Word Soup

From the AP:

"A Janesville couple is looking for a new high school for their two daughters after they say an incident this month left one feeling threatened.

Elle Jacobson is a junior at Parker High School. She says she's still unnerved over an incident in English class two weeks ago in which she claims a classmate tore pages out of a Bible during a presentation."

More from a local outlet:

"This boy got up and his visual aid was a Bible and a book. And he got up and started his speech by saying 'Now, this piece of crap' and pointed to the Bible. He took the Bible and he said, 'I'm going to do this because I can. I'm going to do something that your stupid, little minds aren't going to be able to comprehend and he took the Bible and started ripping out pages."

According to this report he's been suspended for a week and is being forced to undergo a psychological evaluation.

Posted by karl at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by karl at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A random musing perhaps but you know, if you're still buying your electronics from any of these walk-in big box outfits you're making a big mistake. If you weren't aware that Best Buy uses a bogus in-store website to trick customers, this guy explains it pretty cleanly:

"Basically what happens is this: You see that a product is on sale at BestBuy.com, and is available for instore pickup. You head on over to your local store, grab the item, and it rings up at a higher (or non-sale) price. You say to the cashier, "Hey, it was cheaper on your website. Don't you guys price-match?" He says, "Sure, let me see the website." He brings up the website on their in-store kiosk, checks out the item, and says, "It says here on our website that it's actually the higher price. Maybe you were looking at a different product." You don't feel like fighting, so you just say, "Whatever," and pay, and leave. You get home, look up your product again, and sure enough, it's on sale at a cheaper price. What just happened?

Best Buy uses a fake in-store website on their kiosks which lists a higher price, so they don't have to price-match like they promise. Best Buy lies to you."

Posted by karl at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Not for Karen Carpenter fans, I'll tell you what.

Posted by karl at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From The Onion:

"CHEYENNE, WY—After attempting to contain a living-room blaze started by a cigarette, card-carrying Libertarian Trent Jacobs reluctantly called the Cheyenne Fire Department Monday. "Although the community would do better to rely on an efficient, free-market fire-fighting service, the fact is that expensive, unnecessary public fire departments do exist," Jacobs said. "Also, my house was burning down." Jacobs did not offer to pay firefighters for their service."

Posted by karl at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You have to watch the whole thing to grok what he's doing.

Posted by karl at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A strange collection of celebrity images where their eyes have been replaced with smaller versions of their mouths. And here you were thinking that Hillary Clinton and Keith Richards were scary enough.

Posted by karl at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My girlfriend and I are currently geeking out over the HBO series "The Wire", which enters its fifth season starting January 8. It's a pretty damn brilliant police drama that's really more about inner city life and institutional bureaucracy -- though there's certainly some bang bang. We're only through the beginning of season two, but it's making a nice break from the freezing cold of December (that and Thai food delivered).

It makes shows like CSI and Law and Order look like third grade plays put on by the children of vacuous neighborhood halfwits. It's adeptly written by a Baltimore police-beat reporter, who I assume is also on strike right now.

I'm a sucker for HBO series. I've loved Oz, Deadwood, Sopranos (despite the late life-cycle decline), Rome and Six Feet Under. I thought Carnivale was the best thing since the antibiotics. I've got this feeling HBO is starting to cater to the nation's lobotomized, twenty-inch rim majority (Entourage). Maybe Showtime will pick up the slack with great shows like Dexter.

Anyway, for the three of you that actually read my daily cerebral vomit, I'd recommend it. Holy shit, I'm BLOGGING about my favorite cable TV shows. How painfully all-American dipshit of me.

Posted by karl at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yeah, that happens to everybody. You're just living the good life at home with your mom, and you don't notice YOU'VE TURNED FUCKING BLUE until a buddy stops by and mentions it.

Posted by karl at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

From the AFP:

"The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said.."

The full statement from the Lakota Freedom website:

"For far too long our people have suffered at the hands of the colonial apartheid system imposed on the Lakota Sioux. Our treaties with the United States government are nothing more than worthless words on worthless paper – repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life.

# The devastation this has wrought is clear: Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years, lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS) including Haiti.
# The Lakota infant mortality rate is 5x the U.S. Average.
# The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx 800% higher than the U.S national average.
# 97% of our Lakota people live below the poverty line.
# Unemployment rates on our reservations are approximately 85%.
# Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S national average for this group.
# Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on the verge of extinction.

We have no choice but to take this historic action to protect our people and our way of life, and reclaim our freedom from the colonial systems of the United States Government. So we travel to Washington D.C. to withdraw from our treaties with the United States and announce full return of our sovereign status under Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution, International and Natural Law."

Posted by karl at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Daily Mail:

"The fastest eco boat on the planet will attempt to break the round the world speed record using fuel made from human fat. . . Bethune and his wife mortgaged their house and sold everything they own to help make the project happen, while continuing to seek support from sponsors. Demonstrating further commitment to the cause, Bethune underwent liposuction and donated enough to produce 100ml of biofuel, while two other, larger volunteers also had the procedure, making a total of 10 litres of human fat. This in turn produced seven litres of biofuel, which could help the boat travel about 15km."

Posted by karl at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)