Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Daily Funny

People usually get what's coming to them ... unless it's mailed.

Only Nine Hundred?!

Haters, Stripping Gears and just plain old Stripping.

Current mood: mellow


Having reached the point in life where I do not have to tolerate the Haters in the world I am still amazed at how many there are of them. It is high time all ceased tolerating the Haters ... the world will be better for it.

Speaking of Haters ... have you heard the latest? Being a torturer is patriotic at least the Hater Lush Dimbulb says so, so it has to be the truth (yeah and I have some land about three miles east of Miami I'd like to sell you real cheap). When are they going to learn?

What about that record low temperature this morning? 56 degrees at 5:30AM on July 2nd - broke a 123 year old record of 58 degrees.

Got a friend who has decided to work as a stripper to earn enough to pay her bills - with the economy like it is she pretty much had to do that or start getting paid for services rendered if you catch my meaning as those are still the two highest paying jobs for women out there and while she has no qalms about being nude in front of strangers or service rendering for that matter (if the truth be told) she has this hang up about being paid for rendering services ... that and the fact it is not legal to render services for payment where she lives had something to do with her decision.

It is a sad state of affairs when they force someone to make choices they would rather not have to. She will do well - I've seen her and know exactly where the dimples are (as I said she isn't shy about being nude) and believe it or not it will be her personality that makes her the big bucks ... ok so the 36C's wont hurt ... but her complete makeup will be what carries her through.

I only wonder the next time she drops by and drops trou ... will I have to pony up two dollars for the garter?

US military deaths in Iraq at 4,113

As of Wednesday, July 2, 2008, at least 4,113 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes 8 military civilians killed in action. At least 3,353 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military numbers.

The Defense Department's tally was last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, 7; El Salvador, 5; Slovakia, 4; Latvia and Georgia, 3 each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, 2 each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, 1 death each.

Remember these are the deaths 'reported' and as we all know the US government is a great bastion of honesty now don't we!? I can not speak as to the other governments as to their figures. One is too many.

Support our Troops - Bring them home!

Italians choosing pasta over pizza

National Geographic has a series of interesting articles about the global food crisis.
Basically, the high cost of food is changing behaviors around the world, from Japanese bars to the slums of Nairobi.
According to the latest story, Italians are eating far less pizza and choosing pasta instead due to the rising cost of olive oil, mozzarella, and wheat flour. Pasta eating is on the rise.

From National Geographic:
In fact, the number of Italians who say their favorite food is pizza has dropped from 14.1 percent to 8.7 percent in the past two years, according to a survey from GPF Research Institute, a private opinion poll company....

Olive oil and mozzarella, both vital components of traditional Neapolitan pies, cost more as well. Olive oil prices have risen 10.9 percent and mozzarella prices 14.3 percent since April 2007.

"That's mainly due to recent fluctuations in [the] oil market. We need it to warm greenhouses and cattle sheds, to fuel machines, to transport products, and we have to import all of it," said Sergio Marini, president of Coldiretti, the Italian farmers union. "Italian agriculture is deeply affected by international oil prices."

In total, pizza prices have gone up 13 percent since April 2007, according to Italy's National Institute for Statistics.
Pizza too expensive

Did You Know ...

Happy 100th birthday, SOS!
There was some early success for the new system a year later when the Cunard liner the SS Slavonia was stricken off the Azores. She sent out an SOS and not a single life was lost.

Even so, not everybody was convinced instantly, and it took the tragedy of the Titanic to reveal just how vital a universal system was. After the collision in April 1912, the ship’s radio operators sent out both the old CQD and the new SOS signals, but some ships in the area ignored both, thinking that they were having a party. They soon learnt otherwise, as international headlines told how Jack Phillips, the Titanic’s first radio operator, and 1,500 others had been lost along with the “unsinkable” ship. The new SOS distress signal was rarely ignored after that.

Link

Royal pain for Traffickers

Now a spot of news for my English readers:

Prince William's ship makes major cocaine bust

The British Royal Navy ship on which Prince William is serving made a major cocaine bust in the north Atlantic, Britain's defense ministry said Wednesday.

The prince helped his crew mates on HMS Iron Duke intercept a speedboat northeast of Barbados on Saturday. He was aboard a helicopter attached to the frigate that spotted a speedboat and grew suspicious that such a small vessel should be so far from land, the ministry said.

The helicopter crew informed the ship's commanding officer, and the ship gave chase.

U.S. Coast Guard officials working on the frigate boarded the speedboat and found 45 bales of cocaine weighing 1,900 pounds, the ministry said.

"He was in the helicopter on Saturday morning when the search was conducted," Commanding Officer Mark Newland told Sky News. "He was able to provide surveillance to the team. He's a professional navy officer, he understands the context we're operating in so he's able to help in every way."

The Ministry of Defense said the drugs had an estimated street value of $80 million. Five men were detained and the speedboat later sank.

The ministry said William, known in the navy as Sub-Lieutenant Wales, is spending five weeks at sea as part of a plan to have him experience all the branches of the British armed forces. He is already a junior officer in the army and has earned his wings in the Royal Air Force.

Newland said he had been ordered to involve the prince in all operations.

The Iron Duke began hurricane relief and counter-narcotics duties in the Atlantic last week and is due to remain in the area until October.

Murder Suspect says: Dentist traded sex for drugs

Search warrant: Police found condoms, camcorder at Boyd's office

One of three people charged in the slaying of Dr. James David Boyd told police she met with the dentist at his office last week to exchange sex for money, drugs and alcohol.

Candice Jo Drye also told police she wasn't the only person who performed sex acts with Boyd in exchange for prescription drugs, according to an affidavit Salisbury police Detective J.D. Barber filed Friday and which was made public Tuesday. The statement names no one else.

Several witnesses, who also weren't named in Barber's statement, told investigators that Boyd “made personal appointments at his office without the knowledge of his office staff, and that these appointments were made for prescribing narcotics in exchange for sexual favors, mainly to young females.”

Also released Tuesday were copies of search warrants from Boyd's office, on Statesville Boulevard in Salisbury, and in the same building as his dentist wife's.

Among the items police took from the office: a blue plastic vibrator; 10 unused condoms; an empty plastic Nikolai vodka bottle; a Food Lion receipt for beer; a camcorder and videocassette tapes; and four notes with names and numbers, including Drye's.

It's unclear how Drye or the other two suspects knew the dentist. Drye's relatives have told the Observer she was not a patient of Boyd's but had visited his office, where he prescribed hydrocodone for her. Hydrocodone is a common but potentially habit-forming painkiller.

Police Chief Mark Wilhelm said Tuesday that last week, after Boyd's body was discovered, he received a call from a woman who told him her daughter was a patient of James Boyd's three years ago. The woman said that after her daughter's dental visit, Boyd called her several times and invited her to his home, Wilhelm said.

No police report was filed, and Wilhelm said the department didn't receive any complaints about Boyd when he was alive. The N.C. State Board of Dental Examiners, which investigates complaints about dentists, never took any disciplinary action against Boyd, said Terry Friddle, the board's deputy operations officer, who handles such investigations. Boyd had been a licensed dentist in good standing since June 1986, Friddle said.

Drye, 23, Jonathan Barnett, 18, and Christopher Boyd, 21, remained in the Rowan County jail without bond Tuesday, charged with James Boyd's slaying. Christopher Boyd is not related to the dentist. Barnett and Christopher Boyd are cousins.

A co-worker of James Boyd's found his body at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Boyd, 47, had been strangled. He was in bed, with his feet and hands tied with electrical cord and his hands tied to the bed.

Boyd's funeral was held Tuesday, with hundreds packing Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Salisbury.

Drye's stepmother has told the Observer that Drye met Boyd at his office Wednesday night, then went to his home for drinks. At 4:19 the next morning, police pulled over a white Chevrolet pickup truck containing Drye, Barnett and Christopher Boyd. Police won't say what they believe happened between Wednesday night and the traffic stop and have not established what time Boyd died, Wilhelm said.

Hip Hip Hooray!

Starbucks will close 600 stores!

All I can say is ... it's about time! Now, if they will only close the rest we'll all be much happier.
I refuse to give more than a quarter for a cup of GOOD coffee so what do you think I'd be willing to pony up for a bad cup of coffee like the ones Starbucks makes!?

Charlotte temperature hits 123-year low

This morning was downright cool in the Charlotte region -- cool enough to break a record that had stood for more than a century.

The temperature at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport was 56 at about 5:30 a.m., breaking the July 2 record of 58, set in 1885. The normal low for this time of year is 70.

It'll warm up quickly today, though. Temperatures today are expected to peak at 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But it'll still feel pleasant because of humidity levels between 20 and 25 percent, said NWS meteorologist Doug Outlaw.

Conditions will be cool again overnight, with the low descending to 59, one degree warmer than the record for July 3, set in 1932. And the Fourth of July is expected to be warm and dry, with a high of 92 and "a very, very minimal chance" of rain, Outlaw said.

Forecasters don't expect any rain until Saturday afternoon, when they call for a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms

Soldier's killer mimicked Zodiac slayings

Police say there's no serial killer on the loose, and they have a person of interest.

A pregnant soldier lay dead in the bathtub. Reportedly scrawled on the motel-room mirror in lipstick was a crosshair design – the same symbol contained in a letter that arrived at the local newspaper four days later.

“The following is to inform that I am responsible for the dead body,” the typewritten letter read. “It was a master piece. I confess, that I have killed many times before in several states, but now I will start using my role-model's signature. There will be many more to come.”

At the bottom was the same circle-and-cross drawing used a generation ago by San Francisco's infamous Zodiac Killer.

While police dismiss the notion there's a serial killer on the loose, the letter now appears to be an important piece of evidence in the investigation into the death last month of Army Spc. Megan Touma, a 23-year-old soldier at Fort Bragg.

Investigators are calling the case a homicide, but they say they have not established the cause of death and have offered no motive.

“We're pursuing every lead,” said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. “We want to find out exactly what happened to Spc. Touma.”

Authorities said they have identified a “person of interest” in the case, a soldier studying psychological warfare at Fort Bragg. Fayetteville police spokesman Lt. David Sportsman said the soldier is cooperating with investigators and has not been detained.

“We're not concerned about it,” Sportsman said. “If the person flees, we'll go get 'em.”

It was the second time in six months that a pregnant, unwed servicewoman in North Carolina was slain and a comrade fell under suspicion. In December, Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, a 20-year-old clerk based at Camp Lejeune, was killed, and a fellow Marine was captured after fleeing to Mexico. Both victims were just weeks away from giving birth.

Detectives in the Touma case said the letter may, in fact, have come from the killer. The writing on the mirror was not public knowledge until The Fayetteville Observer published that detail over the weekend along with the contents of the letter. But investigators do not believe the author's claim to be a serial killer.

“We just believe that it was merely a tactic used to divert us off of what we are doing, and to cause panic in the community, which we have to deal with, too,” Sportsman said. “But we don't believe there's a serial killer in Fayetteville.”

Touma, who was from Cold Spring, Ky., was a dental specialist from a military family who joined the Army in 2003. Seven months pregnant, she had recently completed a three-year tour in Germany. She was last seen alive not long after she arrived on June 12 at Fort Bragg, home to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division and its Special Operations Command.

She was divorced. Authorities have said nothing about the father of her child.

Her body was found by a maintenance man at an off-base motel on June 21. He entered the room, protected for four days by a “Do Not Disturb” sign, and noticed a foul odor. Among the items investigators removed were sections of drywall stained with what might be blood, according to court papers.

The newspaper published the letter after holding back for three days at the request of Fayetteville police. The newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said the marking on the mirror inside Room 143 was made with lipstick and was identical to the symbol in the letter. Officially, police will say only that the symbols were similar.

The letter writer taunted Fayetteville law enforcement authorities as “very incompetent. I basically, sat there and watch while investigators were on site.”

The Zodiac killer was blamed for at least five slayings in California in the late 1960s but never caught.

Mentally Ill Republicans

Link

Excerpt:
Conservative republicans suffer from a form of mental illness. Americans have watched them embrace
family values and discover ethics, while stealing an election and contriving circumstances for starting wars.
They have worked tirelessly to undermine the American Constitution while frantically waving the flag.
They firmly believe in the privatization of government and consistently ignore the inconvenient history
of the American taxpayer bailout of one failed/scandalized corporation after the next.

Republican mental illness manifests itself in the duality that conservatives want to turn the clock back
to mom, apple pie, and that good, ol’ time religion, while unmercifully exploiting every natural
resource until the ravaged earth will no longer support life. Turning yet another profit
takes precedence over their own survival.

That's most obvious when you look at global warming.
We once celebrated Robert Peary for being the first man to reach the North Pole.
These days, you just hop on a boat and row there because the ice is gone.

It might make sense if starving people needed to pump oil out of the ground to eat,
but what's crazy is billionaires who want more millions are destroying our planet.

Bush & Cheney had more money than they could ever spend, but it wasn't enough
so they conspired with other crooks to steal power so they could steal more money.

(Thanks to BartCop for this piece!)