This interesting photo shows a man jumping into a public swimming pool in Duesseldorf, Germany as an airplane in the background prepares to land.
Jun 10, 2009
Who says man can’t fly?
This interesting photo shows a man jumping into a public swimming pool in Duesseldorf, Germany as an airplane in the background prepares to land.
UK report First Lady of flamboyance
The London Daily Mail printed a photo of Michelle Obama saying: Her taste for restrained elegance has earned her the title of First Lady of Fashion.
At least she didn’t wear a tank top.
Link
At least she didn’t wear a tank top.
Link
The new Pelosimobile from Congressional Motors
For those special odd-numbered week ends when we will be allowed to drive ...
Jun 9, 2009
Retiring army goat
William Windsor, mascot of England's 1st Battalion, appears at his retirement parade after seven years of UK Army service. The Battalion, known as The Royal Welsh, has had a goat in its ranks for more than 200 years.
Socialists lick wounds as conservatives win across Europe
Note: a correction was made to his posting
Many reporters called the elections a defeat for the “center left.”
One quick observation:
The losers were not center left. They were no more center left than Barack Obama. They were all politically far left!
An AP article at the link below reports:
Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe's largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere.
Franz Muentefering (pictured) chairman of Germany’s Social Democrats reacts to results of the elections in Germany and across Europe. 
The Social Democrats along with Britain’s Labor Party and Frances Socialists are said to have suffered setbacks of “historic proportions.”
Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus amid the global economic crisis.
Reporters given 12 years hard labor in North Korea
Laura Ling and Euna Lee (pictured), reporters for Al Gore’s Current TV, were arrested in March.
They were sentenced after a closed-door trial for what the state-run North Korean news agency KCNA called the "grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing."
The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, and Sweden represents U.S. interests there. The Swedish ambassador told the U.S. State Department that no observers were allowed in the courtroom for the trial, and the ambassador was allowed to see them only three times.
Several senior administration officials said the idea of sending either Gore or New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Pyongyang on a mission to get the journalists released has been floated to the North Koreans.
No answer has come so far, but the expectation has been that once the trial ended, the North would accept a visit by either Gore or Richardson to secure the journalists' release, the officials said.
North Korea will probably release the reporters but not before the US pays a huge ransom.
Link
Peering into North Korea
A girl looks through a binocular telescope at a village in the North Korea city of Kaepoong from the Panmunjom demilitarized zone.
Biden: new rail tunnel being built for cars
About that new tunnel that NJ Transit has been wanting for years. It’s the one that the Federal Transit Administration made a huge commitment to on Monday.
“Look, this is designed, this totally new tunnel, is designed to provide for automobile traffic,” Biden said. “It’s something, as you know, up your way, that’s been in the works and people have been clamoring for a long time.”
For cars? Really?
For the record, the tunnel is for trains, and its completion would allow for more NJ Transit trains during peak hours and “one-seat” rides into Midtown Manhattan on lines serving Bergen and Passaic counties.
Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request to clarify his comments.
How many gaffe’s does that make since becoming our “comic relief” vice president?
Wonder if he can spell potato?
Link
Jun 8, 2009
Burger King warming Whopper
Have it your way.
A major Burger King franchise owner puts up controversial signs at its Burger King restaurants.
The franchisee is a Memphis-based company called the Mirabile Investment Corporation (MIC) that owns more than 40 Burger Kings across Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, has described Burger King as acting "kinda like cockroaches" over the controversy.
Burger King has asked MIC to remove the signs. However, MIC's marketing president, John McNelis has said that by the time Burger King lawyers work out how to make that stick we'd be in the year 2020.
Does Al Gore eat at any of the MIC Burger King restaurants? No? I didn’t think so.
Link
A major Burger King franchise owner puts up controversial signs at its Burger King restaurants.
The franchisee is a Memphis-based company called the Mirabile Investment Corporation (MIC) that owns more than 40 Burger Kings across Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, has described Burger King as acting "kinda like cockroaches" over the controversy.
Burger King has asked MIC to remove the signs. However, MIC's marketing president, John McNelis has said that by the time Burger King lawyers work out how to make that stick we'd be in the year 2020.
Does Al Gore eat at any of the MIC Burger King restaurants? No? I didn’t think so.
Link
Job seekers getting the wrinkles out
A clinic in Virginia gave free Botox wrinkle injections to unemployed women looking for work.
Ladies with “wrinkles and a résumé" stood in line Friday at the Reveal clinic near the Pentagon to accept the unusual offer of free Botox injections.
The ladies hope improving their appearance will help, at least psychologically, in future job interviews.
The cost of a single treatment can vary from $300 to $500, according to Reveal. Results typically last four to six months.
One of the job seekers said, “You're more likely to be perceived in a better light if you look good.”
This is especially important in a climate of age discrimination.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it received 24,582 complaints of age discrimination in the 12-month period ending in September. That's a 29 percent increase from the previous year.
Link
Ladies with “wrinkles and a résumé" stood in line Friday at the Reveal clinic near the Pentagon to accept the unusual offer of free Botox injections.
The ladies hope improving their appearance will help, at least psychologically, in future job interviews.
The cost of a single treatment can vary from $300 to $500, according to Reveal. Results typically last four to six months.
One of the job seekers said, “You're more likely to be perceived in a better light if you look good.”
This is especially important in a climate of age discrimination.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it received 24,582 complaints of age discrimination in the 12-month period ending in September. That's a 29 percent increase from the previous year.
Link
Guinness Record longest running TV ad
A delightful commercial showing a little old lady throwing a tire through a tire store window is the longest running TV commercial according to Guinness World Records.
Joining the ranks of Charmin's Mr. Whipple, Wendy's affable founder Dave Thomas and the Lonely Maytag Repairman, is the little old lady from the Discount Tire ad.
Not only is the Discount Tire ad a winner - it’s funny and it’s also short - only 10 seconds long!
(click on picture to see video)
Joining the ranks of Charmin's Mr. Whipple, Wendy's affable founder Dave Thomas and the Lonely Maytag Repairman, is the little old lady from the Discount Tire ad.
Not only is the Discount Tire ad a winner - it’s funny and it’s also short - only 10 seconds long!
Shootout at Acapulco Mexico Kills 16
Acapulco, the 1950’s and 1960’s premier resort town for America's rich and famous, was the scene of a dramatic shootout.
Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.
Roughly 3,000 shots flew, and 50 grenades exploded during the raucous gun battle late Saturday that killed 16 gunmen and two soldiers.
Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.
More than a dozen Mexican tourists were evacuated from a neighboring hotel strip frozen in the 1950s, when Elizabeth Taylor held one of her many weddings in Acapulco and John Wayne and "Tarzan" star Johnny Weissmuller threw lavish parties at Los Flamingos Hotel less than 100 yards (meters) from where gunfire broke out.
Several gunmen tried to flee but crashed their car into a military Hummer that was blocking the gate. At one point, more armed men with grenades arrived to reinforce the men in the house, but they died in the shooting, said an army colonel, who led the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
More of the story here.
North Dakota: first June snowfall in 60 years
Snow fell over the week end in Dickinson, North Dakota. It was the first time in nearly 60 years the city had seen snow in June.
It probably ruined Al Gore’s day.
Link
It probably ruined Al Gore’s day.
Link
Jun 7, 2009
Car ticketed repeatedly with dead owner inside
The body of 59-year-old George Morales was discovered last Wednesday after a city marshal attempted to tow his illegally parked vehicle in the city's Queens district.
New York Police allegedly repeatedly ticketed the minivan for weeks before noticing that its occupant was dead.
Link
New York Police allegedly repeatedly ticketed the minivan for weeks before noticing that its occupant was dead.
Link
How to “head” a soccer ball
Bayern Munich's Italian striker Luca Toni prepares to head the ball during their German first division Bundesliga soccer match against Bayer Leverkusen in Munich last month.
Reuters photo
GM takeover: Obama’s decision for Obama’s reasons
There is an op-ed article at the link below titled, I, Barack Obama reporting on the GM takeover speech by the “first person in chief.”
Last Monday Obama used the first-person singular pronoun "I" 34 times when he announced he was nationalizing General Motors.
Last Monday Obama used the first-person singular pronoun "I" 34 times when he announced he was nationalizing General Motors.
He used “Congress” once and “law” not at all.
As Obama described it, the government takeover of General Motors was Obama’s decision made for Obama’s reasons.
To prevent GM from becoming a ward of the state, Obama made it the property of the state.
Obama did not say he would ask Congress to enact legislation to provide the funds needed to purchase 60 percent of GM or with the legal authority to restructure the company and oversee its business plan.
He said: “I decided then ... the United States government would stand behind them.”
Remember: In December, Congress specifically declined to enact legislation authorizing the president to bail out the auto industry--let alone to purchase an auto company. What law now gives Obama authority to buy General Motors?
The White House says, when pressed, it is the Troubled Asset Relief Program. But that legislation was written specifically to allow the Treasury Department to purchase assets from “financial institutions.” It says nothing about buying auto companies.
The article points out that the Constitution does not say the government can take ownership of an auto company, let alone at the individual initiative of a president who cannot point to a duly enacted law that clearly expresses the deliberated will of the people that he should have that power.
Mr. Obama appears to be taking over decisions that should be deliberated and acted upon by elected lawmakers.
Link
Stimulus aid favors social programs not shovel ready projects
An Associated Press article on Friday was titled, In states, stimulus aid favors social programs.
Remember the "shovel-ready" projects lined up for all that stimulus money? It turns out social spending, more than construction, is hitting pay dirt in the huge federal effort to turn the economy around.
The public face of the stimulus package has been the worker in a hard hat, getting back on the job to rebuild the nation's infrastructure.
It’t not working out that way.
The reality of how the vast majority of the stimulus money will be spent is quite different, and that raises questions about how much help the Recovery Act achieved by President Barack Obama will be to the economy in the long run.
Most of the roughly $300 billion coming directly to the states is being funneled through existing government programs for health care, education, unemployment benefits, food stamps and other social services.
If most of the stimulus money would have gone to “shovel-ready” projects as promised, we would not be reading about a 26 year high unemployment rate of 9.4%.
Link
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