The Saga of the Silver King Toilet

Another toilet story that I found to be hilarious. the site is A Slice of Bisbee Arizona Nancy Weaver is quite talented and tells quite a few good stories of life in Bisbee, AZ. This one tells of a toilet in the Silver King Hotel that needed replacing. Finding an appropriate replacement, shut off valves that won't shut off and... Well, just click the link to read the story. Then cruise around her site. Then plan on Bisbee to be your next vacation spot. I think this town must be seen to be believed...

Toilet Humor

Well I guess it is humorous if it isn't your toilet. From Yahoo News:

Florida man finds python in the potty
A Florida man got a rude awakening when he reportedly found a six-foot (two-meter) python in his potty, rearing its diamond-shaped head out of the toilet bowl.

Shannon Scavotto immediately grabbed his camera phone, snapped a few shots and called for help.

But the reptile expert from animal control was out of town and a snake rescue company wanted 150 dollars, so Scavotto decided to take matters into his own hands.

The St. Petersburg resident lassoed the African rock python out of the toilet, under the watchful eyes of his wife and three-year-old daughter, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Only goes to show that privacy laws cannot cover all situations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update: Big day for toilets in the news. - How about a 4.8 million dollar toilet?
The Hong Kong Tourism Board took a jewelry shop off it's maps due to rude treatment of tourists and visitors. Apparently the shopkeepers salesmanship was a bit on the pushy side. I guess 5000-6000 tourists a day just wandering in to look at the solid-gold and gem-encrusted 4.8 million dollar toilet and not buying anything could be a bit frustrating. I'd probably get pushy too. Not to mention the toilet jokes all day long...

Iraq Irregular 'Militia" Troops

Hat tip to Chester of The Adventures of Chester for this link to Intel Dump. The story of "Fighting for their own country, their own way" is a great heads up on a trend in Iraq - Apparently Private Military Groups are drawing people that have a soldiers mentality and heart as opposed to drawing people looking for a 'job'.

Intel Quote:

describing the rise of "irregular" Iraqi units around the country, which were popping up on their own, raised by individual officers, funded privately, with little connection to the U.S.-led effort to raise an Iraqi army. Surprisingly (or maybe not so), these ad hoc units appear to be better led, better equipped, and more combat effective than their "official" brethren. And, perhaps more importantly, some U.S. officers are recognizing this, and figuring out how they might co-opt or work together with these Iraqi forces.

and

The U.S. would be well advised to mimic its past success in Afghanistan by finding more warriors like the ones in these units, and enlisting them in the common cause of Iraqi security. Lt. Gen. Petraeus had it right -- let's train the Iraqis to handle their own security as quickly and effectively as possible, so that we can bring our men and women home.

Check the rest of the story at Intel...

Radioblogger (Feb 24-05) has a great story on, of all things, a manure pile. Leave it to Generalissimo to turn tragedy into a funny rant.

Open Letter From Terri Schiavo 's Father

I recieved a message from NewsMax.com
I thought this should be shared so here it is in full. Please consider contributing if you can...

Help Save My Daughter From Starvation! (from Terri Schiavo's father)

Dear Friend of Life,

By now you have probably heard about a young woman who is threatened with starvation in Florida.

That young woman is my daughter, Terri. In 1990, through circumstances which are shrouded in mystery (and may involve a criminal act by Terri's estranged husband), my daughter was left severely brain-damaged.

But before I go any further, I must put an end to the lies and misinformation that are circulating around the country through the media concerning my daughter's condition.

Contrary to anything you may have heard, Terri is NOT brain dead; Terri is NOT in a coma; she is NOT in a "persistent vegetative state;" nor is she on ANY life-support system.


Terri Schiavo responds
to her mother's touch

Terri laughs, Terri cries, she moves, and she makes child-like attempts at speech with her mother and me. Sometimes she will say "Mom" or "Dad" or "yeah" when we ask her a question. When I kiss her hello or goodbye, she looks at me and "puckers up" her lips.

This may not seem like much to you, but it means everything to Terri's mother and me. It tells us she is still here, she still knows us, and with therapy and time she can have some level of recovery.

I know that there are some hard hearted people who believe that due to my daughters condition, she is better off dead. Words cannot describe the pain and anger such sentiments cause us. This is our daughter, our little girl, and even in her disabled condition, she still has the right to life and the right to be loved and cared for by her family.

Why, you may ask, is Terry in danger of death by starvation?

It is a long and outrageous story, but I'll give it to you as briefly as I can.

After the "incident" that left Terry in this condition, her husband Michael Schiavo sued various members of the medical community for money, saying that they did not treat or diagnose her properly at an early stage, and that he needed this money to provide for Terri's therapy and rehabilitation and care.

After lengthy court battles, he finally won upwards of $1.7 million under the guise of caring for our daughter, and then to our horror, he immediately began spending the money on himself and his Playboy lifestyle.

Terri's estranged husband Michael Schiavo has been living with another woman for years, and has two children by her. He is determined to see Terri dead. Why? We believe it's because he gets to keep whatever money is left... and he may have even darker motives than that.

To add insult to all of this injury toward my daughter, Michael Schiavo is still her "legal husband" and therefore is her "guardian." And since they are not legally divorced, he controls whatever health care she will and will not get. We are not even allowed to know if she is getting aspirin.

In 1993 my family initiated litigation against Michael Schiavo solely for the purpose of acquiring medical, physical and neurological assistance for our daughter Terri. The litigation escalated in 1998 when Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to stop Terri from receiving food and water, thereby starving her to death.

In filing this legal action, he retained the services of a high profile euthanasia attorney and the financial backing of powerful euthanasia organizations. He also used Terri's medical rehabilitation money to underwrite much of the legal expenses associated with his effort to starve our daughter to death.

We know that he has spent nearly $500,000 of Terri's money in attorney's fees for just one attorney trying to obtain a court order to have Terri starved to death. The very money that was supposed to be used for Terri's rehabilitation is being used to have her killed.

We very quickly discovered it was impossible for us to compete with the abundance of financial and legal resources the pro-death organizations were providing Micheal Schiavo in their effort to kill Terri. They are pouring time and effort into her starvation because they want to use this case to further the agenda of legalized euthanasia.

My wife and I are not wealthy people. Throughout those years, we did not have any large organizations trying to help rescue our daughter. Consequently, we had to rely on the generosity of attorneys who were willing to offer their legal expertise at no cost or at reduced fees.

The bottom line is that we are in the final weeks or months of our struggle to rescue our daughter from an untimely death by starvation. Death by starvation is very slow, and extremely painful. As you must know, it is against the law to deliberately starve an animal to death. There are members of the Florida court who would not treat a dog the way they plan to treat my daughter.

At this point we must pull out all the stops in our fight to rescue our daughter.

As parents, we are desperate to save our daughter's life. As people who love life, we are determined to deprive the euthanasia advocates of successfully legalizing this form of homicide. We believe that their efforts to kill Terri are designed to set a precedent for the future eradication of defenseless disabled human beings. I was alive when Americans fought the Nazis; I do not want my daughter to meet the same fate of thousands of disabled people in Nazi Germany, and I do not want our country to go down that same dark path.

Friend, though we have never met, I'm asking you for your help. We desperately need your financial assistance to help our family continue the battle to keep our daughter from being starved to death. There are so many expenses in a case like this it is mind-boggling and overwhelming. Please click below to make a contribution now:

https://secure.cartlight.com/merchant/terri/?afid=max

Our adversaries believe that by our family's financial attrition and difficulties, they will attain their objective of killing our daughter. Presently, Terri's starvation may only be a few weeks away, unless we find the financial resources to prevent this atrocity from becoming a reality.

I implore you to please help us. We are writing to you, because we believe you have a heart for justice and mercy. I'm asking you to put yourself in my shoes, and then do whatever you can to help our family. Whether it is $10 or $1000, we are desperate for the resources to fight this battle for our daughter's life at this critical juncture.

Please do whatever you can, and forward this e-mail to any friends or family that you have who you think might be interested in saving Terri's life.

I thank you for your time, your concern, and I solicit your prayers for Terri and our entire family. These have been very trying times for us all.

Sincerely,

Bob Schindler Sr.

GO HERE TO CONTRIBUTE NOW!

Bloggers! Don't Post Your Passwords!

Bernie Online has some excellent posts but this one really opened my eyes to the chance of posting too much info.

Quote: Have you seen any of those lists that circulate on blogs and other websites that ask a series of questions about you? Some of them may contain questions such as "What city were you born in?" or "What was the model of your first car?" Often these lists come with a mandate to pass them on to others, so they can answer the questions too.

You may want to be careful about which questions you answer. I'm not necessarily referring to the questions that you may readily recognize as too personal (e.g. your sex life). It's the simple questions, like those mentioned above, that could present more of a privacy (security) problem for you.

I'd suggest going to Bernie's blog and learn a bit more on this important subject!

Justification by Bush's "Friend" for Secret Tapes

Today on Hugh Hewitt's blog (2-22-05) he states:

By a "friend." Who very publicly identifies himself as an "evangelical." Is there a pastor/theologian who can support such conduct or, having had it revealed, support the continued possession of the tapes as opposed to their immediate return to the president? Secret taping is illegal in many if not most states, and I doubt very much if there is any theological justification for the deceit or the continued possession of the tapes, but I will be happy to read any that are offered.

prying1 sez:

Although I am not a theologian or a pastor I have been a Christian for quite a few years. The only theological justification I could come up with demands being on "the dark side" and using Satan's type of logic...

It is necessary to twist ones conscience to pull a trick like that. It appears that Doug Wead, for monetary gain through book sales, has done just that. The question remains, will he redeem himself (at least partially) by turning over the remaining tapes to the White House. He has a choice to climb back onto the path to the wicket gate or wallow in the slough of despond.

Update: 2-23-05 - On Hugh Hewitts show today he announced that Doug Wead is sending the tapes to the President. - Apparently he prefers the straight and narrow path to the slough...

Good for him. Now it is up to us to walk in forgiveness and welcome him back to the fold! Now I will suggest people buy his book.

UPDATE TO UPDATE: - 10 MINUTES SINCE LAST POST! - I did a Google search and found Doug has a website. - http://www.dougwead.com/ - I love a happy ending!

Guns would mark ID on shells

This first came to my attention in the Long Beach (CA) Press Telegram. They gathered it from the Sacramento Bee (reg. req.).

SACRAMENTO Hoping to find shooting suspects more quickly, California may become the first state to require semiautomatic pistols to stamp their make, model and serial number onto every cartridge they fire.

Proposed legislation would require semiautomatic models produced after January 2007 to carry the innovative microstamping technology.

When peace officers find empty cartridges shell casings at crime scenes, the identifying stamp could help determine what gun fired them and, through an existing database, who purchased the weapon.

"We expect that it will be a very valuable tool and will help solve hundreds of additional crimes, if it's implemented,' said Assemblyman Paul Koretz, a West Hollywood Democrat who proposed the bill.

and

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken no position on the measure. Attorney General Bill Lockyer supports the concept but has not yet endorsed Koretz's bill, spokesman Nathan Barankin said.

Basically the Calif State Legislature wants guns to imprint a mark on the shell/cartridge that will ID the gun that shot the bullet from it. With this the police will be able to ID who was holding the gun and where the bullet went. It will also have a time stamp to let the police know when it was fired and which direction the gun was pointed.

I'm certain too that the cartridge will be emblasoned as to the attitude of the shooter so that if hate was in their heart they will be able to tack on the requisite hate crime charges.

This will be especially handy if the person firing the gun was aiming at a criminal in self defense. If it could be proved the person holding the gun, firing in self defense hated criminals then the police will know that the culprit was a vigilante and the crime of self defense was premeditated. Special circumstances can then be found to give those defending themselves and firing a gun to do so the death penalty. That will take care of those pesky gun advocates!

Hillary for President! Sez Who?

Today in perusing the blogs I came across "Bonfire" who is in my Bloglinks as a friend of Hugh Hewitt. His post from Yesterday caught my attention due to the picture he posted.

I had already thought of blogging on the subject and found he had said that which I thought. So instead of wearing out my fingers I figure it is easier to send you to his site.

I should add however that I can not understand why the dems keep saying, "they are all crooks and liars" about those they vote for instead of demanding people of integrity to represent them...

Farewell to Hunter S. Thompson

MSNBC News report that Hunter S. Thompson is no longer with us. He will be missed.

from AP/MSNBC - ASPEN, Colo. - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67.

I for one will miss him. The first book of his I read was 'Hells Angels' and amongst others I thoroughly enjoyed 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

Both books are timeless and will stay on my book shelf.

- My prayers and best wishes to his family and friends. -

An Open Letter to David Shaw - LAT

An Open Letter to David Shaw
Re: The Blog Squad Can Add Another Notch to It's Belt (LAT free subscription required)
Mr. Shaw,

It seems a shame that someone such as yourself can leave so much out of a story to get your point across. That bloggers are evil right wingers is not true. Your line -"But conservative bloggers attacked Jordan — motivated in part by the long-standing right-wing argument that CNN is a liberal network." is not true. Center left bloggers asked to see the tape too.

This was not the first time Eason Jordan accused the good guys of targeting journalists.

-----quote from - http://www.newsxchange.org/newsx2002/middleeast.html -
The Israelis say they're actually trying to restrict our access to these areas and they say it's too dangerous for you to be there and my response to that is that it wouldn't be nearly as dangerous if you didn't shoot at us when we're clearly labeled as CNN crews and journalists. And so this must stop, this targeting of the news media both literally and figuratively must come to an end immediately.
----end quote----

and this: - http://www.nysun.com/article/8866 -

----quote----
In an interview with The New York Sun, Mr. Frank said Mr. Jordan discussed in detail the plight of an Al-Jazeera reporter who had been detained by American forces, was made to eat his shoes while incarcerated in the Abu Ghraib prison, and was repeatedly mocked by his interrogators as "Al-Jazeera boy." - (He really thinks American troops made this guy eat his shoes?) -
---end quote----

and: - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1355027,00.html

---Quote--- FROM NOV 19 2004
"Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.
---end quote---

That he has made similar statements AND is the same jerk that decided (and admitted) to hold off on telling the world of Sadam's atrocities to preserve his access is reason enough for CNN to dump him. I think CNN found him to be a liability long ago and decided this was the last straw.

I ask, What is the purpose of these meetings that the video tapes are made and then hidden. Why is it that one day the person that has the tape says he will send it to and the next day be backs out. Wouldn't you be screaming bloody murder to have the tape released if it was your neck on the chopping block? Why isn't Jordan?

I think your time would really be better spent dropping the Eason Jordan story unless it is to demand the tape be released.

Try picking up on some of the local crap going on. Such as why do our lawmakers continually pass laws that hurt normally law abiding persons. For example the windshield/headlight law.

How much money will they steal from you and I over that one while pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers are left alone.

Cameras on traffic signals. 'Confiscatory fines' comes to mind with that one.

I could go on but I'm sure you have better things to do. Like trying to figure what to leave out of your next story...
--
Paul Young
prying1.blogspot.com