If There Is To Be A Silver Lining In The Upcoming Era Of Hope, Change, And Unicorns

It's that the cigar companies, fearing S-CHIP will beat them into submission with their "floor tax" and other levies, sre selling many of their inventory at below cost just to get rid of items. That means great savings for cheapskates like me. In fact, I went to the online site for my favorite vendor and stocked up.

Yay me! 

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:09 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 76 words, total size 1 kb.

Maryland State Rep Embodies FAIL and Stupidity In One Classic Sentence

She seems to yet another O-Bot to believe the whole "magic unicorns will pay our bills for us" line.

Gladden, in a video interview you can see here, told the intrepid political reporter, “It doesn’t matter if the state of Maryland is broke as long as Barack Obama is going to be President of the United States â€“ this is great!”

Not so great if you’ve just lost a job, your home, your 401k or your health insurance. 

But to Lisa Gladden, it doesn’t matter if we starve in the streets; nor does it matter that Maryland state workers are being furloughed; nor does it matter that crime in the city she represents is among the worst in the country; nor does it matter that her mayor (Sheila Dixon) has been indicted on charges ranging from theft to perjury; nor does the $1 billion dollar shortfall facing the state.

As long as Obama is president we can just put on our rose-colored eyewear, hold hands, and enjoy the ride to hell in our Barack-logoed handbasket.

Here’s hoping Senator Gladden heads the committee that oversees Obama’s historic Inaugural Day walk across the waters of the Reflecting Pool. 

Here is a clip:


Thanks.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:40 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 212 words, total size 2 kb.

Meet your new Attorney General

I was surprised this morning to see that the LAT had published this opinion piece by Joseph F. Connor, whose father was killed by FALN terrorists. Why was I surprised? Well...

At the time of the pardons, Eric H. Holder Jr. was deputy attorney general. In considering his department's recommendation on clemency, he met with supporters of the terrorists but ignored their victims. He pushed staff members to drop their strong opposition to a presidential pardon for the FALN members and alter a report they had prepared for the president recommending against clemency. Today, although two turned down their pardons because they were unwilling to renounce violence, many of the convicted FALN members walk free. And a man who was instrumental in their release may become the highest law enforcer in the land.

That's right. The guy who's about to become our Attorney General helped to get these shitheels out of prison. Thanks, Barry!

Make sure to read the whole thing, but try not to punch your monitor.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 172 words, total size 1 kb.

Exposed Genitals+Gang Signs=Crazy Awesome

I would have never thought that somebody would get offended when a neighbor does this to you.

The younger man said when he got out of his car, the older guy “threw up some gang signs, pulled out his penis and swung it around.”

Not so, said older guy.

Noting an ongoing issue between the two, the officer suggested the two might want to consider a threesome with a mediator.

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:00 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

And so it begins...

In an article on all the silly, politically correct, eco-friendly shit that will be going on a week from today, this jumped right off the screen at me:

PETA plans to give away fur coats to the homeless while offering hot soy milk cocoa in cups that read: "Thank You for Not Wearing Fur!"

"We expect that the only fur on the streets on Jan. 20 will be on homeless people," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA vice president.

The furs, collected from people who don't want them anymore, will be marked with black paint before they are given away so that they cannot be sold.

Whoah, guys. Did PETA just do us Morons a solid? I know it sounds crazy, but think about it...if the hobos are the only ones wearing fur in DC, it'll make them easier to spot.

Anyway, read the whole article if you're a fan of the thin line between amusement and contempt.  This is shaping up to be the silliest inauguration in history.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 171 words, total size 1 kb.

Let's not set the bar too high

Obama sure doesn't want to raise any expectations.

Obama said: "Potentially we've got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery that we are working on."

(h/t Repurblican)

Posted by: Alice H at 05:50 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 36 words, total size 1 kb.

A Story From Nigeria Not Involving Oil, Kidnappings, Or Online Scams

It seems the motorcycle helmet laws in Nigeria are not very popular, so the locals have stumbled across a new method of handling the situation.

Officials in the northern city of Kano said they had stopped several people with "improvised helmets", following this month's introduction of the law.

Road safety officials said calabash-wearers would be prosecuted.

Thousands of motorbikes have been impounded around the country and drivers have staged protests.

Calabashes are dried pumpkin shells more commonly used to carry liquid.

Kano Federal Road Safety Commission commander Yusuf Garba told the BBC they were taking a hard line with people found using the improvised helmets.

"We are impounding their bikes and want to take them to court so they can explain why they think wearing a calabash is good enough for their safety," he said.

Fifty motorbikes had been seized so far in Kano city alone, he added.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:59 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 159 words, total size 1 kb.

Obama names new intelligence heads

Obama has named Leon Panetta as the new director of the CIA, and retired Admiral Dennis Blair as the new Director of National Intelligence.

What do you think Obama's trying to tell us, by appointing a touchy-feely civil-rights activist who's a professor at UC Santa Cruz as the person to oversee our foreign intelligence needs, and a former Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Command with a history of disobeying orders that could save the lives of pro-independence protestors?  This, combined with the "civilian national security force" Obama intends to implement, could spell some interesting times over the next few years.

Posted by: Alice H at 03:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 107 words, total size 1 kb.

Once Again, Folks, Role Playing And Home Science Kits Can Lead To Trouble In The Real World

Especially when you combine the vortex of suck that is British Nanny Statism and a shitload of fake weapons.

Items found in a flat which police initially suspected could be homemade explosive devices turned out to be harmless "science fiction-style" equipment, officers said.

About 100 homes had to be evacuated after police arrested a man and called bomb disposal officers following a siege at the property in Harlow, Essex.

Officers were called to the third floor flat early yesterday after reports that a man had been spotted with a longbow.

Armed officers and negotiators arrived and a 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon.

A search of his home revealed a number of "unexplained" items, police said.

Bomb disposal experts were called in and homes within a 100 yard cordon set up by police were evacuated.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:17 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 157 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm Sure This Means Something, But I'm Not Sure What

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

Leave It To The Scandis To Take The Fun Out Of Drunk Skiing

Sheesh. They are renting a drunk tank to hold all of them. To me, that implies the drunk skiing problem is a big deal in Scandiland.

Police plan to rent the container from a car club in nearby Höljes. The club uses the container in the summers for housing inebriated rally cross enthusiasts during the European championship week.

The container will be located in a fenced-off area at a garage owned by the National Road Administration (Vägverket) just five kilometres from the ski hill, enabling police to take a tougher line with unruly skiers.

"We are going to increase our presence in Branäs and will lower the threshold for an arrest. We are probably the first in Sweden to do this," said Peter Åkerström at Värmland's police to VF.

Currently the closest cell available for the detainment of tipsy tourists is in Karlstad, a two and a half hour round trip which uses up limited police resources.

"Branäs is located a bit out of the way. People go there to party and have fun. It is probably not quite as fun to wake up in a detention container," warned Åkerström.

Accommodation in the small red container is not however devoid of creature comforts for sobering skiers and is equipped with ventilation, a simple drainage system and a hole in the middle of the floor where overnight inmates will be able to perform their ablutions.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:05 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 247 words, total size 2 kb.

After they come for our guns

...we can still rig Nerf Vulcans to throw harder, faster projectiles as rapidly as an M60. I recommend stocking up now to avoid the post-inauguration rush.

(h/t the Head Moron's sidebar)

Posted by: Alice H at 03:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 37 words, total size 1 kb.

That Santa, He's A Bad Mutha!

Especially when it comes to the ass-kicking department.

The Santas clashed with another group of men, described as Asian or African, on a busy street in the city centre.

One man was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge with head injuries and another needed stitches after receiving cuts to his face in the skirmish.

The trouble continued with small pockets of disorder reported in the city.

A police spokesman said: "The incident involved two groups of males. One of the groups were all dressed as Father Christmas, the other group were described as being of dark-skinned African or Asian appearance."

One man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Police are keen to hear from any witnesses, particularly a couple believed to have seen an incident near the Olive Tree restaurant.

In 2004 police were forced to arrest five people when an annual charity run in Newtown, Wales, involving 4,000 Santas, ended in fighting.

Officers used CS spray and batons to break up trouble amongst up to 30 people and four officers suffered minor injuries.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:54 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 182 words, total size 1 kb.

What Is It With Knut The Polar Bear?

Now, lonely people are flinging themselves at him.

A man jumped into the Berlin zoo enclosure of famed polar bear Knut on Monday, but officials were able to keep the animal away from the intruder by distracting him with a leg of beef, police said. The 37-year-old man jumped over a fence into a water-filled ditch at the edge of the bear's enclosure Monday morning, police said in a statement.

Zoo keepers, who had just let Knut into his outdoor enclosure, were able to lure the bear back into his cage by producing a leg of beef.

Police said the man, a German, was less cooperative, initially ignoring instructions to leave the enclosure. He was led away unharmed but, although he was soaked and cold, he refused to undergo a medical checkup.

Police said that, before being let go, the man told them that he felt lonely and the bear appeared lonely, too.

Posted by: eddiebear at 04:11 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 161 words, total size 1 kb.

The Moron Lifestyle Is Like A Cockroach

In that it can survive any disaster, even The Coming Age Of Plenty.

But all is not rosy. It appears as though more and more people may be encroaching into the world of Val-U-Rite.

Customer numbers at Colorado liquor stores aren't down and liquor excise taxes are up 7 percent this year, lending credence to the old saw that people continue to imbibe in tough times. But liquor store owners and liquor industry officials say drinkers are avoiding high- end spirits in favor of more moderately priced goods.

Or if they can't stand to give up their ultra anejo tequila and single-malt scotch, they may buy it in smaller quantities.

"I've never seen an environment like this," said Jim Smith, president of Republic National Distributing Co., who predicts that by the time the tinsel comes down, liquor retailers will have had a decent overall season.

But their revenues just might come more from $20 premium boxed wines. Sales of the penny-wise cartons have jumped 40 percent in the past month, according to a survey by A.E. Nielsen. Or from economy vodka, which the survey showed has jumped 7 percent while sales of luxury vodkas have declined.

"There are people out there that this downturn hasn't even bothered, but then there is the guy who would buy the $25 bottle of wine and is now buying the $10 bottle," said Daveco Liquors manager Ted Sutton.

No one has plunked down $13,000 for the store's priciest bottle of 55-year-old scotch. The last five-figure bottle of booze to sell there went out the door this summer before the economy really tanked.

Customer numbers are up at Argonaut Wine & Liquor, but co-owner Ron Vaughn said not as much high-end champagne as normal was carted away for Thanksgiving, and he doesn't expect Christmas to be any different.

"People are going quantity rather than quality," Vaughn said.

Jerry Sica, co-owner of Crossroads Wine & Liquors in Grand Junction, is using the belt-tightening as a way to highlight something he has always enjoyed doing.

"We see that people are downgrading their drinking habits, and we are turning them on to the better lower-cost brands," he said as he showed off an $18.99-per-half-gallon jug of Pinnacle vodka that he said stands up well to vodkas that cost five times as much.

Posted by: eddiebear at 09:33 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 391 words, total size 2 kb.

Obama May Claim He Doesn't Support The Fairness Doctrine

But a hell of a lot of his own party does, and I wonder how willing he will be to fight them off. One example is Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), who really is pushing for it, and wants to extend it to other venues such as the internet.

The Fairness Doctrine required TV and radio stations to balance opposing points of view. It meant that those who disagreed with the political slant of a commentator were entitled to free air time to give contrasting points of view, usually in the same time slot as the original broadcast.

The doctrine was repealed by the Reagan administration's Federal Communications Commission in 1987, and a year later, Rush Limbaugh's show went national, ushering in a new form of AM radio. 

Conservative talk show hosts fear the doctrine will result in their programs being canceled because stations don't want to offer large amounts of air time to opponents whose response programs probably wouldn't get good ratings.

Eshoo said she would recommend the doctrine be applied not only to radio and TV broadcasts, but also to cable and satellite services.

“It should and will affect everyone,” she said.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:33 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.

Who Knew Wigs Were So Important?

I guess to Taiwanese politicians, they mean a lot.

A Chen supporter grabbed Chiu's wig outside the building, baring a mostly bald head, the publicist and local media said. "It feels like someone pulled my pants down in public," Chiu was quoted telling reporters later.

Police at the Control Yuan arrested the wig snatcher but later released him on bail.

"With that kind of bail, it means the crime isn't too severe," the Control Yuan publicist said. "But it's unclear what the name of the crime should be called."

Posted by: eddiebear at 05:04 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

When Life Imitates The Simpsons

Finally! Somebody is doing something about the bear menace.

The Alaska Assembly is considering a plan to hire a "bear cop" who would keep track of meandering bears and use air horns and rubber bullets to drive them back into the wild, the Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.

The bear cop, who would be a wildlife specialist, would have the power to relocate or kill a bear, said Assemblyman Bill Starr.

Anchorage residents are split on how to proceed against bears living in the city. Some think the state should take a more aggressive stance against the bears while others say the bears are just following their instincts, the Daily News reported.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:19 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 117 words, total size 1 kb.

Personally, I Would Prefer The Gold Watch

I guess some folks have a different view of how to celebrate a retirement.

The man had worked at the branch of a major transportation firm in Ritto, Shiga Prefecture. According to the complaint and sources familiar with the incident, about 40 people including the head of the branch and most of the other drivers working there attended a farewell party at an inn in Kusatsu on the evening of Nov. 18, 2007.

During the event, the 60-year-old's colleagues threw him into the air in celebration, but they failed to catch him, and he landed on the tatami floor. He suffered neck and backbone injuries, leaving him with a disability in which he lost the use of his limbs and suffered respiratory failure. He died in September 2008 from blood poisoning.

It was believed that more than three people threw the 60-year-old up into the air, but since the details on who was involved remained unclear, the complaint initially named three people whose involvement was confirmed.

Police have reportedly begun questioning colleagues who took part in throwing the 60-year-old into the air.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 189 words, total size 1 kb.

One More Reason To Avoid Exercise

You never know what you will encounter while jogging.

The Darwin trio - two aged 18 and one 17 - allegedly bared all at the Nightcliff jetty before "shaking their genitals at each other" and jumping into the sea, police said yesterday.

But the nude act did not put a smile on NT surf life saving chief executive Tony Snelling, who said the trio were lucky to be alive.

"Jumping into the sea at this time of the year is absolutely stupid," he said.

"Coastal waters at this time of year have swarms of box jellyfish - one of the most venomous creatures on the planet. These jellyfish can kill and have caused more than 60 deaths in Australia over the past 100 years.

"They are difficult to see in the water because the main body of the jellyfish is colourless, but they have 40 ore more tentacles, each of which may be up to 2m long," Mr Snelling said.

A male passer-by reported the incident to police about 6.30am. The trio received an on-the-spot fine, worth $110, for the nude dash.

"They were fined for indecent behaviour in a public place," Sen-Sgt Harrison said.

It was not known if alcohol was involved [duh-ed]. Surf Life Saving NT used the case to urge Top Enders to wear protective clothes when entering the water.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:08 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 229 words, total size 1 kb.