Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Daily Funny

A burglar broke into a house and was skulking as silently as he could when he heard a voice say "Jesus is watching".

He stopped dead in his tracks and listened. A minute went by and he heard nothing, so he started to move again. "Jesus is watching", came the voice in the dark.

His eyes were adjusting to the light and he noticed a cage in the corner containing a parrot. "Was that you talking, bird?"

The parrot said, "Yes."

"What's your name little bird?"

“‘Clarence’", the parrot said.

"‘Clarence‘? who would name a bird ‘Clarence’?" the burglar laughed.

The parrot said, "The same person who named the Rottweiler ‘Jesus’"!

Something is a bit off here ...


Something is a bit off here ... can't put my finger on it, but it's there somewhere.

1893 Laptop

Just located an 1893 advertisement for a laptop (typewriter)!

Measuring 12 inches long by 6-1/2 inches wide by 2 inches deep, and weighing a mere 3 pounds, the World typewriter was roughly the same size as many of today's laptop computers. Instead of a keyboard, however, the World used a dial; users chose a character with the right hand, then used the left to operate a lever that pressed it into the paper. Yet another lever was used to make spaces between words. Even so, the World typewriter was said to be

8 Year-Old Suspended

Today, my wife showed me an article about an 8-year-old Colorado boy who is unlucky enough to attend a school run by morons. When he took a sniff of a Sharpie in class, the principal suspended him.

A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.

"It smelled good," [Eathan] Harris said. "They told me that's wrong."

Eathan shyly shook his head "no" when a reporter asked if he knew about "huffing."

[Principal Chris] Benisch stands by his decision to suspend Harris, saying it sends a clear message about substance abuse.

"This is really, really, seriously dangerous," Benisch said.

In his letter suspending the child, Benisch wrote that smelling the marker fumes could cause the boy to "become intoxicated."

A toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says that claim is nearly impossible.

I agree the the principal sent a "clear message." The message is that this was a piss poor decision and his refusal to acknowledge it makes him unfit to be principal of a school.

Also, what about his clothing? What made the teacher 'notice' that? Judging from the idiocy displayed by the school I think he must have been wearing red on green day!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Daily Funny

After just a few years of marriage filled with constant arguments, a young man and his wife decided the only way to save their marriage was to try counseling. They had been at each other's throats for some time and felt that this was their last straw.

When they arrived at the counselor's office, the counselor jumped right in and opened the floor for discussion. "What seems to be the problem?"

Immediately, the husband held his long face down without anything to say. In contrast, the wife began talking 90 miles an hour, describing all the wrongs within their marriage.

After 15 minutes of listening to the wife, the counselor went over to her, picked her up by her shoulders, kissed her passionately and sat her back down. Afterwards, the wife sat speechless.

The marriage counselor looked over at the husband, who stared in disbelief. The counselor said to the husband, "Your wife NEEDS that at least twice a week!"

The husband scratched his head and replied, "I can have her here on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

Eight Thousand

8000.

8000+ readers, that is saying something.

Thanks.

Something to think on ...

Naked Nomad leaves multi-million dollar estate

Papua_new_guinea A man who rejected possessions and walked around Australia naked has been declared dead, leaving his sister to inherit an estate worth millions of dollars.

Victor Flanagan, also known as the “Naked Nomad”, was declared “presumed dead” in the Supreme Court in Perth last week – more than a decade after he last spoke to his sister.

The West Australian reported that a multi-million dollar beachfront property near Busselton would be left to his sister. Flanagan had inherited the property after their father’s death.

Mrs Jenkins told the court that she last spoke to Flanagan in 1996, while he was living in Papua New Guinea. He had relocated to PNG after years of wandering around outback Australia naked – except for a sarong he would wear when walking through towns and a pair of thongs for when there were too many prickles on the road.

Mrs Jenkins said loggers at a remote camp found a dying Caucasian man lying in a canoe – without any clothing – and that she believed it was her brother.

The man’s body had been buried in a mass grave in the PNG city of Lae, where other unidentified people were laid to rest, she said.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

What kind of Rocker are you?


You Are a Freedom Rocker!



You're stuck in the 70s - for better or worse

Crazy hair, pot soaked clothes, and tons of groupies

Your kind showed the world how to rock

Is that freedom rock?... Well turn it up man!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Does this surprise anyone?

Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, NRA Hired 'Black Ops' Company that Targeted Environmental Groups


Dumpster-diving firm collected Social Security numbers of activists

A private security firm managed by former Secret Service officers spied on myriad environmental organizations throughout the 1990s and the year 2000, thieving documents, trying to plant undercover operations and collecting phone records of members, according to a new report.

Documents obtained by James Ridgeway, a Mother Jones correspondent formerly with the Village Voice, reveals the contractor collected confidential internal records -- donor lists, financial statements -- even Social Security numbers, for public relations outfits and "corporations involved in environmental controversies."

Beckett Brown International also offered "intelligence" services to the Carlyle Group, the controversial DC-based investment company; "protective services" for the National Rifle Association; "crisis management" for the Gallo wine company and for Pirelli; "information collection" for Wal-Mart.

"Also listed as clients in BBI records," Ridgeway reveals: "Halliburton and Monsanto."

Like other firms specializing in snooping, Beckett Brown turned to garbage swiping as a key tactic. BBI officials and contractors routinely conducted what the firm referred to as "D-line" operations, in which its operatives would seek access to the trash of a target, with the hope of finding useful documents. One midnight raid targeted Greenpeace. One BBI document lists the addresses of several other environmental groups as "possible sites" for operations: the National Environmental Trust, the Center for Food Safety, Environmental Media Services, the Environmental Working Group, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, an organization run by Lois Gibbs, famous for exposing the toxic dangers of New York's Love Canal. For its rubbish-rifling operations, BBI employed a police officer in the District of Columbia and a former member of the Maryland state police.

Taco Bell genetic corn fiasco

The documents reveal spy thriller-like absurdities: a spy job on groups that had discovered Kraft's Taco Bell was using genetically-engineered corn not approved for human consumption and planned to make a fuss. A former Secret Service agent working for the company emailed another man on the payroll -- an erstwhile Maryland police officer.

Received a call from Ketchum yesterday afternoon re three sites in DC. It seems Taco Bell turned out some product made from bioengineered corn. The chemicals used on the corn have not been approved for human consumption. Hence Taco Bell produced potential glow-in-the-dark tacos. Taco Bell is owned by Kraft. The Ketchum Office, New York, has the ball. They suspect the initiative is being generated from one of three places:

1. Center for Food Safety, 7th & Penn SE

2. Friends of the Earth, 1025 Vermont Ave (Between K & L Streets)

3. GE Food Alert, 1200 18th St NW (18th & M)

#1 is located on 3rd floor. Main entrance is key card. Alley is locked by iron gates. 7 dempsters [sic] in alley—take your pick.

#2 is in the same building as Chile Embassy. Armed guard in lobby & cameras everywhere. There is a dumpster in the alley behind the building. Don't know if it is tied to bldg. or a neighborhood property. Cameras everywhere.
#3 is doable but behind locked iron gates at rear of bldg.

Taco Bell has also raised the heckles of activists for the price it paid those who produced its tomatoes. After a protracted campaign by a Florida group, the firm agreed to pay an extra penny for each pound of tomatoes it buys from farm workers.

The company took three years to increase their payment per pound by a cent, which they did in 2005.

Taking out Greenpeace's trash

An eyewitness described a 'black op' on Greenpeace, one of the world's largest environmental activist groups.

"It was Mission Impossible-like," the witness remarked. The firm collected internal reports from Greenpeace's garbage. They attempted to crack the codes on the organization's front doors.

Technically, the firm has dissolved. But they're not down and out.

"As for BBI's principals," Ridgeway writes, "they are still operating. Tim Ward now runs a security firm called Chesapeake Strategies, which bills itself as 'a multinational security and investigative firm comprised of professionals with extensive security experience.' Jay Bly works there. Its website boasts that it maintains affiliated offices in Paris, Beijng, Tokyo, Qatar, and Kuwait and that 'many team members continue to hold Secret and Top Secret government security clearances.'

Just A Fact:

Loggerhead Turtles can transverse thousands of miles of ocean to return to the exact same beach they were hatched on to lay their eggs.

Interesting Fact:

More than 8 of every 10 dollars spent on political campaigns by outside groups for far have been given to the Democrats.
Outside groups have contributed over 17 million dollars thus far as compared to around 9 million dollars for the same time period in the 2004 election.

Interesting, isn't it.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Bad News I'm Afraid

Bad News for Salmon Lovers:

West Coast fisheries managers have voted to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to allow limited recreational fishing of coho salmon on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast.


Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst in history. Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts.


The council's decision must be confirmed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Be Conservative - And stay out of college.

Right wing hooey will keep you out of college!
Or at least learning from the "American Government" textbook will.

A CIVICS LESSON: High school senior Matthew LaClair of Kearny, N.J., brought his concerns about political bias in a civics textbook to the attention of a think tank that promotes science. It issued a scathing report about the textbook.


HIS SUPPORT: Legal scholars and scientists say "American Government" by conservatives James Wilson and John Dilulio presents a skewed view of topics from global warming to separation of church and state.


NEXT STEP: The publisher now says it will review the book, as will the College Board, which oversees college-level Advanced Placement courses used in high schools.

It's a Plug, so sue me!

Be sure to stop be Forum Naturally and see what everyone is talking about.

The "Fifth" Fuel

Last May, Duke Energy floated a facinating proposal to the NC Utilities Commission. In it, they suggested that they would promote energy efficiency as a "fifth fuel" by sponsoring education programs and providing subsidies for the purchase of more energy-efficient appliances and devices.

So far, so good. Where it gets weird is in the reward Duke sought for being virtuous: a new fee (starting at $15 per customer per year) that would compensate the utility for the electricity it didn't sell because of decreased demand. That fee was based not only on program costs or unsold wattage, but also on the cost of the power plants the utility would have had to build if customers didn't conserve.

That's not how Duke Energy phrased it, of course: Duke Energy's spin was that they would be generously allowing consumers to save 10% of the cost of producing and supplying the energy they didn't use. But turn that around, and you see what's really going on: Duke essentially wanted to sell this "fifth fuel" - ghost power produced by ghost plants - for almost as much as they sold real power produced by real plants that they themselves built. That's a neat trick!

You would think that Duke Energy was trying to head off any attempt by the Utility Commission or the General Assembly to "decouple" electricity rates - that is, to set in place a system whereby utilities receive a set revenue even if demand decreases. This is usually done by promising to increase the profit the utility receives for each unit sold - provided that the utility actively promotes conservation and efficiency. Such increases almost never include the costs of building new plants, however, so you've got to hand it to Duke Energy for trying to widen the range of the debate.

NYC Cops face random Steroid Testing

Police officers in New York City are going to face random tests for steroid abuse.


Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that the testing is going to start this summer. Any officer who tests positive for steroids could be disciplined or fired.


The decision to give the tests follows an investigation of a pharmacy suspected of peddling steroids without prescriptions. The customers allegedly included police bodybuilders and six officers have been suspended or given desk duty after testing positive for steroids.



*****



I would submit that such testing be required for all government and public servant positions nationwide because abuse of steroids is not limited to athletes nor to NYC alone.



All it takes is one 'officer' under the influence of 'Roid Rage' with a gun ... and you get the idea.
It has already happened and has been 'smoothed over' on more than one occasion - so test'em and fire'em should they test positive the first time - no ifs ands or buts.

French Fashion Industry Against Anorexia

Key members of the French fashion industry signed a government-backed charter Wednesday aimed at fighting against anorexia and promoting healthy body images.


The document, backed by the Health Ministry, asks signatories to work toward "a diversity of body representations" and "not to show images of people that could help promote a model of extreme thinness."


The international fashion industry has drawn criticism for stressing the super-thin look. Concerns about anorexia have grown in France - and around the world - since the reportedly anorexia-related deaths of several South American models in 2006, including Brazilian Ana Carolina Reston.


Guidelines have been in place in France since the 1980s to regulate French modeling agencies, including mandatory medical visits for models under 16.


The nonbinding charter was signed by groups including the French Couture Federation, the French Federation for Women's Pret-a-Porter and the Union of Modeling Agencies, as well as some representatives of advertising and media.


Officials in other countries have taken much more dramatic measures to promote healthy body images. The Madrid fashion show bans women whose body mass-to-height ratio is below 18, while Milan bans models below 18.5.
However, another much tougher, and more contested, measure against eating disorders is to go before France's parliament this month.


Valerie Boyer, a lawmaker from President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, has proposed a bill to make it possible to convict people responsible for Web sites or fashion ads that promote anorexia, with penalties of up to two years in prison and over $47,000 in fines.


The bill is set to go before the National Assembly next week.


The French Health Ministry says about 30,000 to 40,000 people suffer from anorexia in France, the vast majority women.



*****



Don't know about you but this smacks a bit of the hypocritical.


While the idea is a good one and long overdue I do not see any industry self regulating itself out of mega profits ... which is what this could do if they actually did as the non-binding agreement states. To see how well an industry self-regulates one need not look further than the Oil Industry - and we know how they 'regulate' themselves now don't we?!

Truisms

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a
laxative on the same night.

2. Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very
often.

3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than
standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've
never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is
serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government
program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you are probably too
sick to travel.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of cheques.


12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel
so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, DIE ANYWAY.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a beer in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of
the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three
weeks
before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on .

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize
a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the
real world.

25. It ain't the jeans that make your bum look fat.

26. If you had to identify, in 1 word, the reason why the human
race has not achieved, & never will achieve, its full potential, that
word would be 'meetings.'

27. There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental
illness.'

28. People who want to share their religious views with you
almost never want you to share yours with them.

29. You should not confuse your career with your life.

30. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.


31. Never lick a steak knife.

32.. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

33. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely
suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual
baby emerging from her at that moment.

34 . There comes a time when you should stop expecting other
people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age
eleven.

35. The one thing that unites all human beings, reg ardless of
age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that,
deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

36. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not
a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never
fails.)

37. Your friends love you anyway.

38. Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able
to tell the difference..

Alligator Stands On Hind Legs

Daigooro is an alligator that stands upright when doused with water. He lives at Marine Plaza Miyajima in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. From Mainichi Daily News:

The 80-centimeter-long male alligator was first spotted standing up about two years ago, when water that a keeper poured on plants in his cage splashed on him...

From this year, Daigoro, a three-year-old dwarf caiman alligator from South America, has been entertaining visitors by performing the stand-up show every noon when a keeper pours water on it.

Now, if that don't beat all!

Sad News

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.



He was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.



Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described the Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes.


Despite being a little flaky at times, he was still a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.



Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, two children, John Dough and Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.



The funeral was held at 350 for about 20 minutes.