The moron of the year award goes to these Volkswagen drivers who videotaped themselves weaving in and out of traffic and topping 100 MPH.

So my 15 year old niece saw the movie Farenheit 9/11 the other day. My sister says she now has quite an opinion about George Bush after seeing that movie. You see, that's my problem with movies like this. When an entire Movie/Documentary is based on lies & half-truths it is easy to taint someone into your way of thinking. In an article called "fifty-nine deceits" Dave Kopel, who is a Research Director of the Independence Institute and an NRO columnist, calls out many of Michael Moore's lies, half-truths & innuendos in this film. Before you go thinking this is a guy who is a Bush supporter, Kopel endorsed and voted for Ralph Nader in 2000...Just like Michael Moore.

Another good site to check out for the lies in this documentary is Slate. On this site Christopher Hitchens tells us, "To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery."  

Heh...I would have to say no one is going to argua a call with this official ever again....
A South African soccer referee pulled a gun and shot dead a coach who questioned one of his rulings, police said.
Inspector Mali Govender of the Grahamstown police in the Eastern Cape province said a fight broke out after the referee gave a yellow warning card to a player in a local match on Saturday.
"There was an altercation... and the referee became threatened when the other team approached him because they were angry," Govender said. "So he pulled out a gun and killed the coach of the visiting team."
Govender said the coach died on the pitch while the referee fled the scene. Police were confident of making an arrest soon, she added.
South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates with an alarming 47.4 murders per 100,000 people, or eight times the figure for the United States.

Police shot and killed this 12-foot alligator Wednesday after it fatally attacked a Florida landscaper.

So I have to ask, where is the trial for this alligator....perhaps it was taunted...perhaps it didn;t actually do the crime?

The above is an absurd plea..... isn't it? The police were 100% justified in killing this beast who attacked and killed a 54 year old landscaper. If only all U.S. justice could be carried out this swiftly in cases where guilt is not in question. If you are caught in the act of killing/mauling someone or molesting a child....for no reason, justice should be swift and concise.  Just do it. Save everyone the time and money.

New Meaning to the slogan: "Be All You Can Be."
Report: Bigger breasts offered as perk to soldiers
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The U.S. Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be All You Can Be," but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime.
The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills.
"Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible," Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine, which said soldiers needed the approval of their commanding officers to get the time off.
Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said.
The magazine quoted an Army spokeswoman as saying, "the surgeons have to have someone to practice on."

Besides the Humidity, here is another reason NOT to liv ein Florida:
Alligator bites off Florida woman's arm
SANIBEL, Florida (AP) -- A 12-foot alligator attacked a landscaper Wednesday behind an island home, dragging her into a pond before a neighbor and police officers yanked the woman from the animal's jaws.
"It was kind of a tug-of-war," said the neighbor, Jim Anholt.
Part of Janie Melsek's right arm had to be amputated later during six hours of surgery. She also was severely bitten on her buttocks and thighs, but doctors believe she will walk again, her family said. She remained in critical condition.
Melsek, 54, was trimming a tree when the alligator attacked. "The lady was in the pond and the alligator had hold of her and just her face was showing," Anholt told The News-Press of Fort Myers.
He rushed to help, holding Melsek's neck to help keep her head above water, and three Sanibel police officers tried to get her out of the water.
Rescuers struggled for about five minutes to pull her from the pond. When she came free, medical workers began treating her on the shore.
Police shot the alligator in the head, killing it. It took six men to lift the 12-foot, 3-inch animal to shore.
The body was being sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which will perform a necropsy.

VERIZON INTRODUCES NATIONWIDE VOIP BROADBAND SERVICE
New York (July 22, 2004) -- VoiceWing, Verizon's first voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) consumer service, is available nationwide starting today. With VoiceWing, DSL and cable modem users across the United States can take advantage of the latest in voice communications technology. The service is the largest initial commercial offering of residential VoIP service in the United States.
"VoiceWing is a critical part of Verizon's broadband leadership strategy," said Bob Ingalls, president - Retail Markets Group. "It will bring us new broadband and voice customers, and it will give our existing customers new ways to get the most from their broadband connections. With VoiceWing, we are continuing to put the power of broadband to work for our customers."
Because VoiceWing is provided over the Internet, customers can choose a phone number from an extensive list of area codes in 139 markets in 33 states and the District of Columbia; they do not have to live in the area code they select.
VoiceWing provides customers traditional services such as voice mail, caller ID and call waiting, plus advanced features that provide unprecedented control of their communications when they access a special Web page called the Personal Account Manager. With these features customers can:

manage calls and voice mail from their computers or phones,
create logs itemizing all call activity,
schedule call forwarding and call backs for a specific time and day,
use click-to-dial features from their computer, and
access other advanced services. 

The service allows customers to make unlimited local and long-distance calls within the United States and certain territories and to benefit from low per-minute international calling rates.
Verizon Online DSL customers can get VoiceWing for $29.95 per month for the first six months and $34.95 thereafter. Users of other broadband services will get an introductory price of $34.95 per month for the first six months and $39.95 thereafter. Customers must order the service by Oct. 31 to take advantage of the introductory offers.
To find out more about this innovative new service or place an order, go to http://www.verizon.com/voicewing.

Perks, perks & more perks...Here are some funny perks companies offer thier employees. My favorite is the one offered by Smucker's:
A career at Hard Rock Cafe may not be as glamorous as fronting a rock band, but after 10 years of service, Hard Rock employees are awarded a Rolex watch.

Patagonia workers receive $2,000 toward the purchase of a car -- if they buy a hybrid vehicle.

Employees at the Albuquerque law firm of Rodey Dickason Sloan Akin & Robb get $10 to spend on carnival entertainment (or horse races) during the New Mexico state fair.

Computer Associates, Ingram Micro, and other firms have boosted morale by sending their employees to Air Combat USA, where civilians can dogfight in real fighter planes (without the ammo, of course).

Relativity Technologies CEO Vivek Wadhwa offers $1,500 to employees who stop smoking.

Employees at J.M. Smucker's plants in deer country are excused from work on the first day of hunting season.

Ford Motor execs can blow off steam by taking a spin on the test track adjacent to company headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.

Genentech offers an onsite rental library of audio books to ease the pain of the daily San Francisco Bay Area commute.

28 and counting....
Ken Jennings goes for his 29th straight win tonight on Jeopardy (all thought the shows are all ready taped). He is also almost to the 1 million dollar mark. Here's the story for those who have missed it.

A good example of an entertainer using his star to send a hard-hitting point:
Bill Cosby has more harsh words for black community
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Bill Cosby went off on another tirade against the black community Thursday, telling a room full of activists that black children are running around not knowing how to read or write and "going nowhere."

He also had harsh words for struggling black men, telling them: "Stop beating up your women because you can't find a job."

Cosby made headlines in May when he upbraided some poor blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the civil rights movement gave them.

He shot back Thursday, saying his detractors were trying in vain to hide the black community's "dirty laundry."

"Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n------ as they're walking up and down the street," Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference.

"They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."

In his remarks in May at a commemoration of the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision, Cosby denounced some blacks' grammar and said those who commit crimes and wind up behind bars "are not political prisoners."

"I can't even talk the way these people talk, 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is' ... and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said then. "And then I heard the father talk ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

Cosby elaborated Thursday on his previous comments in a talk interrupted several times by applause. He castigated some blacks, saying that they cannot simply blame whites for problems such as teen pregnancy and high school dropout rates.

"For me there is a time ... when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

Cosby lamented that the racial slurs once used by those who lynched blacks are now a favorite expression of black children. And he blamed parents.

"When you put on a record and that record is yelling 'n----- this and n----- that' and you've got your little 6-year-old, 7-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car, those children hear that," he said.

He also condemned black men who missed out on opportunities and are now angry about their lives.

"You've got to stop beating up your women because you can't find a job, because you didn't want to get an education and now you're (earning) minimum wage," Cosby said. "You should have thought more of yourself when you were in high school, when you had an opportunity."

Cosby appeared Thursday with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the education fund, who defended the entertainer's statements.

"Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field," Jackson said. "Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that."

Cosby also said many young people are failing to honor the sacrifices made by those who struggled and died during the civil rights movement.
"Dogs, water hoses that tear the bark off trees, Emmett Till," he said, naming the black youth who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, allegedly for whistling at a white woman.

"And you're going to tell me you're going to drop out of school? You're going to tell me you're going to steal from a store?"

Those of you who watch the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 and have questions about the validity of some (most) of Moore's claims should checkout this website. It does a good job breaking down most of the lies that are spewed in the movie.