- All hail the rapid descent of Pacman Jones, from star NFL player to rain maker in strip clubs to professional wrassler to out of the NFL and starring in reality television. Of course, you’d better not blink or you may miss this latest rung in Jones’ ever-spiraling career trajectory. In just his first week as a "Pro" taping the "Pros Vs. Joes" show, "Pacman" showed that he still doesn’t get it - it being what he needs to do to become a semi-functioning, non-criminal member of society. With L.A. sports writer Sam Farmer visiting the set, Pacman showed he can be a thug anywhere, any time. He was taking part in a competition with contestant Dan Adams, a former Holy Cross linebacker, a competition in which Jones was running with the football and Adams was supposed to put a hit on his opponent, which he did. Adams crashed into Jones near the goal line, jarring the ball loose and exacting some revenge from all the trash that Pacman had apparently been talking. Clearly Pacman didn’t enjoy the payback, as he confronted Adams and began throwing punches. Being a former athlete and also someone who valued not having his face smashed in, Adams returned fire and the two men had to be separated. "He hit me 10 yards out of bounds, kind of a cheap shot," Adams said. "I couldn't sit there and not retaliate. You've got to have some pride and dignity." You might need pride and dignity, my man, but Pacman Jones obviously needs neither. If he did, he wouldn’t have spent his entire football career from college onward spitting on and assaulting women, instigating incidents that led to people being shot and paralyzed and refusing to follow even the most basic rules of conduct to keep himself employed in the NFL. He also would not be rolling up to the set of a second-rate reality show with a crew of “thugs who were scarier than him,” which is how witnesses described Jones and his crew on the set. Not exactly smart behavior for a guy who was cut by the Dallas Cowboys for being a certified piece of crap and has yet to draw any substantial interest from any other teams all off-season long. Something tells me that this latest incident isn’t going to suddenly inspire any teams to start up negotiations with Pacman and his agent…..
- Bands aren’t the only ones hitting the road for a tour this spring and summer. No, an even bigger star will be taking to the tour circuit - the Pope. Yes, the world’s most famous religious face will be taking a vacation from the Vatican to visit Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories May 8-15. Pope Benedict XVI announced the trip yesterday, stunning some who thought he might be saving his travel time for a headlining gig at Bonnaroo or Lollapalooza this summer…..just kidding, papal fans. Truth is, this Middle East venture has been confirmed since last month, but the pontiff didn’t announce the dates until Sunday. It will be the first papal visit to some of Christianity's most holy places since the late Pope John Paul II made the trip back in 2000. Of course, these countries don’t offer quite the same fan base for the pope as say, Lollapalooza might, but the merch sales at tour stops in Gaza are….again, kidding. Israel, for one, is pumped that the pope will be visiting them, with Israeli President Shimon Peres saying he was "delighted" the pope was coming. "The pope will be a most honored guest, welcomed and respected by people from all walks of life. His visit will be a moving and important event bringing the spirit of peace and hope," Peres said in a statement. One interesting moment on the trip is sure to be the pope’s expected visit to the West Bank, which is obviously one of the most violent and dangerous places in the world on a daily basis. Not saying any right-wing militants or radical groups are going to take a shot at the pope, but with these homicidal (and often suicidal) whack jobs, you just never know. So here’s to a safe trip (and good merch sales) for you, Pope Benedict XVI, as you take the Middle East by storm in the Papal Power Tour 2009………
- Jack Bauer sure doesn’t take long to turn the tables when the bad guys capture the president on 24, does he? Last week’s episode ended with Gen. Benjamin Juma of the renegade African nation of Sangala forcing President Allison Taylor out of her safe room in the White Houser by threatening to kill her daughter. A backhanded slap to Taylor was followed by an order to read a prepared statement in front of a camera broadcasting worldwide via streaming online video, with the statement denouncing the president’s decision earlier in the day to send American forces into Sangala. While President Taylor tries to negotiate the release of all hostages in exchange for reading the statement (which results in Juma shooting one hostage right in the head), Jack turns to Bill Buchanan and explains that he opened several canisters of explosive gas inside the safe room before exiting and one small spark will set off a huge explosion to distract Juma’s men, take some of them out and allow Bill to secure the president and escape. Jack intends to draw fire from Juma’s men by making a dash for the safe room, thus setting off the explosion if even one stray bullet hits the room. Instead, Bill steps in and makes the run to the safe room, which does indeed draw fire and set off the explosion. The resulting fireball knocks the rebels’ pirate video broadcast off the air, much to the relief of FBI personnel, the Vice President Mitchell Hansen and other members of the government who have been watching in horror as their leader was paraded in front of the camera and forced to read Juma’s message to the world. The explosion sets off total chaos, with Agent Larry Moss using it as justification for finally launching his strike on Juma’s men inside the White House that the VP wouldn’t authorize. The FBI storms the building, the president is taken into custody safely and all of the hostages are also rescued. Juma’s men all die, including the general himself at the hands of none other than Jack. Also, former Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce, on hand as a favor to Bill, helps shield the president and her daughter Olivia from gunfire, taking a bullet to the shoulder but getting both women through the line of fire. In the aftermath of the explosion, a devastated Jack sees Bill’s lifeless body and sits on the floor beside it in disbelief. Agent Renee Walker of the FBI spots Jack and so does Larry Moss, but Larry isn’t in a forgiving or thankful mood for what Jack has done. He orders Jack taken back into federal custody, just as he was prior to Juma’s invasion. It doesn’t matter that Jack tells Larry that Bill heard Juma talking to someone on a satellite phone during the crisis and that Bill and Jack both believe the person on the other end of the line is part of the conspiracy, meaning the president is still in danger. Jack pleads with Larry to be allowed to interrogate Ryan Burnett, chief of staff for Sen. Blaine Meyer and a known member of Juma’s conspiracy. He believes that based on his prior brutal interrogation of Burnett in the White House, he can get information from Burnett about who the man on the other end of Juma’s phone call was. Larry rejects Jack’s proposal, ordering him back to federal lockup. Renee decides to make an end-around, going to see the president for her intervention on Jack’s behalf. Instead, she’s met by the president’s chief advisor, Ethan Kanan. He hears her out, agrees with her assessment of the situation and authorizes Jack’s interrogation of Burnett so the president can have plausible deniability if the interrogation goes wrong. Larry takes the news that he’s been overruled by Kanan poorly, telling Renee to return to FBI headquarters to turn in her badge and go on indefinite suspension while he goes to the hospital with Jack to interrogate Burnett. A tense helicopter ride lands the unlikely duo at the hospital, where Jack and Larry must convince Burnett’s doctor to allow the interrogation. Jack is allowed in the room, placing him face to face with a terrified Burnett, who is about to crack and give up the information when things take a twist. Jonas Hodges, the uber-bad guy for the season and the one who was on the other end of the phone call with Juma, has discovered Jack is at the hospital to talk to Burnett and realizes that Burnett will crack and give up the information that will implicate everyone else in the conspiracy, including Hodges himself. So Hodges and his minions dispatch Quentin, a professional assassin, to the hospital to silence Burnett and take out Jack. Quentin sneaks in as an orderly, snakes his way through the ventilation system and manages to cut off the audio and video surveillance the FBI has set up to monitor Burnett’s room during the interrogation. Quentin then drops a neurotoxin into the room, incapacitating Jack and allowing him to kill Burnett by driving a sharp shard of glass broken off of a cabinet door into his heart. When the video loop (a la Speed) showing Jack interrogating Burnett stops and Larry sees the real image of the room at the moment - Burnett dead - he and his agents bust into the room to stop Jack, whom they believe has killed Burnett. By this time, Quentin has escaped, Jack has recovered from the neurotoxin and also fled and Burnett is the only one of the three left in the room. Larry immediately assumes Jack killed Burnett and puts out an APB for his arrest. Within moments, Jack calls Larry’s cell phone and informs him of what really happened and why he was left alive - to be set up for the murder. However, Larry counters that if it’s true, Jack should turn himself in so things can be sorted out. Jack replies that he can’t and flees to premises, headed for who knows where. Back at the White House, President Taylor tries to piece things together after the crisis and starts by mending fences with her daughter. Both women apologize for allowing their relationship to deteriorate, leading the president to tell Kanan she wants to add her daughter as a member of the administration in an advisory capacity. Kanan reminds the president that her daughter nearly ruined her campaign by leaking sordid information about her opponent’s past, but President Taylor refuses to be swayed. She directs Kanan to make the job offer to Olivia, an offer that is immediately accepted - with a bite. Olivia agrees to join her mother’s staff, then immediately snaps at Kanan that he has failed the president by not discovering the conspiracy. She adds that she’s going to find the people who let her mother down and make sure they never have a chance to repeat their mistake. The last story told in this episode is when we see Hodges in his office, talking with one of his staffers about the shipment they were expecting from Gen. Juma as payment for their help in his attack on the White House. The shipment is of weapons, which Hodges plans to use on multiple targets all along the eastern seaboard to inflict major civilian casualties. What are the weapons and why is he using them on Americans? Not sure, but Hodges does appear to have a personal vendetta against President Taylor, because when he learned she had survived Juma’s attack, he disdainfully called her a “tough bitch.” So the episode came to an end with Jack a wanted man on the run, Hodges lining up targets for his mysterious attack and the president trying to recover from crisis. Should make for an interesting episode next week…….
- Think the (unjustified) American invasion of Iraq more than six years ago has been great for Iraqis? Think again. Among the disastrous and deadly consequences of our invasion, the chaotic political picture in the country has also apparently created quite the market for prostitution. This is a world where mothers are actively looking to pimp out there own daughters and do so before they reach the age of 20, which is actually considered too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000. Nothing like selling your own daughter as a sex slave, eh? While I understand that these mothers are impoverished and struggling just to survive, selling your own daughter is still horrific. “The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in cattle," says Hinda, an undercover human rights activist says. "I've seen mothers haggle with agents over the price of their daughters.” Yes, oyu really did read that last sentence. These mothers are working their end of sex slave trading routs which run both locally and internationally, with Syria, Jordan and the Gulf the primary destinations. They send their daughters off to be trafficked illegally on forged passports, or "legally" through forced marriages. The force marriages are preferred because a married female, even one as young as 14, raises few suspicions if she's traveling with her "husband." But perhaps the best part of the whole scheme is that once they arrive in their new home, the girls are then divorced upon arrival and put to work. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), there are no official numbers on just how many Iraqi girls and women have been sold into sexual slavery since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 because slave traders just aren’t the type of responsible businessmen to keep official logs. It’s definitely a problem and one that the U.S. State Department says the Iraqi government is doing next to nothing to combat. Baghdad "offers no protection services to victims of trafficking, reported no efforts to prevent trafficking in persons and does not acknowledge trafficking to be a problem in the country,” a report from the State Department claims. From a country that was once viewed as extremely progressive in is societal views and norms, that sort of inactivity in the face of serious human rights crimes is a significant regression. To date, the government has not prosecuted any traffickers and has also prevented human rights groups from visiting women’s prisons where victims of sexual slavery crimes have previously been identified. So next time you W.-supporting sycophants try arguing about the positive ramiprecussions of invading Iraq, think again……..
- David de Rothschild: visionary adventurer or mentally unhinged whack job? I’m saying both. There’s really no other way to describe a man who collected thousands of empty plastic bottles, lashed them together to make a boat and now plans to sail the plastic vessel from California to Australia, a journey of 11,000 miles through dangerous waters. So why is de Rothschild making such a dangerous voyage in such an experimental vessel? Well, aside from the thrill of the ride, De Rothschild hopes his one-of-a-kind boat will boost recycling of plastic bottles, which he views as a symbol of global waste. Every part of his ship, except for the masts (made of metal) is made from recycled plastic. The 60-foot catamaran is still in the final stages of construction, so it’s not seaworthy just yet. "It's all sail power," he said. "The idea is to put no kind of pollution back into the atmosphere, or into our oceans for that matter, so everything on the boat will be composted. Everything will be recycled. Even the vessel is going to end up being recycled when we finish."
De Rothschild hopes to set sail from San Francisco in April. The boat is called the Plastiki in tribute to Thor Heyerdahl, the famed Norwegian explorer who in 1947 sailed 4,300 miles across the Pacific on the Kon-Tiki, a raft made from balsa wood. All of this makes more sense if you realize that De Rothschild is the prototypical rich-kid-turned-adventurer, an adrenaline junkie who comes from a wealthy British banking family and bounces around the globe on one extreme adventure after another. He’s one of only several dozen people to traverse both the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. He’s also an environmental activist, having founded Adventure Ecology, an organization that uses field expeditions to call attention to environmental issues, in 2005. On the Plastiki, de Rothschild will have a permanent crew of three sailors and scientists plus a handful of other crew members who will rotate on and off during the voyage. Along the way, de Rothschild plans to stop in Hawaii, Tuvalu and Fiji. He projects more than 100 days to reach Sydney, more than three months on the open sea in a vessel of plastic. If you’re in the Bay Area and want to see this project come together, the boat is receiving its finishing touches in an old pier building not far from this city's famous Fisherman's Wharf. The process of building the boat involves removing the labels from thousands of two-liter soda bottles, washing them out, filling them with dry-ice powder and then resealing them. For you physics enthusiasts out there (a surprisingly large demographic among my readers and quite the party animals), the dry ice sublimates into carbon dioxide gas and pressurizes the bottle, making it rigid and thus solid enough to be part of a ship. To build the boat’s two hulls, it will take somewhere between 12,000 and 16,000 bottles. Covering those bottles will be panels from recycled PET, a woven plastic fabric. De Rothschild and his crew will be able to sleep in a watertight cabin with enough room for four people. Powering the whole affair will be two wind turbines and a collection of solar panels, all of which will charge a bank of 12-volt batteries. That power will then run several onboard laptop computers, a GPS and SAT phone. Hats off to de Rothschild for sure, because he’s doing something big, dreaming big and working for a great cause in the process. Here’s hoping he inspires others to follow his lead, even if they can only afford to do so on a smaller scale…….
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