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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, November 19, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.
Damn, Straight ...!
 
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Today is - International Men's Day

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Today in History

1620 The Pilgrims sight Cape Cod.
1828 In Vienna, Composer Franz Schubert dies of syphilis at age 31.
1861 Julia Ward Howe writes "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" while visiting Union troops near Washington.
1863 Lincoln delivers the "Gettysburg Address" at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.
1885 Bulgarians, led by Stefan Stambolov, repulse a larger Serbian invasion force at Slivinitza.
1873 James Reed and two accomplices rob the Watt Grayson family of $30,000 in the Choctaw Nation.
1897 The Great "City Fire" in London.
1905 100 people drown in the English Channel as the steamer Hilda sinks.
1911 New York receives first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy.
1915 The Allies ask China to join the entente against the Central Powers.
1923 The Oklahoma State Senate ousts Governor Walton for anti-Ku Klux Klan measures.
1926 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Politburo in the Soviet Union.
1942 Soviet forces take the offensive at Stalingrad.
1949 Prince Ranier III is crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco.
1952 Scandinavian Airlines opens a commercial route from Canada to Europe.
1969 Apollo 12 touches down on the moon.
1973 New York stock market takes sharpest drop in 19 years.
1976 Patty Hearst is released from prison on $1.5 million bail.
1981 U.S. Steel agrees to pay $6.3 million for Marathon Oil.
1985 Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, meet for the first time.
1985 In the largest civil verdict in US history, Pennzoil wins $10.53 billion judgement against Texaco.
1990 Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning Girl You Know Its True album.
1996 Canada’s Lt. Gen. Maurice Baril arrives in Africa to lead a multinational force policing Zaire.
1998 US House of Representatives begins impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton.
2010 New Zealand suffers its worst mining disaster since 1914 when the first of four explosions occurs at the Pike River Mine; 29 people are killed.

Ten Turkey Myths Debunked

I'm thankful my mom taught me how to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal from scratch, and over the years I've volunteered to "do Thanksgiving" time and time again simply to gain experience.
And yet somehow I've been living, and cooking, with certain misconceptions about the meaty center of the Thanksgiving meal - the turkey.

Come Thanksgiving everybody trots out their favorite turkey related trivia, claiming you should rinse the bird before cooking it, and that white meat is healthier than dark and all that L-tryptophan makes them sleepy.
And then the budding animal expert begins talking about how turkeys can't fly, love to gobble and are so stupid they sometimes drown in the rain.
But this Thanksgiving you'll know better, and you can tell those sitting around your table that they've been chowing down on a plate full of LIES!

Floating Pool Cuts Through House

A floating pool is one that creates an illusion of some sort. This one, set in a glass house in Thuringia, Germany, creates an illusion at both ends. On the outside, it juts out over an embankment and appears to continue into thin air. However, a closer look reveals that it’s actually pretty well grounded. The other end of the pool juts inside the house! It looks as if it’s a partial indoor pool, but there are glass walls surrounding that section so the house can stay warm or cool. Get a look at it from all angles at Housely.

The Forgotten Midwest Craze for Building Palaces Out of Grain

I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to visit the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. It’s an amazing sight, unabashedly tacky, but most of all, it was a glimpse into the past. Why would anyone cover an entire building with a cash crop? To show off a town’s agricultural success. The Corn Palace is the last remaining remnant of a Midwest custom that began in 1887 when Sioux City, Iowa, built a corn palace to show Americans that their town was a pleasant and bountiful place to live.
The city wanted to signal that life in the Midwest wasn't as dreary and desperate as it might seem, and, as Pamela H. Simpson writes in Corn Palaces and Butter Queens, the idea for the palace came from a town meeting, at which one enterprising man asked “why, if Saint Paul and Toronto could have ice palaces, Sioux City couldn’t have a corn palace.”

The palace the city built was such a success that President Grover Cleveland came to visit, and almost immediately, other cities started work on their own agricultural edifices. In 1889, there was a Texas Spring Palace, decorated not just with corn but with oats, cactus, moss and johnson grass. Ottumwa, Iowa, made a Coal Palace, built on a foundation of coal and walled with coal mixed with mortar. By 1890, there was a bluegrass palace, a hay palace, Forest City’s flax palace, and a sugar beet palace in Grand Island, Nebraska, followed in the next years by a grain palace, broom palace, and more and more corn palaces.
Of course, pictures were taken of the various crop palaces, and you can see them as well as read about them at Atlas Obscura.

What to Do When You're Already Sick

Playboy settles model's backside golf-injury lawsuit

A woman and Playboy Enterprises have settled a lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleged she was hurt when a co-host of The Playboy Morning Show struck her in the buttocks with a golf club during a photo shoot at the Playboy Golf Finals in 2012. An attorney for Elizabeth Dickson told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Holly Fujie on Monday that the case was resolved.
No terms were divulged. Dickson filed her lawsuit in March 2014, alleging battery and negligence. She sought unspecified damages. According to the complaint, Dickson, a model, was invited to the Playboy Golf Finals at the Industry Hills Golf Club in Industry on March 30, 2012, where she was to help Playboy Playmates host the event.
Dickson agreed to have a photo taken of her lying on her stomach “with her buttocks partially exposed” while Kevin Klein, co-host of Playboy’s radio show, stood poised to hit a golf ball put on top of a tee that was inserted between the cheeks of her buttocks, the suit stated. However, Klein unexpectedly swung the club and “struck plaintiff on the buttocks, causing her injuries and damages,” the suit alleged.

Attorneys for Playboy maintained in their court papers that Dickson signed releases beforehand agreeing to not hold the company liable for any legal claims associated with her taking part in the event. “Dickson was not required to or forced to participate in this contest or event,” Playboy’s attorneys stated in their court papers. Dickson will suffer pain, suffering, worrying and anxiety as a result of her injuries, the suit stated.

Bristol Palin Is Everything Wrong With 'Purity Culture'


Mentally handicapped black worker rescued after 4 years of torture and enslavement by SC restaurant owners

Image: South Carolina restaurant manager Bobby Edwards (Horry County Sheriff's Office)
Two brothers in Horry County, South Carolina are facing charges that they treated a mentally handicapped black employee like a slave for years, beating and overworking the man, who lived in squalor on property owned by their restaurant.

ISIL Killed His Wife And The Mother Of His Son In Paris, And He Has A Message For All Of Us

ISIS Killed His Wife And The Mother Of His Son In Paris, And He Has A Message For All Of Us (IMAGE)
This man lost almost everything in the attacks on Paris.
He deserves a moment of our attention.
Read more 

ISIL Calls Anonymous ‘Idiots' In Response To Hacker Group's Declaration Of ‘Total War'



Ethiopian christian attacked by enraged Uber passenger after being mistaken for a muslim

The man became belligerent and threatened to shoot Woldemichael in the face and strangle him before hurling anti-muslim slurs and profanity at the driver.

Thanks to the NRA Over 2000 Suspected Terrorists Were Able to Buy Guns in the U.S.

Ferguson Guns
Here’s an issue that President Obama has been begging Congress to fix, along with pretty much all sane law enforcement: Known terrorists can buy guns legally here in the United States of “freedom”. Yes, we can’t have nice things like refusing to sell handguns or assault weapons to suspected terrorists, because the NRA is too worried about the profits of the gun manufacturers they represent.
Christopher Ingraham writing in the Washington Post reported, “Between 2004 and 2014, suspected terrorists attempted to purchase guns from American dealers at least 2,233 times. And in 2,043 of those cases — 91 percent of the time — they succeeded.”
There you go, the NRA arming terrorists. In a rational political discussion about the alleged risks posed by refugees, we would be pretty focused on keeping assault weapons out of the hands of any terrorists who we are told will come in with the refugees. But notice, Republicans don’t address this, even as Christie tells us that he would deny even a 3-year-old orphaned refugee. Demonstrating his failure to understand how we vet incoming refugees.
Yes, we can’t be too careful. Unless of course, it comes to guns. When it comes to guns, we should give them to EVERYONE, no questions asked. To ask a question is to infringe on second amendment rights, which are sacred, unlike your first amendment rights, according to Republicans.
“But people on the FBI’s consolidated terrorist watchlist — typically placed there when there is “reasonable suspicion” that they are a known or suspected terrorist — can freely purchase handguns or assault-style rifles,” the Post explained.
A majority of gun owners agree on these basic background checks. The Post pointed out that even  King (R-NY) worked with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to bring forth the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2015”, which would have kept us from legally selling guns to terrorists.
But the NRA was not pleased with this notion of not selling guns to terrorists, after all, a terrorists’ money is as good as anyone’s. Or, as the NRA put it, the bill was taking aim at law-abiding citizens and terrorists will buy guns anyway (just not from gun manufacturers if in fact it were illegal, so yeah, it’s all about the profit). Per the Washington Post again:
“But these bills have rarely made it out of committee, in part due to vehement opposition from the National Rifle Association and its allies in Congress. The NRA objected to earlier versions of the bill, saying they were “aimed primarily at law-abiding American gun owners,” that “prohibiting the possession of firearms doesn’t stop criminals from illegally acquiring them,” and that the bills were “sponsored by gun control extremists.”
The NRA will do and say anything to keep even the most reasonable gun law from being enacted. They have in fact accused President Obama of planning to confiscate law-abiding citizens’ guns. In the wake of another mass murder, when the American public is really fed up with the gun laws, the NRA doubles down on the crazy, like this: “What Obama is really proposing, despite some platitudes to the contrary, is the end of private firearm ownership for self-defense…”
In fact, President Obama has been more than reasonable, calling for closing a loophole to keep the most dangerous guns off of the streets and keeping military weapons off of the streets. Huh. That’s almost like coming for private guns but not. Not at all. Sadly, Obama can’t make laws from the Executive Branch, he can only get behind policy or change things for federal contractors or change the implementation of a law (e.g., immigration). Congress makes actual laws.
And Congress is run by Republicans right now, and they aren’t alone in their NRA servitude.
So when Congressional Republicans are talking tough on terror, someone ought to ask them just when they’re going to address the terror they’ve allowed the NRA to inflict on this country.
Making sure terrorists can get guns legally is kind of an incentive to make sure they come here. Why not? We have everything they need and they don’t even have to hide. Thanks, NRA.

Spain Issues Arrest Warrant For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Image via Press TV.
Will Bibi finally be held accountable for his crimes?
Read more 

Miami cops have shot six people since Friday — but only recovered a gun in one case

Police in the Miami area shot five people over the weekend and one on Tuesday. But so far, officers have claimed that only one of the suspects had a weapon.

Cop Who’s Being Sued for Assaulting a Woman, Caught on Video Assaulting Same Woman AGAIN

Police officer found guilty of terrorizing dominatrix

A former police officer in New Zealand carried out a four-month "campaign of hatred" against a dominatrix he had been seeing then helped her install a security system to try and catch the culprit, a court has heard. Jason Karl Harris, 43, appeared in Auckland District Court on Monday afternoon after admitting to intimidating the woman and unlawfully accessing the police database to find out more about her. He was sentenced to three and a half months home detention, 100 hours of community work and ordered to pay the woman $3,000 - what she had paid for the home-security system. Harris also had to stand in the dock while the victim revealed he was a "cross-dressing, gay prostitute". The victim, who read her victim-impact statement in court, said the former Pukekohe police officer clearly took great pleasure in seeing the stress he caused her.
The court heard the man had a "professional" relationship with her for a number of years and the pair had formed a friendship. So when four posts were put on sexual websites advertising the victim's home phone number and address prompting a barrage of calls, she confided in Harris. And when she found her lawn and backyard covered in explicit A4 prints of her and numerous business cards tacked to her family home that she shared with her husband and children, it was Harris she turned to to make her home more secure. The woman described the offending, between February and June, as her "worst nightmare" but could come up with no real explanation for why it happened. Harris even sent letters to her husband at work, which included further explicit photos of the victim. The letters "outlined what you considered to be her immoral lifestyle", Judge John Bergseng said. The victim said the ongoing abuse meant she was unable to sleep and lost 10kg over the four months.
"The irony is he tried to ruin my life but ended up ruining his own life and now everybody knows." she said. When police were informed about the offending online ads, they tracked the IP address and found it came from Harris's computer. A search warrant executed at the defendant's home turned up more than just electronic evidence. Police also found a hydroponic cannabis set-up with 15 plants and 20 seedlings. Judge Bergseng said there was nothing to suggest it was for anything other than personal use and fined Harris $600. Further inquiries also found that before he had quit the force in April, the defendant had searched the victim's name three times on the police's National Intelligence Application. He explained it was to ensure she did not have gang or drug links and therefore minimise the risk of bringing the police into disrepute by his involvement with her, but the judge said that explanation made no sense.
Judge Bergseng said there was a high level of cruelty inherent in Harris's actions and a severe breach of trust considering he was working as a police officer for part of the time the intimidation was ongoing. "Your actions clearly put her in a state where she was terrified as to what may be coming next," he said. "You would have known exactly what her family situation was . . . leaving photos attached to the house was, in my view, particularly cruel." But he was given discounts for his previous good character, his efforts at rehabilitation and his early guilty pleas. His lawyer Larissa Mulder said the "relationship" with the dominatrix had left her client in a lot of debt but he was determined to make reparation for the emotional harm he caused. Harris also apologised through his lawyer for bringing the police into disrepute. His home detention sentence was deferred for two weeks so he could organize things with his new job at BP. Outside court the victim said she would have preferred to see Harris locked up but was happy he would be named and shamed.

Lorikeets accused of being drunk are probably suffering from a virus

Staggering red collar lorikeets in Australia's Northern Territory are not actually intoxicated after all - and it’s taken more than five years for the record to be corrected. Back in 2010 a phenomenon was first observed in Darwin of lorikeets falling out of trees, staggering around looking drunk, and finding it difficult to perch themselves atop of branches. All the hallmarks of a bit too much of the good nectar. But now it has been revealed that the poor parrots have received a bad wrap for the past five years because they were probably never really drunk after all.
It turns out that the most likely explanation is a seasonal virus, akin to the human flu season, that seems to strike the colorful birds in the Top End build-up each year. Wildcare spokeswoman Barbara Backers, who recently had 19 lorikeets in care, have said that the likely respiratory infection was temporary and usually saw the condition resolved within two weeks. “It seems to get into their system and they end up not being able to perch or they can’t lean up properly against a tree,” Ms Backers said.
“The actual condition is sometimes referred to as Drop Lorri Syndrome. But they do actually look drunk.” Five years ago NT Parks and Wildlife Commisson officers were certain fermented fruit nectar was causing the birds to literally fall out of the sky. But Ms Backers said tests undertaken by vets did not find alcohol conclusive in the majority of the birds. Ark Animal Hospital owner Dr Stephen Cutter said the more likely explanation was the birds were dropping from a combination of factors. “Every time they are tested they come back with different things. But we do know it is not alcohol,”
Dr Cutter said. “We still don’t know the exact cause, it may be several different diseases working together, definitely some kind of virus that seems to attack the immune system and usually seasonal. They look drunk as they stagger around and fall over.” Dr Cutter said he usually had around five lorikeets brought into his Palmerston practice a week. An NT Department of Primary Industries spokeswoman said the Government was unable to confirm if the behavior of the birds was due to a “respiratory disease”. But she added there was no laboratory evidence that the birds were intoxicated.

Pilot takes puppy rescuing to new heights

Dan Drennan from Western New York loves flying, and he also loves dogs.
So when he was approached by some local rescue organizations asking for a favor, he didn’t think twice. Dan has flown everywhere from Texas to Kentucky to Ohio to rescue puppies. All in all, he’s transported about 500.

Dan flies with the Western New York Pilots Club, but when he’s making rescue flights it’s for Pilots N Paws, a non-profit organization that matches pilots like him, to rescues that need a hand. All of Dan’s flying is done on a volunteer basis.

“It gives me a place to go, and it’s for a really good cause. They guys all come from very high kill shelters and their outlook is not good,” he said. During the flights, Dan admits he often gets attached to his passengers, but said he’s always thinking about the next mission. “There’s always more. You want to get attached and all that, but there’s more dogs that need rides,” he says.

Animal Pictures