Hospital Tech must have been hungry.

Indianapolis, IN:


A three year old boy (pictured), was getting a blood test to test for lead due to the toy recalls when the technician drawing the blood took a bite out of him. You heard me, took a bite out of him.

The hospital discharged the tech (and should fire the subcontracting firm she actually works for), and are 'reviewing' procedures.

A police report was filed.

There has been a mistrial.

Hollywood, CA:

Just in case anyone is still paying attention the judge in the Phil Spector murder trial has declared a mistrial and Phil is a free man until or if the prosecutors bring new evidence and seek a new trial.

This will put you off BBQ for a while!

Maiden, NC:

Imagine finding a smoker BBQ like you always wanted - at an antique auction and real cheap - you'd be ecstatic right?!

That is just what a man in Maiden, NC felt when he found a smoker BBQ at just such a place.

Then he looked inside when he got it home.

Inside was a severed human foot with a large part of the lower leg still attached to it.

Needless to say the man called police, who came and took the foot and began an investigation as to why the smoker BBQ had a human foot in it and whose foot it was.

That investigation is on going.

Now, even I don't want to eat BBQ for a while ...

Trivial Things

Here are some things that could win you that next Trivia Contest at the local Pub on night.

Question: Smack and sampan are types of what?

Answer: They are types of boats.

Daily Funny

A bird in the hand is always safer than one overhead!

Big Catch

In what seems like it is right out of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Beneath The Sea ...

Fishermen in New Zealand have caused a lot of excitement among the world's scientists over their recent catch- a 990 pound, 33 foot long adult colossal squid.
The squid, caught off the south coast of New Zealand, is believed to be the largest specimen ever found.
"This is going to draw phenomenal interest," said Steve O'Shea, a squid expert at the Auckland University of Technology.

Giant Squid are estimated to grow up to 46 feet (18 meters) long and are considered some of the most mysterious sea creatures in existence. Imagine what a Colossal Squid could grow to!
Normally found in Antarctic waters, this specimen has been sent to New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa, for scientific study.

To get an idea of the size of the squid take a look at the diagram to the right.

Shades of Jules Verne is right!

Scientists have long figured the existence of the Giant Squid from the numerous carcasses in Sperm Whales stomachs and recently - in the past decade or so have seen that 'figuring' become reality - the speculation that the 'Giants' had even bigger 'cousins' was been around for just as long - if not longer.
Ancient tales of sea monsters may have more than a grain of truth to them and look when Verne was writing his novels ... they weren't written last night.

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Thanks everyone!

Head Lines

1) Micheal Vick and his three co-defendants have been indicted by the state of Virginia on state charges stemming from the dog fighting taking place in Virginia.

2) Bill O'Rielly steps in it again ... racist that he is.

3) UAW strike against GM may actually help GM and hurt UAW.

4) Polygamist Warren Jeffs was convicted on sex charges.

5) DeAngelo Hall will face fines, suspension or both by the Falcons.

And I Quote

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

~ Hermann Hesse

Confused say ...

Man who warms house with oven has a blast ...

For Six Bucks

Getting a $3,000.00 dress for the Mrs., for $6.00. Yep, that's right only $6.00. How you ask?

By having friends who make clothing and being cheap and finding material for a dollar a yard ... and no cheap stuff either, normally it was $125.00 a yard. With the labor and jewels sewn into it it would be a multiple thousand dollar dress.

O.K., so it is a dress for the RenFaire and as such it won't be worn out to the Governor's Fall Ball but it is an Aresaide so it will be worn to the Highland games after the Faire.

I just love the fact that it will make a couple of 'ladies' (and I use the term loosely), extremely jealous - they need to be taken down quite a few pegs anyway.

With her new dress the Mrs., and I with my new Doublet and boots will make a splash - as long as the breeze doesn't pick up and lift my kilt before I can catch it ... that would make an even bigger splash!

Daily Funny

Haywood County Claims Eleven More?

Eight Boy Scouts and three of their leaders are missing after a weekend camping trip into the mountains of Haywood county, NC.

Could Haywood county have claimed eleven more in a series of - a centuries long series - disappearances in the deep forests and steep ravines of that wilderness mountain region?

The area is very popular with campers, hikers and the like, and is a wonderful place to go and see the natural world at its most natural - as the saying goes 'there are places there that no white man has ever seen' ... even to this day in Haywood county.

Most people go and have a wonderful time there, even in the 'wilder' areas, but very few people today have the skills to survive completely in the wilds and if they get lost deep in the glens and glades or misstep and fall into a deep gorge in the area, it all but impossible to be found ... except by foot as the rescuers literally 'luck up and stumble up on to you' otherwise they join the list of the permanently disappeared.

Let's hope the rescuers are lucky and find these eleven missing people. Preferably alive.

Daily Funny

And I Quote

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only at night.

~ Edgar Allan Poe

Jena

I haven't posted anything about he events in Jena until now.

The entire soap opera is a sick joke from the very beginning - everyone involved has been in the wrong as I see it. This includes the White side and the Black side, from the 'white tree' to the beatings, to the police and prosecutors, to the courts and the protesters. From every 'side' at every point all have been wrong.

The current wrinkle in the saga is the use of a 'white supremist' website "inviting" its readers to call and harass the families of the defendants - which is a bit childish and eighth grade-ish to begin with and illegal to boot.

There should not be any defendants in the first place ... at least not in criminal court - the ones involved in the series of events should have been expelled from the school (both the noose hangers and the beaters), for their actions and left to cool their heels in an alternative learning environment.

Instead the noose hangers were 'let off' with a couple of days suspension and the beaters were jailed in what amounts to a massive knee-jerk over-reaction - which as it was for the hangers for the 'offense' of sitting under a tree and for the reaction to the nooses the hangers left there. [I know that those of African American heritage are a tad more sensitive about "nooses", but still , the reaction was way over the top].

When will people grow up?

Sharpton and Jackson need to shut up as well, they are not helping to end the 'divide' - their livelihood depends on that 'divide' so don't count on their helping any but themselves ... and that goes for the 'children' over at whatever/wherever that 'white supremist' website is and their lackys and syncophants as well as the lackys and syncophants of Sharpton and Jackson.

Carolina Panthers Beat Atlanta

The Panthers beat the Falcons today. Bringing their record to 2 and 1 - it should be 3 and 0 but for some strange reason the panthers forgot to show up for last weeks game.

Three weeks into the season and a few things are beginning to shake out ... like the good teams are beginning to actually play well and the bad teams are reverting to form - not 100% yet, but the signs are there

User tax and the price of gas.

Ever wonder what goes into making the price of gas so high? O.K., other than pure unadulterated greed.

Petroleum companies make $20,000 profit off a barrel of oil - not including the 'waste by-product' gasoline - so the cost of a barrel of oil isn't the reason no matter how the petroleum companies and the handmaidens ... our government and media ... try and sell us on it.

Come on folks they make at least 20K per barrel and they are bemoaning and lamenting the price of a barrel going to $100.00 ... seems to me that, that crumpet will have to wait until the price per barrel drops while they are having that three martini lunch seeing as how they can't afford the price of that pastry for dessert!

But on to the 'reason' for this post: User Tax.

Do you know what that is? Did you know each state (as well as the feds) tack on a user tax per gallon of gas you buy? Each state uses the 'monies' differently (most use it on road building projects with a pittance toward maintaining those roads), so where does you state fall on the tax scale?

The highest is New York @ 60.8 cents on the gallon and Alaska is the lowest @ 26.4 cents on the gallon. North Carolina @ 48.6 cents sits right in the middle while @ 35.2 cents South Carolina sits among the lower taxed states.

But user taxes aren't the only reason because the highest gas prices are in California where the user tax is among the high taxed states it is not the highest taxed state, so what gives in California?

As to the federal user tax, if I am not mistaken it is in the neighborhood of 10 cents a gallon. So factor in that along with the state user taxes and some locality user taxes (on average 2 cents per gallon) the highest amount is New York's 70.8 cents per gallon.

What is gas in New York 3.50US a gallon? That leaves $2.80 in the price of gas at the pump where on average 50 cent goes to the location (the actual gas station) leaving $2.30 for the petroleum company ... whose cost to manufacture is zero - remember gas is a waste by-product - so if we allow the very generous amount of 30 cents per gallon for storage, transportation, advertising and political lobbying that leaves the petroleum company with a pure profit of $2.00 per gallon.

Petroleum companies produce 1,000,000 gallons of gas per day ... you do the math.

Poll Numbers

I happened to noticed a trend in the numbers of recent polls on various topics ... they are running eerily similar. This goes across the board.

As most thinking people know political polls have been running a steady 70% against the current cabal on everything including a 70 to 30 split disapproving of the commuting of "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence with 18,577 people responding to that poll.

But take a look at two other polls recently completed.

With 17,664 people responding to a poll asking if they thought Micheal Vick's football career was over 70% said yes 30% said no.

With 20,389 people responding to a poll asking if Harry Potter books should be banned from school libraries 72% said no and 28% said yes.

The same 70-30 split. Our nation is speaking volumes and loudly here but the 30% aren't listening, they have 'their' boy in and can not see reality when it is staring them in the face.

One recent poll however DID break with the trend ... when asked if they would buy an IPod now that the price had dropped to below $200.00US: 21,442 people responded and 95% said no - so not all of us are as dumb as a few of us, it's just the dumb ones really make a lot of squeeky type noises.

Conservative District My Arse

Was just reading where a politico was spouting that Western Carolina is a conservative district and should be represented by a conservative in congress.

Horse hockey. There is a reason a Liberal is representing Western Carolina in congress you know. And that reason isn't that the area is any sort of conservative quite the opposite the area is very Liberal and individualistic.

To be fair, it is that individualism that can be misconstrued by those of weak minds and microscopic cognizant abilities.

It is always amusing to hear such drivel from those who do not live here or are new comers to the area.

With the exception of a cluster of troglodytes in the city of Charlotte (which has ever been out of touch with reality - they supported and comforted the British during the War for Independence ... the area's 'nickname' of "Hornet's Nest" was given to the area by Cornwallis as he hid in Charlotte from the surrounding area Scotsmen who had no love for him or the British and who forced him to flee to Yorktown - the rest they say is history), the area is steadfastly Liberal.

But the equally if not more so steadfastness of the individuality of the local native population (primarily Scots and Scots/Irish with some odd German and Native American thrown in), proves to be puzzling to those unfamiliar with the area - as evidenced by the spouting 'conservative' which prompted this post.