The Daily Drift

What are the odds ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

For those interested: In World Cup play there were no matches on the twenty-sixth day of the tourney.

Comic Book Guy ... !

Today is  - SCUD Day 
(Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama)
 

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Some of our reader today have been in:

The Americas

Toronto, Ottawa, Sainte-Foy, Seaton Village, L'ancienne-Lorette, Joliette, Saint John's, Guelph, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver, Canada

Sao Paulo, Goiania and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Helotes and Durango, United States

Tipitapa, Nicaragua

Europe

L'Olleria and Madrid, Spain

Magureni, Romania

Square, Northern Ireland

Solna and Uppsala, Sweden

Rostov-Na-Donu, Ryazan and Vladivostok, Russia

Magenta, Salon-De-Provence, Orleans, Veliz-Villacoublay and Rouen, France

Ravenna, Ivrea, Milan, Bari, Pisa and Naples, Italy

Reykjavik, Iceland

Belgrade, Serbia

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Tallaght, Ireland

Tranbjerg, Denmark

Antwerp, Belgium

Wolfsburg, Germany

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Oslo, Norway

Aveiro, Portugal

Warsaw, Poland

Asia

Beersheba and Tel Aviv, Israel

Kolkata, Jodhpur, Patna, Madhipura, New Delhi, Tirupparangunram, Pondicherry, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai and Bikaner, India

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Kuala Lumpur and Balakong, Malaysia

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Bojong and Banyumas, Indonesia

Kannabe, Japan

Bangkok, Thailand

Doha, Qatar

La Dagotiere, Mauritius

Karachi and Sialkot, Pakistan

Africa 

Tunis, Tunisia

Shurugwi, Zimbabwe

Lagos, Nigeria

The Pacific

Auckland, New Zealand

Sydney, Australia

Today in History

1099		christian crusaders march around Jerusalem as muslims watch from within the city.
1608		The first French settlement at Quebec is established by Samuel de Champlain.
1663		The British crown grants Rhode Island a charter guaranteeing freedom of worship.
1686		The Austrians take Budapest from the Turks and annex Hungary.
1709		Peter the Great defeats Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire.
1755		Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensify.
1758		The British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, is foiled by the French.
1794		French troops capture Brussels, Belgium.
1815		With Napoleon defeated, Louis XVIII returns to Paris.
1822		29-year old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns while sailing in Italy.
1859		The Truce at Villafranca Austria cedes Lombardy to France.
1863		Demoralized by the surrender of Vicksburg, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrender to Union forces.
1864		Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreats into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.
1865		Four of the conspirators in President Abraham Lincoln's assassination are hanged in Washington, D.C.
1879		The first ship to use electric lights departs from San Francisco, California.
1905		The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrenders to Rumanian authorities.
1918		Ernest Hemingway is wounded in Italy while working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross.
1941		20 B-17s fly in their first mission with the Royal Air Force over Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
1943		American B-24 bombers strike Japanese-held Wake Island for the first time.
1960		The Soviet Union charges American pilot Francis Gary Powers with espionage.

Non Sequitur

Itty Bitty Barbeque

YouTube Link

If you happen to find yourself somewhere with a canned drink in your hand and a jones for barbeque over the holiday weekend, let this video be your guide. The King of Random illustrates for BBQ desperadoes how to pull a MacGyver that nets them a tiny barbeque just big enough to grill a jumbo hot dog, slider or brat. This bittyQ is made with an aluminum can. Now there's a good excuse to have a 40 oz!

“Insane” Action Park is Open Again

The notorious Action Park in New Jersey has reopened after almost 20 years. The park had a reputation for danger, as people were injured there nearly every day -and six people died. The first aid station was always busy, and in the ‘90s, numerous lawsuits forced its closing. But a viral video titled The Most Insane Amusement Park Ever last year inspired its owners to reopen the amusement park, and to welcome those with nostalgic memories of Action Park. 

‘I was there three times when I was 9 or 10 – twice I left in an ambulance,’ said one former attendee.

‘The first time was broken ribs on the ‘Tarzan Swing’ (my dad had to jump into the water to save me) and next was the alpine slide, when my car had no brakes and I flew over the side and into the grass. I then had to walk the whole way down crying and dripping blood.

‘They kept sending us free passes to go back so we went again but I was extremely cautious and only went on one ride – a kayak where you simply paddled around a sort of lazy river. I loved it and it was safe but the next day the ride was closed because someone fell off their kayak and was electrocuted by the electric currents.

‘Never went back again – too afraid.’

We posted once about a water slide at Action Park, and the comments under it confirm the fond and scary memories others have about the park, which saw its heyday in the 1970s. The new version that opened in June is probably not as dangerous as it once was.

Now that the World Cup is over for the US

 

Sad but true ... 

Cutting Through The wingnut Lies About The Hobby Lobby Ruling

Two issues alone will have a devastating affect on any religious business or corporation's employees, but after doing a cursory reading of the Hobby Lobby et al complaint …

The idiom “scratch the surface” generally means just beginning to find out about something, or only superficially examining what could be a very complex issue. The complexities of the Hobby Lobby decision are far deeper than just giving a corporation religious freedom, or allowing religious corporation to withhold contraceptives from their organization’s healthcare prescription plans. Those two issues alone will have a devastating affect on any religious business or corporation’s employees, but after doing a cursory reading of the Hobby Lobby et al complaint, the High Court decision will immediately affect more than just their employees.

Throughout the Hobby Lobby case, Americans heard ad nauseum that the artificial legal entity’s religious objection was about including contraception in their employees health insurance prescription plans. By now, most Americans are aware that the Green family insisted that their female employees, and male employees with wives, must pay separately for their own contraceptives even though they are already paying for their own contraceptives through their health insurance prescription coverage.

However, Hobby Lobby was not only objecting to prescription plans that covered contraceptives, they and their co-petitioners vehemently objected to health insurance plans that cover “related education and counseling for contraception.” In other words, the religious corporations appealed to the Supreme Court for constitutional authority to do precisely what repugicans lied about what the ACA would do; get between a doctor and their patient.

Of course the ACA does no such thing. But Hobby Lobby, other religious corporations, and private businesses can insert their corporate selves in a doctor’s examination room, right between a doctor and their patient, and prohibit physicians from giving routine reproductive medical counseling during office visits to their patients employed by Hobby Lobby or any other religious business, corporate or otherwise.

According to Hobby Lobby et al’s complaint, their religion objects to health care plans and issuers that provide education and counseling for all women beneficiaries with reproductive capacity. They also complained that a physician “counseling and educating women on reproductive health is incompatible and irreconcilable with Plaintiffs’ express messages and speech.” What that means is that Hobby Lobby will not tolerate being contradicted regarding the use, prescribing, or counseling women about their reproductive health choices and the High Court agreed. After the Hobby Lobby decision, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a statement and warned “the decision allowed employers to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship by limiting what discussions and options patients would be presented with.” But that was the express intent in including the gag order in the lawsuit. It is, not only infringing on a physicians freedom of speech, it also infringes on their ability to render their professional judgment and practice medicine.

Perusing the Hobby Lobby complaint exposes another fallacy from screeching heads on the lunatic fringe who claim that if a woman or man with a wife works for Hobby Lobby and seeks a doctor’s advice, and prescription for contraceptives, all they have to do is ask for it and then pay for it out of their own pocket. That is incompatible with Hobby Lobby’s religious liberty and they won the right to disallow women from using their own health benefit compensation package to make reproductive health choices. For the religious conservatives that scream it is no burden for women to spend only $9 a month for their own birth control, the cost for a prescription not covered in a group prescription plan is closer to $390 annually (IUD’s can cost over $900). It is true employees can opt out of religious corporations’ health plans, but purchasing healthcare on the open individual market can cost over 3 times more than a group plan.

Another unreported fallacy about Hobby Lobby’s lawsuit was that they claimed emergency contraceptives like Plan B and Ella were “abortifacients; that is patently false. They said they were abortion because in their religious minds, Plan B, Ella, and certain IUDs cause the death of the embryo. Their complaint said, “The use of artificial means to prevent the implantation of a human embryo in
the wall of the uterus constitutes an “abortion” as that term is used in federal law.

According to all known medical science, and an amicus brief filed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and several other medical associations; “there is no scientific evidence that emergency contraceptives available in the United States and approved by the FDA affect an existing pregnancy. Instead, they prevent ovulation, so there is no egg to fertilize, and no egg, like no implantation, means no pregnancy and no abortion.” The High Court ruled that it does not matter what medical science says, Hobby Lobby said emergency contraceptives are abortion and because that is their ‘deeply-held religious belief,” then contraceptives are abortion, their word is law, and medical science be damned.

Essentially, because Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood were successful, they won the right to refuse coverage for doctor’s visits that include medical advice about contraception generally discussed during routine general gynecological appointments or annual checkups. Now, if a woman, or gynecologist as much as acknowledges birth control during that appointment, the doctor must render the visit ineligible for coverage by the woman’s health care plan and the employee not only pays for full cost the prescription out of pocket, they have to pay for the entire doctor visit out of pocket in addition to their cost of being enrolled in the company health plan.

The real travesty is that the wingnuts on the Court did not deny that the contraception mandate, or doctor’s giving reproductive medical advice, did not meet a “compelling need for women’s healthcare;” they admitted that it did. But still ruled it was unconstitutional simple because Hobby Lobby did not like it. There have been suggestions that a viable option is a providing a religious health plan that expressly excludes contraceptive coverage, or a doctor speaking about reproductive health, without imposing “any cost-sharing requirements on the eligible organization or the group health plan.”

The attorney for Hobby Lobby has said she and the Greens have not even considered whether they would find that accommodation acceptable. It is highly likely they will not find it acceptable because other church-based organizations have already received this kind offer and are still going forward with contraception lawsuits. The reason is the idea of employees, or students in religious colleges, having access to reproductive healthcare, even if it is of no cost to the organization, is unacceptable.

The more one looks into what Hobby Lobby, and their substantial list of co-plaintiffs, demanded and won according to their religious liberty, the more it appears that there is no end to the damage they will impose on Americans. It was unfathomable they had the temerity, and the Court agreed, that their corporate religious liberty allows them to control their employees reproductive health choices, but the concept of prohibiting doctors from counseling their patients is beyond the pale. The tragedy is that the ruling affects much more than just Hobby Lobby’s employees, or physicians, because the ruling gives every “religious” business authority over their employees healthcare decisions and medical providers’ ability to do their jobs, and one just shudders at what else evangelical fanatics’ religious liberty has in the offing. One thing is clear; it is not going to end well for any American and it is just the beginning.

Russia's Newest Law Inches Nation Closer to the Utopia American wingnuts Want to Create Here

A lot of liberals have joked about Russian President Vladimir Putin being a bit of an icon for wingnuts in the United States.  His views on homosexuality mirror those of many wingnut 'christians' in the U.S. and quite a few repugicans were heaping praise on him for his "strength" compared to the "weak" President Obama.They were literally bragging about what a "strong leader" he was while lobbing partisan attacks at our own president.  It was embarrassing and disgusting.
But why wouldn't wingnuts support Putin?  Hell, from everything I've seen from the guy he's exactly the kind of leader wingnuts want.
He's a "manly man" who goes out hunting with his shirt off to prove how "strong" he is.  You know, kind of like how wingnut gun nut agitators like to stroll around Chili's with loaded AK-47?s.  Or how they seem to think that the more guns they own, the more powerful they are.
Putin also strongly opposes homosexuality.  Last year he essentially took the first steps toward making homosexuality illegal in Russia.  It's a process, you see.  You can't just come out and ban homosexuality.  But if you slowly chip away at their rights, eventually you build up to the point where homosexuality is illegal.

The 'christian' wingnuts' views are becoming less and less American, a whole lot less

House repugican cabal cuts spending on policy staff, boosts spending on PR and spin

House repugican cabal priorities:

Since repugicans stole control of the U.S. House in January 2011, Speaker John Boehner, r-Ohio, has led a cost-cutting effort that has trimmed staff for House committees by nearly 20%, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. But the number of committee staff responsible for press and communications work has increased by nearly 15% over the same period, according to House spending records.

Hard to blame them, I guess. If you were in their shoes, wouldn't you want to do everything in your power to let people know about everything you've accomplished on their behalf? Actually, on second thought, that doesn't make a lot of sense, given that they've accomplished nothing. But on third thought, this is the repugican cabal we're talking about: To them, doing nothing is an accomplishment. So it makes sense to hire staff to brag about it.
Plus, if your primary investigations are focused on Benghazi and the IRS, there really isn't much to investigate, certainly not enough to justify expanding actual investigative staff. So you might as well invest in spinners-because you're going to need them.

Just deciphering repugican priorities

Rancher must be held accountable

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say they agree with a Nevada sheriff's position that rancher Cliven Bundy must be held accountable for his role in an April standoff between his supporters and the federal agency.

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Bundy crossed the line when he allowed states' rights supporters, including self-proclaimed militia members, onto his property to aim guns at police.

"If you step over that line, there are consequences to those actions," Gillespie told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "And I believe they stepped over that line. No doubt about it. They need to be held accountable for it."

Bureau spokeswoman Celia Boddington, in a statement released Saturday, said the agency continues to pursue the matter "aggressively through the legal system."

"There is an ongoing investigation and we are working diligently to ensure that those who broke the law are held accountable," she said, declining to elaborate.

The FBI declined comment Saturday on its investigation. Bundy did not respond to a request for comment.

The Bureau of Land Management says Bundy owes over $1 million in fees and penalties for trespassing on federal property without a permit over 20 years. Bundy, whose ancestors settled in the area in the late 1800s, refuses to acknowledge federal authority on public lands.

A federal judge in Las Vegas first ordered Bundy in 1998 to remove "trespass cattle" from land the bureau declared a refuge for the endangered desert tortoise. Bureau officials obtained court orders last year allowing the roundup.

Boddington disputed Gillespie's contention the agency mishandled the roundup of Bundy's cattle 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The bureau backed down during the showdown with Bundy and his armed supporters, citing safety concerns, and released some 380 Bundy cattle collected during a weeklong operation from a vast arid range half the size of the state of Delaware.

Gillespie blamed the bureau for escalating the conflict and ignoring his advice to delay the roundup after he had a confrontational meeting with Bundy's children a few weeks before it began.

"I came back from that saying, 'This is not the time to do this,' " the sheriff told the Review-Journal. "They said, 'We do this all the time. We know what we're doing. We hear what you're saying, but we're moving forward.'"

Tensions further escalated early in the roundup after a video showed one of Bundy's sons being stunned with a Taser. The video drew militia members and others to Bundy's ranch.

Bundy was not a hardened criminal, Gillespie told the newspaper. He was a rancher who stopped paying his fees, the sheriff said, and that was not worth risking violence.

But Boddington said the bureau planned and conducted the roundup in "full coordination" with Gillespie and his office.

"It is unfortunate that the sheriff is now attempting to rewrite the details of what occurred, including his claims that the BLM did not share accurate information," she said. "The sheriff encouraged the operation and promised to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us as we enforced two recent federal court orders."

"Sadly, he backed out of his commitment shortly before the operation - and after months of joint planning - leaving the BLM and the National Park Service to handle the crowd control that the sheriff previously committed to handling," she added.

States look to gun seizure law after mass killings

As state officials across the country grapple with how to prevent mass killings like the ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and near the University of California, Santa Barbara, some are turning to a gun seizure law pioneered in Connecticut 15 years ago.

Connecticut's law allows judges to order guns temporarily seized after police present evidence that a person is a danger to themselves or others. A court hearing must be held within 14 days to determine whether to return the guns or authorize the state to hold them for up to a year.

The 1999 law, the first of its kind in the country, was in response to the 1998 killings of four managers at the Connecticut Lottery headquarters by a disgruntled employee with a history of psychiatric problems.

Indiana is the only other state that has such a law, passed in 2005 after an Indianapolis police officer was shot to death by a mentally ill man. California and New Jersey lawmakers are now considering similar statutes, both proposed in the wake of the killings of six people and wounding of 13 others near the University of California, Santa Barbara by a mentally ill man who had posted threatening videos on YouTube.

Michael Lawlor, Connecticut's undersecretary for criminal justice planning and policy, believes the state's gun seizure law could have prevented the killings of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, if police had been made aware that gunman Adam Lanza had mental health problems and access to his mother's legally owned guns.

"That's the kind of situation where you see the red flags and the warning signs are there, you do something about it," Lawlor said. "In many shootings around the country, after the fact it's clear that the warning signs were there."

Gun nut agitators oppose gun seizure laws, saying they allow police to take people's firearms based only on allegations and before the gun owners can present their side of the story to a judge. They say they're concerned the laws violate constitutional rights.

"The government taking things away from people is never a good thing," said Rich Burgess, president of the gun nut cabal Connecticut Carry. "They come take your stuff and give you 14 days for a hearing. Would anybody else be OK if they just came and took your car and gave you 14 days for a hearing?"

Rachel Baird, a Connecticut lawyer who has represented many gun nuts, said one of the biggest problems with the state's law is that police are abusing it. She said she has had eight clients who had their guns seized by police who obtained the required warrants after taking possession of the guns.

"It's stretched and abused, and since it's firearms, the courts go along with it," Baird said of the law.

But backers of such laws say they can prevent shootings by getting guns out of the hands of mentally disturbed people.

"You want to make sure that when people are in crisis ... there is a way to prevent them to get access to firearms," said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the nonprofit Education Fund to Stop Gun Violence in Washington, D.C.

Connecticut authorities report a large increase in the use of gun seizure warrants involving people deemed dangerous by police over the past several years. Officials aren't exactly sure what caused the increase but believe it's related to numerous highly publicized mass shootings in recent years.

Police statewide filed an estimated 183 executed gun seizure warrants with court clerks last year, more than twice the number filed in 2010, according to Connecticut Judicial Branch data. Last year's total also was nearly nine times higher than the annual average in the first five years of the gun seizure law.

Connecticut police have seized more than 2,000 guns using the warrants, according to the most recent estimate by state officials, in 2009.

Police in South Windsor, about 12 miles northeast of Hartford, say the law was invaluable last year when they seized several guns from the home of a man accused of spray painting graffiti referencing mass shootings in Newtown and Colorado on the outside of the town's high school.

"With all that we see in the news day after day, particular after Newtown, I think departments are more aware of what authority they have ... and they're using the tool (gun seizure warrants) more frequently than in the past," said South Windsor Police Chief Matthew Reed. "We always look at it from the other side. What if we don't seize the guns?"

Chinese man praised as being an 'example to everyone' after working himself to death

Chinese financial regulators say one of their staff who worked himself to death by regularly staying in the office until midnight before collapsing from the stress of trying to get a report done on deadline is "an example to everyone". Li Jianhua, 48, worked for the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission for 26 years and was found dead in front of his completed report after working through the night to meet the early morning deadline. Now a statement by the regulatory commissions management committee has praised the dead man as an example that everybody else should follow. China is facing an epidemic of overwork, yet far from tackling the problem, it is seemingly being actively encouraged if one looks at the statement from the dead man's employers.
They said: "We can all learn from Comrade Li Jianhua, who always had firm ideals and beliefs, who showed that he was an employee who was loyal to the cause of the Party and the people, who gave an unremitting struggle to perform his best and to sacrifice everything. It was done with the goal of enhancing the quality of our work. Comrade Li Jianhua did long overtime, night and day, and put all his energy and passion into the regulatory business."
About 600,000 Chinese a year die from working too hard, with a daily death toll of 1,600. There are even words in Asia for death-by-overtime: "guolaosi" in Chinese and "karoshi" in Japanese. An employee in Li’s department said they all regularly worked until midnight or later. Li apparently had an attack of shingles, often related to stress, in the days before he died but did not go to the doctor because "he didn’t have any time."

Locally-grown, organic: LA's first ever pot farmer's market

By Veronique Dupont

It looks like any other American farmer's market. Buyers sniff the wares, test weights and compare, while vendors tout their product. But the only produce on offer is cannabis -- organic, of course.

"We have lollipops for $7, chocolate bars to help you relax for $13, and 'cosmic dust,'" said Bill Harrison, a seller who also stocks plain old smokable marijuana.
The Heritage Farmer's Market -- held over the July 4th long weekend -- was the first of its kind in Los Angeles. Despite the scorching sun, the line to get in stretched hundreds of yards (meters).

The crowd was diverse and multigenerational, interspersed with hippies, rockers, hipsters and some nondescript suburban types.

But they all have at least one thing in common -- they all have, as required for entry, a doctor's prescription.
In California, marijuana is only legal for medicinal purposes. For recreational use, possession of less than an ounce (28 grams) could result in a fine. Larger amounts can trigger criminal charges.

Edwynn Delgado knows the laws by heart: "for medical use, you are allowed up to four ounces at home, but I'd like to bring back home more today," he joked.

He has smoked pot since he was 11.

"In my neighborhood, there was a always a lot of weed around," the smiling 20-year-old said, wearing a baseball cap over his black hair.

He became a "legal" user at age 18, when he got a prescription to ease muscle aches.

Delgado waited for more than an hour at the stand that offers the best prices, at $180 per ounce, instead of $300 as charged in a regular dispensary.

Besides getting a good deal, Delgado prefers coming where he can count on quality product.
"Street dealers are dangerous because they put other stuff on it," he said.

- 'De-demonizing' cannabis -

"It's like in a regular farmer's market" said Adam Agathakis, one of the organizers of the weekend fair set to end Sunday.

"People come here to talk to growers, to check that it's grown without pesticides and that it doesn't have mold."

The bearded 35-year-old, in pleated pants and a striped shirt, has campaigned to "de-demonize" cannabis since his father died of cancer a decade ago.

"When he was dying, marijuana was the only thing alleviating the pain," Agathakis said.

Marijuana grower Terry Sand said that cannabis markets have sprouted elsewhere, including northern California and Washington state, but they weren't quite the same.

"They were more like conventions. Here it's special, because they are bringing growers and consumers together," Sand said.

The former elevator technician said he grew up amid cannabis and marijuana: "My parents were hippies, they were growing (marijuana) in their backyard."

But when a new technique emerged to help boost cannabis productivity in covered areas, Sand said he saw a "massive overwhelming opportunity."

Cancer patient Karen Flores, 50, said she smokes because "it helps me relax, it helps my nerves, it helps the pain I have."

She came to the market for good prices and quality. "It has to taste good, to smell good," Flores said.

But she doesn't like to light up in public. When she is away from home, she snacks on brownies, like those she just bought.

Also on offer: gold-plated pipes, pizzas, meringue pies and waffles.

At Mathew Gerson's stand, a more unusual product is for sale: "it's a vaginal lubricant, it is coconut oil-infused," he said.

"With young women, it enhances sensations, and with menopausal women, it awakens their sexuality. And it helps them sleep."

Cheryl Shuman, head of a public relations firm, said she almost died of cancer in 2006, and credits marijuana for helping her pull through.

She joined the campaign to decriminalize marijuana, organizing the Beverly Hills Cannabis Club and becoming one of the leaders of Moms for Marijuana, an international group for women who support legalization.

One weighty argument in favor, Shuman emphasized, is the economic potential of the market, estimated around $47 billion for the US states where it's legal alone.

Random Photos

Four-year-old boy asked to leave restaurant as his Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt violated dress code

A 4-year-old boy was asked to leave a restaurant at Phipps Plaza, Atalanta, because his shirt violated the dress code. Lewis Roberts thought the outfit he picked out, which included a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sleeveless shirt, looked great.

But when he and his family tried to sit down for lunch at the Tavern at Phipps, he was told he didn't meet the "Gentlemen's Dress Code." After Lewis' family explained that he was only 4, the hostess told them they still had to leave. When they asked to speak to a manager, the manager told them the dress code extended to "gentleman of all ages," and they were again asked to leave.
The message was clear: the restaurant didn't want a little Ninja Turtle in the dining room. "If we would have thought for a minute that he was inappropriately dressed, we would have gone to a different restaurant to save the embarrassment," said the boy's aunt. Amber Stewart, a company spokesperson, later issued a statement saying: "The rule does not apply for children and ladies - for gentleman only.

YouTube link.

"It was an embarrassing misunderstanding on our part. She's a manager in training who had a gross misunderstanding of our policy. We apologize and are reaching out to the family. After talking to the restaurant, Lewis' family says apology accepted, and they plan to go back to the restaurant.

Cloaked 'assassin' is stalking German town

Police in Germany are attempting to quell hysteria after reported sightings of a mysterious hooded figure near a school. An unknown individual is said to be stalking the southern German town of Rottweil, Baden-Württemberg, dressed as an 'assassin.' Dressed in the monk-like garb, the shrouded figure is causing alarm among younger residents.

Reported repeated sightings over the past ten days, including in the vicinity of a school, have earned the prowler the nickname "Kampfmönch" (warrior monk). Parents have taken a dim view of the presumed prankster after their children began complaining of nightmares. "You are spreading fear about going to school among primary school and older pupils," the publisher of the Neue Rottweiler Zeitung newspaper wrote in an open letter to the 'assassin,' urging the person to turn themselves in to the police.
"You have also alarmed a small town. You are all people talk about all day and many parents are busy at night too because their children cannot sleep." But police in the normally sleepy town of 25,000 residents were quick to dispel as fantasy claims that he or she was also carrying a blood-stained knife.

"There is no indication that this unidentified person presents any danger," stressed police chief Michael Schlüssler, adding that the fighting monk's costume was readily available on the internet. While he urged the mystery walker to desist, he said authorities could not take action against someone for simply wandering around in public in a costume.

Norwegian man rescued after best-friend abandoned him on deserted island

A Norwegian man was rescued by the local sea-rescue service after his friend left him sleeping on a deserted island, stole the only boat, and rowed home.

The thirty-something male was forced to call for help after awaking to discover he had been left by his friend on Hastein island, west of Tungenes, in the sea outside of Stavanger.
Luckily, the local sea-rescue vessel, aptly named SRK "Sjømann" ("Seaman"), turned up to take him from the island and back to land.
Nils-Ole Sunde, the rescue leader on guard, said that the man was found wet, cold and without food or drink. The two 'friends' had gone to the island by boat on Thursday. No motive has as yet been given for the friend's desertion.

The Reykjavik Confessions

Story Here

Ziggy

The Statue Of Liberty

In the summer of 1876, Philadelphia was teeming with tourists. Over the course of the season, 10 million people from 35 countries poured into Fairmount Park to take in the sights at the first-ever World's Fair in America.

One spectacle drew extra attention - a gigantic disembodied arm that towered four stories above the fairground. A late entrant to the festival, the lonely, torch-bearing limb wasn't included in the official guide. Few knew that it was destined to become part of an even bigger statue, meant to be a gift from France to America.