Saturday, September 22, 2007

George Clooney Hurt in Motorcycle Accident

George Clooney and a companion were injured on Friday when their motorcycle collided with a car on a narrow road across the Hudson River from New York City.


Clooney suffered a broken rib and scrapes while his passenger, Sarah Larson, broke her foot in the 3:30 p.m. collision. The two were treated at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen and released, Clooney's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said.


"He's doing fine," Rosenfield said. "He has a broken rib, it's very painful and it'll take a long time to heal."



Tags: | | | | | |

Friday, September 21, 2007

Las Vegas Priest Pleads Guilty To Battery In Bashing Woman With Wine Botle

News of the weird: a Catholic priest attacked a woman singer in his church with a wine bottle.


Roman Catholic priest who smashed a wine bottle over the head of a woman in church pleaded guilty to felony battery with a deadly weapon.


The Rev. George Chaanine admitted Thursday in Clark County District Court that he smashed the bottle over the 54-year-old woman's head at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church in January.


Prosecutors dropped other charges, including attempted murder and sexual assault.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Russians Lost in Deadly River Trip Found Alive After 3 Weeks In Wilderness

This is an amazing story of survival.


Two Russian men missing for weeks in a remote, mountainous area of western China have been found alive, their survival described as miraculous.


The two were among six Russians who disappeared during a canoe trip on the Yurungkax River in Xinjiang region.


The bodies of three of the men were found last weekend. Chinese and Russian officials said all three had drowned.


One of the survivors, Alexander Zverev, said they were thrown from their canoes by the Yurungkax's turbulent waters.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | |

Twister Slashes Through Central Florida

Update: So far, no injuries have been reported, although almost two dozen homes were totally destroyed and at least three dozen more damaged. People launched a door to door search overnight to check on residents.

Power is out in sections of three counties. Shelters are opening for those who lost their homes or had them too damaged to live in. In Eustis, a small town, some looting has been reported.

I lived in Florida for many years. Eustis, Florida is slightly northwest of Orlando, a popular tourist destination. It's not far from Disney World, Epcot, and Universal Studios.

The weather patterns have definitely changed. Although I've ridden out many hurricanes and tropical storms, I truly can't recall a tornado. Recently, Florida has been beset with a number of tornadoes every year.

And, like the famed U.S. Tornado Alley, that twister-prone area that spreads across several states, there now seems to be a developing "Tornado Strip" within the Central Florida area.


Severe weather, including a possible tornado, damaged about 50 homes, shearing the entire second story off one home, authorities said Friday.


Radar indicated a tornado spun off from a storm system that crossed through central Florida before spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, touching down late Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Pravda Claims Peru "Meteorite" Actually Radioactive US Spy Satellite

As always with Pravda--consider the source. They keep the flames of the Cold War ever burning.


Russian Military Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that one of the United States most secretive spy satellites, the KH-13, targeting Iran was 'destroyed in its orbit' with its main power generator powered by the radioactive isotope Pu-238 surviving re-entry and crashing in a remote region of the South American Nation of Peru, and where hundreds are reported to be ill from radiation poisoning.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | |

Cuban embargo prevented attacks, U.S. official says

CORAL GABLES, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. economic embargo against Cuba has deprived its communist government of funds it might otherwise have used for military adventures, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Thursday.


The Cuban-born Gutierrez, who left his homeland with his family as a child, said the trade and financial embargo imposed by Washington three years after Fidel Castro seized power in 1959 had been "an absolute and resounding" success.


At a Latin American conference sponsored by The Miami Herald, Gutierrez cited the 1962 Cuban missile crisis as one reason the United States sought to deprive Castro's government of funds.


"Think about in 1962 when they had nuclear weapons in Cuba, they wanted to keep that weapon. They wanted to use that weapon if necessary," he said.


"So think about what would have happened if that regime would have had more resources. History doesn't credit us for what doesn't happen. You never get credit for what you prevented," he said.



Tags: | | | | | |

Christian Theater Troupe Spends $90,440 on Ad Bashing Kathy Griffin's 'Jesus' Speech

I'm not sure Kathy Griffin, or anything she says, is worth $90,000.


Members of a Christian theater troupe are spreading the word that they're irate about Kathy Griffin's off-color speech in accepting a creative arts Emmy earlier this month.


The Miracle Theater in Pigeon Forge spent $90,440 on a full-page advertisement in USA Today that ran nationally Monday, proclaiming "enough is enough."



Tags: | | | |

Jena: SPLC Says White Supremists May Show Up To Counter-Protest

The Southern Poverty Law Center warned in news releases Wednesday that it found several postings on white supremacist Web sites indicating counter-demonstrations might be held today.


The organization said it contacted State Police.


Sgt. Markus Smith, State Police spokesman, said there have been a "considerable" number of state troopers on hand.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Al Qaeda Calls for Pakistanis to War on Their President, & Total Muslim War on U.S.

"Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, has called on Muslims to fight the United States and its allies around the world.

"Stand oh nation of Islam under the victorious banner of the Prophet ... and campaign against the Crusader banner of [ President George] Bush," al-Zawahri said in a new video aired on Thursday." -- Al-Jazeera .


n a new audiotape released Thursday, al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden calls on Pakistanis to rebel against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.


The message — details of which were not immediately available — came as al-Qaida released a new video in which bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan's Darfur region.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to Resign, Run for Senate

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is expected to resign Thursday to clear the way for a Senate campaign in 2008, giving Republicans a welcome dose of good political news.


Johanns will be joined by President Bush to make an announcement about his future Thursday morning, the secretary's spokeswoman Terri Teuber said Wednesday, not commenting on what Johanns



Tags: | | | | | | | | |

Car Plows Into Crowd on Las Vegas Strip Sidewalk, Injuring a Dozen

A car plowed into a crowd on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk on Wednesday, injuring at least a dozen people and sending seven to the hospital, authorities said.


"A gentleman who we believe had a diabetic episode passed out behind the wheel, ran up on the sidewalk and hit a large group of people," said Clark County fire spokesman Scott Allison.



Tags: | | |

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Man Bit By Rattlesnake After Putting It in His Mouth To Impress Girl

Poor rattlesnake. I hope that it didn't somehow catch an infusion of purely stupid and arrogant from having bitten this idiot. Set that snake free! It deserves better!


Snake collector Matt Wilkinson of Portland grabbed a 20-inch rattler from the highway near Maupin, and three weeks later, to impress his ex-girlfriend, he stuck the serpent in his mouth.


He was soon near death with a swollen tongue that blocked his throat. Trauma doctors at the Oregon Health and Science University saved his life.



Tags: | | | | | |

Online couple cheated with each other; marriage crashes

Nothing like finding your soul mate on the internet and then discovering that he/she is the spouse you can't stand.


A married couple who didn't realise they were chatting each other up on the internet are divorcing.


Sana Klaric and husband Adnan, who used the names "Sweetie" and "Prince of Joy" in an online chatroom, spent hours telling each other about their marriage troubles, Metro.co.uk reported.


The truth emerged when the two turned up for a date.



Tags: | | | |

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Idaho Man Blames Wild Sex for Car Crash

"Ahhhh, offficer, the guys in the back having sex, well, they made my car get all 'tippy' and that's how it all happened."


A 22-year-old carnival worker blames two friends having sexual intercourse in the back seat of his car for an accident in which his Chevrolet S-10 Blazer struck a telephone pole.



Tags: | | |

Surviving Khmer Rouge Leader Implicated in 1.7 Million Deaths Caught

You can run, but you can't hide forever--not when you helped to brutalize and kill an estimated 1.7 million people. The last trigger man of the notoriouis Pol Pot regime is now in custody.


Police detained the top surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge on Wednesday over his role in the notorious former Cambodian regime that caused the deaths of 1.7 million people in the late 1970s.


Nuon Chea was taken by police escort from his home in Pailin in northwestern Cambodia near the Thai border, police and witnesses said, and was flown by helicopter to the capital, Phnom Penh.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | |

Music Scholar & College Prof Barred From U.S., but No One Will Tell Her Why

Violinist and scholar Naini Ghuman was graduated from Oxford and the University of California at Berkeley. She's a violinist, scholar, author, and her passion is Edward Elgar and musical traditions in India.




When she returned to the U.S. from a research trip to England, she found that she was barred from re-entering the country. So far, she still doesn't know why.


I'm not quite sure why a musicologist focusing on Edward Elgar would seem to be a terrorist threat.


Nalini Ghuman, an up-and-coming musicologist and expert on the British composer Edward Elgar, was stopped at the San Francisco airport in August last year and, without explanation, told that she was no longer allowed to enter the United States.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | | | |

State Senator Ernie Chambers Sues God in Reaction to Rape Case

State Senator Ernie Chambers is suing God. He says it to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits.


Chambers says senators periodically have offered bills prohibiting the filing of certain types of suits. He says his main objection is the constitution requires that the doors to the courthouse be open to all. Chambers said, "Thus anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody - even God."


Chambers said he decided to file this lawsuit after a suit was filed in early September in federal court against Lancaster County Judge Jeffre Cheuvront. He's the judge who was hearing a sexual assault case, where the woman wants to use the words "rape and victim" during her testimony.



Tags: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |