Survival by Dumpster Diving

With the economy as it is and getting worse maybe this piece about the 'Freegan' movement will be of help.

You can find pretty much anything you need to survive tossed by someone in the dumpster. This includes but isn't limited to: furniture, electronics, computers, monitors, vacuums, food, clothing, books, even unopened alcohol. Most of it only needs a little repair and is soon good as new . . .

Dumpster Diving Etiquette

• Be quiet, discreet
• Be considerate—don't leave a mess
• If you find something of value that you don't need, place it aside for the next freegan
• Bring a flashlight or headlamp
• Organic produce is coded begining with a '9' in its PLU (Price Look-Up code), conventional food has a 4 digit PLU
• A pocketknife is also helpful
• Bring a bag or something to carry your loot
• Gloves are nice but optional
• Early morning or later in the evening is optimal
• If a worker asks you to leave, don't argue, just move on to the next dumpster
• If it smells/looks bad, it probably is
• Thoroughly scrub your produce with a brush and using baking soda too

More on the 'Santa Suit' killings

Stinging from an acrimonious divorce, a man plotting revenge against his ex-wife dressed up like Santa, went to his former in-laws' Christmas Eve party and slaughtered at least six people before killing himself hours later.

Three people were listed as missing after Bruce Pardo's rampage - his ex-wife and her parents - and it was feared their remains were among the ashes of the home, which Pardo set ablaze using a bizarre homemade device that sprayed flammable liquid.

Pardo, 45, had no criminal record and no history of violence, according to police, but he was angry following last week's settlement of his divorce after a marriage that lasted barely a year.
"It was not an amicable divorce," police Lt. Pat Buchanan said.

Pardo chose to exact his revenge at the annual Christmas party his former in-laws held at their two-story home on a cul-de-sac in a quiet Covina neighborhood 25 miles east of Los Angeles.

In past years, a neighbor dressed as Santa Claus and entertained guests.
But the neighbor had moved away and there was no Santa - until Pardo arrived about 11:30 p.m.

The massacre began when an 8-year-old girl answered Pardo's knock at the door.
Pardo, carrying what appeared to be a large present, pulled out a handgun and shot her in the face, then began shooting indiscriminately as about 25 partygoers tried to flee, police said.
A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back, and a 20-year-old woman broke her ankle when she escaped by jumping from a second-story window.
Those two, and the 8-year-old, remained hospitalized Christmas Day.
All were expected to recover.

The gift-wrapped box Pardo was carrying actually contained a pressurized homemade device he used to spray a liquid that quickly sent the house up in flames.
Police said Pardo had recently worked is the aerospace industry.

David Salgado, a neighbor, said he saw the 8-year-old victim being escorted to an ambulance by four SWAT team members as flames up to 40 feet high consumed the house.
"It was really ugly," Salgado said.

Another neighbor, Jan Gregory, said she saw a teenage boy flee the home, screaming, "'They shot my family.'"

When the fire was extinguished early Thursday, officers found three charred bodies in the living room area.
"They were met with a scene that was just indescribable," police Chief Kim Raney said.
Investigators found three more bodies amid the ashes later in the day.

None of the dead or missing have been identified.
Authorities were unable to immediately determine whether the victims were killed by the flames or the gunfire.

Following the shootings, Pardo quickly got out of the Santa suit and drove off, witnesses told police.
He went to his brother's home about 25 miles away in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles.
No one was home, so Pardo let himself in, police said.

Police were called to the home early Thursday, and officers found Pardo dead of a single bullet to the head.
Two handguns were found at the scene, and two more were discovered in the wreckage of his former in-laws' house.

Science News

In the New York Times:

Blind, Yet Seeing: The Brain's Subconscious Visual Sense

Scientists have previously reported cases of blindsight in people with partial damage to their visual lobes. The new report is the first to show it in a person whose visual lobes -- one in each hemisphere, under the skull at the back of the head -- were completely destroyed. The finding suggests that people with similar injuries may be able to recover some crude visual sense with practice.

President Obama's weekly address

The text of the address is below:

Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama
Holiday Radio Address
December 27, 2008

Good morning. This week, Americans are gathering with family and friends across the country to celebrate the blessings of Christmas and the holiday season.

As we celebrate this joyous time of year, our thoughts turn to the brave men and women who serve our country far from home. Their extraordinary and selfless sacrifice is an inspiration to us all, and part of the unbroken line of heroism that has made our freedom and prosperity possible for over two centuries.

Many troops are serving their second, third, or fourth tour of duty. And we are reminded that they are more than dedicated Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard – they are devoted fathers and mothers; husbands and wives; sons and daughters; and sisters and brothers.

This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent, and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home.

Our troops and military families have won the respect and gratitude of their broader American family. Michelle and I have them in our prayers this Christmas, and we must all continue to offer them our full support in the weeks and months to come. .

These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy. As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don’t have a job. Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain.

That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans – that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.

That is the spirit that will guide my Administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.

After all, that is what Americans have always done.

232 years ago, when America was newly born as a nation, George Washington and his Army faced impossible odds as they struggled to free themselves from the grip of an empire.

It was Christmas Day—December 25th, 1776 – that they fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River. They caught the enemy off guard, won victories in Trenton and Princeton, and gave new momentum to a beleaguered Army and new hope to the cause of Independence.

Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season—the same lessons that guide us to this very day: that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible.

Questions linger after shrub withdraws pardon

Questions continue to swirl today over the shrub's decision to withdraw a pardon for a New York developer involved in a Long Island mortgage fraud scheme.

Isaac Toussie, 36, was convicted in 2001 of mail fraud and of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development that stemmed from the mortgage scheme.

The White House initially announced the pardon Tuesday afternoon, immediately setting off a firestorm of criticism from angry homeowners and investors, as well as government watchdog organizations quick to note Toussie's ties to prominent repugicans.

Among the questions now being asked are:

• Why didn't the White House conduct a more thorough investigation of Toussie's background?

• Why did White House Counsel Fred Fielding circumvent the typical pardon application process by directly considering Toussie's clemency request instead of leaving it to the Justice Department?

• Did Toussie get special treatment because of his political connections?

And I Quote

We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.

~ President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Confused says ...

Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

Project Censored

The News that didn't make the News: 2009

PROJECT CENSORED

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009

#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

# 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA

# 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business

# 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?

# 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets

# 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

# 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking

# 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly

#9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify

# 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture

# 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror

# 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind

# 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq

# 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste

# 15 Worldwide Slavery

# 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights

# 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights

# 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers

# 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction

# 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record

# 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option

# 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid

# 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs

# 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror

# 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer

Details of Palin's boyfriend's mom arrest

Alaska authorities say the mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages to two police informants discussing drug transactions before her arrest on felony drug charges.

An affidavit filed Wednesday says Sherry L. Johnston sent text messages referring to "coffee" as a code for the drug OxyContin.

The 42-year-old Johnston was arrested last week after state troopers served a search warrant at her Wasilla home.

She is out on bail.

Johnston is the mother of 18-year-old Levi Johnston.

Governor Sarah Palin announced in September that her 18-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant and Johnston was the father.

*****

And these are the 'family values' people?!?

Our newest readers

Carolina Naturally welcomes our newest readers from our newest country: Paraguay.

A Freeloader Christmas

Red Skelton and Bob Hope doing what they do best. This improve comedy from Red's television series is what talent really is - something many of the 'stars' of today need to have but do not.

This was recorded LIVE folks. No retakes or rehearsals. Just one liner after one liner and a few good technical guys coming in with sound effects at opportune moments and the two not missing a beat ... all the while Red and Bob laughing at their own gags and gaffs.

Parents of slain rabbi light menorah in Mumbai

The parents of a rabbi and his wife killed in last month's terror attacks in Mumbai lit a 16-foot (5-meter) public menorah outside the building where their children lived in the Indian city.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, were among scores killed last month in a rampage by suspected Islamic militants.
The couple ran a center in Mumbai for the Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement.

Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and his wife, Frida, were accompanied by Rivka's parents, Yehudit and Shimon Rosenberg, and several friends and relatives at the lighting ceremony.

The slain Holtzbergs, who moved to Mumbai in 2003, used to light a menorah every year outside the Jewish center also known as Nariman House.
Thursday is the fifth night of Hanukkah.

The relatives went inside the building, badly damaged by the attackers and the Indian rescue operations that followed, and also visited the room where Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife were killed.
The Holtzbergs and Rosenbergs are also expected to light a menorah at the Gateway of India, a ceremonial archway on Mumbai's seafront, a short distance from the Chabad center.

The Holtzberg's 2-year-old son, Moshe, survived the attack on the building that killed his parents and four others - all Jewish foreigners.

Daily Funny

A monkey is sitting in a tree, smoking a joint, when a lizard walks past.
The lizard looks up and says to the monkey "Hey! What are you doing?"
The monkey says "Smoking a joint, come up and join me, my cold-blooded friend."
So the lizard climbs up and sits next to the monkey and they have another joint.
After a while the lizard says his mouth is 'dry', and that he's going to get a drink from the river.
At the riverbank, the lizard is so stoned that he leans too far over and falls in.
A Crocodile sees this and swims over to the stoned lizard, helping him to the side.
He then asks the lizard, "What's the matter with you?!"
The lizard explains to the crocodile that he was sitting in the tree, smoking a joint with his new monkey friend.
He then explained how his mouth got dry, and that he was so wasted that, when he went to get a drink from the river, he fell in!
The inquisitive crocodile says he has to check this out.
He walks into the jungle and finds the tree where the monkey is sitting, finishing a joint.
He looks up and says "Hey, MONKEY!"
The Monkey looks down and says "FUUUUUCK, DUDE....... how much water did you drink?"

Elbow Room

School House Rock

Remember those old 'educational ditties' from back in the day! School House Rock Rocks!

Growing Pains

Foghorn Leghorn

Man to receive 'GETOSAMA' plates by Christmas

A New York man is excited to receive his "GETOSAMA" license plates in time for Christmas.

Retired NYPD officer Arno Herwerth said Tuesday that he ordered the vanity plates in 2007 as a reminder that Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden remains at large.

The plates were delivered, but the state Department of Motor Vehicles quickly ordered them returned, saying the plates could be considered objectionable.

The Long Island resident filed a federal complaint, and the DMV relented in February.

Herwerth initially rejected the offer because the DMV wouldn't pay attorney's fees, but he eventually decided to settle the case.

He says the DMV is overnighting his registration so he can put the plates on for Christmas.

Police use tobacco spit to nab burglary suspect

A trail of tobacco spit has led investigators to a suspect in at least five burglaries across eastern Oklahoma, police said.

Randy Lee Shoopman Jr., 33, was charged with 11 counts of second-degree burglary after a sample of his DNA matched that taken from expectorant left behind at the scene of several burglaries in Oklahoma, said officer Brad Robertson, a spokesman for the Tahlequah police department.

Shoopman was taken into custody Friday in Merced, Calif., on an unrelated stolen property charge, Robertson said.

Investigators also said Shoopman may be involved in break-ins at businesses across eastern Oklahoma and in Missouri.

Stilwell police detective Chad Smith said he was investigating the burglary of an insurance company in September when he noticed a tobacco stain on papers in the ransacked office.

"None of the ladies that worked there chewed tobacco," Smith said. "You could tell that the stains were from the suspect."

Smith said he sent a sample of the spit to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for testing. Detectives in Tahlequah who were investigating Shoopman as a possible suspect in a string of burglaries obtained a warrant to get a DNA sample from him.

The sample linked him to at least five burglaries in which the suspect also left behind tobacco spit, Robertson said. Shoopman was released on bail before the DNA match was obtained.

The evidence helps build a strong case for prosecutors, said Shannon Otteson, assistant district attorney in Adair County.

"Eyewitness testimony is unreliable at best. Even video tape surveillance is sometimes grainy. But this is pretty good," Otteson said. "Through this guy's bad habit, we could possibly solve several different burglaries."

Oklahoma officials hoped to have Shoopman extradited from California soon to face charges, said Otteson.

Giant snowman rises again in Alaska

A giant snowman named Snowzilla has mysteriously appeared again this year - despite the city's cease-and-desist order.

Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers' front yard in an east Anchorage neighborhood. Snowzilla reappeared before dawn Tuesday.

Powers is not taking credit. When questioned Tuesday afternoon, he insisted Snowzilla just somehow happened, again.

For the last three years, Snowzilla - to the delight of some and the chagrin of others - has been a very large feature in Powers' yard. In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.

"Have you seen him?" Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. "He's handsome."

Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers' modest home. His children - he is the father of seven - collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.

Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers' door.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

The mayor's office on Tuesday issued a statement defending its move against Snowzilla.

"This property owner has repeatedly ignored city attempts to find ways to accommodate his desire to build a giant snowman without affecting the quiet, residential quality of the neighborhood," said the statement from Mayor Mark Begich's office. "This is a neighborhood of small homes on small lots connected by small streets. It can't support the volume of traffic and revelers that are interested in Snowzilla."

The mayor's office says Powers appears to run a large junk and salvage operation from his home. He has violated land use codes for 13 years, the city said. He owes the city more than $100,000 in fines and other assessments.

Powers said it is the city that has been difficult, not him.

"I have tried to jump through every goofy hoop they have sent to me. I have never been confrontational and it goes on and on and on and it is so goofy," he said. "Some of it is unfounded, some is just outrageous."

The city said it did not expect to take any further action until after Christmas.

Sunken Soviet sub needs buyer _ or it's scrapped

This Friday, July 25, 2008 photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows Soviet submarine Juliett 484 coming to the surface of the Providence River in Providence, R.I. The former Soviet cruise missile submarine that sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it. The 282-foot-long sub had served as a floating educational museum until it went down in a powerful Nor'easter in April 2007.

A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film and sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it, the president of the foundation that owns it said Wednesday.

The 282-foot submarine, also known as Juliett 484, began serving as a floating educational museum in 2002, until it went down during a powerful nor'easter in April 2007.

Army and Navy dive crews raised the sub in a training exercise last July, and inspections showed the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater.

Restoring it to an operational museum would have cost more than $1 million, said Frank Lennon, director of the Russian Sub Museum and president of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

"Based on the input we received from experts, the cost of restoring it was beyond our capabilities," Lennon said.

A local company, Rhode Island Metals Recycling, LLC, has agreed to move the sub downriver and eventually dismantle it for scrap metal if no one offers to buy it intact by the end of January.

"We remain hopeful that someone will step forward who might be interested in taking over the stewardship of this very interesting Cold War relic," Lennon said.

The sub, alternatively designated as K-77, was launched in 1965 as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet. The Juliett class was initially planned as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States and later tracked U.S. aircraft carriers.

The sub was used in the 1990s as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and as a set for the 2002 Harrison Ford movie "K-19: The Widowmaker" before being acquired by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation.

It opened as a museum in Providence in 2002 and drew tens of thousands of tourists over the years.

Lennon said the museum would remove artifacts such as periscopes, torpedo tube doors, missile firing stations and other items before the sub is dismantled.

He said he had received inquiries about the sub, including one from an Australian group that wanted to sink it and use it as a reef, but no serious offers.

Manslaughter charge dropped against teen

A judge has dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against a 16-year-old girl who was holding a gun when it fired, killing her boyfriend who had been fighting another teen over her affection.

Meredith Kandies still faces weapons charges in the shooting of Jeremy McMillan. But Randolph County District Court Judge William Neely ruled prosecutors didn't present enough evidence to show Kandies intended to kill the 16-year-old McMillan.

Kandies, the daughter of a man convicted in one of Asheboro's most shocking murders, was holding the gun McMillan brought to the fight outside an elementary school December 12, 2009. The gun fired by accident as McMillan tried to wrestle it back after he lost the fight, according to testimony.

Forensic tests confirmed the 9 mm Glock pistol recovered near the shooting was discharged in a struggle, police said.

“She's pretty much in shock,” Kandies' attorney, Jonathan Megerian, said after the hearing. “She was 16, in love with this guy. It is very, very sad.”

S.C. hunters find human remains

Authorities say two South Carolina hunters have found human skeletal remains along a dirt path in the woods.

Horry County police spokesman Robert Keglar says the hunters alerted police around noon Wednesday that they'd found human remains in Conway, near state Highway 378.

Keglar told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach the bones were scattered, but authorities believe they belong to one person.

It's not yet known how long the remains have been there. Keglar says tests on the bones will also determine the person's gender and age

*****

Also human remains found in Charlotte:

Workers find human bones at construction site

Construction workers in southwest Charlotte found human bones at a site off Shopton Road on Wednesday afternoon, and officers are treating the case as a homicide.

Someone called police just before 1:30 p.m. about a human skull that had been found in the 5200 block of Dixie River Road. When officers got there, they found other human bones and began an investigation.

Homicide detectives are combing missing person reports to identify potential leads.

If classified as a homicide, the case would be the 83rd officers have investigated this year and the ninth in the month of December. The total number of homicides this year has already surpassed the total for all of last year.

Now, this was a fine 'how-do-you-do' for the holidays ...

Three dead after man in Santa suit opens fire at party

Police in Covina, Califonia say three people are dead after a man in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a Christmas Eve party in a home in suburban Los Angeles that subsequently caught fire.

Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan says the man arrived at the party late Wednesday and immediately opened fire with a handgun.

Buchanan says three bodies were found after the fire was put out. He could not say how the fire started or how the three people died.

Buchanan says three other people were injured, including two who were shot.He says officers were still hearing gunshots after they arrived and found the house in flames.

Shooting suspect dies

A former Utah state trooper suspected in a series of Dallas-area roadway shootings died on Christmas Eve, a day after police said he turned a gun on himself following a brief standoff.

Brian Smith, 37, had been in critical condition on life support from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police said he shot himself in the head Tuesday, more than six hours after the roadway shooting spree ended.

Smith died Wednesday night at Parkland Hospital, nursing supervisor Arthur Clarke said.

Authorities were working to confirm that Smith was the gunman in separate fatal shootings minutes apart Monday on a Garland street and a Dallas interstate, Dallas police Lt. Craig Miller said.

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Follow through on your plans, and everything goes smoothly.

That's just as it should be.

Just in case you missed it ...

It's Xmas!

And if you're really all that interested, it's also my birthday.