A little boy opened the big family bible. He was fascinated as he leafed through the old pages.
Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He picked up the object and looked at it.
What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages.
"Mama, look what I found," the boy called out.
"What have you got there, dear?"
With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear."
People stand in line to be tasered
January 8, 2007 -Taser International is showing off its new C2 Taser...and Alison Waite (Miss May 2006) are signing photos (there is a line), and a handful of Nascar-suited guys help volunteers experience a Tasering first-hand.
That's right, people are asking to be Tasered. They scream. They fall down. They get picked back up.
…The C2... releases 50,000 volts for up to 30 seconds - "a lifetime" if you're the one on the other end, he said...
http://blogs.wsj.com/ces2007/2007/01/08/strange-bedfellows/
Regarding College Coaches Salaries
Someone e-mailed my friend the following comment: "I know there are lots of big football fans out there, but these salaries are ridiculus. And people complain about tuition rocketing up! tehcnically, these coaches are civil servatns. They work for a state school that is funded by the taxpayer."
My friend's reply: Oklahoma is a completely endowed university. Not one thin dime of Oklahoma taxpayer money is spent on the University. The OU football and basketball teams make a profit sufficient to cover all the expenses of the athletic department and returns a surplus to the operating budget of the university... if it weren't for the football and basketball teams, the Oklahoma taxpayer would get a bill but they don't.
The truth is most NCAA teams bring in millions, millions that the state or school would have to get from someone else if it was not generated by college sports.
Question: what is the difference between a coach like Bob Stoops at a major football university and a member of the regular faculty?
Answer: Stoops is paid for performance. If he doesn't teach good football, he's fired. A regular member of the faculty is not judged on performance. He keeps his tenure whether he is successful or not.
Perhaps, the other faculty should be judged on the same standard.
UK COUPLE FACE SMOKING PROBE IN OWN HOME
Jan 08 2007 An English couple are facing a council investigation into their smoking habits at home, it was reported Tuesday.
Jeanette Gordon-Crawley, 54, and her husband Gavin, 51, from Caernarfon, north Wales , have been told by their local council that their next-door neighbour has complained that she can smell cigarette smoke from their house in her living room.
Moira Duell, an environmental health officer with Gwynedd County Council, sent them a letter headed: "Alleged Odour Nuisance", the Sun said.
In the letter she said: "Your neighbour alleges that cigarette smoke is permeating into her living room from your property.
"To enable further investigation into the matter I would like to visit your property to discuss the matter further."
http://drudgereport.com/flash3.htm
Bangor Makes It Illegal to Smoke in Cars
Jan 09 BANGOR , Maine -- The Bangor City Council approved a measure Monday that prohibits people from smoking in vehicles when children are present.
When the law goes into effect next week, Bangor will become the first municipality in Maine to have such a law. Similar statewide measures have been adopted in Arkansas and Louisiana and are under consideration in several other states.
People who smoke with children present in the confined space of a car or truck might as well be deliberately trying to kill those children, said City Councilor Patricia Blanchette, who is a smoker.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/09/D8MHRQEO1.html
If the cities were serious about the danger of smoking they'd quit taxing cigarettes and quit spending the revenue they generate. The simple truth is taxes on cigarettes are not designed to discourage smoking but to generate revenue. It is a conundrum for the cities, they want the revenue and at the same time they want to protect the children… You can’t have both! Also, the cities are more interested in nabbing smokers than illegal Mexicans...
ACLU sues RI state police
January 9, 2007 PROVIDENCE - The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the state police, alleging racial profiling and violation of the constitutional rights of 14 Guatemalan nationals during a July traffic stop that led to their detention by immigration officials.
Steven Brown, director of the Rhode Island ACLU affiliate, yesterday noted, "The citizenship status of the plaintiffs is really irrelevant to this lawsuit….The question is whether police have a right to detain individuals for no other reason than the way they look ..."
...According to the lawsuit, Chabot pulled over a van operated by Carlos A. Tamup because Tamup had failed to use his turn signal when changing lanes.
The lawsuit alleges that Chabot first confirmed that Tamup's license and registration were valid and that he had no criminal record.
"Chabot … utilize[ed] Tamup as a translator, requested all the passengers to also provide identification," according to an ACLU synopsis of the case. When some failed to do so, Chabot then asked them to produce documents "demonstrating their U.S. citizenship."
When none of the 14 were able to do so, Chabot advised them that they would all be escorted to the federal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Providence .
...The lawsuit also steps into the heart of a national controversy over whether local police should be involved in enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Brown said, "To their credit, many police departments across the country have rejected the opportunity to enforce those laws for a number of reasons...
http://www.projo.com/news/content/RIACLU_SUIT9_01-09-07_AG3PUSQ.2c7d941.html#
So according to the ACLU, if a law enforcement officer stops someone for whatever reason and in the course of enforcing the applicable law, discovers that the driver or other individuals are in violation of other laws, they shouldn't be allowed to enforce the other laws. Therefore when an officer stops someone for a "routine" traffic violation, and discovers that the driver is transporting illegal drugs, has open liquor containers, or maybe smells of Alcohol, the officer should not be able to arrest the driver for the "other" law violations.
Dead U.S. Soldier in Anti-War Video 'Alive and Well'
An Iraqi insurgent propaganda video, containing what is described as a Christmas message from a U.S. soldier taped just before he was killed, appeared on dozens of Web sites and on the al Jazeera network.
...ABC News found the supposedly dead soldier is "alive and well" and present for duty, according to a U.S. Army spokesman at Fort Campbell , Ky.
"There are a whole bunch of lies on that tape," said Lt. Col. Ed Loomis at Fort Campbell . "It is nothing but a total fabrication…"
...His family says he returned from Iraq in May and was with them over the holidays so he would not have been sending any messages home…
...Tucker's mother Pam of Fort Worth, Texas, told ABC News that Tucker is not anti-war and that he could be returning to Iraq later this year.
Read more at: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/01/dead_us_soldier.html
Pace University pressures Jewish students not to screen documentary on radical Islam
1/9/2007 Pace University administrators threatened to sic the cops on a Jewish-student club if it went ahead with plans to screen a critically acclaimed film about radical Islam, the head of the group charged yesterday.
Michael Abdurakhmanov, president of Pace Hillel, said two deans warned that showing the documentary film would implicate club members as suspects in two hate crimes involving the desecration of the Koran at the university's lower-Manhattan campus last fall.
In addition, Abdurakhmanov said an assistant dean physically restrained him as he attempted to defend the film and his group in a meeting with administrators.
"The message was pretty clear, if you show this film, you're going to incriminate yourself," Abdurakhmanov said...
...Hillel had planned to screen "Obsession" during Judaism Awareness Week in November. The school stepped in after receiving complaints from Muslim students that the film negatively portrayed Islam... (the truth hurts, huh? Of course there is no criticism of Judaism in Muslim countries… ) http://www.nypost.com/seven/01092007/news/regionalnews/paces_docu_drama_regionalnews_david_andreatta.htm
Sheehan Dismisses Appeal From Cuban Dissidents' Wives
New York Sun 1/10/07 Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is ignoring an appeal by wives and mothers of imprisoned Cuban political dissidents for her to visit Cuban prisons during her trip this week to protest the treatment of suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay .
The Damas de Blanco, or Ladies in White, who march silently through the streets of Havana every Sunday in protest at the incarceration of political prisoners of the Castro regime, wrote a letter to Ms. Sheehan inviting her to visit Cuban prisons.
The Damas drew Ms. Sheehan's attention to the poor state of Cuban prisons, which they say lack clean drinking water and adequate food and where their relatives are imprisoned solely for speaking out against Fidel Castro's government.
The leader of Ms. Sheehan's trip, Medea Benjamin, said the American activists [said] would be focusing solely on Guantanamo . "It just so happens that this is where the [ Guantanamo ] prisoners are," Ms. Benjamin said.
(you mean that is where the publicity and Bush bashing are)
The Sheehan trip has angered some who believe she should also address Cuba 's imprisonment of political dissidents during her visit, not just those held in the American military prison.
"The fact that there's so many Cubans in prison simply for expressing their political beliefs - nobody seems to pay attention to that," the director of government relations at the anti-Castro Cuban-American National Foundation, Camila Ruiz Gallardo, said...
...Traveling with Sheehan is Zohra Zewawi, who is the mother of a Guantanamo detainee... when Ms. Zewawi was asked about her opinion on Cuba , she said she knew nothing about it. "I'm just here for my son."
(of course as a Muslim Mommy her son being in prison bad, if her son was suicide bomber that would be good...) http://www.nysun.com/article/46377
E-mail from beyond the grave
A Houston man has started an online service that allows a person to send e-mail posthumously.
The service, called Deathswitch, ensures that critical personal information will survive, even when a person dies unexpectedly, company founder David Eagleman said.
After Deathswitch subscribers pass on, the company sends e-mail to intended recipients - anything from computer passwords or a love note to "the last word in an argument," he said...
...Deathswitch.com is an automated system that prompts subscribers for their password on a regular schedule to make sure they're still alive.
Subscribers typically ask to be prompted every two weeks.
When a subscriber doesn't respond, the system goes into "worry mode,"
sending more frequent prompts. A subscriber has the option of providing Deathswitch with a secondary e-mail address and leaving a friend's e-mail address for backup.
If a subscriber fails to respond for a predetermined period of time, Deathswitch assumes that he or she has died and begins sending out e-mail messages, which can contain documents, images and videos.
If a subscriber will be without e-mail access for a long time, he or she can activate the "vacation mode" for any length of time, Eagleman said.
(This ought to be fun, as soon as the first forgetful person fails to switch to vacation mode, or ends up unexpectedly in the hospital, erroneous notices will go out. As Mark Twain once said, "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." ) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4456435.html
Katrina 'Ethnic Cleansing' Remarks Causes Stir By Fred Lucas
January 09, 2007- A Democrat's allegation that the Bush administration engaged in a calculated policy of ethnic cleansing after Hurricane Katrina to make Louisiana "whiter" has sparked outrage.
Addressing a group of bloggers at the Capitol in Washington , D.C. , last week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) renewed his criticism of the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, particularly the housing crisis that ensued after the hurricane hit.
"At this point, you're not talking about incompetence, you're talking about ethical values… in a calculated way, you refuse to do anything for well over a year after the disaster. The policy, I think, is ethnic cleansing by inaction," Frank added.
…The statements have drawn the ire of conservative African Americans.
"His remarks are contemptuous of real struggles black people have gone through in this country and contemptuous of genocide and real ethnic cleansing that has taken place and is taking place," Niger Innis, spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, told Cybercast News Service.
Frank said during the speech, "it's not ethnic cleansing in the sense of killing people." But, he went on to say, "What they [Republicans] recognize is they're in this happy position for them where if the federal government does nothing, Louisiana will become whiter and richer."
"By simply not doing anything to alleviate the housing crisis greatly exaggerated by Katrina, they get the hurricane to do the ethnic cleansing and their hands are clean," Frank continued...
...The federal government has been addressing the housing crisis in all of the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, Jerry M. Brown, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Monday.
Brown pointed to a $4.2 billion block grant to Louisiana , another $4.6 billion in emergency funds to the state, and other federal grants issued last year to Louisiana to alleviate the damage done by the hurricane...
...some say the remarks haven't been scrutinized enough… Had a Republican made a similar inflammatory statement, "it would have been on the front page of the New York Times… and Katie Couric would do a special segment on it," said Innis...
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200701/CUL20070109a.html
