This one is just begging for a caption...

Anybody got one for it? Winner will be decided and announced Friday.

I must be doing something right

I used to get a lot of Chinese hits on my sitemeter, then they stopped some time ago. I guess I know why now. Was it something I said, LOL?

Police arrest two in hypothermia death of 9-year-old boy in Salt Lake

Police have arrested two people in the death of a 9-year-old boy who apparently succumbed to hypothermia in a downtown restaurant after being placed in a trash can full of ice water.
Pedro Gaucin-Canales, 36, was booked into jail Wednesday after he told police he and another person put the child in the water at the Melting Pot fondue restaurant, where firefighters found the child dead in the kitchen about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, according to a jail booking report.
Rebecca Hernandez-Velasco, 19, the victim's sister, was booked into jail this morning on suspicion of child-abuse homicide.
Both suspects were employees of the restaurant.

What is wrong with people like that? Can anyone tell me a legitimate reason to stick a child in a garbage can full of ice water? I can't imagine doing something like this to a little kid.

Game in bag prompts airport evacuation

LONG BEACH (AP) — A suspicious item in checked luggage that prompted the evacuation of a terminal at Long Beach Airport on Thursday turned out to be an electronic game, authorities said.

Several hundred people were evacuated from the terminal for about 90 minutes and five arriving aircraft were held on the tarmac until the all-clear was given.

Transportation Security Administration screeners spotted the suspicious item while X-raying a checked bag around 9:30 a.m., agency spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin said.

"It is basically a handheld game board that a passenger packed," she told Fox News Channel.

The item turned out to be a handheld electronic game board in a "raw form" that showed its wiring, she said.

"It certainly was nothing but it certainly looked like something. It had all the wires and components that you would see in an explosive device," Peppin said.

It had wires and electrical components, so that makes it a bomb? How the hell would any of those characters know what a bomb looked like? Has it occurred to any of those people that all modern electronics have "wires and components"? Did anyone notice something called explosives connected to the "wires and components"?
In the meantime, grandmothers still have to take off their shoes, and nail files are confiscated. And they wonder why people think their tax money is misspent.

An award

I have been given an award by fellow blogger Nyx. I am not sure if I can live up to it, but I feel touched that someone considered me to be worthy of such.

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"This award should make you reflect on five bloggers who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, and have been a Godly example to you.

Five Bloggers who when you reflect on them you get a sense of pride and joy… of knowing them and being blessed by them.”

Here are the rules for this one:

1. Copy this post (meaning the rules).
2. Reflect on five bloggers and write a least a paragraph about each one.
3. Make sure you link this post so others can read it and the rules.
4. Go leave your chosen bloggers a comment and let them know they’ve been given the award.
5. Put the award icon on your site.

The thing about a source of love and being a Godly example isn't really my thing; I am a longtime agnostic, and most of my encouragement has just been the reading of their blogs, rather than active encouragement on their part. They are all people who make me think, and whose words I enjoy reading. With that in mind, these are some of the people who I enjoy reading.
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I think the first one I would have to list is the late Acidman of Gut Rumbles. This was a person who was read by many, and both liked and disliked by a lot of people. He was a prolific blogger, posting several times a day. It was through reading his blog that I first started toying with the idea of posting my own blog. I never got to meet him, but wish I could have done so.

Marko the Munchkin Wrangler is an inspiration to those who value freedom. He writes well constructed posts on politics and life in general, and does some very noteworthy stuff, such as his essay on concealed carry. Definitely a thinking person's blog.

I first started reading GuyK at CHARMING, JUST CHARMING after reading his comments at Gut Rumbles. He has a laid back relaxed view of life (after a couple of rants in the morning upon reading the news), but is not lazy. He manages to stay busy, but doesn't let life push him too much.

One of my first reads in the morning is to check on Tamara's View from the Porch. Reflections on history are common, and usually with a mixture of sarcasm and wit where required. She is always a joy to read, and teaches the proper employment of snark.

I first discovered "Scully" at Skywriter about a year ago, I think. She does serious writing that flows easily, it evokes images and memories, and makes me wish I could write that well. A combination of intelligence, education, and experience, her posts are always good to read. She also has a subtle, almost dry sense of humor when commenting that can be hilarious.


There are a lot of reasons to read the people listed, these are just a few of my reflections on them.

Make Al Gore cry...

Want something that will go anywhere, and have a carbon footprint the size of a T.Rex?
You might need one of these:




A Humvee that converts to a boat in 5 seconds, and has the global warming people wetting their pants in even less time.
I remember something like this in a couple of James Bond movies, but this is even cooler.

A little music to make things go better...

Popped a few tunes into the playlist; seems to make me feel better after a bit. Everybody familiar with the top ten in the list?

"Coming into Los Angeles" by Arlo Guthrie
"Crippled Crow" by Kris Kristofferson
"Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra
"Yakety Axe" by Chet Atkins/Mark Knopfler
"Here For The Party" by Gretchen Wilson
"Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran
"Summer Nights" by Marianne Faithfull
"Nothing Is Easy" by Jethro Tull
"You Talk Too Much" by George Thorogood
"When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin

I tend to listen to odd combinations; lower in the list I also have stuff by Vivaldi, Hank Williams, and Miles Davis.

I've been expecting this

Since the Parker case has been submitted to the SCOTUS, the Brady Bunch has gone into hysterics again. I just got this in an email this morning:

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty announced this week that the District will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision in Parker v. District of Columbia — an assault on D.C. gun laws and one that could threaten every city's gun laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court could decide in about three months whether they will hear the case and each month brings a tidal wave of work for the Brady Center to defend our nation's gun laws. We must be geared-up to fight this battle. Simply put: we need your support today!

Please click here to make a tax-deductible commitment of $25 or more. Your gift today will help us prepare for the incredibly large amount of work that needs to be conducted to hold off this assault on our nation's gun laws.

You'll recall, in a 2-1 decision this past spring, a federal Appeals Court overturned Washington D.C.'s long-standing restrictions on handguns based on a twisted view of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while ignoring more than 60 years of precedent — a decision that endangers America's gun laws coast-to-coast.

This battle — to its very core — is the most important battle we have ever waged. We need your help today to save America's gun laws by building a strong Brady Gun Law Defense Fund.

Your tax-deductible gift of $25 or more today is critical to our success!

We must prepare for a long hard battle. So much of what we have worked for in the past and everything we're currently working on could be destroyed by the heinous decision of right-wing activist judges who chose to ignore more than 60 years of precedent in order to help the gun lobby accomplish in the courts what it has been unable to accomplish in Congress.

Notice how they don't waste much time panhandling for money? And distorting and lying (as usual)? These bozos are so predictable. If they would even try to give some semblance of truth, rather than the ridiculous drivel that they spew into the media. I need another cup of coffee to get the bad taste out of my mouth after hearing from them...

Couple accused of starving infants while playing video games

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A couple authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier, and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work, according to court records. He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said.

I can't imagine any normal parent deliberately neglecting their child, but to play video games? Makes me feel like beating the living shit out of them. People with those sort of priorities have no business having children. I just hope the despicable assholes have a very miserable time while in prison.

Must be feeling a bit nostalgic

Got looking at the playlist I set up today...hmmm. I don't live in the past, but sometimes I get in strange music moods. Some days it's a mixture, other days it's all classical, or country, or blues. Sometimes its rock from a certain period, other times a mishmash. Today seems to be an oldies-rock day.
This is the top ten on it:

"Tequila" by The Champs
"It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty
"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" by Fifth Dimension
"Jupiter's Child" by Steppenwolf
"Pretty Ballerina" by The Left Banke
"Let's Live for Today" by The Grass Roots
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by The Animals
"Good Morning Starshine" by Oliver
"Kind of a Drag" by The Buckinhams
"Let Me Be" by The Turtles

Anybody else out there old enough to remember these? Any comments on them?

China blames Internet for rise in teen pregnancies

BEIJING--Nearly half of the pregnant teens in China's financial hub, Shanghai, met their partners on the Internet, state media said on Tuesday.

Zhang Zhengrong, a doctor who oversees the city's first-aid hotline for pregnant teens, said 46 percent of the more than 20,000 teenage girls who called the hotline over the past two years said they had had sex with boys they met on the Internet.

A survey by Zhang's hospital found that only 7.9 percent of the parents queried talked to their children about sex, and 79 percent of high school and university students said they got their ideas about sex from the Internet.

When I was a kid, they blamed stuff like this on rock-and-roll music.

Sounds like there are a lot of teenage boys on the internet over there typing one-handed...

11-year-old girl charged with DUI after chase

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (AP) — Police who chased a car for miles along a highway at speeds up to 100 mph said the driver was drunk, hardly a rarity in this resort town. But there was more: When they looked inside the flipped vehicle with guns drawn, they found an 11-year-old girl at the wheel.

I'm a little curious where her parents are during all this, and whether this is something she does all the time.

Sax Player Boots Randolph Dead at 80

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Boots Randolph, whose spirited saxophone playing on "Yakety Sax" endeared him to fans for years on Benny Hill's TV show, died Tuesday. He was 80.

Most people out there are probably unfamiliar with his name, but those of use who are older remember him well. Those who are younger, and familiar with the Benny Hill show, will recognize his "Yakety Sax" that was played during many of the routines. He was well known for work with a lot of country western stars, and will be missed.