- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Today’s edition takes us to a familiar location in the form of Bangkok, Thailand. We’ve journeyed there multiple times the past few months because of those wacky, zany anti-government groups who just won't rest until Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resigns. They’ve blocked roads, shut down airports and occupied government buildings. That said, their actions this weekend may have well been their most impressive to date. Yesterday, demonstrators stormed a hotel in Bangkok where Asian leaders were to meet, forcing the indefinite postponement of the Association of South East Asian Nations summit. Things got so bad that participating Asian leaders fled the country with no definite return date. Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Chonburi province and the southern coastal city of Pattaya, where the summit was to be held. Those who are responsible for this great protest are thousands of "red shirt" protesters who have rallied for days to demand Abhisit's resignation. Their trademark red shirts may have given the group its nickname, but it’s their amazing rioting spirit that they should be most known for. These people were absolutely awesome, flooding the summit site after smashing through the hotel's glass doors, streaming in by the hundreds. The red shirts continue to give the prime minister deadlines to resign, but those have come and gone. Unfortunately, not everyone grasps the awesomeness of this display of social dissidence quite like I do. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was disappointed by the summit's delay. “I understand the circumstances that led the Thai government to take this difficult decision. While I had hoped to have exchanges with the leaders of ASEAN and its dialogue partners, I continue to look forward to engaging again with them in the near future," Ban said. “I strongly value the long-standing relationship between ASEAN and the United Nations, and their cooperation in various fields. I hope for an early restoration of normalcy in Thailand and for the settlement of differences through dialogue and peaceful means.” No, I don’t think so. But thanks for suggesting dialogue and peaceful means, that was a cute suggestion. Clearly Vejjajiva doesn’t get how outraged his people are and he’s not going to do the right thing and step aside because of “peaceful means.” In other words, the red shirts need to keep up the rioting. So riot on, red shirts, riot on……
- Richard Jenkins, you are un-freaking-stoppable. Already in possession of the world land sailing speed record, this thrill-seeking Brit is now planning to better his speed -- on ice. Using just wind power, Jenkins drove his vehicle, the Greenbird, to 202 km/hour (126 miles/hour) in March on the dry Lake Ivanpah near the border of California and Nevada. Greenbird is a carbon fiber composite craft, described by its makers as "part airplane, part sailboat and part Formula One car. The craft uses solid sails to harness the power of the wind, weighs in at 1,322 pounds and is able to travel up to four or five times greater than the speed of the wind. Amazingly, the only metal in the structure is in the wing bearings and the wheel. Jenkins even has a sponsor for the vehicle - UK-based green electricity company Ecotricity. The way the Greenbird works is by using the flow of air over its vertical sail to push it forward, then transferring the side force of wind into downward energy to keep it from taking off -- a similar concept to that used in Formula One race cars. Jenkins used Greenbird to break the previous speed record set by American Bob Schumacher in 1999. Schumacher drove he described as a "boat" called the "Iron Duck," and managed 116 miles per hour. According to Jenkins, he’s been working toward the record basically ever since 1999. “We had been working on this for a long time. It started when I was at university...so it was great to finally achieve the record,” he declared. The main challenges along the way were bad weather and finding a sponsor. So what’s next for Jenkins now that he has achieved his goal? He plans to return to work on his Greenbird ice sailing craft -- which he feels has the potential to be even quicker than the Greenbird land racer. Sounds like another huge challenge, but I’m not betting against this guy………
- Wanna know just how much of a scumbag you are if you engage in any sort of domestic abuse? Even a vicious pit bull, renowned for its dangerous demeanor and propensity for harming and even killing humans, will jump in to stop you from beating on your woman. Steven Schumacher of Holland, Mich. is one such scumbag. Witnesses say he beat and dragged his wife across the street, attempting to get her into his vehicle. Schumacher did all of this in the middle of the day, right where the neighborhood could see it. Unfortunately for Schumacher, the neighborhood includes Blitz, a two-year-old pit bull weighing in all well over one hundred pounds. Blitz saw this scene unfolding from the window of his home after hearing screams close to 11:00p.m. Wednesday. The dog was so enraged the he literally knocked his owner down to get out the front door. "He about knocked me out of the door to get to them. I heard her screaming, 'help me', repeatedly and I came out my front door and my dog spilled past me and went and scared him a little bit," Blitz’s owner said. The sight of an angry pit bull barreling at him scared Schumacher enough that he loosed his grip on his wife and she was able to escape inside Blitz’s home and call police. As for Schumacher….let’s just say he didn’t make it difficult for police to find and arrest him when they arrived. “He was still in the area, I believe in the front yard of the residence," says Captain Rick Walters of the Holland Police Department. “He was taken into custody without incident.” What’s truly scary is that police found a knife in Schumacher's pocket, although they do not think it was used during the attack. All in all, a really bad situation that could have ended up even worse if not for the heroic actions of a dog that most people would be deathly afraid to even be within 50 feet of………
- You are a wacky fascist dictator, Evo Morales. The Bolivian president isn’t shy about lording his power over the Bolivian people or acting like a petulant two-year-old when he feels slighted. So it really wasn’t a huge surprise when Morales vowed Friday to continue his hunger strike, initiated Thursday at the presidential palace, until the opposition-led Senate sets a date for general elections that are expected to give him another five-year term. Rather than set a date for the election, opposition members walked out of the Congress in mid-session late Thursday. The opposition-controlled Senate has yet to pass a law setting a December date for the elections as called for within 60 days of the passage of a constitutional reform in January. That prompted Morales to take up residence on an improvised bed on the floor of the Government House where he says he plans “to continue the hunger strike. I feel that the opposition that does not understand the desire of the people is unfeeling.” I think they do understand the desire, E. They understand the desire to get rid of your candy a** and get someone new in office. This isn’t the first time my man Evo has carried out a hunger strike for political reasons; in 2002, he carried out an 18-day hunger strike after being expelled from Congress. I do have to give him props for playing the “politicians only care about money, not people” card, which Morales managed to do by declaring that the action reminded him of members of Congress in other times -- who thought only of "how much money they were going to get before thinking of the people.” Oh, and this is just a thought for E. Morales, but if you’re looking for the appropriate means to protest something and want to choose a hunger strike, maybe you want to consider that fact that you are FAT and could lose a solid 40-50 pounds before making your choice. Seeing a FAT guy losing weight doesn’t exactly engender loads of sympathy, just a thought…..
- Would you like to talk to the latest flavor of the month for hip-pop (what I call watered-down hip-hop to appeal to the masses)? If so, Flo Rida wants you to call him. In an unusual (and ill-advised) attempt to reach his fan base on a more intimate level, the Floridian rapper has made his personal cell phone number public. “If they can go out and buy my albums, I can at least make the sacrifice to holler at the few people who call,” he says. "A lot of times I'm busy so they'll get my voice mail. And if I can speak to them and I have time, I always text back. Because I think that's very important.” Ironically, Flo Rida (real name Tramar Dillard) says that many fans who call his iPhone hang up because they don’t believe it’s really him. Nonetheless, he has a steady influx of texts and calls. "Yo this is your boy Flo Rida," he said to one caller. "What's your name? What's good?" You may wonder how many of the calls and texts he actually responds to. “About 30 percent," he says. I’m not a huge fan of the guy’s music, but clearly his act is resonating well with fans and his music is selling well as a result. His single, "Low," featuring T-Pain, broke digital sales records last year, selling 467,000 downloads in its first week. He’s topped his own record with his new single "Right Round," which sold more than 636,000 downloads in the week after its release and hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart. If the name or song ring a bell, it samples heavily from the Dead or Alive hit "You Spin me Round (Like a Record)." The song features singer Kesha and can be found on Flo Rida's sophomore album, "R.O.O.T.S." (Atlantic), which dropped last week. Of course, with everything I’ve just said about what a solid guy Dillard seems to be, he’s about to become totally odious to me by committing the most egregious sin any musician can ever commit: being a guest on American Karaoke this coming Wednesday. I may have to make use of that phone number he’s giving out to call him up and tell him what he’s doing to his musical credibility with the appearance, maybe I can save him from a huge mistake……
No comments:
Post a Comment