Uber Disturbing!!!

I found this over at Pesky's:

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense. So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let’s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can’t think of one. What is certain is that the pilots of this plane did not just make a last minute decision to strap on some nukes and take them for a joy ride. We need some tough questions and clear answers. What the hell is going on? Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don’t know, but it is a question worth asking.

The Trojan Pig?

I just read about this over on Pesky. Apparently a smart commercial promoting the use of condoms is a bad thing. Here is the news article about why a Trojan television commercial has been rejected.

That's Crazy

me: http://cbs3.com/topstories/topstories_story_162114001.html
VJ: That seems like the very defination of "This could backfire."

No Wife, No Life?

Gawd...this amuses me and makes me sick. Including all of the 'romantic' undertones.

Loris admits a brief marriage to an American woman didn't work out and that too often typical American women tend to be self-centered, taking for granted too many of the things they have. He said in meeting the wives of his Vietnamese friends, he found their temperament and demeanor a pleasant contrast. He felt in a Vietnamese woman he could find "someone who could work with me and not pull in a different direction, like too many American women do." He said he was introduced to several Vietnamese women who lived in Fort Smith, but came to believe he would be more compatible with a woman who lived in Vietnam and who was interested in coming to the U.S. to a life of greater freedom and opportunity.

Angel Kitty

News article here. I love how it is downplayed as a simple mutation. But it's been around. At one point a winged cat was thought to be a messenger from Satan!

Gray Line

I have something to say about free speech and Cho Seung-Hui.

It is being said that the students and professors in the English Department were disturbed by his writing. His plays were disturbing. But so was he. That’s how it is being interpreted in the news. Go listen.
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2007/04/17/acosta.disturbing.writing.cnn
And I don’t think it is being said, at least not enough, that his writings, in connection to his behavior are what made them seek help for him. In that same news video they mention that the university could not do anything because student’s are free to write what they will. It’s a slight pause and twist that the news is doing. Clearly if everyone who wrote horror films were suspected of possibly committing those same acts then we would not have any horror writers. So why aren’t they being committed to a mental ward? Because they are open and talk about their work. By all accounts Cho Seung-Hui would not communicate about why he wrote what he did, and that is what caused the concern.

Convicting a person by their possible intentions is a very gray world. For example, in Minority Report, the movie presented a possible future where crimes were predicted by psychics and the possible criminals were arrested before committing the crime, but the plot thickened when it was discovered that one of the psychics would predict simultaneous reports that these possible criminals would not commit the crime. How can we judge? Can you imagine if there were laws out there that said people could be arrested on suspicion alone?

Perhaps if it was discovered by school officials earlier that Cho Seung-Hui had guns in his dorm room, then more action could have been taken. The gray world, between fact, suspicion, and all of the little trails that make your stomach turn over.

Thanks for Making Us Happy

Don Ho.

He was my reason for wanting to go to Hawaii. Now, I guess I will have to surf. Go here and listen to him sing while you read the news article below.

'Tiny Bubbles' Singer Don Ho Dies at 76

By JAYMES SONG

Associated Press Writer

April 15, 2007, 1:18 PM EDT

HONOLULU -- Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing the catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died. He was 76.

He died Saturday morning of heart failure, publicist Donna Jung said.

Ho had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand.

Promoter Tom Moffatt said he attended Ho's final show Thursday and Ho received a standing ovation. Afterward, Ho reminisced about his many years in Waikiki and talked about how Judy Garland sang with him one night.

"Don was in great spirits," he said. "He was fine."

Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show -- a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.

Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles." Ho mostly hummed the song's swaying melody as the audience enthusiastically took over the familiar lyrics: "Tiny bubbles/in the wine/make me happy/make me feel fine."

"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd. He said he performed it twice because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."

The son of bar owners, Ho broke into the Waikiki entertainment scene in the early 1960s and, except for short periods, never left. Few artists are more associated with one place.

"Hawaii is my partner," Ho told The Associated Press in 2004.

Donald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.

In high school, he was a star football player and worked for a brief time in a pineapple cannery. After graduating in 1949, he attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He grew homesick, returned to the islands and ended up graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1953 with a degree in sociology.

Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.

"I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. Every weekend there would be lines down the street."

Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots in Hawaii, then had a breakout year in 1966, when appearances at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood helped him build a mainland following, and the release of "Tiny Bubbles" gave him his greatest recording success.

Soon he was packing places such as the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.

Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. "I feel real guilty about it."

Gov. Linda Lingle said Ho created a legacy that will inspire future generations of musicians in Hawaii.

"Hawaii has lost a true island treasure," she said. "He laid the foundation for the international prominence Hawaii's music industry enjoys today."

Besides "Tiny Bubbles," his other well-known songs include "I'll Remember You," "With All My Love," and the "Hawaiian Wedding Song."

In the final years of his life, Ho's heart problems couldn't keep him away from the stage. He was back performing at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel on a limited schedule less than two months after his heart procedure in Thailand. His final performance was Thursday, Jung said.

Ho is survived by his wife, Haumea, and 10 children, including Hoku, who sometimes performed with her father. Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

Because Happy People Rock

I just like the idea of wearing garden gloves in public.

Lucky Number

Dreams can come true.

Nutt Begone

A 46 page pdf file of Houston Nutt's phone records, including those to a femals sports caster.

Next: Big Foot

TOKYO - The giant squid can be found in books and in myths, but for the first time, a team of Japanese scientists has captured on film one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep sea in its natural habitat. The team led by Tsunemi Kubodera, from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, tracked the 26-foot long Architeuthis as it attacked prey nearly 3,000 feet deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands. "We believe this is the first time a grown giant squid has been captured on camera in its natural habitat," said Kyoichi Mori, a marine researcher who co-authored a piece in Wednesday's issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The camera was operated by remote control during research at the end of October 2004, Mori told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Mori said the giant squid, purplish red like its smaller brethren, attacked its quarry aggressively, calling into question the image of the animal as lethargic and slow moving. "Contrary to belief that the giant squid is relatively inactive, the squid we captured on film actively used its enormous tentacles to go after prey," Mori said. "It went after some bait that we had on the end of the camera and became stuck, and left behind a tentacle" about six yards long, Mori said. Kubodera, also reached by the AP, said researchers ran DNA tests on the tentacle and found it matched those of other giant squids found around Japan. "But other sightings were of smaller, or very injured squids washed toward the shore — or of parts of a giant squid," Kubodera said. "This is the first time a full-grown, healthy squid has been sighted in its natural environment in deep water." Kubodera said the giant squid's tentacle would not grow back, but the squid's life was not in danger. Jim Barry, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, has searched for giant squid on his own expeditions without luck. "It's the holy grail of deep sea animals," he said. "It's one that we have never seen alive, and now someone has video of one."

Positive Reinforcement

This is absolutely brilliant. Found via him.

Here's how it works: You decide on the amount you would like to pledge for each protester (minimum 10 cents). When protesters show up on our sidewalks, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania will count and record their number each day from October 1 through November 30, 2005. We will place a sign outside the health center that tracks pledges and makes protesters fully aware that their actions are benefiting PPSP. At the end of the two-month campaign, we will send you an update on protest activities and a pledge reminder.

That's right! A health center is having a marathon. Pledge your money and the total depends on how many pro-lifers show up outside of this clinic. I wonder how long it will last.

About Time

A new judgement in Nepal has brought women out of the cowshed and into their homes. I hope it lasts.
"Women in poor villages in much of western Nepal are forced to stay in dirty cow-sheds outside the home for four days during their monthly period.
They are often given unhygienic food and suffer verbal abuse."

Complain Here

I caught an article about this at the Huffington Post.

The Foundation For Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR): "Hurricane Katrina could be made worse by insurance companies that attempt to limit their losses by refusing to pay claims that are due to homeowners. Insurers have already told some homeowners in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast that it was flooding not the hurricane that did the damage, so they are not covered. Of course, the flooding only occurred because of the hurricane and insurers should be required to pay claims."

Needed Items

Need to know what to give to shelters? Here is a list: Hand sanitizer
Hand wipes
Shampoo
Soaps
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Feminine Hygiene Products
Ziplock bags
Towels
Washcloths
Diapers
Ready-to-feed baby formula
Pre-paid phone cards
Baby food stage 1 & 2
Band-aids
Clothing for men, women, children; all sizes
Shoes; all sizes
Socks
Sharpie markers
Batteries; size D, AA
Flashlights
Individually packaged snacks
Baby bottles
Reading material
Bibles
Backpacks
Duffle bags
Pillows
Anti-septic cream
Brushes
Games, toys & coloring books for children
Bottled water
Toilet paper
Paper towel
Cleaning supplies

I found it via the Northwest Arkansas American Red Cross Chapter.

Storm Aftermath

Storm Aftermath is a blog about Katrina and the aftermath.

Storm Aftermath:
"We have become a nation of yellow ribbon patriots whose support of anything never goes beyond buying a cheap ass bumper sticker, and we place the interests of money, politics and religion above the value of human life. It sickens me and it saddens me. I've heard some fanatics say that this hurricane and flood was God's way of washing the sin city clean. I beg to differ. If God wants to clean up the American part of the human race he would flood the whole damn country and put all gas guzzling Hummers and SUVs with yellow ribbon patriots in them eight feet under water."

I'm starting to hear a lot of scary things, thanks to NPR. This morning I heard how supplies had not been sent to the areas that did not need it the most. People are being told to leave their pets behind while they are being rescued. Yet there are adoption networks open for the animals that have been found.

Are You Ready For This?

Americans main power is money. We can do our best here by helping the Red Cross. There are several areas that need your help.

I was away for vacation since last week Thursday, and I had a ghost friend do some stealth posting for me. Thanks Jenny! I'll fill you guys in later.
I couldn't believe that Rehnquist died. He loved to sing. What a remarkable thing to remember someone by. And now there is the gay rights veto pending in California. It's a bad thing, yet it's a good thing? It will give rights yet take rights away.

It makes me wonder how many Americans actually have emmigrated to Canada. Does anyone know anyone else that has left? Has anyone tried this? I've been interested in visiting Vancouver lately, any tips? Looks like no one made it. Maybe everyone has decided to push on through and change this country. Oh well, if you do feel like leaving, or taking a tour somewhere else, check out this site for helpful tips.

DON'T FORGET! International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th, Monday. So find yourself a how to book , get down with the lingo, and get ready to answer any question about pirates that comes your way!

Searches that lead people here:

coco gampo well...coco gampo to you too!
The Manticore it's nice to be recognized in my own time
avatar-goddess why...thank you! :blush:
pema chodron gampo alley down the hall and to the left, don't mind the gargoyle.
frabreeze i'm all out!
abercrombie i blogged your girlfriend there seems to be a lot of that going around.
labamba movie actor photos yay! that was the first soundtrack I ever owned
frabreeze scent stories try again when my sinuses come back to me
up jumps da boogie timbaland and magoo music codes get down with the sickness!

Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh

An analysis of satellite records and surface monitoring instruments shows the ozone layer has grown a bit thicker in some parts of the world, but is still well below normal levels, the scientists report in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research.
I can't believe this. The world seems to have been turned on it's ear, the ozone is repairing itself and I have already done ONE THOUSAND POSTS!!!

Rescue Operations

WWLTV.com | News for New Orleans, Louisiana | Local News: "The governor said that at midnight, all of the boat operators trying to rescue people from rooftops were told to take a break.
'They refused. They couldn't do it,' Blanco said.
Blanco said rescuers were unable to get to people stranded in one tall building because so many other people were 'calling to them and jumping from rooftops' into the water to be rescued first.
Things are so bad, Nagin said, that rescue boats are bypassing the dead. "

Blog of the Day

Ever wonder what the weather news crew is thinking as they chase the storms and try to get the message out that hurricanes like Katrina are real and deadly? Read their own thoughts and fears while they do their job.