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Urine Bottles on Highway May Be Due to Drivers Too Concerned With Gas Prices to Pull Off
Saturday, August 09, 2008

ONTARIO, Ore. —  Police say there’s been an alarming rise in urine-filled plastic containers found along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon.

A litter crew for the Oregon Department of Transportation picked up an estimated 200-300 urine filled plastic bottles, along the highway, about half of which were found in a short stretch dubbed “Three Mile Hill.”

Police say that drivers — particularly commercial trucks — are typically driving very slowly through the area.

 June 2001 on the occasion of the first meeting between Bush and Putin:

Bush:

“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

“I was able to get a sense of his soul.

“He’s a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that’s the beginning of a very constructive relationship,” Mr Bush said.

August 2008:

RUSSIAN PLANES ATTACK GEORGIA

The following is from Airliner World magazine, May 2008 edition, page 76:

“In March, the crew of an Alitalia flight made an emergency landing at Boston Logan International Airport in the USA after being overcome by noxious fumes.  The cargo flight had been inbound to Miami from Milan when the crew were forced to don oxygen masks and declare an emergency.  After a safe landing, the cause of the odour was investigated and found to be the aircraft’s cargo of five tons of minced onions.  It was then added to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) ‘No Fly List’ and sent from Boston to Miami by road.”

Well, one horse pulls ahead of another for a few moments and then the other pulls up and edges out the former leader.  The entire race has gone that way from early-on, almost immediately after each was able to establish an initial position.

The announcer must be having a hell of a time observing the race and calling the changes of position that occur almost constantly.  One just never knows what the capabilities are, where the heart and soul are, and what the real inner horse is. 

The race?

It’s who can change positions more frequently, some call it flip-flop, on issues facing this nation.

I recently observed another adult version of the “everyone has to feel good” syndrome — another example of an adult teaching our future generations poorly.

For background on my thoughts regarding the subject, and a long treatise at that, go here.  The capsule version is near the bottom, contained in selected quotes from an article in The Wall Street Journal. 

This weekend’s observation, however, is definitely the extreme.

The subject has been burning hole in my psyche for a week now.  Well, longer than that, I suppose.  Aspects of it have been simmering for a few decades, but now that the two most notable politicians in the country at the moment have stirred the pot the bubbles have risen once again and the steam must escape.

Last week’s 7/21/08 edition of The Weekly Standard had an article that caused the overflow.  In an article titled Self-Interest Is Bad?, Andrew Ferguson wrote his lead paragraph:

Source

Enacted or not, this shows a scary mindset on the part of those in charge.

Police given THREE HOURS to respond to emergencies under new Home Office guidelines

By Matthew Hickley
Last updated at 12:28 AM on 16th July 2008

Guidelines ordering police to respond to emergency calls within three hours and to attend less urgent incidents such as burglaries within three days have been drawn up by the Home Office.

The astonishing proposals were designed as ‘national standards for local policing’ in England and Wales.

because that’s where most of the clowns are.  Would have been a perfect traveling circus.

Giraffe helps camels, zebras escape from circus

Jun 30, 2008

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Amsterdam police say 15 camels, two zebras and an undetermined number of llamas and potbellied swine briefly escaped from a traveling Dutch circus after a giraffe kicked a hole in their cage.

Police spokesman Arnout Aben says the animals wandered in a group through a nearby neighborhood for several hours after their 5:30 a.m. breakout.

And this is one of the best the Taunton area of Massachusetts has to offer by way of citizen representation in that state?  Hey, they voted him in…

Meet Massachusetts Rep. James Fagan:

Source:  several 

A Massachusetts politician and defense attorney has touched off a firestorm with his shocking public vow to torment and “rip apart” child rape victims who take the witness stand if the state legislature passed stiff mandatory sentences for child sex offenders.

Rep. James Fagan, a Democrat, made the comments during debate last month on the state House floor.

Another crap email received today from yet another yahoo.com.hk address.  I am just about ready to block all Yahoo email.  Yahoos, indeed.  Tell you what, Frank, take all that inheritance I’m missing and buy a cup of coffee with it before you crawl back under the rock you came from.

I am a Diplomat from the Caribbeans named Frank Chambers,mandated to deliver your inheritance to you in your country of residence.

ujnews.com

May 2008
Baked Bean Diet Works Nicely For Nell

WHEN DOCTORS told Neil King tbat he risked bowel cancer be decided to change his diet and lose weight.

Tbe Essex man bas now lost 10 stone (140 1bs) in nine montbs - by eating six cans of baked beans a day.  King, 40, has munched his way tbrougb more than half a ton of beans in tbat time, reported the Daily Mirror.

Tbe mechanic serves tbem up for his breakfast, lunch and dinner and his weight has fallen from 30 stone in June to just under 20 stone today.

Bayou Renaissance Man has posted an excellent article about the Chicago situation, taking Mayor Daly to task for his numskull approach to governance, this being the weekend following their 32-shootings and 2 stabbings weekend.

In that article he relates a telling episode in the time following hurricane Katrina.  I’ve quoted that part below, but you really should read his full article, here.

Contractor oversight by the the Army Corps of Engineers seems to be lacking, but their doubletalk is going just fine.

4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?

11:54 PM CDT on Thursday, April 24, 2008

 

Lee Zurik / WWL-TV News Anchor

 

 

“It blows my mind.”

Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish.

“That should be criminal,” Taffaro continues.

A caveat:  I seem to be regressing some in my surgical recovery (Translation: Due to increasing pain I’m hitting the muscle relaxers and pain pills a bit harder again, hopefully just one of those valleys in the peaks and valleys of recovery), so I hope this makes sense.  I KNOW I won’t get it done in one sitting, too, so if it all fits together and flows it will be an absolute miracle.

_____________________

From  Orlando Sentinel.com  

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity will refund customers fuel surcharge
posted by Jason Garcia on Mar 10, 2008 6:18:17 PM
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum will announce a settlement tomorrow with Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and subsidiary Celebrity Cruises Inc. in which the cruise lines will refund $21 million worth of fuel surcharges that the companies levied even after travelers booked their vacations.

I don’t think it much of a stretch to use a person’s choice of friends, advisors, and mentors to make judgments about how that person thinks presently and how that person is likely to think and judge in the future.  After all, those are chosen influences on one’s life.  I remember counseling young airmen in years past, and in defense of their excessive use of alcohol they quite often told me, “Well, everybody I know does it.”  OK, well, maybe you just need to chose others with whom to spend your time and you’ll realize your behavior is not really the norm in society.  You have simply chosen your friends and examples poorly. 

Way to go, folks. Officers and enlisted, from operational reports to personal agenda, you’ve pretty much covered all the territory.

Good grief.

11 Aboard Navy Sub Disciplined for Fraud, Cheating

Saturday, March 08, 2008

  

 SAN DIEGO —  Eleven officers and sailors from a San Diego-based Navy submarine have been disciplined for falsifying tests on a nuclear reactor and cheating on officer advancement exams.

A Navy report released Friday said crew members of the attack sub Hampton falsified weekly chemical tests as far back as November 2006. The tests involved the highly pure water used to cool the sub’s reactor.

Mascots

When in high school I was a stage manager for each of those years.  That got me into all sorts of maybe-related-maybe-not activities.  One stands out in my mind and I was reminded of it a little while ago, thanks to one of my sons sending me a URL link with the suggestion, “Thought this might interest you…”

In those days Holy Cross High School was virtually unbeatable at wrestling within the state of Louisiana and was a football powerhouse.  The football mascot was a tiger.  We were the Holy Cross Tigers, and I say “we” because, I was for a time the tiger, well hidden from personal identification by a hot and heavy canvas/burlap/SOS-pad/sandpaper lining, covered with a pretty good looking tiger outfit. 

Our first one:

“Olympic excess”  is probably my best phrase I can apply to it (a smidgen short of fraud, waste, and abuse). 

Remember all the hullabaloo (that’s not over yet) about some foreign governments telling London to go pee up a rope regarding their congestion tax (uh, “fee”?  “surcharge”?  whatever…)  And the discussions about air quality, global warming, et al.?

Well, imagine what it will be like on those London (and other locations’) streets during the Olympics of 2012 after the inevitable geometric explosion in the number of busses faces the limos, and not just a few limos, either, and not existing limos, but new, additional ones.