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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.


Thursday, February 5, 2009

Landlord unaware tenants were victims of massacre

From the "Yeah, and the moon is made of green cheese" Department:

The landlord of a California woman killed at a Christmas Eve party says it didn't realize she was dead when it asked her ex-husband to pay her late rent.

Alliance Residential Co. said Thursday that it would not pursue the outstanding balance on the home of Alice Ortiz and her son Michael.

It had told Ortiz's ex-husband, Carlos, to pay $1,655 in rent, plus penalties for not giving notice in vacating the home.

Alicia and Michael Ortiz and seven other family members were killed December 24, 2008 by a gunman dressed as Santa Claus.

He then burned the house and killed himself.Alliance says it was "unaware of the tragedy."

The company manages Broadstone Foothill Apartment Homes, where the Ortiz family lived in Upland.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Almost forgot!

Today has been Liberace Day, by the way.

'Evangelists' stealing from homes

From the "This is why you never allow 'witnesses' in your door" Department:

Police in Nashville said two young burglars covered their intent by talking religion. Police arrested a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old and charged them with aggravated burglary. The Tennessean reported the teens were going through a neighborhood, knocking on doors while carrying church bulletins.

Police said if someone answered the door, one of the youths would talk about religion. If no one was home, the residence was burglarized.

But police said three homes in the area were burglarized, with electronic equipment stolen.

Authorities said they recovered stolen goods from a car the suspects were driving.

I am the Walrus


The Beatles

Science News

Mammoth remains found at California construction site

Workers digging at a downtown San Diego construction site have uncovered the prehistoric remains of an 8-foot-long mammoth.

A backhoe operator working at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law site unearthed a 20-foot-long tusk Wednesday.

School spokesman Chris Saunders says experts called in from the San Diego Natural History Museum uncovered the animal's skull and other bones.

Museum paleontologist Pat Sena says it's a "pretty important find" and that it's rare to find mammoth remains with such an intact skull, foot bones and tusk.

Full-sized mammoths, about 8 to 14 feet tall like elephants, became extinct around 10,000 years ago. But experts believe the specimen found this week dates back as far as a half-million years ago.

Man shows up drunk to serve intoxication sentence

From the "Does the term 'moron' mean anything to you?" Department:

Iowa Authorities say an Iowa City man may not have picked the best time to get loaded when he showed up drunk to serve a public intoxication sentence. Now he faces another charge.

Police say the 19-year-old showed up at the Johnson County Jail on Tuesday to serve his three-day sentence and officials smelled alcohol on his breath.

Court records say tests showed the man had a blood-alcohol content of 0.101 percent when he arrived at the jail.

A court date on the new charge hasn't been set.

Court records say the man pleaded guilty to public intoxication in May 2008 and was convicted of public intoxication second-offense last December.

Loopholes allow contaminated food to go unchecked

Lawmakers reacted angrily today when told that ...

food makers and state safety inspectors are allowed to keep tests results secret.

That keeps federal health officials in the dark even when products have been contaminated by salmonella or other dangerous bacteria.

Read more here

Mystery stink of New York revealed

The mysterious and coaxingly delicious smell of maple syrup that has been terrorizing New Yorkers for years, wafting about on its mysterious errands, has been run to ground.

It is fenugreek, emitted from a New Jersey perfume plant.
The first wave arrived in October 2005, drawing thousands of New Yorkers onto the streets for a lively debate. Was it maple syrup? Caramel? A freshly baked pie? But as quickly as it arrived, it had vanished. Then, last month, the smell returned.

Both times, the city’s police and 311 information lines were flooded with calls. Many feared bioterrorism cloaked in an pleasant aroma.

On Thursday, the city announced that the mystery had been solved. The source of the odor was a plant in North Bergen, N.J., which processes seeds of the herb fenugreek to produce fragrances.

Town can't declare inflatable rat a pest

AP Photo


Even a 10-foot inflatable rat has free speech rights in New Jersey, the state's Supreme Court ruled.

In a case that pitted an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union local against a central Jersey town, the high court ruled unanimously that the rodent is protected speech under the First Amendment.
"The township's elimination of an entire medium of expression without a readily available alternative renders the ordinance over broad," Justice John E. Wallace Jr. wrote for the court.

The super-sized rat, sitting on its hind legs and bearing fangs, is a national symbol used by organized labor to signal a labor dispute.
It had been blown up and displayed at a 2005 labor event in Lawrence Township until police enforced a law that bans banners, streamers and inflatable signs, except those announcing grand openings.

A labor official was fined $100 plus $33 court costs.

The event was staged by the union to protest low wages being paid to electricians by an out-of-area contractor.

An appeals court panel ruled in 2007 that the town could ban the big black rat and affirmed the labor official's fines.
The panel found the ordinance was content-neutral and was aimed at enhancing aesthetics and protecting public health and safety.
The union appealed. Its lawyers argued the law violates their right to free expression and suppresses protest.
The township claimed the union's use of the rat was a form of commercial speech, less deserving of First Amendment protections.

The state Supreme Court found that the law wasn't neutral, and therefore was unconstitutional.
It said an ordinance "that prohibits a union from displaying a rat balloon, while at the same time authorizing a similar display as part of a grand opening, is content-based."

Kentucky halts FEMA meals that use tainted peanuts

Kentucky officials say they've stopped distributing FEMA emergency meals for winter storm survivors that may contain recalled peanut butter.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says some emergency meal kits for storm victims in Kentucky and Arkansas may include packets of peanut butter that are part of a national recall over possible salmonella contamination.

Kentucky officials said they have received no complaints about illnesses from the peanut butter but are advising people to discard any packets they've received.

Arkansas officials say they have located two trailers where the meals were stored and none of those had been handed out.

More than 1,000 items have been recalled in the salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 550 people, eight of whom have died.

Watson and Holmes

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. As they lay down for the night, Holmes asked: "Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see".

Watson said "I see millions and millions of stars".
Holmes: "And what does that tell you?"

Watson: "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"

Holmes: "Elementary, my dear Watson. Somebody stole our tent".

Geek Social Aptitude Test

How much of a Geek are you?

Take the Geek Social Aptitude Test and find out.

What's the difference?

What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish?

One is a scum sucking bottom dweller and the other is a fish!

Daily Funny

An Illinois man left the snowballed streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail.

Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter, and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor dead.

At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

Dearest Wife,

Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

Your Loving Husband.

P.S. Sure is hot down here.

Liars and Fools

In today's edition of Liars and Fools we bring you a classic from a liar and a fool.

O'relly claims to have been 'in combat' alluding to a military background and then does the backsliding two-step when he his immediately called on it by a telephoner caller - before he rudely hangs up on the caller and continues the backsliding two-step.

O'Really in the military? I think Not!

Salary Cap or no more money

President Obama drew the line and set a cap for executive salaries or no more bailout funds saing 'we're taking the air out of the golden parachutes'.

This is a great thing and long, long overdue. I would however would have liked to see the Cap set at 50K instead of the 500K - no executive is worth more than 50k a year ... none whatsoever.

In fact the BofA head douche-bag isn't worth 5k much less the in excess of 20Million he is currently getting - which if he wants more money than they have already gotten from the bailout (that they are using to give themselves bonuses and throw outrageous parties with while bilking the poor and working peopl out of every dime they can manage to) he will have to give up ... and this is only one version of the same story being played out in every 'financial institution' (and others) that has gotten bailout monies.

Even the repugs hate dimbulb ...

... yet he is their 'leader'?!

In further proof of how devoid of any concept of reality the repugicans are one finds this at The Daily Beast.

From The Daily Beast:
An october 24, 2008, poll conducted by the Democratic research firm Qreenberg-Quinlan-Rosner has Rush Limbaugh enjoying a public-approval rating of just 21 percent among likely voters, while 58 percent have “cold” feelings toward the right-wing radio-talk-show host. Limbaugh was the least popular of the all the political figures the firm polled. he polls seven points lower than Rev. Jeremiah “god damn America” Wright and eight points below former weather underground domestic terrorist William Ayers.

Limbaugh is so unpopular that only 44 percent of republican voters reported “warm” feelings toward him, ten points less than those who felt the same way about Limbaugh’s top competitor, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and a full 20 points lower than Fox News itself.
They still don't get it, that they're a joke, do they?

It is all in the head

How about the new header?

I promise the 'curious puppy' and the 'patient bear' headers will be back for those that said they liked either one of those, but I have several I will be rotating on a irregular basis, so keep on reading Carolina Naturally and see what header I am showcasing.

We're at Fifty

Carolina Naturally had fifty thousand readers in the month of January.
Not too shabby, not too shabby at all.
Thank you.

Taking aim at governor Palin

An animal rights group is getting help from actress Ashley Judd in its campaign to try to stop Alaska's practice of killing wolves and bears from airplanes.

Judd appears in a new Internet video for Defenders of Wildlife, and targets not only the state's predator control program but also one of the program's chief supporters, governor Sarah Palin.

"It's time to stop Sarah Palin and stop this senseless savagery," Judd says in the video posted on a Web site operated by the political arm of the group, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

Palin, the former repugican vice presidential candidate, countered that the program is scientifically based and an important tool to sustain moose and caribou populations for Alaska subsistence hunters.

*****

Yeah, Sarah and the moon is made of green cheese, too. Go bite a walrus's arse will, ya?!

Most-wanted Nazi died in Cairo in 1992

AP Photo


Documents have surfaced in Egypt showing the world's most-wanted Nazi war criminal, concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim, died in Cairo in 1992, Germany's ZDF television and The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The report said Heim was living under a pseudonym and had converted to Islam by the time of his death from intestinal cancer.
ZDF said that in a joint effort with the New York Times, it located a passport, application for a residence permit, bank slips, personal letters and medical papers - in all more than 100 documents - left behind by Heim in a briefcase in the hotel room where he lived under the name Tarek Hussein Farid.

Simon Wiesenthal Center head Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said he has not seen the documents and that while it seems that there is "definitely a strong possibility" they point to Heim's death in Cairo 16 years ago, they need to be examined by experts.
If it turns out to be true, however, he said that "the German police have a very important investigation on their hands in terms of prosecuting people who helped Aribert Heim escape justice."

He pointed out that Ruediger Heim has previously said that the only contact he had since his father went into hiding in 1962 were two notes that appeared in his family's mailbox, and that he had no idea if he was alive or dead.
"Ruediger has been lying," Zuroff said. "Either he is lying now or he was lying before, and he has a vested interest in this so anything he says has to be taken with a certain amount of skepticism and suspicion - and the most important thing is missing: the body. There's no grave, there's no corpse, there's no DNA tests."

Ruediger Heim refused to comment on the discrepancies in what he has said, or on the assertion that his father had died in 1992."The whole story is very emotional, and I'm not able to say anything at this time," he said.
ZDF reported that Heim was buried in a cemetery for the poor in Cairo, where graves are reused after several years "so that the chance of finding remains is unlikely."

Born June 28, 1914 in Radkersburg, Austria, Heim joined the local Nazi party in 1935, three years before Austria was bloodlessly annexed by Germany.
He later joined the Waffen SS and was assigned to Mauthausen, a concentration camp near Linz, Austria, as a camp doctor in October and November 1941.
While there, witnesses told investigators, he worked closely with SS pharmacist Erich Wasicky on such gruesome experiments as injecting various solutions into Jewish prisoners' hearts to see which killed them the fastest.

In 1961, German authorities were alerted that Heim was living in Baden-Baden and began an investigation, but when they finally went to arrest him in September 1962, they just missed him - he apparently had been tipped off.
Heim would be 94 today if still alive.

Heim fled through France and Spain before crossing into Morocco, and eventually settling in Egypt, ZDF and the Times reported, citing Ruediger Heim.
He lived in Cairo at the Kasr el Madina hotel for the 10 years leading up to his death, the report said.

Ruediger Heim told ZDF that he first visited his father in 1976, organizing the visit through his aunt and arranging to meet with him in a hotel.
"He recognized me right away," Heim recalled.
"It was a meeting of worlds. I was there for 14 days."
But, he said, he did not talk with his father about the allegations against him - largely because he said he wasn't fully aware of them himself.
"I didn't ask him 'how many people did you kill' because I didn't know, I didn't know any concrete details," he told ZDF.
"Later, on other visits, I got to know his life better."

The Tylenol Murders ... 25 Years on

The FBI announced Wednesday that it is working with Illinois state and local police to review evidence related to the 1982 Tylenol murders.

"This review was prompted, in part, by the recent 25th anniversary of this crime and the resulting publicity," the FBI said in a written statement.

"Further, given the many recent advances in forensic technology, it was only natural that a second look be taken at the case and recovered evidence."

The anniversary coincided with a number of tips to law enforcement agencies related to the crimes, the FBI said.

Agents searched the Cambridge, Massachusetts, house of James W. Lewis, Wednesday. He was convicted of sending an extortion note to Johnson & Johnson but denied having anything to do with the poisonings.

Lewis's wife LeAnn is listed as administrator of a Web design company called Cyberlewis.com. The Web site lists the company's address as the same address that authorities searched Wednesday.

On its Web site is posted a note that says, in part,

" ... I was villified (sic) globally as the Tylenol Man, accused of being the mass murderer who spiked Tylenol with cyanide in Chicago back in 1982, killing seven. Those grotesque accusations obviously were false, otherwise I could not be writing these words. After 25 years, the Tylenol murders remain unsolved. I have lived a long, bizarre life and I have seen a lot, yet I am literate and lucid enough to view and describe, compare and contrast hugely diverse worlds, cultures and topics, without a moment of boredom, all with an eye to professionalism, demographics and marketability plus ears and heart sensitive to good taste and victims' feelings."

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said two searches in Cambridge were under way "related to an ongoing investigation."

Criminal charges have not been filed in the seven Chicago-area killings, which occurred after Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules were laced with potassium cyanide in 1982.

The killings led to changes in packaging of over-the-counter drugs.

Our Readers

Some of our readers today hailed from:

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Mechelen, Antwerpen, Belgium
Issaquah, Washington, United States
Juneau, Alaska, United States
Exeter, England, United Kingdom

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

One of the nicest things about being in overload is that you can kick the operation up to overdrive, generating more power.

Hallelujah, Amen to that.