Fellow Marine Lost

On leave from the violence he had survived in the war in Iraq, a young Marine was so wary of crime on the streets of his own home town that he carried only $8 to avoid becoming a robbery target.

Despite his caution, Lance Cpl. Robert Crutchfield, 21, was shot point-blank in the neck during a robbery at a bus stop. Feeding and breathing tubes kept him alive 4 1/2 months, until he died of an infection on May 18.

Two men have been charged in the attack, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Friday the case was under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

"It is an awful story," said Alberta Holt, the young Marine's aunt and his legal guardian when he was a teenager determined to flee a troubled Cleveland school for safer surroundings in the suburbs.

Crutchfield was attacked on Jan. 5 while he and his girlfriend were waiting for a bus. He had heeded the warnings of commanders that a Marine on leave might be seen as a prime robbery target with a pocketful of money, so he only carried $8, his military ID card and a bank card.

"They took it, turned his pockets inside out, took what he had and told him since he was a Marine and didn't have any money he didn't deserve to live. They put the gun to his neck and shot him," Holt told The Associated Press.

The two men charged in the attack were identified as Ean Farrow, 19, and Thomas Ray III, 20, both of Cleveland. Their attorneys did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.

Crutchfield knew he was returning to Iraq for another tour of duty, but had hesitated to tell his family until he was nearing the end of his 30-day leave.

He apparently had a troubled family. Holt wouldn't discuss it except to say "his mom and dad didn't raise him, just his grandmother and me." He didn't smoke or drink, she said.

He had attended Cleveland's inner-city East High School, but asked that he be allowed to live with his aunt and grandmother and attend suburban Bedford High School for his final two years.

"He saw his school was in turmoil and asked to get out," Holt said.

Bedford High teachers recalled Crutchfield's smile, his pride in his appearance, his determination to join the Marine Corps after graduation in 2005 and his aspiration to become an architect.

"He was friendly and kind and willing to help out in any way that he could," counselor Yvonne Sims said in an e-mail.

Connie LaNasa, who works in the school office, said Crutchfield was a well-behaved student and went about his school work with little notice.

"He lived out what he wanted to do and that is to be a Marine," LaNasa said.

Faculty members remembered Crutchfield as a top student in the computer design program, an office assistant and participant in the prom fashion show.

After his long hospitalization, an infection broke out a week before he died. "He said it felt like he was getting hit by lightning," Holt said.

When Crutchfield's body was laid out Tuesday in the Sacrificial Missionary Baptist Church, his white military dress hat was tugged down close to his eyes to conceal the skull flap that had been kept open to relieve swelling in his brain.

Marines provided an honor guard at his funeral service and carried the casket to his grave at the Western Reserve National Cemetery near Akron.

He was buried there on the same day as a Vietnam veteran, two veterans from World War II and three from Korea.

*****

What they hell do they mean "under review to decide whether to seek the death penalty"! Having survived his attempted murder by proxy that the shrub and cabal set up for him in Iraq to be gunned down by a couple of petty two-bit pieces of shit ... under review my ass! The line for volunteers for the firing squad forms behind me - and I don't think there will be any lacking in numbers of those standing in line.

Semper Fi

Lance Corporal Crutchfield

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Celebration

Carolina Naturally is having a month long celebration for its first birthday coming this July 1st.

Hopefully you will find something informative, amusing or unexpected here during the month of June.

Stay Tuned!

Daily Funny

Screengrab from donut sleeper cell training video surfaces

So they were right. Oh, and pssst: I am wearing nothing but a glazed kaffiyeh at this very moment!

(Thanks to the folks over at Boing Boing)

All is not well in Extremist Fundie-Land

Muslim extremist women are challenging al-Qaida's refusal to include - or at least acknowledge - women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

In response to a female questioner, al-Qaida No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahri said in April that the terrorist group does not have women. A woman's role, he said on the Internet audio recording, is limited to caring for the homes and children of al-Qaida fighters.

His remarks have since prompted an outcry from fundamentalist women, who are fighting or pleading for the right to be terrorists. The statements have also created some confusion, because in fact suicide bombings by women seem to be on the rise, at least within the Iraq branch of al-Qaida.

A'eeda Dahsheh is a Palestinian mother of four in Lebanon who said she supports al-Zawahri and has chosen to raise children at home as her form of jihad. However, she said, she also supports any woman who chooses instead to take part in terror attacks.

Another woman signed a more than 2,000-word essay of protest online as Rabeebat al-Silah, Arabic for "Companion of Weapons."

"How many times have I wished I were a man ... When Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri said there are no women in al-Qaida, he saddened and hurt me," wrote "Companion of Weapons," who said she listened to the speech 10 times. "I felt that my heart was about to explode in my chest...I am powerless."

Such postings have appeared anonymously on discussion forums of Web sites that host videos from top al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. While the most popular site requires names and passwords, many people use only nicknames, making their identities and locations impossible to verify.

However, groups that monitor such sites say the postings appear credible because of the knowledge and passion they betray. Many appear to represent computer-literate women arguing in the most modern of venues - the Internet - for rights within a feudal version of Islam.

"Women were very disappointed because what al-Zawahri said is not what's happening today in the Middle East, especially in Iraq or in Palestinian groups," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites. "Suicide operations are being carried out by women, who play an important role in jihad."

It's not clear how far women play a role in al-Qaida because of the group's amorphous nature.

Terrorism experts believe there are no women in the core leadership ranks around bin Laden and al-Zawahri. But beyond that core, al-Qaida is really a movement with loosely linked offshoots in various countries and sympathizers who may not play a direct role. Women are clearly among these sympathizers, and some are part of the offshoot groups.

In the Iraq branch, for example, women have carried out or attempted at least 20 suicide bombings since 2003. Al-Qaida members suspected of training women to use suicide belts were captured in Iraq at least three times last year, the U.S. military has said.

Hamas, another militant group, is open about using women fighters and disagrees with al-Qaida's stated stance. At least 11 Palestinian women have launched suicide attacks in recent years.

"A lot of the girls I speak to ... want to carry weapons. They live with this great frustration and oppression," said Huda Naim, a prominent women's leader, Hamas member and Palestinian lawmaker in Gaza. "We don't have a special militant wing for women ... but that doesn't mean that we strip women of the right to go to jihad."

Al-Zawahri's remarks show the fine line al-Qaida walks in terms of public relations. In a modern Arab world where women work even in some conservative countries, al-Qaida's attitude could hurt its efforts to win over the public at large. On the other hand, noted SITE director Katz, al-Zawahri has to consider that many al-Qaida supporters, such as the Taliban, do not believe women should play a military role in jihad.

Al-Zawahri's comments came in a two-hour audio recording posted on an Islamic militant Web site, where he answered hundreds of questions sent in by al-Qaida sympathizers. He praised the wives of mujahedeen, or holy warriors. He also said a Muslim woman should "be ready for any service the mujahedeen need from her," but advised against traveling to a war front like Afghanistan without a male guardian.

Al-Zawahri's stance might stem from personal history, as well as religious beliefs. His first wife and at least two of their six children were killed in a U.S. airstrike in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in 2001. He later accused the U.S. of intentionally targeting women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I say to you ... (I have) tasted the bitterness of American brutality: my favorite wife's chest was crushed by a concrete ceiling," he wrote in a 2005 letter.

Al-Zawahri's question-and-answer campaign is one sign of al-Qaida's sophistication in using the Web to keep in touch with its popular base, even while its leaders remain in hiding. However, the Internet has also given those disenfranchised by al-Qaida - in this case, women - a voice they never had before.

The Internet is the only "breathing space" for women who are often shrouded in black veils and confined to their homes, "Ossama2001" wrote. She said al-Zawahri's words "opened old wounds" and pleaded with God to liberate women so they can participate in holy war.

Another woman, Umm Farouq, or mother of Farouq, wrote: "I use my pen and words, my honest emotions ... Jihad is not exclusive to men."

Such women are al-Qaida sympathizers who would not feel comfortable expressing themselves with men or others outside their circles, said Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on terrorism and Islamic movements at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

"The Internet gives them the ideal place to write their ideas, while they're hidden far from the world," he said.

Men have also responded to al-Zawahri's remarks. One male Internet poster named Hassan al-Saif asked: "Does our sheik mean that there is no need to use women in our current jihad? Why can we not use them?"

He was in the minority. Dozens of postings were signed by men who agreed with al-Zawahri that women should stick to supporting men and raising children according to militant Islam.

Women bent on becoming militants have at least one place to turn to. A niche magazine called "al-Khansaa" - named for a female poet in pre-Islamic Arabia who wrote lamentations for two brothers killed in battle - has popped up online. The magazine is published by a group that calls itself the "women's information office in the Arab peninsula," and its contents include articles on women's terrorist training camps, according to SITE.

Its first issue, with a hot pink cover and gold embossed lettering, appeared in August 2004 with the lead article "Biography of the Female Mujahedeen."

The article read:

"We will stand, covered by our veils and wrapped in our robes, weapons in hand, our children in our laps, with the Quran and the Sunna (sayings) of the Prophet of Allah directing and guiding us."

(From the AP)

*****

If anyone needed further evidence of the insanity of extreme fundamentalism I submit the above ... substitute any religious sect or conservative political group in lieu of Islam in the piece above and you will see it applies to all.

Texas CPS Under the Microscope

For nearly two months, Texas child welfare officials had insisted conditions at a polygamist group's ranch were so abusive that none of its members should be allowed to keep their children.

Now, however, one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history is unraveling, and some are looking for what went wrong when the state raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch and removed more than 400 children.

Since the state Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Department of Child Protective Services overreached when it swept the children into foster care, agency officials have been unwilling to discuss the case, their strategy or what went wrong.

However, some close to the debacle say the operation was doomed from the start by a series of missteps.

First is the oddity of a religious sect the agency knew little about, exacerbating the inherent perils of balancing parents' rights and child safety. Then there were the abuse allegations, starting with a mysterious telephone call and echoed by disgruntled former members, seemingly accepted at face value.

And an ill-fated 1992 brush with another religious sect - which led to the fiery deaths of 21 children at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco - still lingers on the agency's collective conscience.

"It's difficult to know whether, in fact, they screwed it up," said Linda Spears, vice president of the Child Welfare League of America, a national collection of nonprofits that aid abused and neglected children. "It's the 20/20 hindsight thing."

Folks in Schleicher County, a dusty patch near the middle of Texas, had been at least curious, if not suspicious, of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway from the Mormon church whose members believe polygamy earns glorification in heaven.

Members of the group revered leader Warren Jeffs as a prophet. Since the start of the group's Texas ranch, he has been convicted in Utah as an accomplice to rape and is jail in Arizona awaiting trial on separate charges.

Sheriff David Doran cultivated a confidential informant to monitor the group's activities, and former FLDS members recounted abuse and forced marriages to anyone who would listen.

Investigators "listened to a lot of misinformation and allowed themselves to be kind of captivated by these anti-FLDS people," said FLDS spokesman Rod Parker.

When someone purporting to be a pregnant 16-year-old called a domestic abuse hot line claiming her middle-aged husband beat her, authorities went in with Child Protective Services workers on April 3. But the calls may have been a hoax.

"We had no choice but to treat those calls as credible. If we had not treated them as credible and something bad happened, people would be very upset," said Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, which is still investigating possible sex abuse at the ranch in addition to the origin of the hot line calls.

Children and mothers were taken away from the ranch because CPS workers thought it would be better to interview them at a neutral location, something that wasn't done in the last high-profile brush the agency had with a religious sect - the Branch Davidians.

CPS workers were confused about names, ages, and relationships of the children and adults in the complicated group marriages of the FLDS. The agency said at the time it believed sect members were deliberately misleading investigators about the names, ages and parentage of the children.

Although caseworkers said when they took custody of all the children that the sect was forcing underage girls into marriage and sex and training boys to be adult perpetrators, only a few dozen of the children swept into custody turned out to be teenage girls, and only a handful had children or were pregnant. Of 31 mothers CPS said were minors, at least half turned out to be adults.

David Schenck, an attorney for some of the mothers, said CPS workers were confronted with a decision when they arrived at the ranch: identify all the men who might be suspected abusers or grab all the children.

"They were interested in taking care of kids, but the problem is they took on more than the evidence is going to support," he said.

Parker called the agency "heavy-handed." A state appeals court essentially agreed, saying the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children. The Texas Supreme Court agreed in a ruling issued Thursday.

Spears, a caseworker-turned-advocate, said that despite the high-profile nature of the FLDS case, the dilemma faced by CPS is little different than in most removal cases.

"At the time you walk in, you have very little information even in the best cases," she said, noting the snap risk assessments caseworkers are often asked to make.

The second-guessing, too, is typical. CPS also was criticized for its handling of the Branch Davidians cult at its ranch compound outside Waco. Allegations of abuse at the Waco ranch had swirled for years, but interviews with children at the compound produced no outcry of abuse and CPS closed its investigation in 1992.

A year later, federal agents raided the fortified compound in a weapons investigation. Fire broke out and the 21 children died.

Spears said agencies worry about making wrong calls and seeing harm come to children. Decision-making often swings in reaction to criticism of previous cases or child deaths.

"It swings back and forth," she said. "There's no exact science being practiced here."

So, the Soap Opera continues ...

There Goes The Neighborhood

A weak tropical storm formed Saturday off the Yucatan Peninsula and quickly made landfall at the Belize-Mexico border, dumping rain and kicking up surf.

The first named storm of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Arthur was moving northwest across the Yucatan with maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (64 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm formed one day before the official start of the season June 1, hitting land near the Mexican port city of Chetumal and Belize's Corozal city. It dumped rain as far south as Belize City and kicked up strong surf on the popular tourist island of Ambergis Caye.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for Belize and Mexico's Caribbean coastline.

In the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which includes the popular resort of Cancun, ports were closed and all water sports were banned. Residents and tourists were encouraged to take precautions in coastal areas, said state Civil Protection Director Carlos Rodriguez Hoy.

Ports were also closed on the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres and in Chetumal.

Authorities expected rains of up to a little more than 1 inch (30 millimeters) due to the passing remnants of Arthur, Rodriguez said.

In northern Belize, the National Emergency Management Organization expected about 4 inches (102 millimeters) of rain and warned of possible flooding around the Azul Hondo River.

Rain and rough seas ruined vacations for tourists in Ambergis Caye.

"I just came to lay in the sun and get a nice tan, but so far there hasn't been any sunshine," said Debbie Fountaineau, a police officer from Lake Charles, Louisiana, who arrived on the island Thursday.

The storm was projected to weaken as it crosses the Yucatan before moving out into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression early Sunday.

There was chance it could strengthen back into a tropical storm before hitting Mexico again south of Veracruz on Wednesday, said Jamie Rhome, a meteorologist with the Hurricane Center. It was not expected to become a hurricane.

At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the center of the storm was located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Belize City, and about 195 miles (314 kilometers) southwest of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving to the west-northwest near 7 mph (11 kph).

The storm was expected to stay well away from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

*****

I guess that next trip to my old stomping grounds down that way will have to wait, phooey!

Question of the Day

Why is it that those devoid of mirth seek to deprive those that have mirth of it?

Stonehenge served as a burial ground

England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.

Dating of cremated remains shows burials took place as early as 3000 B.C., when the first ditches around the monument were being built, researchers said Thursday.

And those burials continued for at least 500 years, when the giant stones that mark the mysterious circle were being erected, they said.

"It's now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages," said Mike Parker Pearson, archaeology professor at the University of Sheffield in England and head of the Stonehenge Riverside Archaeological Project.

In the past many archaeologists had thought that burials at Stonehenge continued for only about a century, the researchers said.

"Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead," Parker Pearson said in a statement.

The researchers also excavated homes nearby at Durrington Walls, which they said appeared to be seasonal homes related to Stonehenge.

"It's a quite extraordinary settlement, we've never seen anything like it before," Parker Pearson said. The village appeared to be a land of the living and Stonehenge a land of the ancestors, he said.

There were at least 300 and perhaps as many as 1,000 homes in the village, he said. The small homes were occupied in midwinter and midsummer.

The village also included a circle of wooden pillars, which the researchers have named the Southern Circle. It is oriented toward the midwinter sunrise, the opposite of Stonehenge, which is oriented to the midsummer sunrise.

The research was supported by the National Geographic Society, which discusses Stonehenge in its June magazine and will feature the new burial data on National Geographic Channel on Sunday.

The researchers said the earliest cremation burial was a small group of bones and teeth found in pits called the Aubrey Holes and dated to 3030-2880 B.C., about the time with the first ditch-and-bank monument was being built.

Remains from the surrounding ditch included an adult dated to 2930-2870 B.C., and the most recent cremation, Parker Pearson said, comes from the ditch's northern side and was of a 25-year-old woman. It dated to 2570-2340 B.C., around the time the first arrangements of large sarsen stones appeared at Stonehenge.

According to Parker Pearson's team, this is the first time any of the cremation burials from Stonehenge have been radiocarbon dated. The burials dated by the group were excavated in the 1950s and have been kept at the nearby Salisbury Museum.

In the 1920s an additional 49 cremation burials were dug up at Stonehenge, but all were reburied because they were thought to be of no scientific value, the researchers said.

They estimate that up to 240 people were buried within Stonehenge, all as cremation deposits.

Team member Andrew Chamberlain suggested that that the cremation burials represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty.

A clue to this, he said, is the small number of burials in Stonehenge's earliest phase, a number that grows larger in subsequent centuries, as offspring would have multiplied.

Parker Pearson added: "I don't think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge - it was clearly a special place at that time. One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials."

The actual building and purpose of Stonehenge remain a mystery that has long drawn speculation from many sources.

And not all archaeologists agree with Parker Pearson's theory.

Indeed, the June issue of National Geographic Magazine quotes Mike Pitts, editor of the journal British Archaeology, as saying some details of the theory are problematic with gaps remaining to be filled. Uses of the landscape in the area for farming and grazing, for example, do not seem compatible with a ritualized place.

"The value of this interpretation is not just the idea of linking stones and ancestors, but that it works with the entire landscape," Pitts was quoted as saying.

Life's Helpful Hints

HOW TO GIVE THE CAT A BATH
(In TEN easy steps)

Step One: Lift both lids and place liquid soap in toilet.

Step Two: Locate cat and soothe cat as you transport him to toilet.

Step Three: Place cat into toilet closing both lids.

Step Four: Stand on toilet to prevent cat from exiting toilet prematurely.

Step Five: Allow ten minutes for cat to self agitate giving rise to the appropriate amount of suds.

Step Six: Flush Toilet three(3) times to complete cycle and form a powerful vaccum rinse.

Step Seven: Open door to exterior.

Step Eight: Stand as far away as possible from toilet.

Step Nine: Lift both toilet lids completely.

Step Ten: Allow the cat to rocket out of toilet and out the door where he will air dry.

This instructional guide was provided to you by Kaynine Press.

You Know and Only a

You know you are from the South if...

The men call it "glavantin" when they go out on Saturday night.

You do ok with 3 channels on a B&W TV.

You put ATV tires on the rear of your Poulan lawnmower so it wont get stuck mowing the barn pasture.

Your nickname has nothing to do with your real name or anything you did.

When picking huckleberries you put a joint of stove pipe on each leg to keep away the rattlesnakes.

You know that "mustard" is not only the yellow stuff you put on hot dogs, but that it is a type of green vegetable.

You know what a taw and an aggie and a cat's eye are.

You know what Jack rocks are and what a Jack leg mechanic is.

You know where the jumping-off place is and someone who has gone there.

You know what "wool gathering" means.

You know what "the short rows" are.

You know what it means when your ma is 'fixin to snatch a nappy knot in your behind'

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a "hissy fit" and a "caniption", and that you don't "have" them you "pitch" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., constitutes a "mess" ... and we ain't givin' up our secrets to no Yankees.

Only a Southerner can point out the general direction of "yonder".

Only a Southeren knows exactly how long "directly" is - as in "Going to the store, be back directly".

Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty bowl in the middle of the table.

Only a Southerner knows when "by and by" is. They may not use the term but they know the concept well.

Every Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis they also know to add a large banana puddin'.

Every Southerner grows up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a far piece". They also know that "just down the road" can be one mile or twenty.

Only a Southerner both knows and understands the difference between a redneck, a good ol'boy, and po'white trash.

No true Southerner would assume the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

Every Southerner knows "fixin'," can be used as a noun or a verb.

Southerners make friends while standing in lines. We don't do "qeues", we do "lines" and when we're "in line" we talk to everybody.

Only Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.

Every Southerner knows that eggs, bacon, grits and iced tea are great together: that "red eye" gravy is a breakfast food and that fried green tomatoes are not.

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself a'lookin'," you are honored to be in the presence of a genuine Southerner.

A true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at the little old lady that drives 30mph on the highway. Just just say "Bless her heart" and be on your way.

To all of you that are still having a hard time understanding this Southern stuff: "Bless your hearts." They are a'fixin' to have classes in how to understand the Language of the Gods.

For all those that were NOT born Southern, but have been here a long time need a sign for your front porch that reads, "I ain't originally from the South, but I got here as fast as I could!".

Things I've learned from living in the real world

A backache is Man's greatest labor-saving device.

Inside of every large problem the is a small problem struggling to get out.

Two lessons are to be learned from Bees; One - Not to be idle, Two - Not to get stung.

If you're leading a dog's life, please stay off the furniture.

In an arguement with even one woman, she has you outnumbered.

The most profound commentaries on the human condition are found on the restroom walls.

The raunchiest literary porn is found on the walls in the ladies room.

Do not complain about a fly in your soup because everyone will want one, too.

Peanut butter and chocolate really don't mix.

Humor is to life what shock absorbers are to a car.

If you think you're a person of influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

At 55, everything's starting to click for me - my elbows, my neck, my knees ...

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.

Most times, with free advice, you get exactly what you paid for.

Some people get carried away with their own importance. The trouble is, it's never far enough.

Middle age is usually reckoned at between 40 - 60, or whenever a night on the town takes about 15 minutes.

If you find yourself in a hole, first thing to do is to stop digging.

In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will totally worship him and a cat that will totally ignore him.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

The last one out usually forgets to lock the door.

Pecans in the cemetary

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big old pecan tree just inside the cemetary fence.
One day, two boys filled up a bucket full of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.
"One for you, one for me. One for you and one for me, " said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle.
As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetary.
He slowed down to investigate.
Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."
He just knew what it was.
He jumped back on his bike and rode off.
Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane hobbling along.
"Come here quick," said the boy, "You won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetary dividing up the souls."
The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk."
When the boy insisted, though, the man hobbled slowly to the cementary.
Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me ..."
The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been telling me the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord."
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet we still unable to see anything.
The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. OK ... that's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done."

They say the old man made it back to town a full two minutes ahead of the boy on the bike.

Waking Moments

Waking Moments

---

The trouble with life is that you're halfway through it before you figure out it's a do-it-yourself thing.

Aiming for the lowest common denominator sometimes causes division by zero.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys the same good things for the first time several times.

A couple of months in the lab can often save a couple of hours in the library.

When the last note is played, how will we know?

Some people are wise. Some people are otherwise.

When walking in the dark it is best to stop when your nose touches the wall.

Marsie-does and dosie-does and little lambsie-divies.

Remember it is ... pillage THEN burn!

Silence is the best answer when a woman asks you "Does this dress make me look fat?".

Plane on the highway - Pilot Injured

From the Newswire:

The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed on Interstate 85 in central North Carolina is in critical condition at a local hospital.

The pilot, Richard Fuller of Durham, was the only one on board when the plane crashed Friday night. No other injuries were reported.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the Piper J3 Cub was made in 1947 and registered to Fuller.

The plane went down about 7 p.m. near an airport about 15 miles west of Durham. It wasn't immediately clear if the airplane was trying to reach the runway.

Durham County Sheriff's Capt. Ricky Buchanan says Fuller lives in a subdivision near the airport.

The FAA is investigating the cause of the crash.

The crash occurred near an unrelated tractor-trailer wreck earlier Friday that spilled diesel fuel.

Petty Authorities Rear Their Ugly Heads

And Here It Is:

The first petty 'authority' expressing their peeve at being told they were wrong in the Texas kidnapping of over 400 children.

*****

A plan to begin reuniting parents with more than 400 children removed from a polygamist group's ranch has been thrown into doubt because a judge and the families are clashing over proposed restrictions.

Texas District Judge Barbara Walther has refused to sign an order restoring custody to the parents until they agree to more restrictions than state child-welfare officials have proposed.

Walther was directed by an appeals court to reverse her ruling last month putting all children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch into foster case. The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the appeals court's decision Thursday and rejected the state's argument that all the children were in immediate danger from what it said was a cycle of sexual abuse of teenage girls at the ranch.

This judge and the rest of those 'authorities' involved better be happy with what they've got and hope they don't end up behind bars themselves. But is doesn't appear as if they understand that.

Texas has to give back the kids

More than 400 children removed from a polygamist sect's ranch will be returned to their parents beginning Monday, state officials chastened by a state Supreme Court ruling said Friday as they hammered out an agreement with the families.

The children won't be able to leave Texas but they will be allowed to move back to Yearning For Zion Ranch, where child-welfare officials have alleged that underage girls were pushed into spiritual marriages with older men. The parents say there was no abuse, and two courts ruled that the state overstepped its authority in removing all children from the ranch, from infants to teenagers.

Texas Child Protective Services took custody of the children from the west Texas ranch after a raid nearly two months ago. A court order that a judge restore custody to parents applies to only 124 of the children, but state officials said about 300 others taken under identical circumstances also will be returned.

A draft agreement released by CPS attorney Gary Banks says the parents can get their children back after showing identification and pledging to take parenting classes and remain in Texas.

The agreement was reached with 38 mothers of 124 children who filed the complaint that prompted the Texas Supreme Court's ruling Thursday.

The agreement does not specify that the fathers must stay away, and it allows the children to return to the ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Eldorado, about 40 miles south of San Angelo.

Texas District Judge Barbara Walther made revisions to the deal, and attorneys on both sides were reviewing them Friday afternoon.

The high court affirmed a decision by an appeals court last week and said CPS failed to show an immediate danger to nearly all the children swept up from the ranch.

"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the justices said in their ruling issued in Austin.

The Texas high court let stand the appeals court's order that Texas District Judge Barbara Walther return the children from foster care to their parents within a reasonable time period.

Walther ruled last month that the children should be placed in foster care after a chaotic custody hearing involving hundreds of lawyers representing the individual children and parents.

FLDS elder Willie Jessop said Thursday that parents were excited about the court's decision but would remain apprehensive until they get their children back.

"We're just looking forward to when little children can be in the arms of their parents," he said. "Until you have your children in your hands, there's no relief. But we have hope."

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled last week that the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and had offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children.

The FLDS, which teaches that polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Mormon church, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.

Texas officials claimed at one point that there were 31 teenage girls at the ranch who were pregnant or had been pregnant, but later conceded that about half of those mothers, if not more, were adults. One was 27.

Roughly 430 children from the ranch are in foster care after two births, numerous reclassifications of adult women initially held as minors and a handful of agreements allowing parents to keep custody while the Supreme Court considered the case.

Under state law, children can be taken from their parents if there's a danger to their physical safety, an urgent need for protection and if officials made a reasonable effort to keep the children in their homes. The high court agreed with the appellate court that the seizures fell short of that standard.

The justices said child welfare officials could take numerous actions to protect children short of separating them from their parents and placing them in foster care, and that Walther could put restrictions on the children and parents to address concerns that they may flee once reunited.

Texas authorities, meanwhile, collected DNA swabs Thursday from sect leader Warren Jeffs in an ongoing criminal investigation separate from the custody dispute.

A search warrant for the DNA alleges that Jeffs had "spiritual" marriages with four girls, ages 12 to 15.

Jeffs, who is revered as a prophet, is serving a prison sentence for a Utah conviction of being accomplice to rape in the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to a 19-year-old sect member. He awaits trial in Arizona on similar charges.

Unfortunately for the sect members this isn't over. The state officials who perpetrated this gross miscarriage of authority aren't happy they were called to the carpet for it, so we can expect more from the little ranch in Texas.

Chatter

Today's CHATTER revolves around the bemoaning of tired topics being repetitive ad nauseum on every forum of every stripe.
And you guessed it ... sex topics top the list.

While such topics are fine and dandy they do tend to wear thin and I do wonder why some are obsessed with them. Even this Blog's sister Blog which is more skewed toward just such topics has more there than sex in both a serious and an irreverent vein.

Bemoaning the fact that such topics clog up a forum is a useless exercise, Simply refrain from participating in topics that are not to your liking instead of deriding and complaining about them - it is plain to see that some like them and keep them going.

After sex, 'how do I get (insert whatever here)' topics run a close second with 'why don't they (insert whatever here)' bringing in third place.

That is just how the cookie crumbles folks. Learn to deal with it.

Uncontacted tribe in Amazon

This photo released yesterday depicts members of a tribe in the Amazon rain forest firing arrows at an airplane. Apparently, the tribe has never had any contact with humans outside of their own group. And there are likely many other "uncontacted" tribes in the region too. From National Geographic:

"We are very confident the photos are genuine," said Miriam Ross, a spokesperson for Survival International, which estimates that half of the hundred or so uncontacted tribes in the world live in the rain forests of Brazil and Peru.

Some experts say few, if any, tribes have had no outside contact. It's more likely is that previous generations had negative encounters, prompting social taboos that continue to drive clans deeper into isolation.

Due to their vulnerable immune systems, these groups are highly susceptible to diseases borne by outsiders such as missionaries, loggers, or oil workers.

While this photo may be of what it claims it is there are a few details that lend credence to it not being as it claims such as their wearing of clothing and what appears to be a metallic object near the shelter.

But, the biggest factor is the fact you can see the humans in the photo - not having 'experienced' the modern world and 'airplanes' the survival instinct of the humans of this group would be to hide from such a large and noisy flying animal as the airplane would appear to them rather than show aggression.

One must remember in the wild large and noisy means trouble and no species wants trouble if they can avoid it.

There are an unknown number of human groups living in the Amazon and other regions of the world who we have had no contact with and these people could well be one of those groups ... the National Geographic Society usually is spot on, on such as this and as stated above they feel the photo is real.

But for the reasons I stated I think the people pictured have had some contact - maybe fourth or fifth handed, but contact nonetheless and they weren't that all fired impressed by that contact.

McClellan's book on Bush a hit

The allegations of deceit in Scott McClellan's book have been a surprise not only for Bush officials enraged with the former White House spokesman but also for publishers who turned down what is now the industry's hottest release.

"Books by spokespeople rarely contain anything newsworthy and have generally not proven particularly compelling to consumers," said Steve Ross, publisher of the Collins division of HarperCollins and head of the Crown Publishing Group at Random House Inc. at the time McClellan was offering his manuscript. "It was shopped around but, like others who publish in the category, we didn't even take a meeting based upon past history."

McClellan, a press secretary known for loyally defending President Bush on Iraq, Katrina and other issues, has written that his ex-boss misled the country about Iraq and calls the White House atmosphere "insular, secretive and combative."

"What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" was No. 1 on Amazon.com and the publisher, Public Affairs, said that the printing has been doubled from 65,000 to 130,000.

McClellan's accusations have been met by counter accusations that he is cashing in on his White House access. Bush supporters have criticized him, but so have liberals such as commentator Arianna Huffington.

"It's George Tenet deja vu all over again," Huffington wrote in a posting on her blog, http://www.huffingtonpost.com, referring to the former CIA director who received seven figures for his memoir. "How many times are we going to have a key Bush administration official try to wash the blood off his hands - and add a chunk of change to his bank account - by writing a come-clean book years after the fact ..."

But McClellan's book does not fit the pattern of Washington mega-deals. He was not represented by Washington, D.C., attorney Bob Barnett, whose clients include Tenet and countless political leaders, but by the much less known Craig Wiley, whose most famous client is actor Ron Silver.

McClellan's advance did not approach the level of Barnett's writers. According to an official with knowledge of McClellan's contract - who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the confidentiality of the pact - McClellan received only $75,000 from PublicAffairs, which specializes in policy books by billionaire George Soros, Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus and others.

Rival publishers say they had no sense that McClellan would make such explosive observations, a belief scorned by PublicAffairs founder Peter Osnos.

"Of course they didn't know what would be in it, because they didn't acquire the book," said Osnos, currently in Los Angeles for BookExpo America, publishing's annual national gathering. "Very rarely does a book turn out the way it's expected."

Osnos said he didn't even read the proposal, but instead sought out people who knew McClellan and said they regarded him as an honest man unhappy in his job. According to Osnos, and the book's editor, Lisa Kaufman, "What Happened" evolved as McClellan wrote it.

"The original proposal was somewhat general, so before making an offer on the book we talked to Scott at some length," Kaufman said.

"As Scott says in the preface, writing the book was a process for him. ... The tone was always thoughtful, straightforward, and candid. It's just that as he thought about his experience over many months, that tone began to be directed toward issues and events that some people would rather he not be straightforward and candid about."

*****

Not all that much of a surprise now is it really? We all know there is and have been shenanigans of every stripe going on under and by this administration so when one of those perpetrating those said shenanigans tells us what those shenanigans actually were in lieu of that hairs raised on the back of the neck instinctual feeling we got when we knew something was amiss but could not quite put our finger on it, of course it is a HIT!

The surprise is from those who turned book publishing the book. That and those idiots who are and were up to those said shenanigans, who like all who do so think they will not be found out - funny it never works that way.

Who Knew!

In 1945, John Webber's grandfather, a scrap metal dealer, gave his son a random mug to play with that he had picked up along the way. John always thought it was brass and kept it with a bunch of other random stuff in a shoebox under his bed. Then when John, now 70, was moving out of his home, he decided to have the mug appraised. Turns out, the mug is gold and was made in the third or fourth century BC. It's expected to sell at auction for nearly a million bucks. Antiques Roadshow, eat your heart out! From AFP: Webber... told The Guardian newspaper that his grandfather had a "good eye" for antiques and picked up "all sorts" as he plied his trade in the town of Taunton in south-west England.

"Heaven knows where he got this, he never said," he added, revealing that as a child, he used the cup for target practice with his air gun.

I have got to go check out the stuff in the back of the garage and the corner of the attic now for sure!

The Top 20

TOP 20 FOODS
For Keeping Blood Pressure Down

The top twenty foods for keeping your blood pressure down are:

* Apples
* Apricots
* Avocados
* Bananas
* Broccoli
* Brussel Sprouts
* Cantaloupe
* Corn-On-The-Cob
* Eggplant
* Honeydew Melon
* Nectarines
* Oranges
* Pasta
* Potatoes
* Raisins
* Rice
* Squash
* Unsaturated Oils
* Watermelon
* Fruit Juices (except Tomato)

Foods highlighted in red are also especially low in sodium, high in potassium and low in cholesterol.

Surprised by some of the foods on the list? I was and I wasn't - seeing as how I like most of those foods listed ( you all know of my aversion to Broccoli) and my having low blood pressure - it was 100/60 the other day when I was in severe pain from the back muscles knotting up according to the nurse.
You just can't rile me, even in the most pain I have ever experienced I remained calm, cool and collected, ok, granted the pulse was racing - at a frantic 50 beats per minute.

I have been eating the 'right stuff' all my life. How about you?

Dunkin Donuts

Oh, how the screech monkeys howl!

Dunkin Donuts has pulled and ad featuring that paragon of Islamo-terrorism TV Chef Rachel Ray who according to the screeching monkeys was wearing a keffiyeh.

"The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."

‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons,’’ shrilly blathers Michelle Malkin in her syndicated sewage pit.

Bowing to the noise Dunkin Donuts pulled the ad featuring this photo of Ray who is actually wearing a white scarf with a paisley pattern and long fringe - a Keffiyeh doesn't have fringe by the way, but that minor detail isn't going to stop the screech monkeys.

Also, for the really ignorant - the screech monkeys - what they are referring to as a Keffiyeh is in reality a Shemagh. Dang it, ol' reality just isn't a concept they can get their hands on, now is it?!

Can you hear the laughter? I can, and it is coming from every corner of the globe as the world looks in on these idiots and shakes their heads in bewilderment at their antics.

Functionaries Are ... The Poll(s)

UPDATE

I have an ongoing poll on several forums about how people perceive functionaries.

You know those individuals who fill the meaningless slots in the machinery of modern society and those self anointed individuals "in charge" of whatever, be it the local PTA or neighborhood watch, etc.

Every poll on each forum is running thusly:

A necessary evil. - 40%

The bane of modern society. - 50%

Petty tyrants. - 20%

Clueless drones. - 25%

Give or take a couple of percentage points.

The polls allow for multiple answers so a fuller picture of how we truly view those who are functionaries.

They do not hold up well in the view of the poll's respondents when a full 50% of all respondents think of them as the Bane of Modern Society.

Not surprising is it?

So to all you functionaries out there - take heed, we do not necessarily like you, we tolerate you and in some cases distinctly dislike you such as the prig insisting on enforcing property standards to the letter and beyond in the community where you live or the holier than thou one who demands all say, do and believe as they tell you to.

For all the functionaries who actually perform a real 'function' needed for modern society's continued existence ... sorry, but you are painted with the same brush as the self anointed ones and they make an ugly picture.

Number 600

That's right, 600 Posts.
9,517 Regular Readers.

Not bad, not bad at all for a little ol'Blog that's not quite 0ne year old - and one with a hiatus of a few months when I was busy with a thing called a Life.

Eschewing the staid format of most blogs has been a boon here, where readers expect to be made to think even if it is just for a moment and just for hilarity's sake ... not everything is a matter of supreme urgency and carries dire consequences although some would think that the way they behave.

A quick perusal of the Friends list will testify to the diverse and growing group of individuals who make up it's readers and fans.

Thought for the Day

"What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding?"

~ Elvis Costello

Anguished Haters Lash Out

[Quote]

By Gordon Smith

If you read the comments at the Asheville Citizen-Times, you’re already aware that Barack Obama is an Islamic apostate who may be a mooslim, that he’s BFF with terrorists from Hamas to Weather Underground, and that he Hates white people. As a regular participant in the lowly AC-T forums, I’ve come to expect the worst sorts of smear tactics from zealous, frothy-mouthed shut-ins.

This sort of poison is rippling across the internet and talk radio, lapping at the harried shores of truck stops, diners, and dive bars. It’s infecting the subtext of this Presidential contest with racism, xenophobia, and Christian Nationalism.

The people responsible for propagating lies and smears like these aren’t big John McCain supporters either - they’re Republicans staggering about, eyes-wide, incredulous and angry that their movement conservatism failed so mightily under the hand of Bush and Cheney. They liked the “with us or against us” rhetoric. They applauded when Freedom Fries went onto the menu on Capitol Hill. Saddam’s spider hole was a visceral thrill, and hating the Dixie Chicks was an exercise in loyalty and conviction. After years of being at the bottom of the political heap, it was their time to shine.

Now only 20-odd percent of Americans believe George W. is a good President. Over half of those who voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 are now faced with a terrible reality - They were wrong. Now they’re going to lash out at the presumed Democratic nominee with a cynical, nihilistic fervor. It’s not as though they admire or even like John McCain. He’s the mockery of their last hope that a ‘real’ conservative would step up and prove that they hadn’t married their identities to a failed set of ideas. They are distraught, even grossly impaired. In their anguish they build a mythology steeped in the sense that the world is so out of control that even their most hyperbolic exhortations might just be true.

[End Quote]

Yeah, what he said!

The troubling thing is it is not a small isolated cluster of troglodytes regurgitating bile in the local newspaper but the similar small clusters of low-brows regurgitating bile in dark corners across the nation. But the good thing about it now is as Red Rider put it:

Lunatic Fringe, we know your out there ... and we're not going to let you steal the laughter this time.

Latissimus Dorsi

Latissimus dorsi

Them's fancy words for the large muscle in the back.

In all my years of sports, soldiering, work, play and living in general I have never have it 'catch' like it did last night. I haven't been to sleep since 0430 yesterday morning, even a bullet didn't hurt as much as my back did last night for no good reason.

Went to the family doctor and when I got there they had pulled the Mrs., chart - you know the one that takes a forklift to lift and is thicker that War and Peace in Russian in Braille and that's just volume one of it - instead of mine - the one that a slight breeze would blow away, I don't make it to the doctor all that much - and had to wait while they went to the lower vault to look under the mountain of dust and cobwebs there to find it ... like I said I don't make it to the doctor all that much because I am rarely ill, but when I am ... I am!

The result of this visit is I am in no more pain at the moment ... good drugs will do it every time. In fact I do not feel my back at all, it's like it is literally not there. Of course as Pink Floyd once said my hands feel like lead balloons.

Word to the wise: Don't ever pull your Latissimus dorsi!

White House 'puzzled' by ex-spokesman's book bashing Bush

The White House Wednesday said it was "puzzled" by a former spokesman's memoir in which he accuses the Bush administration of being mired in propaganda and political spin and at times playing loose with the truth.

In excerpts from a 341-page book to be released Monday, Scott McClellan writes on the war in Iraq that Bush "and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war."

"[I]n this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security," McClellan wrote.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called McClellan's description of his time at the White House "sad."

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," Perino said. "For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew."

McClellan's former White House colleagues had harsher reactions to McClellan's book.

Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to Bush, said advisers to the president should speak up when they have policy concerns.

"Scott never did that on any of these issues as best I can remember or as best as I know from any of my White House colleagues," said Townsend, now a CNN contributor. "For him to do this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional."

Fox News contributor and former White House adviser Karl Rove said on that network Tuesday that the excerpts from the book he's read sound more like they were written by a "left-wing logger" than his former colleague.

Rove declined to comment to CNN after the Fox News interview.

In a brief phone conversation with CNN Tuesday evening, McClellan made clear that he stands behind the accuracy of his book. McClellan said he cannot give on-the-record quotes yet because of an agreement with his publisher.

Another former Bush aide-turned-critic says the reaction to McClellan's book by his former colleagues has a familiar ring to it.

"They're saying some of the exact same things about McClellan they said about me," Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief, told CNN.

Clarke left government in 2003. The following year, he accused President Bush of ignoring warnings about the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and of using the attacks to push for war with Iraq.

But Clarke gave McClellan little credit for speaking out now.

"I think the difference with McClellan's book is he's now telling us something we all know -- that the war with Iraq was a disastrous war [and] was sold with deception. It's a little different when you say something as I did and a few other people did four or five years ago, when the war was popular and when we were unpopular for saying what we said."

Besides his criticism of how the administration handled the run-up to the Iraq war, McClellan also sharply criticizes the administration on its handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in the book.

"One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency," he wrote. "Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush's second term."

Early in the book, which CNN obtained late Tuesday, McClellan wrote that he believes he told untruths on Bush's behalf in the case of CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked to the media.

Rove and fellow White House advisers Elliot Abrams and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were accused of leaking the name of Plame -- whose husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, had gone public with charges the Bush administration had "twisted" facts to justify the war in Iraq.

Libby was convicted last year of lying to a grand jury and federal agents investigating the leak. Bush commuted his 30-month prison term, calling it excessive. At the time, McClellan called the three "good individuals" and said he spoke to them before telling reporters they were not involved.

"I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood," he wrote. "It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively."

McClellan wrote he didn't realize what he said was untrue until reporters began digging up details of the case almost two years later.

A former spokesman for Bush when he was governor of Texas, McClellan was named White House press secretary in 2003, replacing Ari Fleischer. McClellan had previously been a deputy press secretary and was the traveling spokesman for the Bush campaign during the 2000 election.

He announced he was resigning in April 2006 at a news conference with Bush.

"One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas talking about the good old days of his time as the press secretary," Bush said at that conference. "And I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done."

_______

From CNN

*****

Personally I do not see how they could possibly be "puzzled" any one telling the truth is 'bashing' the shrub.

Out of the Ether

Well, I have been informed that some were concerned at the dearth of comments here and lookie what happens three comments in one day - whoo-whoo!
These same misguided souls were concerned about this blog's page ranking as well and depending on which page ranker you consult it ranks from 0 to 9.8 on the 0 to 10 scale.

When I actually don't have a life I will be concerned with such things.

It seems right-wingers are just stupid period.

Minister left classified NATO documents

The Canadian foreign minister who resigned this week for a security breach had left classified documents about a NATO summit at the home of his ex-girlfriend, the government said Tuesday.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it appeared that no confidential information had gotten out.

The foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, resigned Monday after leaving the documents at the home of Julie Couillard, who has generated controversy for past ties to members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in Quebec. Harper called Bernier's security breach a "serious error."

Biker gangs have long gained attention in the French-speaking province and have been accused of trying to extend their influence to the government and the courts.

Conservative lawmaker Peter Van Loan said Tuesday that the documents were a mix of classified and public documents relating to the April NATO summit in Romania where Canada sought reinforcements for troops in Afghanistan.

"Thus far we have no information that would suggest that any secrets have been revealed," Harper said in Paris. He said the incident would be reviewed.

Bernier wrote in his letter of resignation that he learned Sunday night that he had left behind classified documents at a private residence.

"Prime Minister, the security breach that occurred was my fault and my fault alone and I take full responsibility for my actions," Bernier wrote.

Couillard said she contacted a lawyer five weeks after he left the documents at her home in April. Couillard's lawyer returned them to the government on Sunday.

In an interview broadcast Monday, she denied ever reading the documents, saying "it was definitely not for my eyes."

"I was panicked by the fact that I had that at my house," Couillard said.

Opposition parties demanded that the government explain how it took them five weeks to realize the classified documents were missing. Opposition Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Harper showed "appalling lack of judgment" for dismissing security concerns over Bernier's involvement with a woman with past ties to gang members, and called for a public inquiry.

But Harper said that Bernier's resignation has put an end to the matter. He named David Emerson, the international trade minister, to serve as interim foreign minister.

"As we've said, private lives are private lives and the government of Canada does not intend to get into the business of investigating private citizens," Harper said. "This has nothing to do with Madame Couillard. This was the unfortunate error, the unfortunate actions of the minister that are at issue here."

Bernier first drew the attention of Canadians when he appeared at his swearing-in ceremony in August with the provocatively dressed Couillard on his arm. Her former links to Hells Angels did not become public until recently.

Couillard had lived with Gilles Giguere, a well-known Montreal crime figure for three years beginning in 1993, who had ties to Maurice Boucher, the now-jailed leader of the Hells Angels in Quebec. Giguere was shot to death in 1996 when he decided to become a police informer after being arrested with a cache of submachine-guns and marijuana.

She later married Stephane Sirois, who admitted to being an enforcer for a Hells Angels-affiliated biker club. He later turned informant and testified against a dozen of his former colleagues in a 2002 trial. The two divorced in 1999.

The former model said she had never done anything wrong and never been convicted of any crime. She said she told Bernier about her involvement with Quebec bikers shortly after she began dating him in the summer of 2007.

"I am definitely not a biker's chick," she said.

*****

Of course at least this right-winger preferred adult females, but then again he is Canadian, so I guess there are some regional differences - our home grown wing-nuts prefer underage boys!

World's Anus

Finally found where all the Neo/Theo-Cons are going!

The world does have an anus after all!
Click on the photo to see what it means.

Film director Sydney Pollack has passed away.

The great film director, producer, and actor Sydney Pollack died today at 73 years of age, at his home in Southern California. Here is an obituary. I met him a ways back at a SAG convention. He had some truly inspired ideas about narrative in the digital age, and the clash between old Hollywood vs. new.

Houseplants to fight toxins

Stuff like tricloroethylene, formaldehyde, and benzene can be really toxic. Yet they're commonly found right in your house. Fortunately, adding some common houseplants to your surroundings can apparently help clean up the toxins. Friends at GOOD Magazine posted a useful charticle showing where the compounds tend to rear their ugly heads and the common plants that can act as, er, toxic avengers. Link

We could have colonized Mars with the money we spent on the Iraq war -- what else could we do?

An open conversation on other things we could have bought with the money wasted in Iraq: for example, we could have sent a colony of over 500 astronauts to Mars, provided modern nuclear power to the USA and shut down its coal plants, built modern cities for 600,000,000 Chinese people to live in, and so on:

For $6Tn we could buy a lot of juice — a quarter of our global civilization's energy budget would go carbon-neutral at a stroke. (Yes, we just solved our carbon dioxide emissions problem by switching to a nuclear economy.) This probably isn't the ideal way of dealing with our environmental problems, and it's a naive treatment of the costs (has anyone done a proper treatment of the economic implications of shifting the planet over to a nuclear economy, say to the same extent as France?) but it's thought-provoking.

Finally, there's all the other little stuff we could solve by pointing $513Bn at it, never mind $6000Bn. Eliminating childhood diseases in South-East Asia? Piffle — Bill and Melinda Gates are trying to do that out of their pocket lint. Build first-world grade housing in shiny new cities for 600 million Chinese peasants, nearly a tenth of the planetary population? Yes, this budget will cover that. What else?

Yes, I'm asking you: what would you do with the cost of the Iraq war (take your pick: $513Bn or $6000Bn) in your budget? Colonise Mars? Solve our carbon emission problem and fix global warming? House half a billion people? Or something else ...?

(And what isn't going to happen now, because we pissed it all away on the desert sands?)

*****

Yeah, what he said!

Call Out The Dogs

Call Out The Dogs! There's some nefarious doings afoot!

Chunk of Stonehenge stolen

Last week, two men hammered off a coin-sized chip of Stonehenge and also left a scratch several inches long on the megalithic ruin's Heel Stone. You'd think this kind of thing would happen frequently but apparently it's the first act of vandalism there in decades.

"Thanks to the vigilance and quick action of the security team at Stonehenge, very minimal damage was caused," said a spokeswoman for English Heritage.

"A tiny chip was taken from the north side of the Heel Stone with a screwdriver and hammer, but as soon as the two men were spotted by security guards they escaped over the fence and drove off.

"This is now a matter for the police," she added.

Global Warming Facts

Freeman Dyson on global warming

Freeman Dyson, professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, reviewed two books about global warming for the New York Review of Books. His lengthy review is loaded with fascinating insights and ideas. Here's one highlight:

At this point I return to the Keeling graph, which demonstrates the strong coupling between atmosphere and plants. The wiggles in the graph show us that every carbon dioxide molecule in the atmosphere is incorporated in a plant within a time of the order of twelve years. Therefore, if we can control what the plants do with the carbon, the fate of the carbon in the atmosphere is in our hands. That is what Nordhaus meant when he mentioned "genetically engineered carbon-eating trees" as a low-cost backstop to global warming. The science and technology of genetic engineering are not yet ripe for large-scale use. We do not understand the language of the genome well enough to read and write it fluently. But the science is advancing rapidly, and the technology of reading and writing genomes is advancing even more rapidly. I consider it likely that we shall have "genetically engineered carbon-eating trees" within twenty years, and almost certainly within fifty years.

Carbon-eating trees could convert most of the carbon that they absorb from the atmosphere into some chemically stable form and bury it underground. Or they could convert the carbon into liquid fuels and other useful chemicals. Biotechnology is enormously powerful, capable of burying or transforming any molecule of carbon dioxide that comes into its grasp. Keeling's wiggles prove that a big fraction of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes within the grasp of biotechnology every decade. If one quarter of the world's forests were replanted with carbon-eating varieties of the same species, the forests would be preserved as ecological resources and as habitats for wildlife, and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be reduced by half in about fifty years.

It is likely that biotechnology will dominate our lives and our economic activities during the second half of the twenty-first century, just as computer technology dominated our lives and our economy during the second half of the twentieth. Biotechnology could be a great equalizer, spreading wealth over the world wherever there is land and air and water and sunlight. This has nothing to do with the misguided efforts that are now being made to reduce carbon emissions by growing corn and converting it into ethanol fuel. The ethanol program fails to reduce emissions and incidentally hurts poor people all over the world by raising the price of food. After we have mastered biotechnology, the rules of the climate game will be radically changed. In a world economy based on biotechnology, some low-cost and environmentally benign backstop to carbon emissions is likely to become a reality.

Biking By The Rules

Remember those old serial news/training films we had to watch in school back in the day? Well, here's one ...

The Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth.



Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.



And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.



I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.


Robert Frost........

Notable Nudists

The following is a list of notable persons who have embraced nudism.
It is a growing list ...



John Quincy Adams
Christina Aguilera
Jennifer Aniston
Fiona Apple

Kevin Bacon
Oksana Baiul
Josephine Baker
Eric Balfour
Kylie Bax
Drew Barrymore
David Beckham
Victoria Adams Beckham
Amanda Beard
Jack Black
Lara Flynn Boyle
Kevin Brauche
Jimmy Buffett
Robert Burns
Gene Burton

Winston Churchill
Kelly Clarkson
Nadia Comaneci
Billy Connolly
Cindy Crawford

Johnny Depp
Athena Demos
Alan Dershowitz
Cameron Diaz
Dido
Isadora Duncan
Erica Durance

Marianne Faithful
Ralph Fiennes
Colin Farrel
Ralph Fiennes
Colin Fletcher
Flea
Bridget Fonda
Peter Fonda
Matthew Fox
Jamie Foxx
Benjamin Franklin

Eva Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Gerald Gardner
Ian Gillian
Jeff Goldblum
Cuba Gooding Jr
Amy Grant
Macy Gray
Spalding Gray

Linda Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Daryl Hannah
Woody Harrelson
Melissa Joan Hart
PJ Harvey
Goldie Hawn
Robert A. Heinlein
Ernest Hemingway
Margaux Hemingway
Mariel Hemingway
Alfred Hitchcock
Paris Hilton
Fiona Horne
Kate Hudson
Kate Humble
Elizabeth Hurley
Angelica Huston

Enrique Igelsias
Julio Iglesias
Natalie Imbruliga

Hugh Jackman
Janet Jackson
Jade Jagger
Famke Janssen
Lyndon Johnson
Raul Julia

Nicole Kidman
Kiera Knightly
Olga Korbut
Heidi Klum

Avril Lavigne
Lucy Lawless
Heath Ledger
Hyapatia Lee
Lindsay Lohan
Jennifer Lopez
Mario Lopez
Peter Lupus

Andie MacDowell

Matthew McConaughey
Ewan McGregor
Sir Ian McKellen
Sarah McLachlan
Patrick McNee
Elle McPherson

Madonna
Barry Manilow
James Mason
Eva Mendes
Christopher Meloni
Helen Mirren
Demi Moore
Alanis Morrisette
Kate Moss

Jack Nicholson

Patrick "Tip" O'Neal
George Orwell

Paloma Picasso
Pink
Brad Pitt
Sidney Pollock

Sheryl Lee Ralph
Daniel Ratcliffe
Keanu Reeves
Lynn Regrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Tara Reid
Fred Rogers
Sara Rue

Claudia Schiffer
Seal
Jerry Seinfeld
Shakira
George Bernard Shaw
Sherri Shepherd
Alicia Silverstone
Jessica Simpson
Rod Sirling
Britney Spears
Princess Stephanie of Monaco
Patrick Stewart
Joss Stone

Emma Thompson
Henry David Thoreau
Justin Timberlake
Leeann Tweedon

Vince Vaughn

Robbie Williams
Bruce Willis
Walt Whitman
Katrina Witt

Xuxu

Adrian Young

Expert of Dumb

While speaking to a friend today he announced he has become an Expert of Dumb. When I asked him what he meant by that statement he replied that having to deal with the public face to face on a daily basis at his work he has in fact become the premier Expert of Dumb.

He works in a grocery store and gave some examples of the dumbness of the public he deals with daily - this is a high-end specialty grocery store and not a 'Big Chain' store so it would be safe to say the clientèle are a bit above average or maybe they are not. In the past few days over the holiday weekend he has had one gap-toothed individual ask for the gourmet burgers advertised in the paper only he pronounced the words like this: them gore-met burgarz that was abertized, another lady (or at least a female anyway) asking for Fillet Mignon as Fill-lets Mag-none.

I agreed with him, he has become a bona fide Expert of Dumb having to deal with people all day everyday and these two prime examples of the public mean.

Thought for the Day

Why is it that those who indulge in childish games always think everyone else indulges in them as well?

Drugged, Robbed then Killed in Rome

From the Newswire:

An American tourist was killed by a train as he walked on the tracks in a daze after he drank a cappuccino laced with drugs and then was robbed, railway police said Monday.

Frank Phel, 74, of California, died early Friday at the suburban Tiburtina station, police official Giovanni Piccolantonio said. Phel's hometown was not disclosed.

The suspected robber, a 54-year-old Italian man who was arrested Saturday, had chatted with Phel and his wife before fetching them cappuccinos at a local cafe and then adding a mix of drugs including sleeping pills, Piccolantonio said.

"This man approached these two tourists and earned their trust, and then offered them two cappuccinos with drugs," Piccolantonio said.

The robbery was filmed by security cameras at a nearby cafe, Piccolantonio said. Footage from other cameras also showed the man stumbling near the tracks, where he ended up by accident.

Phel and his wife, who was briefly hospitalized after the incident, had just completed a cruise in the Mediterranean and were going to Hungary by bus, Piccolantonio said.

Phel's wife went to Hungary, where her husband was born, after being released from hospital.

The U.S. Embassy in Rome did not have an immediate comment Monday on Phel's death.

Warren Buffett: America Is Already In A Recession!

Warren Buffett, whose business and investment acumen has made him one of the world's wealthiest men, was quoted in an interview published Sunday as saying the U.S. economy is already in a recession.

Asked by Germany's Der Spiegel weekly whether he thinks the U.S. could still avoid a recession, he said that as far as the average person is concerned, it is already here.

"I believe that we are already in a recession," Buffet was quoted as saying. "Perhaps not in the sense as defined by economists. ... But people are already feeling the effects of a recession."

"It will be deeper and longer than what many think," he added.

The 77-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. gave the interview while he was in Europe for what he called a "deferred shopping tour," looking for possible acquisitions.

Omaha-based Berkshire has about $35 billion in cash and is looking to invest. Berkshire's subsidiaries include insurance, clothing, furniture, natural gas, corporate jet and candy companies. Berkshire also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co. and Anheuser-Busch Cos.

Rally Cry of Freedom

"...for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honors that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

This excerpt from the Scottish "Declaration of Independence" is the most remembered line of the declaration which predates the United States Declaration of Independence by 400 years.

It is appropriate rally cry for those in the United States today who will not submit to rule by the Neo/Theo-Con cabal. A rallying cry that is being heard and heard clearly, so much so the Neo/Theo-Con cabal is shitting themselves trying to disappear fast enough and the nation and the world are loving every minute of it.

We Lost Another One!

We lost another one ...

Dick Martin, the zany half of the comedy team whose "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catch-phrases as "Sock it to me!" has died. He was 86.

Martin, who went on to become one of television's busiest directors after splitting with Dan Rowan in the late 1970s, died Saturday night of respiratory complications at a hospital in Santa Monica, family spokesman Barry Greenberg said.

"He had had some pretty severe respiratory problems for many years, and he had pretty much stopped breathing a week ago," Greenberg said.

Martin had lost the use of one of his lungs as a teenager, and needed supplemental oxygen for most of the day in his later years.

He was surrounded by family and friends when he died just after 6 p.m., Greenberg said.

"Laugh-in," which debuted in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it. Rather than relying on a series of tightly scripted song-and-dance segments, it offered up a steady, almost stream-of-consciousness run of non-sequitur jokes, political satire and madhouse antics from a cast of talented young actors and comedians that also included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley and announcer Gary Owens.

Presiding over it all were Rowan and Martin, the veteran nightclub comics whose standup banter put their own distinct spin on the show.

Like all straight men, Rowan provided the voice of reason, striving to correct his partner's absurdities. Martin, meanwhile, was full of bogus, often risque theories about life, which he appeared to hold with unwavering certainty.

Against this backdrop, audiences were taken from scene to scene by quick, sometimes psychedelic-looking visual cuts, where they might see Hawn, Worley and other women dancing in bathing suits with political slogans, or sometimes just nonsense, painted on their bodies. Other times, Gibson, clutching a flower, would recite nonsensical poetry or Johnson would impersonate a comical Nazi spy.

"Laugh-In" astounded audiences and critics alike. For two years the show topped the Nielsen ratings, and its catchphrases_ "Sock it to me," "You bet your sweet bippy" and "Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall's" - were recited across the country.

Stars such as John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were delighted to make brief appearances, and even Richard Nixon, running for president in 1968, dropped in to shout a befuddled sounding, "Sock it to me!" His opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, was offered equal time but declined because his handlers thought it would appear undignified.

Rowan and Martin landed the show just as their comedy partnership was approaching its zenith and the nation's counterculture was expanding into the mainstream.

The two were both struggling actors when they met in 1952. Rowan had sold his interest in a used car dealership to take acting lessons, and Martin, who had written gags for TV shows and comedians, was tending bar in Los Angeles to pay the rent.

Rowan, hearing Martin was looking for a comedy partner, visited him at the bar, where he found him eating a banana.

"Why are you eating a banana?" he asked.

"If you've ever eaten here, you'd know what's with the banana," he replied, and a comedy team was born.

Although their early gigs in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley were often performed gratis, they donned tuxedos for them and put on an air of success.

"We were raw," Martin recalled years later, "but we looked good together and we were funny."

They gradually worked up to the top night spots in New York, Miami and Las Vegas and began to appear regularly on television.

In 1966, they provided the summer replacement for "The Dean Martin Show." Within two years, they were headlining their own show.

The novelty of "Laugh-In" diminished with each season, however, and as major players such as Hawn and Tomlin moved on to bigger careers, interest in the series faded.

After the show folded in 1973, Rowan and Martin capitalized on their fame with a series of high-paid engagements around the country. They parted amicably in 1977.

"Dan has diabetes, and his doctor advised him to cool it," Martin told The Associated Press at the time.

Rowan, a sailing enthusiast, spent his last years touring the canals of Europe on a houseboat. He died in 1987.

Martin moved onto the game-show circuit, but quickly tired of it. After he complained about the lack of challenges in his career, fellow comic Bob Newhart's agent suggested he take up directing.

He was reluctant at first, but after observing on "The Bob Newhart Show," he decided to try. He would recall later that it was "like being thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool and being told to sink or swim."

Soon he was one of the industry's busiest TV directors, working on numerous episodes of "Newhart" as well as such shows as "In the Heat of the Night," "Archie Bunker's Place" and "Family Ties."

Born into a middle-class family in Battle Creek, Mich., Martin had worked in a Ford auto assembly plant after high school.

After an early failed marriage, he was for years a confirmed bachelor. He finally settled down in middle age, marrying Dolly Read, a former bunny at the Playboy Club in London. Survivors include his wife and two sons, actor Richard Martin and Cary Martin.

At Martin's request there will be no funeral, Greenberg said.

Martin lost the use of his right lung when he was 17, something that never bothered him until his final years, when he required oxygen 18 hours a day.

Arriving for a party celebrating his 80th birthday, he fainted and was treated by doctors and paramedics. The party continued, however, and he cracked, "Boy, did I make an entrance!"

You bet your sweet Bippy you did! Goodbye Dick.