More ammo for those who call America FAT, Guster on the comeback trail and Rich-er Fraud-riguez continues to be a scumbag

- This isn't going to help our reputation for being really, really FAT, America. Having a woman who is so morbidly obese that she has been turned down by more than 600 clinics in her home state of North Carolina is simply going to give the rest of the world more ammo with which to fire away at our flabby physiques. Sharon Purcell of Winston-Salem, N.C. has spent the last month in Wake Forest Baptist Hospital for various FAT-related medical problems and now that she’s ready to be discharged, she has nowhere to go because of her massive weight - 623 pounds. See, Purcell is too large for most rehab and weight-loss centers, she isn't a good candidate for gastric bypass surgery and she can't go home, because her bed and lifts won't fit through the door. In spite of that, this woman doesn’t appear to be all that motivated to eat healthier and change her lifestyle. "To me, food is life and food is death. If I don't eat, I'm going to die. If I eat, I'm going to die," Purcell said. Seriously, you need to stop making food the focal point of your life, Sharon. That line of thinking has gotten you where you are, namely on the verge of eating yourself to death. My God, take a look at yourself. The rolls and rolls of FAT on your body are suffocating your lungs, kidneys, and other organs and making it impossible for them to do their jobs. "Her legs are so big in the middle she can't put them together to walk. She has lymphedema, bad swelling, she's in pain all the time," said Elizabeth McLaurin, Purcell's daughter. With all of that on her plate, Purcell also must cope with the fact that one of her doctors believes she doesn’t have much time left to live unless something changes drastically. "It will not happen within hours or days, but certainly over months, we're not talking year," explained Dr. Tom Walsh, a bariatrics surgeon, in discussing the gradual breakdown of Purcell’s body. Late in the week, her family received some good news as a weight-loss facility in Illinois that can handle Purcell’s case was found. However, it would cost $6,500 to transport her there (yet another downside of being über-fat) and at this point, that’s money her family simply doesn’t have. I do sincerely hope that this woman finds a way to this facility and that it helps her lose 400 pounds or more, perhaps by calling in that kook Richard Simmons, but I just know that all the other countries who love mocking America's obesity will have a field day with this one.............

- How very freaking Rich-er Fraud-riguez of you, University of Michigan football coach Rich-er Fraud-riguez. What typifies this a-hole more than his steadfast refusal to administer any discipline at all to Michigan junior linebacker Jonas Mouton for punching Notre Dame center Eric Olsen following a run play with 8:42 left in the second quarter of last Saturday’s game? When asked about the punch before Wednesday's practice, Fraud-riguez said Mouton wouldn't face any punishment from the team. "What are you talking about?" Rodriguez told reporters. "I know they were talking about one incident on film, and I didn't see anybody throw a punch or anything like that. The little bit I saw on the clip, I saw guys got tangled up together, and Jonas tried to free himself. There's a whole lot of officials out there, and I'm sure if there was an infraction, then they'd call it." There are so many things wrong with that statement, I’m not sure where to start. How arrogant and dismissive to say that because the officials didn’t call a penalty, nothing wrong must have been done. Right, because the officials can see everything. Fact is, things happen in piles and packs on the field that officials can’t see but video of the action catches. That punch was one such play and Fraud-riguez’s idiotic denial that it happened was both insulting and offensive. Secondly, him trying to spin it that Mouton was merely trying to extricate himself from a pile was just as offensive. I’ve seen the video and he wasn’t looking to “free himself” from anything, unless he was attempting to free himself from his quandary of whether or not to punch Olsen in the head - in that case, mission accomplished. Further highlighting Fraud-riguez’s hypocrisy and asinine words is the fact that his league, the Big Ten, has stepped in and done what Fraud-riguez and UM have neither the class nor the integrity to do: suspend Mouton for one game for his blatant punch to the head of an opponent. Oddly enough, the Big Ten didn’t need all that long to review the video and make its decision after the same video of the same incident managed to baffle Fraud-riguez and confuse him as to what actually happened. The league also issued a public reprimand of Mouton and for the first time that anyone can remember, it stepped in to suspend a football player when the player's team did not. "The actions of Jonas Mouton during the Notre Dame game are unacceptable," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. "Mouton's behavior has no place in the sport of football or the Big Ten Conference." Good thing someone is making a point of policing UM and their merry bad of thugs and miscreants, because their coach surely isn't getting that job done…………

- Score! We’ve found someone else willing to take a few Gitmo detainees off our hands and bring us that much closer to shutting down the detention facility that has long been a thorn in America’s side. The tiny Pacific nation of Palau has agreed to accept two more Chinese Muslim detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and those prisoners have accepted the transfer, their lawyer said Saturday. That brings the number of Gitmo rejects Palay has agreed to take on 13, which I have to admit is impressive. I mean, you’ve got guys who have been held by the U.S. since their capture in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001, they’ve been tortured (allegedly), deprived of their rights, treated like crap even though some of them may in fact be innocent and you’re asking other countries to welcome them so you can shut down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay? Then again, getting shipped off to Palau is a significant improvement over the fate these Uighurs would face if China had its way. The Chinese regard them as terrorist suspects and want them returned, but U.S. officials have have focused on finding a country to take them in. "Two more of our clients have agreed to go to Palau as the U.S. continues to look for a permanent home for them," said Eric Tirschwell, the U.S.-based lawyer for four of the detainees. These guys aren’t the only former Gitmo prisoners headed to tropical new homes. In July, four Uighur detainees were resettled in Bermuda. All of the relocation agreements need U.S. Congressional approval, a process that is expected to take about two weeks. "We are hopeful that this long overdue move to freedom will happen as quickly as possible and are doing whatever we can to make that happen," Tirschwell said. The one curious aspect of this relocation process is that Palau is a developing country of 20,000 that is best known for diving and tourism. Not sure how adding some alleged terrorists and disgruntled Gitmo prisoners to the mix is going to affect that, but Palau is in the middle of the freaking Pacific Ocean, so I guess it’s out of sight, out of mind…….

- Fans of indie rock like myself have been missing the band Guster for the past three years, ever since its most recent studio effort, 2006's "Ganging Up on the Sun." Among other things, the band has spent the past couple of years making the transition into fatherhood, with three fourths of Guster members becoming dads over the last two years. However, the band is regrouping and looking to begin work on its next album. Guitarist-vocalist Adam Gardner is optimistic about the band’s ability to produce a lot of good, new music in the months ahead.
"Right now I think we have easily two albums worth of material, so it's really hard to know what we'll end up with," Gardner says. "Some of these songs go all over the place but there seems to be a coherence in all of them, which is good. It's still Guster, and we're still focused on melody." Fans had been hoping for the album’s release this year, but at this point a date some time in the first few months of 2010 seems much more realistic. As the album begins to take shape, Guster will also embark upon a 10-date fall tour Oct. 28 in Charlotte, N.C.

"It was one of those things where we weren't sure what the tour was going to be," Gardner stated. "We were hoping to have everything done before, and we're still hoping to do that, but I think it's likely that we'll still be finishing up. But that tour is really about the 10th anniversary of [1999 album] 'Lost and Gone Forever.' That record was really our first major label album we made with Steve Lilywhite, and it seems to be one of the records that resounds with the fanbase pretty heavily.” The theme of the tour will be ‘An Evening with Guster' in two sets, the first being 'Lost and Gone Forever' in its entirety and the second set being other songs from the band’s catalog and from the new album. As you’d expect with such a short tour, the shows will be set mostly in major cities, but I’m sure a more lengthy, wider-ranging tour will happen next year after the album is released, so fear not, Guster fans…….

- Now that’s what I’m talking about. With the G-20 international summit set to hit Pittsburgh next week, you knew that protestors and activists would be descending upon the Steel City looking to wreak havoc and make their various messages heard. However, I absolutely love the fact that some intrepid dissidents got an early jump on the action and make a statement by jamming nails and screws in the tires of about a dozen vehicles at Pittsburgh police headquarters in North Side some time late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Police aren’t sure exactly when the vandalism happened, but theorize that it may have occurred over the course of a week to unmarked detective cars parked in the facility's lower and upper lots. “We're discovering that detectives have come outside and found a tire flat and a nail in it, but they just assumed they had run over the nail," police spokeswoman Diane Richard said. "But then we are hearing that it's been happening to others, too." The vandals also got a piece of the personal vehicle of Sgt. Ronald Griffin, damaging its tires. In the wake of these hilarious acts of striking back at The Man, the department has officers patrolling the lot as "sentries" to look out for suspicious activity, but so far no arrests have been made and no suspects have been identified. I doubt that those responsible for these great pranks will be caught or step forward to take responsibility for their actions, but hopefully they’ll read this story and know that I am saluting their efforts and laughing right along with them…………