Our Wacky World—3/11/2011

"Meet Joel Chandler, who just paid his $1.00 toll on the Polk Parkway with a $100 bill, he is not allowed to leave unless he provides personal info to the toll taker. The toll taker tells Chandler this is what happens when they get large bills. She says this is what they have to do. Chandler says to the toll taker, "So I'm being detained?" She says yes sir."

WTSP

"Deaver sobbed, gently kissing her daughter's forehead and hoping her baby wasn't in pain. That fear - that the baby would suffer before its predestined death - compelled the couple to seek an abortion. But a new Nebraska law that limits abortion after the 20th week of gestation prevented her from getting one... A nurse at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital in Hastings instructed the couple to closely monitor their daughter's breathing so when it stopped the staff could accurately record the death."

DesMoinesRegister

"David Allen Henson, 24, of Rock Hill, admitted to jail employees Monday night to having pot inside a Rock Hill jail cell after police found a marijuana roach made out of a page torn from a Bible inside the cell."

Charlotte Observer

"The Oregon House approved a bill Thursday that would remove legal protection for parents who choose faith healing over medical intervention when treating their children."

OregonLive

Hoarding animals is perennially popular, along with trash. Inevitably there are lots of dead or dying ones by the time the authorities get there:

Dogs—100 cats + 2 kids—Trash & dead mother

'A mother who allegedly put her child in a locked dog crate for urinating and defecating in his bedroom defended the move to police, claiming that other behavior-correcting methods failed and toys made the cage “fun.”'

New Haven Register

Still waiting

A millionaire dentist found a credit card in a parking lot and used it to buy pizza.

Orlando Sentinel

"The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that it had suspended 21 priests from active ministry in connection with accusations that involved sexual abuse or otherwise inappropriate behavior with minors."

NYT

Our Wacky World—3/7/2011

"I am the inventor and developer of, and control the majority interest in, a patented new computer technology called AngelBase™ that numerous well-credentialed experts agree can, quite literally, redefine the computer industry... AngelBase will shift the computing paradigm. People will start thinking about information and utilizing computers in a whole new way that greatly empowers them and that expands their ability to love. This will shake the foundation of a nearly trillion-dollar industry (computer hardware, software and information technologies, including the Internet). Many people believe AngelBase will escalate me, over the next decade, from member of the middle class—to billionaire."

Finding My Goddess

The AngelBase web site reads like a pyramid scheme to me. The fact that it's patented just adds to the charade. Check out their artist.

How to improve on the humble computer keyboard—make it yellow and give it keycaps in Comic Sans.



Chivalry is now dead thanks to school zero tolerance policy.

Tidewater News

"...The caller told his story with passion and verve, and then asked the station’s listeners for their advice on how to treat his clueless pal... Or at least he would have, had this been a real conversation. The young man—who asked to remain nameless in order to protect his chances for future employment—was an actor, and the staged call an audition. A short while later, he received the following email: “Thank you for auditioning for Premiere On Call,” it said. “Your audition was great! We’d like to invite you to join our official roster of ‘ready-to-work’ actors.” The job, the email indicated, paid $40 an hour, with one hour guaranteed per day."

Tablet

How to make you own coffin (note the Prop 65 warning).

"The fact your police department just bought an armored vehicle does not make you safer. It's going to make you poorer, because your taxes will go up to pay for training and maintenance." In light of today's budget-strapped environments, we, too, wonder whether the federal government should be paying for small counties and towns to have tanks to use against their citizens.

MSNBC

'According to Arabic language broadcasts intercepted and interpreted by Lipkin and his team, "The Moslem world is saying that President Obama wants amnesty for the current Hispanic 12 million illegal immigrants in the US in order to pave the way for the next wave of tens of millions of illegals from the Middle East to the United States, leading to 50 to 100 million Muslims living in the US before the end of Obama’s second term, which will be brought forth by these new US citizens voting for their savior, Obama."'

Mother Jones

Was Michael Jackson 'chemically castrated' as child? (old story made new again).

France24

Our Wacky World—3/3/2011

See kids? It really does happen!

NYT

The trial of woo-monger James Arthur Ray finally began this week. Meanwhile, some Native-Americans are sick and tired of woo-loving palefaces making off with their sacred stuff:

'Taliman, 53, also wrote about long-standing efforts by Native Americans to stop the "appropriation and exploitation of sacred ceremonies," pointing to a 1993 international gathering in South Dakota of 500 Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nation representatives. Together they "passed the 'Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality,' denouncing individuals involved in the New Age movement, shamanism, cultists, and neo-paganists and others who promote 'intolerable and obscene imitations of sacred Lakota rites"

CNN

"Charismatic televangelist Benny Hinn, who denied romantic involvement with Paula White after a tabloid article last year, is being sued for $250,000 by his book publisher for violating a morality clause in their contract."

The Christian Post

A third-grader has discovered he has the gift of healing with qigong:

Magic is usually saved for the imagination, but in his life, Reffsgaard is using an ancient Chinese teaching that he said often makes him feel like Harry.

“I feel like I'm a wizard using the healing spell.”

MyFox9

Killer shrimp threaten Wales

The Register

"A woman is chosen for jury duty in a rape case. On the second day of the trial, she realizes... she spotted the defendant committing the alleged crime."

Times Union

"A veteran Houston police officer participating with a cooking team at the Houston rodeo's Bar-B-Que cook-off has been relieved of duty for reportedly tossing a tear gas canister at booth opponents during the popular event, apparently sickening several patrons."

Houston Chronicle

"The suspended worker who was paid by a Norfolk agency for 12 years has fired back that she was wrongfully terminated after false allegations by the city.

Jill McGlone, a former administrative worker at the Norfolk Community Services Board, wrote letters Feb. 16 to City Manager Marcus Jones and CSB Director Maureen Womack saying she wanted to meet with them about her "wrongful termination" and denial of unemployment benefits."

Hampton Roads Pilot


Here's the future of automatic weapons—cobalt alloy barrels

The Register

Andy Dick is yet another celebrity on a Concorde-to-hell ride whose 15 minutes were up years ago. Here are some pictures of him snorting coke.

Radaronline

Rock on.