incidents such as that one have anything to do with free speech.
i think that's what i'm getting at.
... is sitting through two days of BOTOX MARKETING AND SALES MEETINGS like i have just done.my job is funny.
this is my 'blog' response to the incident:"i was appalled at the whole linda ronstadt deal. there have been over a hundred requests by people who want their money back. dick. i say dick! they got their whole show. this incident happened in the encore, did it not? this part of the show was for the people who thought she was good enough to stick around asking for more. she's been a public liberal for years and years. you know where she stands. just because she makes one statement of support, doesn't mean you fucking get your money back if you disagree. how many times do you walk into a large amphitheatre to see a show and there are ads plastered everywhere? is that not the same thing? they are trying to influence you in one way or another by supporting a product. you don't ask for your money back then, do you? fuck."
and the owner surely has the right not to invite her to perform there again [actually, in a statement made before the performance she mentioned that she's been trying not to get invited back to the aladdin for a long time], but to ask her to leave immediately and renege on the complimentary hotel suite seems rude and uncalled for.
perhaps he should be more angered by the audience members who threw their drinks and tore down posters and generally destroyed things around the place...
i mean, maybe not. they were probably in the right to throw hissy fits.
the people are dumb. but i don't see how it's a free speech thing.no. they shouldn't get their money back. and, depending on the contract LR had with the casino, they probably should have given her the suite. but, unless they were bound by contract to do so, it's fully in their discretion to withdraw that offer.
basically, the problem is that people went to see Linda Ronstadt in the first place. then again, Vegas has been known to cater it's live shows to a certain type of clientele who have not normally been accused of having good taste. but still. Linda Ronstadt?
Quick, call the Plow King!
..is like royalty in tucson.(seriously, she's pretty much all we've got.)
has done some really good spanish songs. I think she has three albums or so, all called "songs of my father". Anyway, owners of private establishments get to control 100% of what goes on, i'm sure her contract was for her to perform some songs, not give political views (if you had cochrane, you could probably get a suit filed). Anyway, the constitution only bars congress from withholding freedom of speech.Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Which would make me think that owners of private establishments can prohibit said speech. but that's just me, and i think lenin did a good job, so i don't expect you to agree with me.
Who would want free surgery so inexperienced surgeons can get practice!! That's pretty looney.
i read an article the other day about companies performing surgeries and practices of other kinds on people for whom they are unnecessary and having those people sign over their insurance checks in exchange for pay of a certain amount. apparently the insurance they collect is quite lucrative.weird.
The movie Dirty Pretty Things with the Amelie actress deals somewhat with unethical surgical practices dealing with exploitation. I'm trying to be vague b/c I don't want to give it away. Anyhow, I recommend it.
this is an article from popular science about how long our oil can last. If I read correctly, and we only harvest 35% of what's there, then i don't think we'll have a problem, other than dependence on worn out tshirts
your link leads me to an i-80 cocaine bust.
that was the other link i was trying to use last night. Fixied link from popsci.com clicko
with an article like that, i don't understand how they get away with having the word "science" in their name.
Racist Wins GOP Primary in Tenn and here's the clown's website.
link
or you might face criminal charges
almost dropped the ol' JFC bomb when i read this one. the story of the 200 dollar bill
giant zucchini grown in new jersey, surely it's full of drugs...right?
is now officially rendered obsolete, to replce it, we have; bling blao it's get seven miles a gallon...of diesel. diesel my friends. This of course is an appropriate time, to use the JFC bomb.
jesus fucking christ.
If it were at least a manual transmission it would have a redeeming quality, but now I dodn't even get the satisfaction of knowing that the driver would've had to learn how to use a semi shifter. The only remaining hope is that the cops will realize that vehicle that big is required to stick to posted truck routes.
not to mention stopping at weigh stations. I hope you have to have CDL to drive that thing. It's just so disgusting. I think if I saw someone driving that, I'd flip 'em the bird. I mean, honestly. how would anyone ever use it? you ain't gonna take it muddin', are you?
WTF?
Frankly, I've thought for years that Cat Stevens is a threat to the forces of Light.
he's on the "no fly" list...which apparently works so well and speaking of flying: I don't remember where i read it, or i would post a link. The hours of non-communicatoiousness caused by the radio system going down in L.A. last week causing all the rucous of near misses etc. in the air. caused by a "system anomaly" with the new dell servers running windows 2k server...those darned unix servers were just too black and white, i guess. I hate to think that even though i may have to trust ms software with password etc, i didn't think i was going to have to trust them with my life too...earth to bush, invade redmond
The no-fly list: because they're so dangerous we can't let them touch an airplane, but so innocent we can't even arrest them with the PATRIOT act, to horribly misquote Bruce Schneier.
since horses aren't vehicles, apparently you can ride when you're wasted. the article mentions that a horse is smart enough to stop your drunk self from, uh riding into a ditch, but i disagree. the horse will abruptly stop, before going into the ditch, and if you're drunk, you probably will still go into the ditch, that's how i've seen it happen at least. you?
From the NY Times: Sentenced to Be Raped By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF EERWALA, Pakistan -- I'm still trying to help out President Bush by tracking down Osama bin Laden. After poking through remote parts of Pakistan, asking for a tall Arab with a beard, I can't say I've earned that $25 million reward.But I did come across someone even more extraordinary than Osama.
Usually we journalists write about rogues, but Mukhtaran Bibi could not be more altruistic or brave, as the men who gang-raped her discovered. I firmly believe that the central moral challenge of this century, equivalent to the struggles against slavery in the 19th century or against totalitarianism in the 20th, will be to address sex inequality in the third world - and it's the stories of women like Ms. Mukhtaran that convince me this is so.
The plight of women in developing countries isn't addressed much in the West, and it certainly isn't a hot topic in the presidential campaign. But it's a life-and-death matter in villages like Meerwala, a 12-hour drive southeast from Islamabad.
In June 2002, the police say, members of a high-status tribe sexually abused one of Ms. Mukhtaran's brothers and then covered up their crime by falsely accusing him of having an affair with a high-status woman. The village's tribal council determined that the suitable punishment for the supposed affair was for high-status men to rape one of the boy's sisters, so the council sentenced Ms. Mukhtaran to be gang-raped.
As members of the high-status tribe danced in joy, four men stripped her naked and took turns raping her. Then they forced her to walk home naked in front of 300 villagers.
In Pakistan's conservative Muslim society, Ms. Mukhtaran's duty was now clear: she was supposed to commit suicide. "Just like other women, I initially thought of killing myself," said Ms. Mukhtaran, now 30. Her older brother, Hezoor Bux, explained: "A girl who has been raped has no honorable place in the village. Nobody respects the girl, or her parents. There's a stigma, and the only way out is suicide."
A girl in the next village was gang-raped a week after Ms. Mukhtaran, and she took the traditional route: she swallowed a bottle of pesticide and dropped dead.
But instead of killing herself, Ms. Mukhtaran testified against her attackers and propounded the shocking idea that the shame lies in raping, rather than in being raped. The rapists are now on death row, and President Pervez Musharraf presented Ms. Mukhtaran with the equivalent of $8,300 and ordered round-the-clock police protection for her.
Ms. Mukhtaran, who had never gone to school herself, used the money to build one school in the village for girls and another for boys - because, she said, education is the best way to achieve social change. The girls' school is named for her, and she is now studying in its fourth-grade class.
"Why should I have spent the money on myself?" she asked, adding, "This way the money is helping all the girls, all the children."
I wish the story ended there. But the Pakistani government has neglected its pledge to pay the schools' operating expenses. "The government made lots of promises, but it hasn't done much," Ms. Mukhtaran said bluntly.
She has had to buy food for the police who protect her, as well as pay some school expenses. So, she said, "I've run out of money." Unless the schools can raise new funds, they may have to close.
Meanwhile, villagers say that relatives of the rapists are waiting for the police to leave and then will put Ms. Mukhtaran in her place by slaughtering her and her entire family. I walked to the area where the high-status tribesmen live. They denied planning to kill Ms. Mukhtaran, but were unapologetic about her rape.
"Mukhtaran is totally disgraced," Taj Bibi, a matriarch in a high-status family, said with satisfaction. "She has no respect in society."
So although I did not find Osama, I did encounter a much more ubiquitous form of evil and terror: a culture, stretching across about half the globe, that chews up women and spits them out.
We in the West could help chip away at that oppression, with health and literacy programs and by simply speaking out against it, just as we once stood up against slavery and totalitarianism. But instead of standing beside fighters like Ms. Mukhtaran, we're still sitting on the fence.
students cought with pot brownies
Wow, apparently no one in Iowa has ever heard of pot brownies... also, could someone explain this:"One teen was charged with possession with the intent to deliver marijuana and a tax stamp violation."
you can go to some gov't building downtown and buy tax stamps for when you sell weed, problem is that you have to buy them a sheet at a time, and that's like, 1000 bucks. Yeah, i think the mentality here is that if we let them have beer they won't want anything else, you know, the "okay, you can have that, but nothing more". Anyway, this town drives me nuts, but not enough that i'll choose to stay in ames too long either. Shut up in my room, that's the life for me.
Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed
those aren't really allegations though. NPR had the man on that wrote the initial report about it, he actually held the torn registrations in his hands. It's complete BS, they make me feel ashamed.
first satanist allowed to perform rituals about UK naval ship. Obviously a ploy to make blair look good, right?