CAROLINA NATURALLY

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Daily Drift

The Daily Drift

Today's horoscope says:

There is a lot to be discovered just beyond your normal periphery today, so let your curiosity lead you.

Take time to go the long way and explore all the nooks and crannies.

You will be intrigued and entertained -- and probably educated more than you anticipated.

The day is like a giant jigsaw puzzle; it's just waiting for you to sift through the pieces and put it all together.

Search the world with an open mind today, and every surprise you find will be a happy one.

Some of our readers today have been in:

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
London, England, United Kingdom
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Wuppertal, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Quezon City, Manila, Philippines
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Port Louis, Port Louis, Mauritius
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Debrecen, Hajdu-Bihar, Hungary
Newbury, England, United Kingdom
Morini, Morini, Comoros
Groningen, Groningen, netherlands
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Cork, Cork, Ireland
Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Bitburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

as well as Slovakia, Malta, Bulgaria, Israel, Finland, Austria, Norway, Georgia, Mexico, Peru, Kuwait, Serbia, Bangladesh, Latvia, Greece, Scotland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Wales, Iran, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Afghanistan, Belgium, Tibet, Croatia, Pakistan, Romania, Paraguay, Sudan, Vietnam, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Estonia, Puerto Rico, Maldives, Qatar, Brazil, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Slovenia, China, Iraq, Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Paupa New Guinea, Moldova, Venezuela, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Norway, Finland

and in cities across the United States such as South Point, Westfield, Southgate, High Point and more.

Today is:

Today is Monday, September 19, the 262nd day of 2011.

There are 103 days left in the year.

Today's unusual holiday or celebration is:

International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Non Sequitur

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Manic Monday

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It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Avast, me hearties! Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a parodic holiday created in 1995 by John Baur an' Mark Summers o' Albany, Oregon, USA, who proclaimed September 19th each voyage as th' tide when sea dogs an' land lubbers in th' world ortin' ta talk like a gentleman o' fortune. Arrrr!

Here's George Harrison doing his pirate thing ...

Foo Fighters Seranade Westboro Wankers

The tables were turned on the Westboro baptist cult when the Foo Fighters serenaded the picketers before the band's concert at the Sprint Center Friday night. The band wore the costumes they used in their recent parody video "Hot Buns" , and mocked the protesters who are known for their anti-homosexual views.
Lyrics in Foo Fighters song taunted the church's views, saying "Driving all night, got a hankering for something/Think I'm in the mood for some hot-man muffins/Mmmm, sounds so fine, yes indeed."

Full Story

And here's the Foo Fighters own video of their Keepin' It Clean serenade to the cultists:

Note that the expletives that might have been used in the song, hence the muting of portions of the accompanying video mentioned in the news article above were not in the song but were from the foul-mouthed cultists.

So, I’m stuck in a traffic jam …

Nothing is moving. Suddenly, a man knocks on my window. I roll down the window and ask, “What’s going on?”

He says “Terrorists have kidnapped Congress, and are asking for a $10 million dollar ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them all in gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.”

“How much is everyone giving, on average?” I ask.

The man replies, “About a gallon.”

That about sums it up ...

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Historic plan back in court

Desegregation plan back in court

Half a century after the military escorted black students to school in Little Rock, a new challenge arises.

The problem

Also:

The Secret to Classic Children's Books

What do Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, and Shel Silverstein have in common? Yes, they all wrote bestselling children’s stories and they all have new books coming out soon, but the secret to their success is that their writing was once considered inappropriate for children!

Once upon a more staid time, the purpose of children’s books was to model good behavior. They were meant to edify and to encourage young readers to be what parents wanted them to be, and the children in their pages were well behaved, properly attired and devoid of tears. Children’s literature was not supposed to shine a light on the way children actually were, or delight in the slovenly, self-interested and disobedient side of their natures.
Seuss, Sendak and Silverstein ignored these rules. They brought a shock of subversion to the genre — defying the notion that children’s books shouldn’t be scary, silly or sophisticated. Rather than reprimand the wayward listener, their books encouraged bad (or perhaps just human) behavior. Not surprisingly, Silverstein and Sendak shared the same longtime editor, Ursula Nordstrom of Harper & Row, a woman who once declared it her mission to publish “good books for bad children.”

Read more about it at the New York Times.

Six Things The Film Industry Wants To Keep Secret

Did you know the Star Wars films still haven’t made a profit? That’s because the studio distributes the film although the distribution branch is considered a separate company. The distributor charges the studio (itself) whatever fees it wants, so even after the film earns billions of dollars, it might still be billions of dollars more away from turning a profit.
And that’s just one of the dirty little movie-making secrets the industry doesn’t want you to know about.
Find out more over at Film School Rejects.

The Strangest Vintage Photos Ever

I like to imagine that this photo was taken to show that this woman loves her scuba diver husband, but who knows. BuzzFeed has a great collection of hilariously strange vintage photographs including the one above. Half the fun is looking at the pictures and the other half is making excuses for why they were created.

Full Story

Awesome Pictures

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Police arrest the bastard who stole that poor man's superman collection

Police in Granite City, Illinois arrested a man on Friday in connection to a recent burglary that involved a large collection of Superman memorabilia stolen from a residence.

Police arrest that bastard who stole that poor chaps superman collection

On Thursday, police responded to a robbery in which jewelry and money were stolen from a 76-year-old man. The victim gave police a description that matched that of the burglar wanted for stealing the Superman memorabilia.

Investigators say they were able to recover all the memorabilia and return it to the owner.

Full Story

Good for the cops - this is how it should be - not as the examples below show.

The Ten Happiest Jobs

Are you a member of the clergy, a firefighter or a physical therapist? Then you have one of the happiest jobs. At least, according to a General Social Survey by the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago.

TSA Fires 28 At Hawaii Airport

The Transportation Security Administration fired 28 of its employees -- in addition to three that resigned or retired -- following a probe that revealed bags were allowed onto planes at Hawaii's Honolulu International Airport without being properly screened, the agency said Sunday.

Full Story

Bad Cops

Disabled woman was arrested for sitting outside in chair

A northeast Atlanta woman, who is physically disabled, said she was roughed up by an Atlanta police officer while being falsely arrested. Shequita Walker, 40, said she’s been sitting in the same lawn chair outside her apartment complex at Boulevard and Rankin Street for years. She said she likes to sit there and wait for the ice cream truck. Walker suffers from scleroderma which limits her range of motion and causes pain in her joints.

In April, Walker said an Atlanta police officer approached her and told her to move. “He came right here and said we had to move, and I said ‘What reason do he have to move?’ ” Walker said. She said the officer told her, “Because I said so.” Walker claims she stood and told the officer she was going to call his supervisor.

Photo from here.

“That’s when he grabbed me. My ice cream fell and my phone fell,” she said. Walker said that’s when the officer put her on the ground. Walker has photos of the incident. Walker said the officer sprained her shoulder in the process, and she had to be taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

After she was released, Walker said she was taken to jail on a charge of disorderly conduct. A prosecutor later dismissed the charge. Walker filed a complaint with the Citizens Review Board. The board ruled that the officer made a false arrest and recommended a three-day suspension. So far, no action has been taken.

***

Police assault man with Down's Syndrome over 'suspicious bulge' in his trousers

A man with special needs is speaking out after he was left badly bruised by police. Twenty-two-year-old Gilberto Powell, who has Down's Syndrome, is left with horrible bruises and scars on his face after he had an encounter with police outside his home. According to the family, they were inside their Southwest Miami-Dade home last Saturday when Powell, who is also called Liko, called his parents on his cell phone to let them know he was walking a block from his friend's house. On his way home, Liko said, "The police followed me."

Liko said, the officer smacked him in the face with an open hand and knocked him to the ground. "His whole hand," he said. According to the police report, a Miami-Dade Police officer noticed a bulge in Liko's waistband. The officer attempted to conduct a pat down, and Powell tried to run away. "I said, 'Didn't you know he was a Down's Syndrome kid?' And he said, 'No, I'm not a doctor. I don't know.' And I said, 'Well, you can see it in his face that he is a Down's Syndrome kid,'" said Powell's mother, Josephine.

The bulge that Liko had on his waistband was a colostomy bag. The family said the officer pulled it from his body. "He had him by his boxers, so they took his pants off," said Liko's father, Gilberto Hernandez. "I felt helpless, because he was calling my name." Liko was not arrested. He said he never ran away from the officer and did everything the officer told him to do.

Miami-Dade Police Department released the following statement regarding the incident: "The integrity of the investigation and successful resolution of this case continues to remain our highest priority." The family's attorney, Philip Gold, said the family wants an apology from police. "They want an apology. They want the community to know that bad things can happen," said Gold.