- Go China! You show the world that you can produce dangerous, toxic and often deadly products in a wide range of fields. Already, you’ve conquered the field of hygiene products (toxic toothpaste), toys, human food and pet food, so moving on to something like drywall just makes good sense. Of course, officials in Florida are still looking into claims that Chinese-made drywall installed in some Florida homes is emitting smelly, corrosive gases and ruining household systems such as air conditioners, so that isn’t confirmed just yet. But no worries, as I am confident that once the Florida Health Department investigates whether the drywall poses any health risks, they (and we) will find out that the Chinese have cornered yet another area of the world’s toxic product market. This could be a big one, too; the state of Florida has received more than 140 homeowner complaints and class-action lawsuits allege defective drywall has caused problems in at least two other states -- Louisiana and Alabama -- while some attorneys involved claim such drywall may have been used in tens of thousands of U.S. homes. According to lawsuits filed by homeowners, the drywall has caused them to suffer health problems such as headaches and sore throats and face huge repair expenses. Oh, and because the drywall is alleged to have high levels of sulfur the drywall emits the smell of rotten eggs and corrodes piping and wiring, causing electronics and appliances to fail. “It's economically devastating, and it's emotionally devastating,” said Florida attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez, who filed one of the lawsuits. The problem is so great that fixing it would cost a third of an affected home's value to fix the dwelling, Gonzalez said. Many of the affected homes were built or renovated in 2005 and 2006, following devastating hurricanes plowing into the state, which combined with a nationwide construction boom to create a domestic drywall shortage that led to many builders turning to imported drywall. All of these details are secondary, by the way, because the important thing to remember is that the Chinese quest for world domination - well, at least domination of defective, toxic and faulty products - is rolling on and there appears to be no one who can stop this train………
- Dude, what the frak is wrong with the Pittsburgh City Council? Banning indoor furniture on porches and stoops is a bogus decision, one that shows just how out of touch and heinous these council idiots are. I don’t buy for one second the lies the council used to justify its decision, namely that the couches are a health hazard because they can attract rodents and also that couch burning during celebrations by students at the University of Pittsburgh are a hazard. First, you’re telling me that rodents are coming to Pittsburgh specifically because there are couches on people’s front porches? Those rodents wouldn’t already be in the city anyhow? Oh, and what’s the big deal with burning a couch to celebrate your team’s big win? If you have a problem with people burning couches to celebrate a victory by their favorite team, you’ve got a problem with yourself. People like University of Pittsburgh student Ryan Soncini, who has a couch on his front porch, are going to suffer because of this new law. "I think if it's during games it should be inside, or have them dealt with during like, say, games or something like that," he said. “But just anytime, it doesn't seem reasonable at all.” Fellow Pitt student Jacob Brown concurred with Soncini’s assessment, saying that “City Council is overstepping their bounds” and lamenting the wasting of “our tax dollars on stupid legislation.” Violators will face fines ranging from $200 to $500 a day plus court fees, which gets me to thinking…..could this just be a blatant cash grab by the council? After all, the sorry state of the economy is hitting hard in places like Pittsburgh, so you’re telling me the city council is above enacting some bogus, lame law just to scrounge up a few extra bucks? Should you want to send your threats, complaints, etc. to someone on this matter, Councilman Bruce Kraus would be your guy. He introduced the bill that became law on Tuesday, banning "upholstered furniture manufactured primarily for indoor use" from porches, balconies and non-enclosed areas. Who decides what constitutes indoor furniture, anyhow? Seems rather subjective and no quote my man Jacob Brown, stupid………
- Plenty of heartbreak and hurt on tonight’s Smallville. With Jimmy Olsen finally transferred back to Metropolis General for the final leg of his recovery from being mauled by Doomsday at his own wedding reception, you’d think it would be happy times for Jimmy and his new bride Chloe. However, Jimmy’s return to Metropolis turns bizarre when he wakes up in the middle of the night, hears a commotion in the hall outside and walks out to find a panicked man running from something and pleading with Jimmy to help him. Jimmy brushes the man off as a rambling drunk, but a minute later he sees a dark, hooded figure catch up with the man, put a bag over his head and suffocate him. The figure turns into the light and Jimmy sees something that startles him: it’s Davis Blume. Seeing a paramedic, a man who should be helping people, murder a man is jarring. Jimmy also realizes Chloe and Davis have a relationship, so he’s understandably on edge the next morning when Chloe comes to visit and he must tell her about what he saw. As he’s explaining the night’s events to Chloe, Davis shows up and informs Jimmy that because of the story he’s been telling, Davis has spent the night at the police station being questioned by a homicide detective. Davis insists the man Jimmy saw him with came to the hospital in an ambulance and fled from the nurses in the emergency room, so Davis helped chase him down. He also attributes Jimmy’s story to being high on pain medications, which Chloe seems to buy into even if Jimmy doesn’t. His feelings are further trampled when he sees Chloe and Davis talking in the hall, with Chloe trying to apologize to Davis for Jimmy’s behavior and the two sharing a hug as Jimmy looks on from his room. He decides to get some proof of Davis’ murderous ways, stealing an EMT’s uniform and sneaking onto Davis’ ambulance where he finds the body of the man he saw Davis kill. When Davis finds Jimmy inside the ambulance, he first tries to explain why the man’s death was a good thing - namely that he was a drunk driver who killed a mother and daughter the night before - and then injects Jimmy with some mind-altering drugs that cause an episode in which Jimmy hallucinates a scene of Doomsday attacking Chloe at the hospital and himself trying to save her. In reality, he’s banging on the door to an empty room as nurses, Davis and Chloe look on. Jimmy is humiliated, but again he bounces back and tries to prove who Davis really is. Motivated by the painful memory of seeing his wife hugging another man, he tracks Davis down as he’s out on the streets, looking to administer some more vigilante justice. That’s been Davis’ M.O. of late, especially after a show-opening scene in which he visits a church for confession and admits to the priest that he has a beast inside of him that he’s constantly fighting. The priest urges Davis to overcome evil with good, which Davis clearly takes as a call to administer some hands-on justice. When Jimmy catches up with him, he’s about to confront a burglar. Instead, it’s a steel pipe to the back of the head from Mr. Olsen and handcuffs on either hand, chaining him to a fence. Jimmy is dishing out some punishment of his own, waiting for Chloe to show up after he called her to the scene so she could see who Davis really is. Instead, Chloe sneaks up from behind and administers a Taser blast to her own husband before kneeling down and placing her hand on Davis’ shoulder. He’s just about to morph into Doomsday, having been spurred on by Jimmy’s aggression, but Chloe’s presence calms him down and keeps his true identity from her. However, it may also have been the death blow for Jimmy and Chloe’s marriage, as when she shows up to the hospital the next day to pick Jimmy up as he’s officially discharged, he tells her they have no real home to go to, that marrying her was the worst mistake he ever made and that he doesn’t want her around. Chloe is left in tears as Jimmy storms off, driving away popping pain pills as his estranged wife bawls her eyes out. Oh, I should also probably get to Clark Kent, since he is the show’s main man. CK has been working to estsblish his dual identity as the red/blue blur by night, saving Metropolis and its citizens, and Clark Kent by day. The plan seems to be working, even if Chloe continually cautions Clark about the peril he’s in trying to maintain that balance. Clark’s plans to protect Metropolis take a temporary detour when his boss, Tess Mercer, informs him that he’ll be accompanying her to Los Angeles for a press conference announcing a major corporate expansion for LuthorCorp. What Clark doesn’t know is that the trip is a ruse to try to expose his powers, which Tess is growing increasingly suspicious of. She has the journals Lex Luthor kept about Clark and has seen the room in the Luthor Mansion dedicated to Clark and all his miraculous saves of Lex’s life. Tess and Clark take off in Oliver Queen’s private jet, headed for L.A. and their supposed press conference. With Queen Industries and LuthorCorp now merged, they’re all “one big happy conglomerate,” as Tess puts it. As the flight gets underway, she tries to get Clark to open up at the abilities she suspects he’s hiding, talking about how Lex kept journals about him, envied him and wanted to be like him. Clark tries to fend her off using alcohol, knowing he’s impervious to its effects (another nice benefit of being Superman, can’t get drunk), but Tess proves adept at holding her liquor. She does open up enough to share about her past, telling tales of a drunk abusive father and her dreams of escaping that life and being rescued by her “prince.” But those revelations seem less genuine when Tess tries to follow them up by getting Clark to share his own secrets, a “I showed you mine, now show me yours” ploy. Clark fends off the attempt, but little does he know that the games have only just begun. Tess, having paid off the pilot to bail from the plane and stage a crash, is dead set on exposing Clark’s secret. When the plane hits turbulence and Clark goes to the cockpit, he finds the pilot gone. Tess lies and says that she couldn’t find the parachutes, which she did find but eschewed using because she figured that would force Clark to use his powers to save both of them. Thinking quick, Clark puts an oxygen mask over Tess’ mouth, then chokes off the oxygen flow so Tess will pass out. Once she’s out, he can spring into action. He takes Tess in his arms, jumps out of the plane and they land in the middle of the desert. The story of the crash is front-page news, with Clark and Tess back in Smallville the next day. When Clark visits Tess at the Luthor Mansion, she telling him that she knew she was okay when she woke up in the hospital in New Mexico and saw him standing beside her bed. So CK dodges another bullet, but he’s still working on balancing his red/blue blur life and the rest of his life, no doubt. Tune in next week to see how he keeps up with that challenge…….
- The first two days of the NCAA Tournament are the best days in all of sports, no question. Depending on what you like in your NCAA Tournament action, today was either a pretty ho-hum, business-as-usual day of basketball or a huge disappointment. If you’re someone like me who enjoys upsets and Cinderella stories, today was not your day. The higher seeds won most games and the only lowers seeds to win were teams seeded tenth in their region, not exactly a massive upset. Teams like American University, the No. 14 seed in the East Regional, teased on a big upset but couldn’t deliver. The Eagles led No. 3 seed Villanova by 10 at halftime in what was essentially a home game for the Wildcats at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia and actually held their lead for the first ten minutes of the second half before ‘Nova remembered why they’re the third seed, pulled their heads out of their asses and started making plays and playing with intensity. Their 80-67 win propelled them into the second round, just like the No. 2 seed in the West, the Memphis Tigers. Like Villanova, Memphis struggled mightily with an underdog from a minor conference: Cal-State Northridge. The Tigers trailed much of the game against the Matadors, ultimately pulling out a 10-point win that was as unimpressive as a 10-point win can be. The only real drama for the day came in the evening session, when No. 12 seed Western Kentucky, a fan favorite and trendy upset pick, jumped out to a big lead against fifth-seeded Illinois and hung on to win 76-72, becoming the lowest seed to win on the day. Overall, the excitement was present mainly because it was the first day of the tournament and not because of what happened on the court. Don’t get me wrong, today and tomorrow are still the two best days in sports, but Friday is going to need to carry a lot bigger chunk of the excitement burden this time around…..
- Californians have a reputation for being the following: plastic, fake, superficial, arrogant and environmentally minded. It’s the last of those that the average Californian would probably be most proud of (although I doubt the honest among them would deny the other characterizations), and it’s that tendency to worry about the environment that is at the forefront of a decision made by the city council in Palo Alto. Palo Alto is best known as the home to Stanford University, will also be known as the town that banned plastic bags at their local supermarkets. On Monday night the city council voted 7-1 in favor of a plastic bag ban at grocery store checkout counters, with stores having six months to phase out the bags. The ban on plastic has been under consideration for a year, says Phil Bobel, manager of the city’s environmental compliance division. “The main reason for restricting plastic bags is their persistence in the environment. The bags blow and migrate easily, making proper disposal difficult.” In other words, people are lazy and stupid, they let plastic bags blow away and they end up in places they shouldn’t be. Often, those places are in sectors of certain ecosystems where they greatly impact wildlife, especially marine animals. Seven stores will be affected by the ban, with a few stores in the area ahead of the curve and having used only paper bags for some time now. Some proponents of the new law want the council to consider extending its reach to include retail stores. Props to you for doing something good for the environment, Palo Alto, hopefully other towns will follow suit and help make their impact on the environment a little less………
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