Thursday - February 16, 2006

A Good Man

So much bad news lately that I thought it would be good to highlight someone doing it right for a change.

Via the fellas at Wizbang, we hear the story of Alex Ray.  I’ll let Jay Tea tell the story.

The Common Man is a small group of semi-upscale restaurants in New Hampshire, and the owner, Alex Ray is a pretty civic-minded fellow. Last summer, he started a program for youths—he basically turned one room of his restaurant over to a bunch of them to run as a standalone business, helping them out as needed but letting them do all the hands-on work themselves. The kids did everything—scheduling, working, making deposits, etc.—and Ray just mainly kept an eye on things.

It was a great success, and the kids learned a hell of a lot about running a business—as well as making a bit of money for themselves. All in all, a great story.

Until the federal government got involved.

They looked very carefully at the breakfast room operation, which Ray had set up through the Communities for Alcohol- and Drug-Free Youth (CADY) program and which was supervised by an Americorps volunteer, and noted that the kids had really thrown themselves into the project. They came in early, on their own time, to get the place ready, and often stayed late to make sure everything was done.

That kind of enthusiasm and dedication cannot be tolerated, however. Ray was fined almost $4,000 for child labor violations by the US Department of Labor. He negotiated it down to about half that, and paid it.

What lesson has Ray learned from this experience?

He says he’ll do it again next summer, and in two locations next time.

Makes you want to go eat some food at this man’s place.  If there are any BMEWS’rs in the Granite State, go pay Alex a visit.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/16/2006 at 11:14 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • News-Briefs •  
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   Friday - February 10, 2006

Priorities

Seems like the Topic Du Jour is Lesbian Lovers, so thanks to Mike at Cold Fury, we find this story:

TWO women were caught romping in a train station toilet, a court heard yesterday.
Nicola Hudson, 22, and Ann-Marie O’Neill, 29, were heard “moaning and groaning” by a cop at Manchester Piccadilly.

He looked over a cubicle wall and saw O’Neill naked from the waist down, kneeling and caressing a topless Hudson.

After several minutes [Heh -FC] the officer told them to stop and get dressed.

That, my friends, is a case of a copper with his priorities in order.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/10/2006 at 12:13 PM   
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   Tuesday - January 31, 2006

Nightcap

• President Bush gave a speech.


• Democrats disagreed with everything he said.


• Cindy Sheehan was arrested and removed from the House gallery.


• In San Francisco, another postal worker goes ... postal.


• Iran is threatening the rest of the world ... again.


• Alan Greenspan raised interest rates one last time then ran away.


• Finally, in case you forgot, there’s going to be a football game in Detroit this Sunday.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/31/2006 at 10:28 PM   
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   Saturday - January 28, 2006

She Done Good Considerin’

James Carville says Blanco did well

2theadvocate.com

Louisiana native and political consultant for the Democratic Party James Carville talked Friday about the image of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and her performances both during and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Carville said there are always things people can do better, but he thinks Blanco did as well as she could, considering the circumstances.

“Once you’re under water, you’re kind of doomed,” Carville said. [That’s what Mary Jo said too -FC] “A flood is a hard thing to look good in.”

Spin, Spin, Spin, Spin, Spin.........

I guess since they can’t blame Bush for the flood, maybe inflating Blanco up will do something for them.....maybe?

Posted by Drew458     on 01/28/2006 at 05:25 PM   
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   Wednesday - January 25, 2006

I Want to be a Woman

(Apologies to the Python boys)

Michael Jackson Spotted in Robe and Veil

MANAMA, Bahrain
Pop star Michael Jackson took a shopping trip to a Bahrain mall Wednesday, covering himself in a black abaya robe traditionally worn by Bahraini women and a veil hiding his face, along with three children _ apparently his _ with their faces covered with dark scarves.

Jackson, who seems to be settling in the Persian Gulf, was seen leaving Marina Mall in the Bahrain capital, holding a child by the hand. On the way out through a back door, he shook hands with security guards

He was wearing an abaya, a robe with long sleeves, under which his pants, white shirt and men’s shoes could be seen, and his head and face were wrapped in a black veil. He had black gloves on his hands.

The veil, abaya and gloves were of a style typically worn by conservative Bahraini women, though Jackson appeared to be wearing them to hide his identity.

With him was woman _ also in an abaya and jeans and a scarf over her head that partially covered her face _ who had the two other children. All three children’s faces were wrapped in black scarves, and they wore yellow shirts and sweatpants or khakis without robes. The woman’s identity was not known.

The woman asked photographers to respect their privacy saying they are scaring the children, as the five left in a White Lexus Infinity with darkened glass.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/25/2006 at 01:55 PM   
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   Tuesday - January 24, 2006

Bring Out Your Dead - II

Dead man rides subway for hours

NEW YORK, Jan. 23 (UPI)—It took more than six hours for anyone to realize that a 64-year-old Brooklyn man had died on a New York City subway train.

Eugene Reilly, who died of a heart attack, likely got onto a Brooklyn-bound Q train just before 1 a.m. Thursday. He wasn’t found until 7:15 a.m. when a curious commuter touched his shoulder, trying to wake him, the New York Daily News reported.

Reilly, a mail handler, worked the 4 p.m.-to-12:30 a.m. shift and was headed home, his wife said. He was sitting up in his seat, which transit officials said was likely the reason their workers left him alone for so long, the newspaper said.

“The policy is that if someone is sitting up, employees are not allowed to touch them,” said Deirdre Parker, a city transit spokeswoman.

A different transit official said employees probably saw Reilly, who was in the last car of the train, but thought he was sleeping.

“People sleep on the train all the time,” an official said. “No one thought anything of it.”

Posted by Drew458     on 01/24/2006 at 11:39 AM   
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   Monday - January 23, 2006

Most Accurate Headline of the day (so far)

US filmmaker Michael Moore weighs in on Canada’s election

“Oh, Canada—you’re not really going to elect a Conservative majority on Monday, are you? That’s a joke, right? I know you have a great sense of humor, ... but this is no longer funny,” Moore complained whined in a commentary on his website.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/23/2006 at 10:20 AM   
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   Monday - January 16, 2006

Do You Have a TV In Your Bedroom?

Better get it out of there!

TV in the bedroom halves your sex life

ROME (Reuters) - Thinking of buying a TV for the bedroom? Think again—it could ruin your sex life.

A study by an Italian sexologist has found that couples who have a TV set in their bedroom have sex half as often as those who don’t.

“If there’s no television in the bedroom, the frequency (of sexual intercourse) doubles,” said Serenella Salomoni whose team of psychologists questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives.

On average, Italians who live without TV in the bedroom have sex twice a week, or eight times a month. This drops to an average of four times a month for those with a TV, the study found.

For the over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.

The study found certain programmes are far more likely to impede passion than others. Violent films will put a stop to sexual relations for half of all couples, while reality shows stem passion for a third of couples.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/16/2006 at 03:21 PM   
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   Saturday - January 07, 2006

Captain’s Message

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be coming in for landing in a few minutes. Please return your seats and trays to the full upright and locked position and be sure your seat belt is securely fastened. We thank you for flying on Booger Airlines today and hope you’ll think of us the next time your travel plans include lightening up your week with a Saturday Snot Festival.

There hasn’t been a whole lot to post seriously about today so your flight crew has endeavored to entertain you with just a bunch of ridiculous crap. Now if the air marshals would be so good as to plug that stupid son of a b**ch in 23-A who is trying to set his shoe on fire we’ll be landing soon at Sanity International Airport. Have a nice day and remember: you can pick your nose and you can pick your friends ... but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.

Here’s what happened while we were airborne ....

• Tom DeLay is resigning as House Majority Leader.


• French Children are eating too many McDonald’s Happy Meals.


• Ariel Sharon will likely survive but will probably be a vegetable.


• Michael Jackson is being sued by his veterinarian for unpaid bills.


• Our British friends also have a Liberal Democrat named Kennedy with a drinking problem.


• The lone survivor of the Sago Mine disaster is in stable condition and will be returning to a local hospital in West Virginia.


• In Iraq, gas prices have skyrocketed from 5 cents per gallon all the way up to 65 cents per gallon.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/07/2006 at 06:41 PM   
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   Friday - January 06, 2006

Smitten?

I don’t know who is loopier here: Robertson for suggesting Ariel Sharon’s stroke was punishment by God or CNN for using the word “smote”. As far as I’m concerned, Pat Robertson is a “non-story”. He has been for a long time. The only reason he gets news coverage like this is because he makes a great punching bag for the Liberal Left in their efforts to prove that religious people are fruitcakes. For the record, I personally pray for Sharon’s recovery. There is no smiting involved ...

Robertson Suggests God Smote Sharon
Evangelist links Israeli leader’s stroke to ‘dividing God’s land’
(CNN)

Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed. “He was dividing God’s land, and I would say, ‘Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,’” Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, “The 700 Club.”

“God says, ‘This land belongs to me, and you’d better leave it alone,’” he said. Robertson’s show airs on the ABC Family cable network and claims about 1 million viewers daily. Sharon, 77, clung to life in a Jerusalem hospital Thursday after surgery to treat a severe stroke, his doctors said.

The prime minister, who withdrew Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank last summer over heated objections from his own Likud Party, was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after doctors operated to stop the bleeding in his brain. In Washington, President Bush offered praise for Sharon in a speech on Thursday. “We pray for his recovery,” Bush said. “He’s a good man, a strong man. A man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people, and a man who had a vision for peace. May God bless him.”

Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, compared Robertson’s remarks to the overheated rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  He called the comments “outrageous” and said they were not something to expect “from any of our friends. He is a great friend of Israel and a great friend of Prime Minister Sharon himself, so I am very surprised,” Ayalon told CNN.

Robertson, 75, founded the Christian Coalition and in 1988 failed in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He last stirred controversy in August, when he called for the assassination of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez. Robertson later apologized, but still compared Chavez to Hitler and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the process. The same month, the Anti-Defamation League criticized Robertson for warning that God would “bring judgment” against Israel for its withdrawal from Gaza, which it had occupied since the 1967 Mideast war.

- More on this mighty smiting story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/06/2006 at 07:18 AM   
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   Thursday - January 05, 2006

Senior Boomers

I hate to say it but this bunch of “early” baby boomers are only a few years ahead of me. The first wave of my ignorant generation turns 60 this year and I can think of quite a few who probably shouldn’t have made it. It’s quite an impressive list of “senior citizens” below and I congratulate them on reaching this milestone ... or is that “millstone”? The bad news is that this generation is about to hit the Social Security (lottery) system like a ton of bricks so you young kids out there better get to work to support us. Take three or four jobs if you have to. We’re counting on you youngsters ...

Celebrated and Reviled Turn 60 This Year
January 5, 2006, 4:24 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP)

George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are doing it, and Laura Bush is joining them. So are Loni Anderson and Dolly Parton. From politicians and celebrities to athletes and rock stars, some of the most celebrated members of the America’s most celebrated generation are turning 60 this year. They are the oldest of the baby boomers, that group of 78.2 million Americans born from 1946 to 1964. And they are getting old.

“I see people going two ways,” said Nancy Schlossberg, a professor emerita of counseling psychology at the University of Maryland. “They can continue with the plastic surgery, and just deny they’re aging. Or there can be a group who are saying, hey, age is good, age is great, I’m proud of my wrinkles, I’m proud of my gray hair.” The Census Bureau estimates that 7,918 people will turn 60 each day in 2006. Their most popular names are Mary and James.

Among them, there are enough musicians to staff a pretty good rock band. Jimmy Buffett turns 60 on Christmas Day. He will be joined this year by Syd Barrett and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Robby Krieger of the Doors, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Edgar Winter of the Edgar Winter Group and irreverent folk singer Loudon Wainwright III. If you prefer something more mellow, Linda Ronstadt turns 60 this year, as well as Liza Minnelli, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and Donovan, perhaps best known for singing “Mellow Yellow.”

- See who else is on the list of aging boomers here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/05/2006 at 06:38 AM   
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   Wednesday - January 04, 2006

Disappointment

In their rush to get the story out, the media and mine officials probably ripped the guts out of several families last night. All of the news networks and print media have been standing vigil over the mine for days waiting for word. Then whispers started that twelve had survived and before you knew it the story was all over the news and families rejoiced. Three hours later, the truth came out ... all dead except for one. My heart goes out to the families of the miners. It could have been handled better ...

11 of 12 Miners Reported Alive Are Dead
Jan 04 4:08 AM US/Eastern
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP)

Jubilant family members celebrated news early Wednesday that 12 miners were pulled alive from the scene of an underground explosion, only to learn nearly three hours later that they had been misled and just one miner actually survived. The chief executive of the mine blamed the stunning error on a misunderstood conversation overheard between rescuers and the command center overseeing rescue efforts.

Families learned of the deaths from mine officials more than three hours after Gov. Joe Manchin said he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster. The sole survivor of the disaster was hospitalized, a doctor said. International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield told the families that only one miner, Randal McCloy, survived the explosion.

Hatfield told the families gathered at the Sago Baptist Church that “there had been a lack of communication, that what we were told was wrong and that only one survived,” said John Groves, whose brother Jerry Groves was one of the trapped miners. At that point, chaos broke out in the church and a fight started. Hatfield said the erroneous information spread rapidly when people overheard phone calls between rescuers and the rescue command center. In reality, rescuers had confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs, he said.

“The initial report from the rescue team to the command center indicated multiple survivors,” Hatfield said during a news conference. “That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center. It quickly got out of control.” Hatfield said the company waited to correct the information until it knew more about the rescue.

- More on the tragedy here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/04/2006 at 06:27 AM   
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   Tuesday - December 20, 2005

Inhumane Treatment

This is too much. Torture is one thing but forcing someone to listen to Eminem is way out of bounds. Amnesty International needs to be notified immediately. If they’re not stopped, they may even carry this inhumane treatment to the next step .... Barry Manilow music. ARGHHHH ....

Eminem Music Allegedly
Used As U.S. Torture Device
December 19, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan (KCRA)

A human rights group is alleging the United States operated a secret prison near Afghanistan’s capital as recently as last year. The group claims that music by Eminem and Dr. Dre were used as instruments of torture.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has issued a report saying the United States operated a secret prison in Afghanistan and tortured detainees. The report quoted an Ethiopian-born detainee as saying he was kept in a pitch-black prison and forced to listen to Eminem and Dr. Dre’s rap music for 20 days before the music was replaced by “horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds.”

The report said detainees at the facility—known as “Dark Prison”—were deprived of sleep, chained to walls and forced to listen to loud music in total darkness for days.

The group said its report is based on the accounts of several detainees at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Human Rights Watch hasn’t been allowed to speak with the detainees directly, but said it obtained the detainees’ accounts from their lawyers.

The group said the allegations are credible enough to warrant an official investigation. American officials say the United States doesn’t engage in torture. CIA officials have no commented on the allegations.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/20/2005 at 07:29 AM   
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   Sunday - December 11, 2005

Suspicious Explosion In London

Any time I read of a huge explosion at an oil depot anywhere my first reaction is “terrorist attack”. London police issued a preliminary statement saying this massive explosion and fire do not appear to be terrorist related. We’ll see ....

Massive Explosions Hit Fuel Depot
LONDON (BBC)

Large explosions have rocked a fuel depot in Hertfordshire shooting flames hundreds of feet into the sky and creating a huge cloud of smoke. Police say there are 39 casualties, with two people seriously injured. The first blast happened at 0603 GMT at the Buncefield fuel depot, close to junction 8 of the M1 motorway and was heard as far away as the Netherlands.

The fire, which police say was an accident, has taken hold of half of the site and could burn for days. The area around the Hemel Hempstead site has been evacuated, while police have advised residents living nearby to keep their windows and doors closed because of fumes. Thick clouds of smoke are spreading to the south-east and south-west, but are not thought to be toxic.

One person is in Watford General Hospital in a serious condition with respiratory problems. Another person is in Hemel Hempstead Hospital being kept under observation. The other 37 people were treated for minor injuries and released from hospital. About 2,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Earlier rumours a plane was involved in the incident were unfounded, said a police spokesman.

Witnesses said another two explosions followed the first at 0626 GMT and 0627 GMT. In total, 20 petrol tanks are involved in the fire, each said to hold three million gallons of fuel. Hertfordshire Police Chief Constable Frank Whiteley said: “We believe now that all the tanks that were in danger have blown up and there should not be any further explosions.”

“This fire could burn for some days but it should not now spread outside the site.” A police investigation into the incident has begun, including investigations by anti-terrorist police. But Chief Con Whiteley said there was “nothing to suggest anything other than an accident.”

- More on this suspicious explosion here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/11/2005 at 09:48 AM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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