Quote of the Day

“Do you think if Barack Obama had left his seriously ill wife after having had multiple affairs, had been a member of the “Keating Five,” had had a relationship with a much younger lobbyist that his staff felt the need to try and block, had intervened on behalf of the client of said young lobbyist with a federal agency, had denounced then embraced Jerry Falwell, had denounced then embraced the Bush tax cuts, had confused Shiite with Sunni, had confused Al Qaeda in Iraq with the Mahdi Army, had actively sought the endorsement and appeared on stage with a man who denounced the Catholic Church as a whore, and stated that he knew next to nothing about economics — do you think it’s possible that Obama would have been treated differently by the media than John McCain has been? Possible?”

~ Crooks and Liars Blog

The Strip and Dip Specialist

SKINNY-DIPPING at an Edinburgh beauty spot just wasn't daring enough for 23-year-old Jackie Brown – so she's decided to do it 138 times.

The keen swimmer (pictured above) is preparing to spend the summer getting closer to nature by taking a dip in the nude in all of Scotland's major lochs. She will swim around ten metres in all the lochs – including Loch Lomond and Loch Ness – to raise around £3000 for breast cancer charities.

She will be photographed at each location for a series of pictures to go on sale when she completes the task.

Miss Brown, who lives in Barony Street, has already had a trial run for her intensive three-week charity swim in the summer by plunging into the freezing Duddingston Loch.

She got rid of her inhibitions and took the plunge, much to the surprise of a nature-lover who happened to be looking through his binoculars at the time.

But it was realising just how freezing Scottish waters are that gave the Australian the biggest shock. She said: "As with all good ideas, it was thought up in the pub. I left Edinburgh to go home for a while last year and I said my biggest regret was not skinny dipping in the lochs, so it all stemmed from there.

"Saturday was my first dip and it lasted a maximum of three minutes. When I got home, I spent the rest of the night in bed with a fever and I must admit I thought then 'What am I letting myself in for?'. But I'm not worried about it, I'm just really excited."

Miss Brown, originally from the Australian city of Perth, is going to seek the advice of her doctor before embarking on the potentially dangerous swimathon.

She said: "I'll be careful about it and make sure I'm eating right and that I have lots of blankets with me. I've had my injections and I won't be putting my head under the water." She will be starting her challenge in the Capital on July 7, then heading up north.

She estimates she will take in just over six lochs a day to complete the task in three weeks. She will be accompanied by her friend, amateur photographer Jenny Humberstone, who will be taking snaps at each location.

As well as raising sponsorship money through the swimathon, Miss Brown hopes the "artsy" photos will make some money when they go on sale. She plans to get a stall during the Edinburgh Festival to sell the photos.

Miss Brown, who teaches theatre skills in schools, welcomes supporters along the way but says she will only strip off at secluded parts of the lochs so as not to offend anyone.

She added: "The guy with the binoculars must have wondered what we were doing, but he never asked for an explanation and we never offered one. We just did what we came to do and left."

Miss Brown plans to split the money she raises between a number of breast cancer charities after she saw the illness strike some of her friends' mothers.

Angela Kilday, spokesperson for Cancer Research UK, said: "We invest some £27 million in Scotland annually. Without the support of individuals like Jackie, this vital cancer research work would not be able to continue."

*****

Want to check out more about Scots and Scotland go to Scotsman.com
Direct link to story above here.
Or find out all about the Scots and Scotland at Electric Scotland

Daily Funny

Jose and Carlos are both con artists who pose as panhandlers.
They panhandle on different areas of town, and although Carlos panhandles just as long as Jose he only collects 2 to 3 dollars every day.
Jose on the other hand, brings home a suitcase FULL of $10 dollar bills, drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage free house and has a lot of money to spend.
Carlos says to Jose 'Hey… I work just as long and hard as you do, so how do you bring home a suitcase full of $10 dollar bills every day?'

Jose says 'Look at your sign; what does it say?'
Carlos sign reads 'I have no work, a wife and 6 kids to support.'

Jose says 'No wonder you only get $2-3 dollars!'
Carlos says 'So what does your sign say?'

Jose shows Carlos his sign... It reads 'I only need another $10.00 dollars to move back to Mexico’

The RIAA's lawsuit against a homeless man isn't going according to plan!

The RIAA's file-sharing lawsuit against a homeless man has run into some snags:

In Warner v. Berry, where the RIAA was suing a man who lives in a homeless shelter, the Magistrate Judge -- Hon. Kevin Nathaniel Fox -- recommended that the plaintiffs' application for a default judgment be denied, and that the plaintiffs be ordered to show cause why they should not be sanctioned under Rule 11. The Judge agreed that the default judgment should be denied, but chose not to sanction plaintiffs' attorneys...

The Magistrate Judge found that "[b]y affixing the summons on April 9, 2007, the plaintiffs demonstrated they never intended to conduct 'a thorough address investigation ...' because they employed the 'affix and mail' method of service without exercising due diligence to effect personal service pursuant to CPLR s 308(1) and (2)." Magistrate Judge Fox concluded that Plaintiffs' representation to this Court to the effect that they intended to conduct an investigation to locate Defendant's current address implicated Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(b) because it was made for the improper purpose of unnecessary delay.

We can only hope that this won't prejudice the court in the matter of Warner, Electra et al Versus Charitable Hospice for Dying, Helpless, Starving Children Who Rescue Puppies From Burning Buildings and Volunteer at the Old Folks Home.

(No, that is not sarcasm you detect in the sentence above.)

The Zen of the Spiritual