- Increasingly warm relations between the United States and Cuba are one of those things that you truly need to see happen before you can buy in. Yet as talks about issues such as mail travel and communication between the two nations begin to heat up, the Obama administration and the Cuban government actually seem to be serious about all of this. Talks on migration between the two countries resumed Tuesday in New York after being suspended in 2003 during the W. administration. It took Obama all of four months in office to offer to renew discussions. Yesterday, talks were held to begin addressing issues related to the easing of family travel and financial restrictions between the United States and Cuba. The two nations agreed to regulate travel between their countries in agreements from 1994 and 1995 that are collectively known as the "Migration Accords," which seek to prevent unsafe departures from Cuba. However, the U.S. government (W. administration) suspended the accords in 2003 after accusing Cuba of denying some Cubans permission to travel to the United States and declining to let the United States open a new avenue of legal migration for Cubans who want to migrate to the United States. Since then, the two have squared off over allegations of not allowing certain people or groups of people to cross one another’s borders and each side denied the charges made by the other. In 2007, Cuba tried to finger the U.S. for all of the drama. “The Ministry rejects any attempt to hold Cuba responsible for failing to comply with the Migratory Accord, when in reality it is our country that faces intensifying hostilities and provocations from the United States government as part of your useless efforts to defeat the legitimate government elected in a sovereign way by the Cuban people," the country’s government said in a statement then. Uh huh, sure thing Cuba. The Obama administration is willing to overlook a lot of your crap and try to move forward, but don’t allow that to delude you into thinking you can start bumping your gums and running blame smack again……….
- For a guy who has had a lot of success on two extremely popular television shows, Lost star Matthew Fox sure doesn’t seem to have a lot of love for the small screen. Fox, who has previously described the ending of Lost as a "relief," said recently that after the impending final season of ABC’s über-drama he plans on never, ever doing TV again. “I am not going to do television again," Fox said. "That is not because I think film is better than television. Not at all, in some respects some of the best story telling is happening on television. I have done two TV shows — Lost and Party of Five — that have each run for six years. When you add it all up it is in the vicinity of 300 hours of television. I want to find a way to have more control over when I am working and when I'm not. I'm looking for more flexibility.” Of course, Lost will begin its much-anticipated final season in January and theories as to how it will all end are running rampant. As for Fox, he believes that flexibility will give him more time to spend with his wife and kids. "I am (43) and a father of two children, and I don't want to miss them growing up," Fox said. "I don't want to find myself 10 years from now feeling like I was an absentee father because I was so focused on my career.” To that end, he plans to take six months off when Lost wraps its final season and then go back to doing one or two movies a year. His most recent big screen roles include We Are Marshall, Vantage Point, and Speed Racer, none of which has exactly set the cinematic world on fire. Best of success to you in your new life plan, Matt, hope you know what you’re doing……..
- Good news everyone! You know that sport that 99.97 percent of American sports fans don’t give a rat’s ass about, the one that is built on orange wedges, Capri Sun pouches, fake injuries and rampant hooliganism? Well, the sport of soccer’s grandest event is back on track after construction workers in South Africa ended a weeklong strike that threatened to derail the completion of already tightly-scheduled projects for the 2010 World Cup. Workers agreed on a pay increase of 12 percent, below the earlier demand of 13 percent, and work at sites across South Africa resumed Thursday. “The strike is over," said Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers. "We got a good offer.” Gee Lesiba, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, but not holding out for that last one percent makes you look a bit soft. But hey, the raise from $1 a day to $1.12 a day is going to make a huge difference for your union, so way to go. About 70,000 workers began striking last Wednesday, stopping work on stadiums, airports, freeways and Johannesburg's new high-speed rail link, all to pave the way for the World Cup next summer. The projects that are scheduled to be finished by December, but this strike has obviously put them behind schedule. Negotiations went on all last night and an agreement was signed this afternoon. What amazes me is that even as the deal was about to be signed, dozens of workers converged at the venue in downtown Johannesburg and professed that they were not happy with the deal. As you’d expect, the powers that be for the World Cup applauded the new deal. "Let the construction restart in earnest," Danny Jordaan, the head of the World Cup organizing committee, said in a statement. Oh, and it may technically be more than a 12-cent raise these workers were fighting for. Supposedly they earn about $300 a month but some casual laborers can take home less than $100. Unions have also been whining about rising fuel and food costs that are making it harder for workers to make ends meet. Great, but last I checked a cost of living doesn’t mean your employer has to pay you more to help you make ends meet. However, one outstanding outgrowth of this dispute was a nice little batch of protesting, including protesting workers marching around the stadium at Soccer City, a World Cup finals venue near Soweto, several hundred, brandishing sharpened sticks and singing. Reports of violence and intimidation have also been circulating, so big ups to those involved if that’s true. Ultimately, everyone wins here. The workers get their raise, soccer fans will still get their World Cup and we all got some protests and violence out of it…..
- Hmm, wonder why America is so FAT? I’ve got four words for you: bacon-flavored ice cream. No one food can fully account for our national girth issues, but ice cream flavored like salted, fried strips of pig meat seems like as good a symbol of the problems as any. For this revolting, fattening treat, travel with me to Bakersfield, California. There, the Moo Creamery is busy feeding all sorts of unhealthy, disgusting culinary curiosities to customers under the care of owner Jessica Pounds (a more appropriate name has never existed). The Moo Creamery is a restaurant famous for wacky flavors of ice cream and unusual takes on typical dietary staples. From bacon shakes to beer-flavored ice cream, the Moo Creamery is always trying out new flavors. Its menu has included jalapeno cream cheese with a raspberry swirl as an ice cream flavor, among others. "Playing around in the kitchen or when we're making pastries, coming up with different flavor combinations and turning into ice cream,” Pounds declares. “A friend of mine loves bacon on everything, so she had asked me to make bacon ice cream. So I had a home ice cream maker and I made it and thought it was a terrible idea. So she had me try it and after three days of tasting it I finally thought it was good.” I’m not sure what’s more disgusting and stomach-churning: that the restaurant offers bacon-flavored ice cream or that it sells nearly 100 gallons a week of its disgusting, homemade concoctions. The ice cream starts off as a custard like consistency made of cream, milk, egg yolks and sugar. It's then poured into an ice cream maker, and 10 minutes later, it comes out like soft serve ice cream. After that, additional ingredients are added and mixed it is put in a freezer at 20 below temperatures for a few hours. After that, it is put in another freezer to soften so it's scoopable. Now I’ve never been to Bakersfield, but I can say with certainty that if I do, one place I will not be eating is the Moo Creamery. The sight of my fellow Americans wolfing down ice cream flavored like a fatty breakfast meat would simply be too much to take…….
- I think I’ve found my favorite Olympic athlete and a guy I can root for all the way from now until the 2012 Summer Olympics. He embodies all that an Olympic athlete should be, showcasing the can-do, don’t quit spirit that only the truly great ones have. When forced with a cash-flow problem that threatened to curtail his training for the 2012 Games, taekwondo competitor Logan Campbell came up with an ingenious solution that we can all admire. The cash-strapped Olympic hopeful from New Zealand has opened a brothel to fund his bid for glory in 2012. By turning into a pimp, Campbell hopes to raise the money to continue his training. The brothel is located in Auckland and Campbell says he needs it to raise $190,000 over the next two years. "There is no point me going to the Olympics to make up the numbers if I go I want to be a medal contender," Campbell declared. In other words, if you aren’t preparing and training to be the absolute best, why go? I like that attitude, but what I like even more is an Olympic athlete using hookers turning tricks to fund his bid for the gold. Campbell isn’t just some publicity-seeking idiot with no game, either; he finished in the top 16 in Beijing after losing his first match of the tournament. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the backwards-thinking idiots who run New Zealand’s taekwondo federation from acting like the typical, small-minded bureaucrats who can’t get behind a truly revolutionary idea. “It may be unlikely that he will be selected because of his involvement," Taekwondo New Zealand's Secretary General Matt Ransom said of Campbell’s brothel. I wholeheartedly concur with Campbell, who insists he should be entitled to compete as his Auckland business does not violate New Zealand liberal laws on prostitution. "This is perfectly legal, so I do not see why I would wreck my chances,” he rightly declared. Heck, Campbell admitted that if there were other ways to raise the large amount of money he needs, he would consider them. See, the man has pored over every possible option and decided on the best one. Don’t fault him for that and get behind the idea that all sorts of kinky, perverted and deviant sexual acts performed for money could send one athlete to the Olympics……..
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