Are French tourists the most obnoxious?

Does Time Magazine disparage French tourists because they hate them or are they simply voicing what nearly everyone else already knows: French tourists are the most obnoxious.

It may be because the French are simply mirroring the haughty attitude of their former president Jacques Chirac (pictured) who is said to be the only man in Europe to need suntan lotion on the underside of his nose.

At the first link below, Time Magazine wastes no time going after the French:

Given their nation's long reign as the world's most visited country, you'd expect the French to know a thing or two about insufferable tourists.

It turns out they do — and are proving it to the rest of the world.

In a poll carried out by online travel site Expedia and released on Thursday, July 9, French tourists were viewed as the orneriest for the third year running.

Then Time Magazine really pours it on with this:

Affirmation-starved France usually loves global titles of any kind (one big reason French competitors tend to outnumber foreign rivals in quixotic contests like reverse round-the-world solo yachting races and France's annual international plumb-spitting tournaments).

Reverse round-the-world solo yachting races indeed.

Link here and here.

The Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination

Barack Hussein Obama is determined to push through the Supreme Court appointment of Sonia Sotomayor (pictured), a candidate who, in her own words, considers a 'wise Latina woman' smarter than white males, and who thinks the courts are supposed to make policy and law rather than interpret the law.

Conservatives should not worry about losing the Latino vote if they vigorously challenge the Sotomayor appointment. They don’t have the Latino vote now, at least not from Latinos with limited education (which is the majority of Latino voters) so why worry about losing votes they don’t have in the first place.

However, if the Republicans are successful in blocking her appointment in committee, Mr. Obama could appoint her during a congressional recess (a recess appointment) and put her on the Supreme Court without congressional approval.

A recess appointment, however, would be a limited victory for Obama because it would only be good until the end of the term rather than a lifetime appointment.

More here.

Geometry: finding x the easy way

This is a great cheat sheet short shirt for blondes.

Hmmm... saying that five times real fast would be good practice for Peter Piper picked a peck of... oh, never mind.

Michael Jackson sculpture in a Denver park

People in the Denver suburb of Lakewood have been walking past Michael Jackson and his pals for 15 years without knowing it.

The sculpture was commissioned by Michael Jackson 17 years ago and executed by Loveland Colorado artist Jane DeDecker and resides in Addenbrooke Park in Lakewood.



From left, the sculpture shows Gary Coleman, a friend of the sculptor's, Brandi Jackson, Janet Jackson, Macaulay Culkin, Michael Jackson and Brett Ratner.

Denver Post photo by Bill Husted.

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A scene from Rocky Mountain National Park

Time to relax after a long week

Ask a dumb question...

Alex Johnson, an outfielder who played for eight different teams in the 1960’s and 1970’s, was asked by a reporter:

“Last year you hit two homers and this year you hit seven. What is the difference?”

“Five,” Johnson replied.

The beauty who turned Obama’s head in Italy...

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The girl who Obama oogled in Italy is a 16-year-old Brazilian beauty from Rio de Janeiro.

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Escaping the Michael Jackson hoopla

Obama finds stimulus in Italy

Barack Obama talked of a second stimulus. In this photo he appears to be getting a stimulus of a different kind at the G8 summit as an amused Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, looks on.

Photo taken in L'Aquila, Italy July 9, 2009.

Rupert Murdoch: media cooling on Obama by year end

Rupert Murdoch (pictured), owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, says the world's most powerful media moguls are "very bearish" on the economy, but they don't seem to be blaming President Obama for the tough times.

Media mogul Murdoch also predicts opinion of Obama will swing by year's end.

Apart from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, both owned by News Corp., the media "remains very supportive of him, perhaps not of all of his policies," Murdoch told Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network.

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Graves in Chicago cemetery desecrated and stripped for profit

Authorities say that, over the last several years, more than 100 bodies at Burr Oak cemetery have been dumped "in a massive pile on cemetery grounds" so the plots could be resold.


The photo above shows broken vaults after bodies were disinterred

Burr Oak cemetery was Chicago's first African-American cemetery. It is located in the town of Alsip, 12 miles south of Chicago.

The four charged are shown below:


(Left to right) Former Burr Oak Cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, 49, grounds foreman Keith Nicks, 45, dump truck operator Terrence Nicks, 39, and back-hoe operator Maurice Dailey, 59.

The Arizona-based owner of the cemetery, Perpetua Inc., said in a statement Thursday that the company is cooperating with investigators.

"We will make every attempt to insure and maintain the dignity of those that have been entrusted to our care," the company said.

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Ooops... White House spells Obama’s name wrong

Someone might want to look into whether an impostor took President Obama's place during his trip to Russia.

In a release touting an agreement between Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev over how to craft a follow-up to the START arms reduction treaty, the White House claimed the document had been signed by one "Barak Obama."

Perhaps the White House should become a little more aquatinted with its principle resident.

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A hair raising competition

Models display hair creations during the Europe Cup open 2009 competition in Athens, Greece last month.

Billions in aid to areas that backed Obama in 2008

The spin:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says, “There's no politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery."

The reality:

Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.

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Michelle Obama shows off her $6,000 purse

Back in April Michelle Obama wore a pair of $540 Lanvin sneakers at a Washington food bank. Earlier this week in Russia, she carried a sexy black clutch, which Italian luxury house VBH boasts is their shiny black alligator manila bag – with a retail sticker price of $5,950.


The $5,950 shiny black manila alligator clutch purse is part of VBH's Spring 2009 collection (a smaller version is shown above).

VBH stands for V. Bruce Hoeksema, a very successful Italian designer.

The White House denies the story and claims the purse she was carrying the $875 VBH patent leather clutch.

A $6,000 alligator clutch is just the thing to go with her tank tops.

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Scientists discover Easter Island fountain of youth drug

Articles at the links below reports that:

A miraculous 'elixir of youth' which could extend the human life span by more than a decade is being developed by scientists.

The anti-aging pill was created from a chemical found in the soil of Easter Island - one of the most remote and mysterious places on the planet.

The drug, rapamycin, takes its name from the Polynesian name of Easter Island, Rapa Nui.

The drug was originally identified in soil samples from Easter Island, is a powerful suppressor of the immune system, commonly given to patients to help to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs, and its dangers to healthy people would far outweigh any potential benefit.

Unfortunately there are side effects, like you could end up looking like an Easter Island statue.

Uh, well...maybe not. However, there is one serious side effect that may prevent this drug from widespread availability to people seeking a magic ‘fountain of youth’ elixir - it suppresses the immune system.

More of the story here and here.

60 Democrat votes in the Senate? - Think again

An ABC News blog posting, found at the link below, deals with the myth that the Democrats have a 60 a filibuster proof 60 votes in the Senate.

It is true that there are 60 Democrats in the Senate, a majority they have not had since the 1970’s - enough votes to block Republican filibusters.

Not so fast - that number is more realistically 58, or even 57 on some occasions.

Two Democrat Senators haven’t voted in months.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who is suffering from brain cancer, hasn't cast a vote since March 26. And 91-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., hasn't voted since May 13.

On May 15th, Robert Byrd was hospitalized for what his Senate office called "a minor infection." A couple weeks later, his Senate office released a statement saying he had contracted an additional staph infection and would need to remain in the hospital. Byrd was finally released on June 30.

So when will Byrd return to the Senate?

It seems as if none of Byrd's colleagues have any idea about his true condition or when he will return to the Senate.

Kennedy's office also cannot say when he will return to the Senate.

And then there is Senator Joe Lieberman (pictured) who can’t always be counted on to vote with the Democrats.

In fact, he may not vote for a second stimulus or for Obamacare.

Also, there will surely be a few other moderate Democrats that will defy the majority.

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Michael Jackson memorial - not our proudest moment

There are numerous articles and YouTube videos of the Michael Jackson memorial at the Staples Center Tuesday.

Most of the reports didn’t bother to mention the sparse attendance.

Disappointed that the huge anticipated crowds did not materialize, tickets were handed out to any and all takers who happened to be near the Staples Center.

There were several Jackson family members and others on stage saying kind words and giving Michael Jackson (upper photo) a musical tribute. It surely must have been a fitting reverie.

It was the speech by Rev. Al Sharpton (lower photo) that was a bit puzzling as he spoke on about Michael Jackson’s "influence" as a black person and how he broke the race barrier in music.

There were literally hundreds of black musicians before Michael Jackson during the last 100 years. Most of them had more talent and morality.

It was not unexpected that Sharpton would inject "race" into the Jackson memorial. But you have to wonder about Sharpton’s complete lack of understanding the irony of his words and the actions of others on the stage at the Staples Center.

The only race barrier Jackson broke was the one he was born with. It was ironic to see all the black people lionizing a man who hated his blackness so much that he turned himself white and “aquired” white children.

He selected a white woman to be the mother of his children. Will the name of the white sperm donor ever be revealed?

At the second link below, Michael Jackson’s dermatologist says he is not sure but he doesn’t think he is the biological father of Michael Jackson’s children.

Link here and here.

Straight from the horses mouth

A man checks a horse's teeth during the "Rapa Das Bestas" event in Cedeira, Spain.

Throughout the summer, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages around Galicia.

High jumping at a Fort Worth rodeo

Norwegian rider Andre Villa performs a jump during a rodeo at the Fort Worth Stock Yards.

Stuart Smalley goes to Washington

First of all, who is Stuart Smalley?

Stuart Smalley is the small-minded character played on Saturday Night Live by Al Franken (pictured) the newly seated Senator from Minnesota.

A report at the link below says:

As the Democrats in Congress – and in the mainstream media – celebrate leftist loon and tax cheat Al Franken’s stolen victory from incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, the rest of us are still recovering from nausea at the very thought of Franken as a "valid" U.S. senator.

After nearly eight tortuous months of refusing to concede defeat to Coleman, Franken’s bully tactics finally paid off – thanks mainly to George Soros and ACORN.

Minnesota voters must be very proud.

Link here and here.

Meet Al Franken the new Senator from Minnesota

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Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota

The Michael Jackson event: memorial service or requiem for a pedophile?

The event at the Staples Center on Tuesday is described as a memorial service for the King of Pop.

As a result of his child molestation accusations and subsequent trial some of his detractors claim the event is a requiem for a pedophile.

Others are calling it a circus and, as if right on cue, elephants from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus began arriving. The circus will begin on Wednesday at the Staples Center - the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.


The Michael Jackson circus was held today.

The report at the first link below says:

The true extent of the media hype surrounding the death of Michael Jackson has been exposed.

Fox News reports on air that as the Michael Jackson memorial was starting, tickets were being handed out to bystanders, as embarrassingly empty seats inside the Staples Center signaled reality refusing to conform to media-generated expectations.

The report at the second link describes the arrival of the elephants for the circus that doesn’t begin until tomorrow.

Link here and here.

Mountain rescue dogs

Two Saint Bernard dogs sit in the snow on the Great St. Bernard Pass after returning from their winter quarters in Martigny, Switzerland. The dogs will spend the summer on the pass and return to Martigny towards the end of the year.

From Russia with love (with apologies to Ian Fleming and Sean Connery)

It didn’t take long for Barack Obama to misspeak during his appearance in Russia.

Obama described Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as president.

Putin surrendered the presidency to protege (and puppet) Dmitry Medvedev last May to take the lesser post of prime minister.

Until Obama’s visit, world leaders have been able to deal with the dual leadership in Russia with little difficulty.

At a news conference Obama gave a carefully worded reply about the effectiveness of the leadership tandem when a U.S. journalist bluntly asked "who is really in charge here in Russia?"

But minutes later, speaking about Medvedev's objections to a controversial missile defense system planned for central Europe, Obama slipped: "I suspect when I speak to President..eh.. Prime Minister Putin tomorrow, he will say the same thing."

Mr. Obama would be well advised to stick to the script written for him and projected on his teleprompters.

Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to seek a new agreement on reducing their respective nuclear arsenals. While the American media will spin this as watershed diplomacy, reality reminds us that this is a repeat of what was done decades ago.

And the United States president also announced that he reads the poetry of Pushkin. Really? If he were in Athens would he say he reads Zorba the Greek?

Mr. Obama seems more and more to be a combination of Al Gore's grandiosity and Jimmy Carter's cluelessness.


We were given advance warning when the Temple of Obama (pictured) was set up in the Broncos football stadium for his victory speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Bright idea street lighting on demand in Germany

Street lights are just a call away in many German towns. They call it “Dial4Light.”

Every night at 11 p.m. the village of Dörentrup in central Germany is thrown into total darkness. For the past few years, the village's cash-strapped local council has been switching off all the streetlights in the village each evening until 6 a.m. the following morning.

No street lights would have residents stumbling around in the dark. But in Dörentrup they have seen the light (pun intended).

They have a program that allows residents to turn on streetlights on demand using their cell phones.

In the first project of its kind in Europe, the residents of Dörentrup can now switch on the lights on a specific street whenever they like.


All they have to do is register for the scheme online and provide a phone number. Then each time anyone needs to see in the dark, they call the Dial4Light number, enter the six-digit code that corresponds to the stretch of road they want lit, and within seconds the lights are on.

After a resident uses the Dial4Light scheme, the street lights in that area stay on for 15 minutes.

Link

A fragment of the Statue of Liberty is pictured in front of the Bodensee lake during a rehearsal for AIDA at the sea stage on June 17, 2009 in Bregenz, Austria.

New glass balconies on Sears Tower 103rd floor

Visitors to the Sears Tower in Chicago are now treated to unobstructed views of the city from the building's west side and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below – for those brave enough to look straight down.

These balconies are not for the faint of heart. Don’t go near them if your are petrified of heights.

The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet (412 meters) in the air and jut out 4 feet (1.22 meters) from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck. They're actually more like boxes than balconies, with transparent walls, floor and ceiling.

The box shaped balconies are made of glass 1.4 inches thick and can hold five tons.

Sears Tower officials have said the inspiration for the balconies came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff will have a new glass surface to clean: floors.




The balconies are just one of the big changes coming to the Sears Tower in Chicago. The building's name will also. Later this summer the building will become the Willis Tower.

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Obama assured of chilly reception in Russian

The Obamamania that has swept much of the rest of the world will it be absent when Mr.Obama meets with Russian president Dmitri Medvedev for a summit meeting.

A recent poll by Russia's Levada Centre found only 23 per cent of citizens believe the US president will "do the right thing in world affairs", with many doubting his promise of change will heal antagonisms between Russia and the West.

Makes a difference when the Russian media doesn’t swoon all over him as the US media does.

A long list of issues – from Nato's eastward expansion, to missile defence, to human rights, to the contest for oil and gas in Central Asia – continue to poison relations between the former Cold War superpowers.

Obama will need to have his teleprompters working as they never have before because the Russians see him for what he is.

Russian news agency Pravda was less than subtle in an editorial summing up the Obama administration, headlined: "Obama: Deceiver, cheat, swindler, liar, fraudster, con-artist."

Yes, Pravda gets it!

Link

Independence Day 2009

...testing remote advance posting

Ain’t comin’ out ‘till the firecrackers stop

British comedy actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86

Mollie Sugden was one of a select group of British performers to achieve national treasure status. She was noted for her portrayal of fearsome battleaxes.

Sugden was best known for playing the bossy sales lady Mrs. Slocombe (pictured) in the long-running BBC sitcom Are You Being Served.

The innuendo-laden television comedy was successfully exported for several years and is still being shown on public broadcasting stations in America.


Mollie Sugden is shown above at the funeral of her Are You Being Served co-star Wendy Richard earlier this year. Richard lost her long battle with cancer at age 65.

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Minnesotan’s must be sooo proud

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Watchful eye

A man vacuums near a replica of the face of the Statue of Liberty in the statue's visitor center in New York City.

Tourists will be allowed to visit the top of the statue again beginning July 4th.

Baby gorilla at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha

This 12-day-old gorilla was born to Timu, the world’s first test tube gorilla.

Go after ACORN says judge

A judge in Pennsylvania says somebody has to go after ACORN.

A district judge in southwestern Pennsylvania, who held another ACORN worker for trial on election law violations, urged prosecutors to go after the real culprit, the organization that employed him - ACORN.

"Somebody has to go after ACORN," Senior District Judge Richard H. Zoller said about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

The judge said it's happening all over the country. “All you have to do is turn on the television," he said, referring to voter registration fraud charges brought recently against ACORN and its workers in Nevada.

More of the story here.

Worlds longest yard sale

This gigantic four-day yard sale is held every year beginning on the first Thursday of the month of August (this year it will be August 6-9)

This sale is 654 miles long - from West Unity, Ohio to Gadsden, Alabama - along the highway 127 corridor.

One of the photos below shows a life-size Darth Vadar - just the thing for your front entry hall.

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Franken declared winner giving Democrats filibuster proof Senate majority

Al Franken (pictured) was given a Senate victory in Minnesota giving the Democrats their magic 60-vote majority.

The Franken win in Minnesota is reminiscent of an election in the Pacific Northwest five years ago.

Remember the 2004 gubernatorial election in the state of Washington? That’s when Christine Gregoire was declared the winner after three recounts. She was behind in the first two recounts until additional ballots were mysteriously discovered in King County.

Al Franken has followed the same path in his Minnesota Senate race against Norm Coleman. After recounts that even produced ballots mysteriously found in the trunk of an election workers car. In on county there were more votes for Franken than registered voters in on the county.

Mr. Franken has managed to pull a “Gregoire” in Minnesota.

As Joseph Stalin once said - elections are not decided by the people who cast the ballots - elections are decided by the people who count the ballots.

One blogger suggested it may be appropriate for Al Franken to publicly thank ACORN for his win.

We reported on the Al Franken saga four times in the past. Two of those reports can be found here and here.

More on the Franken win here and here.

Meet Al Franken the new Minnesota Senator

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Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota

Michael Jackson fan with Jacko figurine

Racket demolished during tennis tournament

Belgian Kristof Vliegen breaks his racket during a match against Croatian Ivan Ljubicic during the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Tournament.

Do they ever get their socks clean after playing on a clay court?

Supreme Court overturns Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court

Can’t you just hear conservatives saying, “there, take that Mr. Obama!”

The Supreme Court today narrowly ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor (pictured) that had come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court.

The city had thrown out the results of a promotion test because no African Americans and only two Hispanics would have qualified for promotions. It said it feared a lawsuit from minorities under federal laws that said such "disparate impacts" on test results could be used to show discrimination.

In effect, the court was deciding when avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another.

Without leaning on affirmative action, Obama and his handlers could not possibly have selected Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court nominee.

Above: firefighters react to SC decision.
Her rulings are simplistic, some of them were reportedly only one or two sentences long. Her rulings were often not bound by case law but by what she thinks the law should say.

As with many other left-wing judges, she was prone to make law from the bench rather than interpret law.

The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is actually rather pathetic. By her won admission, Sotomayor didn't have the intellectual capacity to get into Law School without affirmative action.

Now, her nomination to the Supreme Court is a classic case of an affirmative action president nominating an affirmative action judge to serve on the highest court of the land.

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