Fruitcake.
USA Today reported that Cruise’s popularity decline with women was especially sharp, slipping from a 56 percent favorable rating in 2005 to 35 percent now.
The poll prompted a concerted defense by Cruise’s supporters, who insisted the actor’s popularity and standing as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars was undiminished.
“Tom Cruise is one of the most important stars ever in the motion picture business,” Universal Studios President Ron Meyer, a close friend and former agent, told Reuters. “I don’t know anybody who has had the consistent success rate that Tom has. And nobody should be counting him out.”
Barf.
“Waddle After The Crusader”
(h/t to our buddy Gunslinger for the video)
So is Giza a goner?
A religious ruling condemning the display of statues has angered Egyptian liberals and intellectuals who fear it could encourage religious zealots to attack the country’s pharaonic heritage.
The ruling was issued by the Mufti, the most senior religious scholar in Egypt.
…It was a member of the public who asked the Mufti about Islam’s position on statues.
“This reflects the rising religiosity in Egyptian society,” said Mohamed al-Sayed Said of the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
He says the European models of progress which guided Egyptian society in the 19th and 20th Centuries have now been eclipsed by the rise of religion.
“There’s been really a big retreat to the distant past,” he said.
“What we are having at this point is an increasing gulf between secular and religious cultures.”
Right now they’re worried about fanatics trying to disfigure, deface and destroy the the treasures on their own, but the alternative is terrifying.
“Egypt’s future will not be determined by religious or cultural factors. But if the country continues to fail economically and politically, political Islam will become the prevalent ideology,” said Mr Said.
“But I’m inclined to think that we still have a chance to evade the prospects of an Islamist takeover if we achieve better in the economy and certainly in relation to political and civic liberties.”
“We still have a chance”. How awful is that?
And “But they’ve been here since the time of the Pharoahs!” doesn’t carry any weight, either. Just ask the ancient Buddhas Mullah Omar and his hairy henchmen leveled.
A warm Swill Salute to All Things Conservative.
…in another fondly remembered snake pit.
96 Somalis die as Islamic, secular gangs battle
Sides fight for control of capital; Muslim group might have al-Qaida ties
…Most of the victims were civilians caught in the crossfire.
Of course they were. Spray and slay boys never hit jack that they mean to.
UPDATE: Speaking of snake pits that just never seem to go away, things will be turning ugly in short order, I fear.
Israeli fuel firm halts Palestinian gas supply
Palestinian gas stations began shutting down and motorists lined up at pumps after an Israeli fuel company cut off deliveries Wednesday, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has followed Hamas’ rise to power.
…Dor Energy, the Israeli company that has been the sole fuel provider to the Palestinians since interim peace agreements were signed in the mid-1990s, cited growing debts for its decision, Palestinian officials said. Dor officials declined comment, but the company had threatened to cut off supplies twice before this year — only to be paid at the last minute by the Palestinians.
It’ll be a good deal harder to put together a Molotov cocktail.
Allan Bense is not running for the U.S. Senate.
The popular speaker of the Florida House wants to spend more time with his family and pursue business interests instead.
Republicans from Tallahassee to Washington had been looking on Bense as a potential rescuer in their quest to unseat Democrat Bill Nelson. The news ricocheted through both capitals Wednesday morning.
“He would have made an excellent U.S. senator,” said former Florida Republican Party chairman Al Cardenas, among those who had staked their hopes on Bense. “This was strictly a personal call, since the opportunity to run for the U.S. Senate comes, at best, once in a lifetime.”
I would hold that statement true for Katharine Harris, as she’s squandered what ever good will/name value she had in an ill-advised political move on her part to begin with. I think Bense knows that and the face of the campaign against Bill Nelson was now always going to be Harris’s, even if he ran. Wasn’t worth him running damage control for issues over which he had no control. Nope. Better to sit back, let her continue to implode against a very charismatic, popular U.S.Senator ~ an astronaut, for God’s sake ~ and take his shot when he can start out fresh. On his own.
I know I do. Walmart v. Kelo, in a delightful episode of “reversal of fortune“.
The Hercules City Council will consider whether to use eminent domain to wrest a 17-acre property from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. after the nation’s largest retailer rejected a city offer to buy the site with views of San Pablo Bay, city officials said Thursday.
…Wal-Mart bought the property overlooking central Hercules in November after another developer received city approvals for a neighborhood shopping center.
In February, city planners recommended denying Wal-Mart’s proposal for a big-box store on its property, saying the plan was not in keeping with what had been approved for the location, which commands a view of one of the Bay Area’s most vaunted New Urbanist communities, with pedestrian-oriented streets and large open-space set-asides, as well as sweeping views of the bay.
I live vicariously through this…
Read more »
Okay, okay, I’ll stop after this, but I thought these were too funny:
Geometrical T. Pythagorean
Tarnishing V. Blowguns
Thrush U. Covetously
We got answers.
Celebrate 25 Years.
Huzzah!
…putting their hand out.
Hamas signaled on Wednesday it still had problems accepting Western demands to recognize Israel and renounce violence, hours after international peace brokers agreed to temporarily send direct aid to the Palestinians.
…The so-called Quartet of international mediators — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — decided on Tuesday to send direct aid for a three-month trial period but the method of payment still had to be sorted out.
…”The Quartet have conditions. They aim to push the Palestinian government to make concessions that harm (Palestinian) rights and red lines and give the (Israeli) occupation legitimacy,” [Prime Minister] Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the dole line.
A tail section from a U.S. Navy fighter jet that crashed 3 1/2 years ago off Key West, Fla., has turned up 4,900 miles away on a beach in Ireland.
A retired commercial airline captain, identified by the Irish Examiner newspaper as Charlie Coughlan, discovered the tail piece Friday. The Navy confirmed Tuesday that markings on the section, including squadron insignia and a serial number, pointed to the downed F-14 Tomcat.
Currents from the Gulf of Mexico near the tip of Florida might have floated the nearly 10-foot-long triangular piece of vertical stabilizer, one of two on the plane, to the beach in West Cork on Ireland’s southern shore.
Shades of thousands of Nike sneakers blazing a path across the Pacific, huh?
Trying to understand the concept of this:
…with “Scrubs” on and tornado warnings going off.
I’ve read the damn paragraph eight times and still have no clue.
The CBS EVENING NEWS WITH BOB SCHIEFFER finished the week of May 1 only 310,000 viewers behind ABC’s “World News Tonight,” narrowing the gap with ABC by 1.64 million viewers and with NBC’s “Nightly News” by 1.03 million viewers compared to the same week last year.
And for who? They’ve gone mad, MAD I tell you! See my post on the New Coke McDonald’s for more on the “younger/hipper” syndrome that causes these calamitous tangents.
…since the 60’s, hasn’t it?
Then.
Now.
Bridezilla gonna need her a new gig.
JONES GETTING ‘ VIEW’ VAMOOSE
STAR Jones Reynolds has been told to hitch up her hefty wagonload of freebies and waddle off into the sunset, sources say.
And oh yeah I got a personal beef with this side o’ beef. She was down here stumping and stomping for Kerry (Strike 1), sashayed into our local primo dining spot before it opened (celebrity privilege…) and made off with ALL (ALL !!!) the macaroni and bleu cheese crocks (Strike Two). “For her entourage”, she said. (Who you shucking, sister? We KNOW who they were all for.) Consequently, when th sister and major dad get there for a special dinner an hour later ~ as the doors open, mind you ~ and ths says “macaroni, please” with childlike anticipation…she is crushed like a bug. (Strike OUT.)
Oh yeah, I’m a grudge carrying fool. I suggest she checks in with MONSTER.com.
…or “sugarcane”. Jim Jubak offers an out of the box, four point plan for easing the energy crisis.
Raise gasoline prices to $4 a gallon
To discourage demand for gasoline, slap enough federal taxes on gasoline to raise the price to $4 a gallon. It sure looks like $3 gas isn’t enough to produce a very big change in consumers’ behavior. Sales of older-model SUVs have indeed plunged, but that seems to have more to do with the age of the design than with the price of gas. Sales of General Motors’ (GM, news, msgs) new Tahoe SUV, on the other hand, climbed nearly 35% in April; sales of the GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade jumped 36% and 127%, respectively.
Average daily demand for gasoline for April was 9.127 million gallons, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That’s roughly the same as the 9.125 million gallons used in April 2005. Holding demand steady when the economy is growing at better than 4% isn’t nothing, but it’s not enough. Looking at the sensitivity of demand for gasoline to its price, many economists see $4 a gallon as the point at which higher prices really begin to bite.
Neat read. AND he’s looking for more ideas.
…that just keep coming.
Duke accuser initially said 20 men raped her
Police thought woman was ‘not credible,’ leading school to move slowly
Duke’s response to rape allegations involving members of the men’s lacrosse team was too slow and relied too heavily on secondhand information, a report commissioned by the university has found.
That included assertions by Durham police that the accuser “kept changing her story and was not credible,” the report released Monday said. Relying on such opinion, the report said, was a mistake.
The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman claimed she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that “this will blow over,” the report said. The woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three, the report said.
In the school’s defense, if relying on the police report was a “mistake”, what is one supposed to rely on? So let’s recap. First it’s 20. Then it’s 3. None of which is mentioned initially as the convenience store security guard and then police officers, attempt to rouse the accuser (I’m gonna lay off the “victim” label.) snockered in a parked vehicle. Of all the mug shots in all the city, the only ones the prosecuter could poop for a line-up happen to be…ALL the white members of the lacrosse team. And the two wealthiest kids get tagged as perps (Addresses and pictures of their homes along with Mom and Dad’s net worth released to Newsweek, if anyone’s interested in that aspect of ‘innocent ’til proven guilty’.) Not a spot of DNA anywhere, which makes sense as one of the accused has reams of paperwork and a (black!) witness to prove he wasn’t there at the time (and who now seems to be responding to pressure from the community:”Mostafa, cited as an alibi witness for the accused lacrosse players, told Time magazine that he didn’t want to be seen “on the side of the defense only. I want to look like I’m an honest person.” “) The other female at the scene first said nothing happened but has since regained memories of being aware of something amiss and firmly supports the story of the accuser. Of course, the favorable intervention of the DA in a separate court case had no bearing on the miraculous retuning of her recollections. A milagro, indeed.
All of this without even questioning the accuser’s veracity, lifestyle, mental stability or previously filed complaints for the same thing. You don’t have to. It stinks like a five day old mullet on it’s own.
…is also having a rough day. The headline:
Judge Withholds $5M Award for LAPD Officers
And the story:
A federal judge refused Monday to overturn awards of $5 million each to three police officers who claimed the city of Los Angeles made them scapegoats for a corruption scandal.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney upheld a February jury decision. Carney also said he would not grant a new trial, finding there was enough evidence for the jury’s conclusion that the LAPD “ruined the lives of three highly skilled” policemen and the department “had no probable cause” to arrest the men.
So I’m thinking he meant to say UPholds? Schmaybe?
…Geronimo?
A Yale University historian has uncovered a 1918 letter that seems to lend validity to the lore that Yale University’s ultra-secret Skull and Bones society swiped the skull of American Indian leader Geronimo.
The letter, written by one member of Skull and Bones to another, purports that the skull and some of the Indian leader’s remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to a stone tomb in New Haven that serves as the club’s headquarters.
According to Skull and Bones legend, members – including President Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush – dug up Geronimo’s grave when a group of Army volunteers from Yale were stationed at the fort during World War I. Geronimo died in 1909.
“The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club… is now safe inside the (Tomb) together with his well worn femurs, bit & saddle horn,” according to the letter, written by Winter Mead.
If it is him, at least he’s inside somewhere warm. The amazing thing to me is the article itself. It must have been written by a Bushie, because nowhere does it scream…
“the SECRET rich boy, Ivy League society that PRESIDENT BUSH is a member of!!!!”
Talks about his grampa Prescott making off with the skull and an abbreviated members list, including a certain Senator John “You Don’t Know Jefferson” Kerry, President Taft, etc. But no “W” cheap shot. How weird is that? Must be an off day.
I’m doing a screen shot just in case someone realizes they f*cked up.
Talk about gasbags!
…Tax increases on the Orinoco projects had been rumoured, but the speed with which they look set to be implemented mirrors the suddenness with which Bolivia last week announced the nationalisation of its natural gas fields.
President Hugo Chávez, who has offered full backing to Bolivian President Evo Morales for his nationalisation plans, announced only last Sunday he wanted to increase income tax on the Orinoco projects from 34 per cent to 50 per cent, and double the royalty rate from 16.7 per cent to 33.3 per cent.
Mr Chávez enjoys practically full and unalloyed support in the legislature, or National Assembly, and the measure’s prompt approval is virtually guaranteed.
The multinationals working in the belt don’t play, Hugo no pay. In fact, he might just call the game off…
Humberto Calderón Berti, a former energy minister, warned that Venezuela might also seek conversion of the Orinoco projects into state-majority joint ventures.
…to gauge how the wind blows ~ dip your toe in the Big Muddy, so to speak ~ float the thought.
“From a pure business model, if I was just a cold-hearted businessman the decision would be pretty easy but I’ve got to make the decision based on my head and my heart. I really do. I think it’s very important to use good judgment. And if the state’s willing to protect us, make sure we don’t get hit hard, I’ll ride it out.”
However, Shinn said he doesn’t think that Louisiana should offer to write the Hornets a check to ensure their financial success.
He’s talking about how he’d say yes, like, if Louisiana wants to bail out his sucky basketball team.
“I don’t think they should do that because to me there are more important things to get done than having a basketball team. I think they’ve got to get the families back first and then worry about a basketball team,” Shinn said. “That’s my opinion, but I’m not one of the politicians in Louisiana.”
Oh, but you as smooth as any of ’em, cher.
Plastic toilet seat bolts. They never stay snug. Forget to keep them tightened and one absent-minded second later? You’re on the floor or in the tub.
…to explain stereotypes to those of you who live and die by them.
…”I hope it causes people to pause, and question stereotypes.”
The two are working on a series of short films for the site designed to do just that.
In one, a Hispanic man is mowing the lawn of a giant home in an affluent neighborhood. A blonde pulls up in a BMW and asks the man how much he charges to landscape the home.
He replies, “Why would I charge to landscape my own yard?” An on-screen message appears: “I am an American.”
You should be ashamed of yourselves. Group hug, group hug.
Now, go be better people…
…is GREAT news!!
Trapped Australian miners freed
Two men had been buried in Australian mine for two weeks
Woo hoo and hurray!
…need apply.
Iran says no to girly sportsmen
Iran’s hardline Islamic regime has had enough of footballers with long hair and plucked eyebrows.
“I will ban athletes with an effeminate look,” the head of the country’s Physical Education Organisation, Mohammad Ali-Abadi said…
Oh, well, poop. That’s just so wrong.
UPDATE: AND NO GIRLS watching girly men! Ya got that? Are we clear here?
Iranian women barred from soccer games
Supreme leader Ayatollah overrules president’s earlier decision
UPDATE, Part DEUX: The research keeps pouring in. I’m beginning to extrapolate that only girly men play soccer…
Bush says he’s learning fast about World Cup
‘A lot of us grew up without any connection to soccer — me, for example’
Where’s Margaret Meade when you need her?
People | Mr. Bingley | 
May 11, 2006 8:37 am | 
Comments (9) 
Subscribe