Saturday, March 31, 2007

Blackened

With your tears of fear,
rolling down your stricken face,
you think of the tears you have shed over the years,
the fears you have shaken off, turns to pain.
the rain in your brain turns to shame,
while the world is in pain you lay there in vain.
You're all alone, in your home
even though you're surrounded by the ones you know
how you feel on your own or in your home!
Desperately from the darkness,
pulled back amid despair,
swallowd whole by misery's hearty appetite,
for girls with friends like sorrow, like pain.
Happiness; an evanescent mist
tried in bitter vain
to cover the loneliness that blackend the heart.

Hey 24 fans!

Clicky clicky Mary Lynn Rajshkub fans!
http://www.geekmonthly.com/geek-magazine/2007/03/27/geek-talks-tech-with-24s-chloe/
Clicky clicky Jack Bauer fans!
http://blogs4bauer.blogspot.com/

Thursday, March 29, 2007

WTF happened to Urbina?

Wasn't his mother kidnapped about three of four years ago? You know, one of the many kidnappings that happen in South America. He got time off work to go home to Venezuela to "take care of it". Anyway, here's the story...

Urbina Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison
Mar 28 11:19 AM US/Eastern


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Former major league pitcher Ugueth Urbina was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday for the attempted murder of five workers on his family's ranch. Urbina, a former pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies, was also found guilty of illegal deprivation of liberty and violating a prohibition against taking justice into his own hands during a dispute over a gun on Oct. 16, 2005, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

The 32-year-old free agent was accused of joining a group of men in attacking and injuring workers with machetes and pouring gasoline on them at his family's ranch, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Caracas.
"The ruling was too severe," said Jose Antonio Baez, a former attorney who represented Urbina.

Urbina repeatedly has denied involvement with the violence, saying he was sleeping at the time of the attack.

The pitcher's lawyer, Jose Luis Tamayo, has said that Urbina surprised the workers by showing up at his ranch that night while they were bathing in the pool without permission. Urbina spoke sharply to them, but later left and went to sleep, according to Tamayo.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8O58F9G2&show_article=1&catnum=0

Is San Francisco on crack?

Bags for the Bay
MARCH 28, 2007



SAN FRANCISCO - City leaders approved a ban on plastic grocery bags after weeks of lobbying on both sides from environmentalists and a supermarket trade group. San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to adopt such a rule if Mayor Gavin Newsom signs the ban as expected. Full article below.

As heard on the March 28th, 2007 program, the public service being provided by the Glenn Beck Program . . .

Glenn: You know what I’d like to do . . . hey Stu . . . I’d like to raise plastic bags for San Francisco. I think that they’re going to have a shortage of plastic bags. I would like to raise plastic bags for San Francisco and then send them to Gavin Newsom. We’ll ship them right to him. You send me your plastic bags and then I’ll ship them right to Gavin Newsom and the city of San Francisco. Here’s the great thing – because then they can use them – or they’ll have to dispose of them there in San Francisco, and that would make me happy.

Stu: This is good too, because you can send a lot of plastic bags – they’re not heavy. The weight is going to be low. This is a brilliant idea, and it helps the people of San Francisco.

Glenn: So here’s what I’d like to do. I would like to raise plastic bags for San Francisco. This is an aid project.

Glenn: America – the voices of people in San Francisco are crying out. They’re saying: ‘how can I walk into the house with 5, 6, 7, 8 bags under my arm . . . because I’ve tried to do that with paper and it always rips and my milk is all over the floor. I’m not using cloth. I refuse to use cloth’. Oh brother, stop the suffering in San Francisco – send them plastic bags. You’ve got them – send them. You’ve got hundreds of them, you can’t get rid of them, they just keep multiplying they’re like bunnies. Send your plastic bags. Do it now, and help the poor suffering souls in San Francisco, California . . .

Glenn: Gavin - all of our listeners feel the same way, and we’re getting rid of our grocery bags. You’ve made such a good point. I’m with you. And I’m giving up all of my plastic grocery bags, because we’re behind you. You’ve led by example. (I’m not changing my ways, I’m going to go get some more. But these are grocery bags I happen to have in my kitchen).

How can you help the people of San Francisco?

If you feel for the suffering of the people of San Francisco, and want to show your solidarity, please send your plastic grocery bags to us at the address below:

The Glenn Beck Program
Attn: Adam Clarke
1270 Avenue of the Americas
9th Floor
New York, N.Y. 10020
http://www.glennbeck.com/news/03282007-1.shtml


San Francisco Passes Plastic-Bag Ban
Mar 28 09:53 AM US/Eastern
By LISA LEFF

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - City leaders approved a ban on plastic grocery bags after weeks of lobbying on both sides from environmentalists and a supermarket trade group. San Francisco would be the first U.S. city to adopt such a rule if Mayor Gavin Newsom signs the ban as expected. The law, approved 10-1, requires large markets and drug stores to offer customers bags made of paper that can be recycled, plastic that breaks down easily enough to be made into compost, or reusable cloth.

San Francisco supervisors and supporters said that by banning the petroleum-based sacks, blamed for littering streets and choking marine life, the measure would go a long way toward helping the city earn its green stripes.

"Hopefully, other cities and states will follow suit," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who crafted the ban after trying to get a 15-cent per bag tax passed in 2005.

The 50 grocery stores that would be most affected by the law argued that the ban was not reasonable because plastic bags made of corn byproducts are a relatively new, expensive and untested product. Some said they might offer only paper bags at checkout.

"I think what grocers will do now that this has passed is, they will review all their options and decide what they think works best for them economically," said David Heylen, a spokesman for the California Grocers Association.
Newsom supported the measure. The switch is scheduled to take effect in six months for grocery stores and in one year for pharmacies.

Craig Noble, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it would be disappointing if grocers rejected the biodegradable plastic bag option, since more trees would have to be cut down if paper bag use increases.
The new breed of bags "offers consumers a way out of a false choice, a way out of the paper or plastic dilemma," Noble said.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8O577300&show_article=1

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

How cute!

An albino baby wallaby peers out of his mother's pouch at 'Le Cornelle' zoo park in Valbrembo, Italy, Friday, March 23, 2007. The uncommon birth took place on March 18, 2007. This smaller cousin of the kangaroo, also known as Bennett's Wallaby, is common in eastern Australia and a mature specimen averages a weight between 10 and 15 kilograms. The cub normally remains in his mother's pouch for some 6 months after the birth. (AP Photo / Luca Bruno)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

I am outraged

As a mother of a child with disabilities, I would expect the school that I'm sending her to to follow state guidelines with background checks for the constuction workers, or any workers, doing business on the property and pass them. Don't get me wrong, I know some felons who have done their time deserve to apply for jobs, but some of those felons do not belong near children. In the following article there is mention of felons who I feel do not deserve to work in this kind of atmosphere. I think the school should be sanctioned in some way. These school officials have the obligation and responsibility to protect our children 100% of the time that they spend in their establishments.



School for deaf and blind allowed felons to work on campus
POSTED: 8:10 p.m. EDT, March 25, 2007

ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida (AP) -- The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind allowed felons to work on campus construction jobs during the past two years, according to interviews and documents.

Many of the workers were allowed on campus even though they had failed background checks, school employees complained.

The felons included a man convicted of domestic battery and selling cocaine; a man convicted of aggravated assault; and a man convicted of offenses including trafficking in hallucinogens, battery on his spouse and domestic violence, The St. Augustine Record reported Sunday.

Current and former staff members started complaining to school and state officials about nine months ago, saying school officials didn't show concern for student safety, the newspaper said.

School president Elmer Dillingham said he believes the administration made acceptable decisions. He said the felons were supervised by a full-time off-duty police officer and only hired because the school could not find a felon-free construction crew to work on emergency construction projects.

"I don't think, if you go to any public school in this state, that you'll find a better security system," he said.

School districts are required by the 2005 Jessica Lunsford Act to run background checks on workers and most visitors. The checks include a search of crime databases and a fingerprint scan.

The law was named for 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was taken from her bedroom and found buried just yards from her home. A convicted sex offender was sentenced to death for her killing.

The newspaper reported former school Police Department employee Howard Jones wrote a then-anonymous letter complaining about the felons to school officials in May 2006. He also sent it to state officials, who asked the school's board of trustees' chairwoman about the felons.

The security problems "deal primarily with the admissions to campus of contract and construction workers for ... numerous projects that ... occur every year on different areas of the campus," Jones wrote in the letter.

Jones was still working with the campus police force when he wrote the letter.
There was no immediate response Sunday to calls seeking comment from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind and the Florida Department of Education.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/25/school.felon.workers.ap/index.html

George W Bush

The only person in the world who`s heart is in his stomach.
Do you want to hazard a guess where his brains are?

Political Correctness

The following is the winning entry from an annual contest calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's term was "Political Correctness".

"Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Police shortfall or not, Trenton Duckett is still missing!

Father Of Missing Toddler Scrutinizes Investigation

POSTED: 7:20 am EDT March 22, 2007
UPDATED: 9:12 am EDT March 22, 2007

LEESBURG, Fla. -- The father of a missing 2-year-old boy is lashing out at one of the agencies that is searching for his son.

Joshua Duckett said the Marion County Sheriff's Office is bungling the search for his son, Trenton, WESH 2 News reported.

A sheriff's office official said a person of interest they've been questioning in Marion County failed a lie-detector test. While that does not make him a suspect, investigators said it's proof nothing has been bungled.

Officials claimed Joshua Duckett and his mother are just coping with the toddler's disappearance nearly seven months ago.

"He's our top priority. All we want to do is find him," said Trenton Duckett's paternal grandmother, Carla Massero.

Massero said she's worried the focus is off finding her grandson. Instead, she said she believes detectives are leaking investigative information to online bloggers and fueling rumors like one that says she refused to take a lie-detector test.

"They took that and ran with it, and now they have all those bloggers talking about me and Melinda's father, challenging me, and I think it's ridiculous," Massero said.

"For Marion County to say that my mom refused to do a polygraph is totally off the wall," said Joshua Duckett.

Marion County Sheriff Maj. Chris Blair denied any detectives fed information to online bloggers, saying they offered Massero a lie detector test only after she asked for one to clear her name.

"There was an issue that came up with Carla that she had a lot of information going on the Internet, and ... this and that, and she was concerned about that, so a polygraph issue came up between the detective and her, at which time she thought she could clear her name by taking a polygraph," said Blair.

To date Massero has not taken a lie-detector test.

http://www.wesh.com/news/11327382/detail.html

Knut the Polar Bear

By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 22, 2:39 AM ET

BERLIN - He's only 15 weeks old, but the Berlin Zoo's impossibly cute polar bear cub Knut already has become a sought-after media star in his home city with his own TV show and video podcast, a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz and a long-awaited public debut scheduled in the coming days.

Zoo officials were meeting Wednesday to discuss when the button-eyed cub, who has endeared himself by snuggling up to his own teddy bear and wrestling with a toilet brush, will be put on public view after building a following through the zoo's Internet site and daily pictures in newspapers.

"I think that people will be able to see the bear by this weekend," Andreas Ochs, a veterinarian with the Berlin Zoo said on N-24 television, noting that he would have to be shown with his handler and only for brief periods throughout the day.

"Certainly, the public is going to have to be patient, as there will be a huge interest," Ochs said.

Fascination with the nearly 19-pound bear, has only grown in recent days, after headlines generated by an animal activist who insisted that the cub should have been left to die after his mother ignored him and his brother — who later died — after their birth in December. They were the first polar bears born at the zoo in 33 years.

Zoo officials intervened, instead, choosing to raise the cub themselves through bottle-feeding and keeping the cub in an incubator.

The story earlier this week prompted quick condemnations from the zoo, politicians and other animal rights groups who argued that although the bear would be more used to humans than his counterparts in the wild, there was no reason not to have kept the cub alive.

"Polar bears are under threat of extinction, and if we feed the bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos," Andre Schuele, another veterinarian at the zoo said.

The fuss over "Cute Knut" continued on Wednesday with the country's largest newspaper, Bild, publishing a Knut poster, matched by Berlin's own B.Z. tabloid.

Knut, who recently posed for a photo shoot with star-photographer Annie Leibovitz for an environmental protection campaign, will star in a TV series documenting his life on Berlin's RBB public television station starting Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/germany_polar_bear;_ylt=AvPwLhoEnLjDei5StZ6F54rmWMcF

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy St Patrick's Day

May you always have true blessings
With Angels by your side
May you always find true happiness
Have peace inside your heart
~*~*~
I wish for you lots of love
Warm memories to share
May you always find some comfort
In knowing others care
~*~*~
May you always have your health
And a home to keep you warm
The love of friends and family
Protection from all harm
~*~*~
My wish for you is harmony
And all your dreams come true
The riches of lifes pleasures
Made special just for you
~*~*~
As you walk along lifes journey
May you always find your way
I wish you luck and blessings
On this St. Patrick's Day...

Connecticut: Fighting dog dies from injuries

Posted March 14, 2007
Updated 9:30 PM
(Middletown - WTNH)

Dogs are supposed to be man's best friend, but police in Middletown said that was not the case with a pit bull found brutally attacked on the street.
The dog was dumped on the side of Wilderman's Way Road and left to die of his wounds. On Sunday, a good Samaritan found the animal and called police. He was brought to Piper-Olson Animal Hospital where doctors tried to nurse him back to health.
For everything this dog had been through, Dr. John Gustavson said the pit-bull was unbelievably gentle.
"He was very nice to us, we never muzzled him at all," said Gustavson. "He was great in that sense, as far as we could tell."
The staff at Piper-Olson named the two year old pit bull "Gideon," which is Hebrew for "mighty warrior." Judging from the wounds, Gideon was in his fair share of battles.
"Based on the wounds that he had, he clearly looked like he was in some type of dog fight," said Gustavson. "Most likely he was used as a bait dog to encourage a more aggressive dog to be aggressive."
The staff here worked feverishly to save the animal, but Gideon's infections and wounds got the best of him. He died Monday, a victim of violence that pained everyone around him.
Animal control officers say they have had similar cases of abuse the past couple of years, but those animals have survived. They are now looking from any information from the public that may lead to an arrest in this case.


http://www.WTNH.com/Global/story.asp?s=6227710

Thursday, March 15, 2007

It's About Us

I can't explain the ancient fire,
That connects our souls.
Power we created to be everlasting,
Makes us whole.
You once said that to me, of our love,
And now I'm still asking.
Do you really love me,
Or will you stay,
Will I be hurting,
When you go away?
Even knowing you'll be back again,
The breaking of my heart will soon begin.
Please don't go away from me,
I need you so much to be,
Only my love and best friend,
From now until the end.

Patricia Cree Aiken

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Today's acceptance

I don't always get to know why things happen. I may spend hours, even days, trying to figure out why bad things have happened to me. I may get caught up in trying to understand other people, situations, and even my own thoughts.
Today I will accept that I don't have to know why things are the way they are. Instead I can pay attention to healing, growing, and learning.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Nude Workout

The first clothing-free workout session at a Dutch gym went ahead as planned in Heteren, eastern Netherlands, Sunday March 4, 2007, and participants and observers said it met expectations. Around a dozen middle-aged and elderly men braved the glare of nearly twice that number of journalists, including reporters, photographers and at least five television teams, to fulfill their dream of exercising naked. 'There are things that you like to do, and for a nudist, it just feels better to do them with your clothes off,' said Ron van der Putten, left, who drove for more than an hour to take part in the first session, dubbed 'Nudifit'. 'You feel more free.' (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Nancy Grace in first acting role

NEW YORK - Nancy Grace is taking on her first prime-time acting role, though it shouldn't be a stretch for the CNN Headline News talk-show host.
She will appear offering faux legal commentary during the season finale of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU," NBC said on Tuesday. She'll talk about a case involving a man charged with killing a woman and her baby.
There's precedence for vaulting into fiction at sister network CNN, where Larry King has appeared in several movies playing himself.
One of Grace's co-stars in the episode will be Star Jones Reynolds, who will also be seen giving legal commentary. That was how she actually started on TV, before acquiring her diva reputation on "The View."
Rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges will return to the show to play Darius Parker, the man on trial. "Law & Order: SVU" raps up its season this year on May 22.
http://tinyurl.com/ysdpvm

Monday, March 05, 2007

Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos into order, confusion into clarity...
It turns problems into gifts,
failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing...
and mistakes into important events.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.