Iraq sticks it to Bush...a bit too late?

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - An Iraqi town has unveiled a giant monument of a shoe in honor of the journalist who threw his footwear at former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The two-meter (six-foot) high statue, unveiled on Thursday in former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, depicts a bronze-colored shoe, filled with a plastic shrub. "Muntazer: fasting until the sword breaks its fast with blood; silent until our mouths speak the truth," reads an inscription, in honor of journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at Bush and called him a "dog" at a news conference during the former president's final visit to Iraq.


Fatin Abdul Qader, head of an orphanage and children's organization in the town, said the one-and-a-half-tonne monument by artist Laith al-Amiri was titled "statue of glory and generosity."

"This statue is the least expression of our appreciation for Muntazer al-Zaidi, because Iraqi hearts were comforted by his throw," she said.

Unexpected places to find wealth.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Resource-poor Japan just discovered a new source of mineral wealth -- sewage.

A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world's best mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.

That is a far higher gold content than Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, which contains 20-40 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of ore.

The prefecture is so far due to receive 5 million yen ($55,810) for the gold, minus expenses.

It expects to earn about 15 million yen for the fiscal year to the end of March from the gold it has retrieved from the ashes of incinerated sludge.

"How much we actually receive will depend on gold prices at the time," the official said.

economic woes hit prada loving sligs.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Trophy wives are angry. Their clothing allowance has been halved, they've had to fire their personal trainers and their sex lives have tanked.
Who are these downtrodden? The wives and girlfriends of bankers. And now they have a website through which to share their tribulations.

Dating A Banker Anonymous
Not sure if its a marketing stunt of not, but it is fabulous.

"The sitter's hours are cut, both the family and my private credit card are cut in half, and I'm switching from having my facials and massages in my earthy, yoga-and-wine serving downtown spa to a midtown been-in-business-forever place with ladies in cubbies wearing pink jackets and lots of make-up giving facials only," says one entry from Cathy, who wrote about life in Manhattan with a banker husband whose income was cut in January by 75 percent.

things that shouldn't burn down.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A blaze broke out at a fire station in Japan this week after a firefighter left a cooking stove burning as crew members left the station to respond to emergency calls.

Most of the duty staffers were out on a call when their colleague, alone at the station and cooking dinner for the crew, was himself called out.

In his haste to respond to the call, he forgot to turn the stove off, said Seiji Hori, a Nagoya City Fire Department official. Ten fire trucks from other stations put out the fire, Hori added.

"We are an institute that should be in a position to educate people about fire, so we are extremely sorry that such an incident happened," Hori said, adding that they would consider ordering-in for dinner from now on.

I Think We're Dying!

OMG! I think He Came in My Eye!

January 26, 2009 - As if you did not utilize it enough in your spare time, there is a new reason to stay home and jerk off.....even better than technicolor.

Hong Kong filmmakers are in the planning stages for their upcoming pornographic movie, 3D Sex and Zen, which will begin filming in April. With a budget of $4 million, the project is actually a remake of the original Sex and Zen movie, one of Hong Kong's best known erotic films. 3D! Sex! Sex in 3D!

"Just imagine that you'll be watching it as if you were sitting beside the bed," Producer Stephen Shiu Jnr told the Sunday Morning Post. "There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actresses are only a few centimetres from the audience."

A special effects company, one that has worked on blockbusters including The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D, is being brought in to produce the 3D imagery for the film. While other markets will probably just get a home version, in Hong Kong this cinematic masterpiece will be released in theaters. Bring it on, Paul Reiser.

Even the Jews are CRUNCHED

A financial crisis is forcing Brandeis University to close the school's 48-year-old Rose Art Museum in September and to sell off a prized collection of contemporary American art, the university announced today.
To read more, visit boston.com

Always Check Your Child's Homework Before it Gets Turned In.

Businesspundit.com- A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment.


After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.

Mrs. Harrington

Aussies charged over attack on 75-year-old blind flamingo

Four Australian teenagers have been charged with attacking an almost blind greater flamingo that is believed to be the oldest bird of its kind in the world.

The flamingo's head and beak were injured and it was bleeding from an eye after the attack at Adelaide Zoo that left it in a critical condition, zoo staff said.

"The bird arrived at the zoo in 1933 and was a mature bird at that stage," a spokeswoman for the zoo told AFP. "So although we don't know it's exact age it is at least 75 years old -- much older than they grow in the wild."

The zoo's website describes the bird as "undoubtedly the oldest flamingo in the world," adding that despite its great age its quality of life was very good.

Police said four men aged between 17 and 19 were charged with aggravated ill-treatment of an animal and released on bail to appear in court at a later date.

Campus Cop lifts pastries. Every day.

State police say an upstate New York college campus policeman was helping himself to free pastries at a local convenience store.

The Valero Nice N Easy offers free coffee to any police officer in uniform.

Sgt. Steve Brody of the Morrisville State College University Police stopped daily to buy a newspaper and pick up a free cup of coffee. He also routinely stuffed a pastry into his coat.
Brody is now accused of taking about $30 worth of pastries over at least 17 separate occasions.

Brody, 55, of Morrisville, was ticketed for petit larceny. Troopers say they have surveillance videos.

Suspected drunken driver sat in car after trooper was hit

As State Trooper Dana Cresta lay bleeding from the head on the Mass Turnpike in Newton, the alleged drunken driver who had just struck him sat in his car for about 15 minutes and fretted about the situation, according to court records.

"I asked him if he got out of his car at all,'' Trooper Mark Augusta wrote in his arrest report. "Sullivan stated, 'No, why do that?' I asked him if he could see the trooper bleeding out in front of him, and he said yes.''

Patrick Sullivan, 23, was arraigned in Newton District Court on charges of operating under the influence, speeding to endanger, and driving in a breakdown lane. His lawyer, Daniel F. Campion, entered a plea of not guilty on Sullivan's behalf. Both men declined to comment outside the courthouse yesterday.

Cresta, 49, was airlifted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and listed in serious condition with facial injuries

"I did not see any yellow lights or blue lights or traffic lights,'' Sullivan wrote. "The next thing I saw was the trooper in front of my car. This was unexpected. I could have left the scene, but I decided to stay in my car and not leave the scene. I saw the trooper [at the] last second and couldn't brake in time.''

In his report, Augusta said Sullivan was glassy-eyed and his speech was so slurred that he had trouble understanding him. Sullivan had difficulty keeping his balance and declined to submit to a Breathalyzer test, according to Augusta's report.

Crime of the Century!

SOMERS POINT, N.J. (CBS/AP) ― A 20-year-old has pleaded guilty to needlessly killing an animal for running over some baby ducks in a Somers Point parking lot.

Steven Davey of Egg Harbor Township was fined more than $1,000. He can get some of that reduced by volunteering at an animal shelter.

An SPCA officer says Davey swerved around other cars that had stopped for the ducklings in August and ran over them.

the nerve.

holy shit its batman

While Batman was holding up a Tulsa, Okla grocery store, a peon stepped in to hold the guman until police arrived.

A surveillance video captured several minutes of the struggle as the customer, Craig Stutzman, single-handedly wrestled the robber across the store before finally pinning the phony Batman to the ground in the store's parking lot.

The 44-year-old "American Hero" is also an American Airlines mechanic. He was at the Food Pyramid to buy some dog food. What a man.

The robber, Tony Leroy Cleveland, waved a loaded gun at customers and store employees, herding them to the front of the store.

According to Tulsa police reports, when a customer ducked behind a counter, Cleveland fired the gun, missing the customer's head by mere inches.
The gun then jammed, and that's when Stutzman seized his opportunity.

Of course he was pistol whipped at least half a dozen times, but Stutzman told the Tulsa paper, "You know, it just happened. There's no big thing about it."

true facts. the pill confuses biology.

The introduction of the pill could be touted as the creator of modern sexuality. But it could also be responsible for confusing hormones and attracting ill-suited partners, new studies say.

The British study confirms past ideas that a woman's taste in men is skewed while on the pill - in the wrong direction. The pill alters the type of male scent that women find most attractive to those who are less genetically compatible.

To take this the Rachel Paiste step further: perhaps this is one of the reasons why the divorce rate went up with the regular use of oral contraceptives.

When not under the influence of extra estrogen, women are attracted to the pit stains of dudes that have incredible different genetic structure than themselves.
However, when on the pill, women chose those with a genetic build similar to their own, exponentially raising the possibility of mutation and immune weaknesses. It is not normal to be attracted to someone genetically close to you.

the technical part: Several previous studies have suggested that women tend to prefer the smell of men who are different from them in a cluster of genes called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which governs the immune system. Some of these studies have also found that this effect is not seen among Pill users. [famous t-shirt tests]

Unlike some previous studies, this research did not find any preference for dissimilar MHC genes. However, when the women started taking the Pill their preferences shifted towards the scent of men with more similar genes to their own.

This suggests that Pill use has an effect on perceptions of scent attractiveness, even if there is no underlying female preference for similar or dissimilar MHC genes.

Kirchner meets with Castro, posts pics.

BUENOS AIRES (AP) - A photograph of Cuban leader Fidel Castro has appeared for the first time in more than two months.

The office of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez released the photo on Friday, two days after they met in Havana.


It is the first released photo of the 82-year-old Castro since a Nov. 18 shot of him meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The long spell without a photo of Castro had contributed to rumors he was gravely ill.

Castro hasn't been seen in public since undergoing abdominal surgery in July 2006 and he formally turned over the presidency to his brother Raul last year.

Single? Now you're dead.

A British man has been jailed for the murder of his wife. His reason? She was listed as "single" on Facebook. The man now faces up to 18 years behind bars.

Edward Richardson, 41, stabbed wife Sarah, 26, to death in a "frenzied and brutal" attack at her parents' home in Biddulph, central England, last May after she altered her profile on the Internet social networking site.

The couple had been living apart since the previous month, said Fiona Cortese, a spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for prosecuting cases in England and Wales.

"Richardson became enraged when Sarah changed her marital status on Facebook to single and decided to go and see her as she was not responding to his (text) messages," Cortese said.

"He gained entry by breaking the front door window and made his way into the property.
"Once inside, he found Sarah in her bedroom and subjected her to a frenzied and brutal attack with a knife and then attempted to take his own life."

people I don't want to get slashed by.

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Jack Zaiback is dealing with 100 stiches to his face and head after angry sushi chef allegedly attacked him during a road rage incident on Staten Island on Jan. 23, 2009.

His injuries are extensive, which include being slashed across his ear, on his face and on the top of his head.
"I thought I was dying," Jack Zaiback said. "I actually said a couple of prayers in the EMS."

"What he did to Mr. Zaiback was he treated him like a slab of tuna. I'll put it that way," attorney Alex Grosshtern said.
Zaiback, 23, was commuting from Brooklyn to a cell phone store he owns in New Jersey when he crossed paths with 37-year-old Yao Zhou and an incident of road rage went off the deep end.

The two men were driving south here on the Western Shore Expressway. Zaiback said he pulled over after accidentally cutting off Zhou. That's when he said Zhou started cutting him.

Zaiback received 100 stitches.

Barak does EVERYTHING

BROOMRAPE ROAD!!!

bad street signs, amazing

Adolf Hitler taken from Parents.

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Three New Jersey siblings whose names have Nazi connotations have been placed in state custody, police said.

Holland Township Police Sgt. John Harris said workers from the state Division of Youth and Family Services removed 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell and his younger sisters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, from their home Tuesday.

Harris said family services did not tell police the reason the children were removed. Agency spokeswoman Kate Bernyk said it does not comment on specific cases.
I'd say it's because their parents are Aryan Nation CREEPS
GO STATE. +10.

woooooo

monkeys are people, too!

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament voiced its support recently for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans.

Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.

"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Pozas said.

Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence under Spain's penal code.

Keeping an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, but supporters of the bill say conditions will need to improve drastically in 70 percent of establishments to comply with the new law.

Philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri founded the Great Ape Project in 1993, arguing that "non-human hominids" like chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and bonobos should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured.

yes please

Porn Moguls Ask Congress For Help

Porn moguls Larry Flynt and Joe Francis are appealing to the U.S. Congress to grant the adult entertainment industry a $5 billion bail out - because it is suffering from the global economic meltdown just as much as others.

Hustler magazine entrepreneur Flynt claims adult DVD sales have plummeted in the last 12 months, with figures down 22 per cent from 2007.

He says, "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America."

Meanwhile, Girls Gone Wild creator Francis is planning to travel to Washington D.C. to make his point heard, because he's adamant the porn industry is a key part of the U.S. economy - just like the financial and motor institutions. [I thought he was in jail?]

He tells TMZ.com, "Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration."

GO PORN

Redundancy Prayer: Brittain FTW

LONDON (Reuters) - The Church of England published a prayer on Tuesday to help comfort Britons who lose their jobs in the financial crisis.

"Hear me as I cry out in confusion, help me to think clearly, and calm my soul," says the "Prayer On Being Made Redundant."

The church, part of the global Anglican church, also offered a prayer for those who keep their jobs but suffer stress and feelings of guilt when colleagues are fired.

"Who will be next? How will I cope with the increased pressure of work?" asks the "Prayer For Those Remaining In The Workplace."

As many as 600,000 Britons could lose their jobs this year, a report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development forecast last month.

The Greatest Jail Threats EVER

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian court has issued a blunt warning about the sexual predators a young driver faces in jail if he does not stop speeding, as authorities struggle to stop teenagers street racing.

"You'll find big, ugly, hairy strong men (in jail) who've got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you -- and your anatomy," said Magistrate Brian Maloney.

The 19-year-old male appeared in Sydney's Downing Center Court on Monday charged with driving without a license, failing to stop at a police alcohol check point and driving dangerously.
It was his third time before the courts for driving offences, prompting the magistrate's warning he would be jailed next time.

Breaching any of these conditions would see the teenager jailed where he would "shower with the gorillas in the mist down at Long Bay jail," said Maloney, his comments confirmed by the court on Tuesday.

My Christ is Bigger than Yours!

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A little-known Brazilian farming town with sugar cane wealth is set to upstage Rio de Janeiro by erecting a statue of Christ that will eclipse its famous equivalent atop Rio's Corcovado mountain.

The Christ statue in Sertaozinho, northwest of Sao Paulo city, will be 187 feet tall when perched on its 128 foot (39-meter) pedestal, Brazilian daily newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said Tuesday.

Rio's iconic statue overlooking the beach-side city measures up at 98.4 feet high, but its much shorter pedestal gives it a total height of just 125 feet.

America's MO: more shitty TV

A&E is seeking to one-up Sci Fi's "Ghost Hunters" with a new series that blends paranormal investigation with law enforcement.

The network has greenlit a new unscripted series called "Paranormal Cops," about a group of Chicago police officers who moonlight as ghost chasers in their spare time.

Given the team's law enforcement credentials, the format seeks to add a new layer of credibility to an increasingly popular reality TV genre which has featured ghost hunting teams founded by professional plumbers, college students and academics.

“Paranormal Cops” is produced by North South Productions for A&E. Charlie Debevoise, Mark Hickman Robert Sharenow and Elaine Frontain Bryant are executive producers.
GARBAGE

A Woodsy Show and Tell.

HAMILTON, N.J. -- Officials at a Hamilton Township school are hoping for a return to normacyl Tuesday, a day after class was disrupted by two deer leaping through a window.

Pastor Lance Walker of the Faith Baptist School says the deer jumped into a teacher's supply room Monday morning, startling three students and a teacher who were working on a lesson.

They managed to get out and close the door, leaving the deer to trash the room.
The school canceled outdoor recess for the day.

By early afternoon, animal control officers showed up and tranquilized the animals so they could be taken away from the school.

ALIENS!

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (CBS) ― Strange lights were seen hovering over Morris County in New Jersey. The red blinking lights could be seen on Monday night, and officials thought they had figured out what caused them.
Now, they're not so sure.

Between 8:30 and 9 p.m., the Hurley family in Whippany captured images of a bizarre object in the sky and contacted WCBSTV.com.

"It was unsettling for sure," said Cindy Hurley. "It was something you've never seen before, and a very strange pattern."

Eleven-year-old Kristin was the first to spot them, a group of three lights together, and two lights together, seen in the horizon through the trees. "I looked up outside. I was really scared and saw five red lights," she said.

The family all went out onto their deck to look at the strange sight. Paul Hurley, a pilot who works at Morristown Airport, said they weren't planes.

At 8:28, the Hanover Township police received the first of seven 911 calls.

"It looks like flares attached to balloons," said a caller.

Paul Hurley, who called the Morristown Airport control tower, says the lights had also been spotted from there, and they caused no interference with flight operations. Between those officials and the Morristown Police, the best guess as to what the lights were: nothing more than a prank, roadside flares attached to helium balloons. Yet, they left rather quickly.

There's been no report of any recovered, and police don't know who released them.

I mean, are you kidding me?

FTW Gupta!

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer.

When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment.

Gupta's only hesitation in taking the post is said to involve the financial impact on his pregnant wife and two children if he gives up his lucrative medical and journalistic careers. But he is expected to accept the position within days.

Reminder of why he wins:
His role as journalist and physician have sometimes overlapped. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, Gupta was embedded with a Navy unit called Devil Docs and, while covering its mission, performed brain surgery five times, the first of which was on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy.

Pumpkinhead

Nigeria- Instead of wearing helmets, as the new law dictates, motorcyclists have been wearing pumpkins on their heads.

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.

"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," a road safety worker was cited as saying.
And why would people go so far as to put something on their head, but not just buy the stinking helmet?
In the city of Kaduna, drivers waved palm fronds and rode in convoy to protest at the price of helmets, which can cost up to $29 (£20).
They say passengers often steal the helmets once they reach their destination.

Stories have also appeared in the local papers highlighting passengers' fears that the helmets could be used by motorcyclists to cast spells on their clients, making it easy for them to be robbed.

"Some people can put juju inside the helmets and when they are worn the victim can either lose consciousness or be struck dumb," passenger Kolawole Aremu told the Daily Trust newspaper.

Fatal accidents are common. Road safety authorities say almost every collision in Nigeria's cities involves an okada.

More than 4,000 people die on Nigeria's roads every year and 20,000 are injured, according to the Federal Road Safety Commission.

An unidentified skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Friday morning. The January 2 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding.

The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair.

Garbage Dump Searched for Baby's Remains

Police are searching garbage dumps in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for the body of a baby that was apparently thrown out with the trash at Jersey City's Christ Hospital.

Hospital spokeswoman Barbara Davy said the baby was stillborn on Dec. 21 and the body was placed in the hospital morgue. The body was gone when a funeral home employee came to pick it up on Jan. 2.

The baby's mother said he was born alive and died after doctors worked to stabilize him for 20 minutes.

Kalynn Moore's attorney, Michael Anise, said a nurse cleaned up the baby, dressed him in a hat and blanket and gave the baby to the mom to hold.

Moore named her son Bashere Davon Moyd Jr.

Whether the child was born is important because Hudson County's prosecutor said a stillborn is not considered a person under New Jersey law.

And the search continues...

Little Kid, Big Gun.

JACKSON, Ohio (AP) - Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.

Eighteen-year-old Nathan Beavers was hospitalized Sunday with minor wounds to his arm and side after the shotgun attack. Police say another teen was also injured.

Witnesses told police the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot. Beavers was watching the child at a mobile home in Jackson with several other teenagers and several other children.

Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen says authorities are investigating. The child has not been charged.

things that are not cool: anti-semetic acts plague Europe amidst Gaza attacks.

PARIS (AP) - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.

Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.
On Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed on Israel's embassy in Stockholm.

In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents is alleged to have injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun in a shooting that police suspect could be linked to the Gaza crisis.

France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe.

Damage to the synagogue in Toulouse was limited to a blackened gate, and there were no injuries even though a rabbi was giving a course to adults inside, authorities said. They said unlighted gasoline bombs were also found in a car nearby and in the synagogue's yard. A local Jewish leader, Armand Partouche, said he believed the assailants had planned to torch the synagogue, but fled when the building's alarm went off.

London Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner said that in another incident last week a gang of 15-20 youths walked along the main street in Golders Green, a largely Jewish neighborhood in north London, shouting "Jew" and "Free Palestine" at passers-by.

The government in Belgium on Tuesday ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased alert after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and dozens of arrests. Police said burning rags were shoved through the mailbox of a Jewish home in Antwerp last weekend. Damage was limited and no arrests were made.

In the Danish shooting, one Israeli man was shot in the arm and another in the leg as they were selling hair care products in a shopping mall. Eli Ruvio, who owns the company that operated the stands, said his employees have been harassed by Muslim youths since they set up three kiosks in the shopping center in August.

"They kept cursing and shouting at us," Ruvio told The Associated Press. He added that the Muslim youths also threw mud and firecrackers at the employees and spat at them.

"I told my employees not to speak in Hebrew and lie about where they come from, they should say there were from Spain or somewhere else. If people ask you where you are from, never say you're from Israel," he said.

Buffett Causes Slaughter.

A Fort Bragg soldier died this morning in a Denver hospital after suffering extensive injuries in a bar fight over a Jimmy Buffett song.

Richard Lopez, 37, of Fayetteville, N.C., was pronounced dead at 4:16 a.m. today at Denver Health Medical Center.

So far, no suspects have been arrested in the Steamboat Springs incident, although police have talked to two individuals involved in the fight.
The case is being investigated as a homicide.

The incident occurred before 12:15 a.m. Friday when police were called to a fight between five people outside the Tap House.
"The initial disagreement was about music being played on the jukebox," said Rae, adding that it was a Jimmy Buffet song.

"Richard Lopez and two other individuals put on the song, but two other individuals did not agree with it."
It was not known which Jimmy Buffett song was being played at the time, but the fight was taken outside the bar.

While the investigating officer said barfights were not uncommon in the town, it was unusual that a person died in a fight not involving any weapons.

Biden "Just a regular guy"

Where most celebrities would demand preferential treatment, some are just humble old Joe's.
Twas the case this Saturday, when the Biden's tried to go see Benjamin Button, but the film was sold out. [At Brandywine Cinemas on the Concord Pike in Wilmington, DE.]

After a Secret Service agent inquired about the tickets to find they were sold out, Mrs. Biden went to speak to a very excited employee, 21-year-old Inshirah Mahamut.
So excited, in fact, that the SS agents had to ask her to calm down.

"She was asking me about other shows, but they really wanted to see 'Benjamin Button,' " Muhamut said. "He was maybe five feet away, looking at her. He was standing with his other Secret Service men." [Expect to see her at the Inauguration Jan. 20]

Remarkably, none of the other moviegoers appeared to notice. Employees said nobody mobbed Biden or called his name or asked for an autograph.

"I recognized him as soon as he came up," she said. "He had a black jacket and jeans on. He looked real casual. His wife had on a very stylish jacket."

Gingrich and Muhamut said the Bidens didn't ask for special treatment. They simply mulled over their movie options and left.

Crush Videos

When I want to get off, I really enjoy watching a slut in heels step all over a squealing kitty. Unfortunately, this practice is illegal.
Thankfully, it's now going to court for violation of first amendment rights.

Ten years ago, Congress banned these fetish films.
Crush videos are, essentially, videos in which small animals are crushed.

“Much of the material featured women inflicting the torture with their bare feet or while wearing high-heeled shoes,” the report said. “In some video depictions, the woman’s voice can be heard talking to the animals in a kind of dominatrix patter. The cries and squeals of the animals, obviously in great pain, can also be heard in the videos.”

In the case of Robert J. Stevens, a Virginia man sentenced to 37 months in prison under the law for selling videos of dogfights.
In July, by a vote of 10 to 3, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, reversed Mr. Stevens’s conviction and struck down the law, saying it violated the constitutional right to free speech.

Last month, the United States solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. “Depictions of the intentional infliction of suffering on vulnerable creatures,” the brief said, “play no essential role in the expression of ideas.” The First Amendment, the brief went on, is therefore irrelevant to the case.

Unlike private litigants, who face long odds in persuading the court to hear their cases, the solicitor general’s success rate is between 50 percent and 70 percent. Perhaps even more important, the case involves a federal statute that has been held unconstitutional.

Under this law, it may well be a crime for an American to sell a video of a bullfight that took place in Spain, where bullfighting is legal, or of hunting or fishing out of season.

“It is hard to imagine,” Mr. Stevens’s lawyers told the appeals court, “how the punishment of depictions of conduct which occurred a long time ago, at a time when it was not even illegal, or in a country where it is not illegal, can prevent animal cruelty here and now, at a time and a place where it is illegal.”

When President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law, he issued a statement instructing the Justice Department to limit prosecutions to “wanton cruelty to animals designed to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.”

Professor Volokh, who said he believed the law was unconstitutional, offered a prediction about its fate in the Supreme Court. “I think they’re going to strike it down,” he said. “It’s going to be at least 6-3, perhaps even unanimous.”

Step on, brother, step on.

Child Wedding: FAIL

Two German children took fake marraige to a new level: instead of having a friend marry them in the backyard, they planned a trip to Africa to tie the not.
Unfortunately, the police got in the way of their plans.

The young lovers, identified as Mika and Anna-Lena, packed bathing costumes, sunglasses and a snack, and headed for the airport.

They even had the presence of mind to invite along an official witness - Anna-Lena's seven-year-old sister. [Where did they even learn about this?!?]

The three got as far as Hanover railway station before police intervened. the station is almost a mile from the children's homes.

The young couple were "very much in love" and had decided to get married in Africa "where it is warm", police spokesman Holger Jureczko told the AFP news agency.

Officers persuaded the children they would not get far without tickets and money, but consoled them with a free tour of the police station, where they were shortly picked up by relieved parents.

Beautiful Short.

Stud of the Day

my man, the cow.

My man, former presidential candidate Bill Richardson is withdrawing his nomination to be commerce secretary.

Why?
He is being investigated as to ties with a dirty company.
Two Democratic officials told CNN the investigation involves a California company that won municipal bond business in New Mexico after contributing money to various Richardson causes.

In a statement Sunday, Richardson said he asked Obama "not to move forward" with his nomination now.
"I do so with great sorrow. But a pending investigation of anauivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact. But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process. Video Watch why Richardson bowed out »

"Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the President-elect and his Administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done."

Obama released a statement saying that he accepted the withdrawal with "deep regret."

Richardson will continue in his role as Governor.

Jesus 2 is Peruano.

LIMA (Reuters) - Virgin Mary, a 20-year-old Peruvian woman, gave birth to a baby boy on Christmas day and named him Jesus, Peru's state news agency said on Friday.

The baby's father, Adolfo Jorge Huamani, 24, is a carpenter. Religious Peruvians compared him to Joseph the Carpenter in the Bible.

"Two thousand years later the story of Bethlehem is relived," read the headline about the birth in El Comercio, the main newspaper in Peru, a predominantly Catholic country.

The mother, Virgen Maria Huarcaya, delivered the 7.7 pound (3.5 kg) boy, Jesus Emanuel, in the early hours of Christmas at the central maternity hospital in Lima, the capital.

"A few days ago we had decided to name my son after a professional soccer player," the father said. "But thanks to a happy coincidence this is how things ended up."

World War III WOOOOO!!!!

As we all know, Israel has gone in and kicked the shit out of the Gaza. Now they have begun a ground operation, effectively splitting the area in two and surroudning Gaza city.

Many world leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire, but the US has backed its ally Israel.

A European Union delegation is beginning a visit to the region, and Russia says it will send its envoy.

Earlier the United Nations Security Council failed to agree a united approach to the crisis.

Lagerfield, the genius, my hero.

Karl Lagerfeld defended fur industry saying 'beasts' would kill us if we didn't kill them first.

The Chanel supremo said it was "childish" to even discuss the issue of wearing fur in a world where eating meat was normal.

German-born Lagerfeld, 75, defended the industry, saying hunters in the north "make a living having learnt nothing else than hunting", he said, "killing those beasts who would kill us if they could."

Animals should be killed "nicely" if at all possible, said Lagerfeld, who admitted to being queasy about eating meat.
"I can hardly eat meat because it has to look like something what it was not when it was alive," he said.

He concluded: "In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and clothes and even handbags, the discussion of fur is childish."

A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) described Lagerfeld as a “dinosaur” who had got his facts wrong.
She said: “Karl Lagerfeld is a fashion dinosaur who is as out of step as his furs are out of style.

“The vast majority of fur these days comes not from hunters as he suggests, but from Chinese fur farms, where no law protects the millions of animals who are routinely beaten and skinned alive. EWW GROSS im never buying shit made in china again.

I love Wanda

best video ever

Things that don't help with Decisions...

PISCES -The Moon's return to your sign can turn you into a kinder and gentler person. But even if you are feeling compassionate, it also can bring you down as you see the gulf between your ideal dreams and your current situation. There are two paths before you and two attitudes for you to choose from today. Consider your options carefully; as you pick your response to what's happening now, you're also choosing your future.