Roid-ger v. the world, a daring gold bar theft and dangerous eggs vex America

- Boy, things sure got snippy in the saga of disgraced former Major League Baseball star Roid-ger Clemens, didn’t they? A day after he was indicted by the feds for various crimes related to lying in testimony before a congressional subcommittee, pretty much all of the major parties involved in the process to this point traded verbal haymakers and kicked off what should be a thoroughly entertaining ordeal. First, former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia stuck a thorn in Clemens’ side by saying the sworn statement of Clemens’ supposed best friend/little buddy Andy Pettitte that Roger Clemens admitted using human growth hormone was a critical factor in a federal grand jury's decision to indict Clemens. Not to be outdone, Clemens came out and blasted Pettitte, claiming the two don’t even talk anymore. On the heels of those comments, Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, called Davis, the top Republican on the House committee that held the aforementioned hearing, a "son of a bitch." Davis wasn’t about to roll over and allow anyone else to have the final word, so he expounded on his earlier statement. "If it was just Roger versus [Brian] McNamee, it's a different matchup," he said. “We didn't call Andy Pettitte, we deposed him, and he supported McNamee and that was a problem for [Clemens]. Without Pettitte, neither McNamee nor Clemens was that articulate or credible." Pettitte stated in his testimony that he knew for certain that Clemens used HGH, but Davis made it clear that the current New York Yankee pitcher wasn’t eager to testify against Clemens. "Andy Pettitte didn't want to testify against his friend," Davis said. "But when he raised his right hand, he told the truth. It would've been different without him. Roger was a great pitcher who's done a lot for the community, and McNamee's had other issues." Clemens made his comments by curiously calling up WEEI Radio in Boston on Friday, ironic because he is loathed, despised and hated in Boston, a town he knifed in the back by quitting on their beloved Red Sox, forcing a trade to Toronto and suddenly bothering to rededicate himself to the game and win two more Cy Young awards and become a valuable member of the Yankees, Boston’s most bitter rival. To be fair, Clemens didn’t call the radio station to speak about the indictment, but he had to know that question would come when he called in to express his support for the Jimmy Fund Radio Telethon. He was asked if he still communicates with Pettitte and said he does not. "We don't," he said before going on to talk about the case briefly. "It's not fun, but I'm not going to talk about what we have ahead of us," he said. "In time, we'll get to have our say. All I'm going to say is that I learned a lot through what happened, and what did not happen. We're going to deal with it. I don't know what else to say. We're going to deal with it and have our day." Again, what’s most amazing about all of this is that Clemens did not have to testify before that committee. Members of the committee informed him prior to the hearing that his written statement already in evidence was sufficient, but he clearly felt he could intimidate, bully and push them around like he did to so many batters during his stellar career. "We're sitting around, and they were deciding whether to go through with the hearing or not," Davis said. "This wasn't a mandatory hearing. We weren't hanging [Clemens] out to dry. We were only giving him an opportunity to refute the Mitchell report and to tell his side of the story. We didn't wish this on Clemens, I guarantee you. But there are people who think they can bluff their way through, and it's hubris. ... These matters are taken very seriously. We impeached a president [Bill Clinton] for lying in a deposition. Nobody's above the law, including the president and All-Star pitchers." Hardin would have you believe that Davis is distorting the facts and lying through his teeth, but who are you going to believe here, a former congressman with nothing to lose or a high-priced defense attorney doing everything in his power to keep his most-famous client out of jail? Color me crazy, but I’m not inclined to side with Hardin and Clemens here………

- Dangerous eggs! Dangerous eggs! The egg-streme (sorry for the bad pun) uproar over potentially deadly eggs infected with salmonella continues, as the number of eggs recalled in a nationwide salmonella scare has grown to more than half a billion. Adding to the melee, Iowa egg producer Hillandale Farms of Iowa is voluntarily recalling 170.4 million eggs distributed to stores and companies that service, or are located in, 14 states. This whole situation has escalated rapidly and has now grown to include Hillandale eggs that were distributed under the Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, and Sunny Meadow brand names in six-egg cartons, dozen-egg cartons, 18-egg cartons, 30-egg packages, and five-dozen-egg cases - basically, every egg that has been anywhere near the Hillandale facility in the past decade. Especially dangerous area loose eggs, which could be repackaged by customers, that were packaged under the Wholesome Farms and West Creek brands in 15- and 30-dozen tray packs. Not that I knew eggs had ID numbers, but apparently the eggs included in this latest round of recalls have plant number P1860 with date codes ranging from 099 to 230, or plant number P1663 and date codes ranging from 137 to 230. Hillandale joins Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, which began recalling eggs last week, and upped its recall to 380 million eggs on Wednesday. The number of salmonella cases resulting from the affected eggs is expected to grow because the current number doesn’t even include infections after July 17. Those cases may not have been reported yet due to a two- to three-week lag between when a person actually becomes ill and when the case gets reported in the system. "We would certainly characterize this as one of the largest shell egg recalls in recent history," Sherri McGarry (hey, it rhymes!) of the Food and Drug Administration said in a conference call Thursday. The new safety rules for large-scale egg producers the FDA announced on July 9 came too late to stop this outbreak, but McGarry believes that those rules would have prevented the current crisis. "The outbreak could have been prevented." McGarry said. "The egg safety rule is in a phase-in approach, but there are measures that would have been in place that could have prevented this if it [had] been placed earlier than in July." So what do the new rules cover? Well, they address refrigeration of stored and transported eggs, pasteurization, rodent control, cleanliness and they require a written Salmonella enteritidis prevention plan. The FDA estimates that "implementing the preventive measures would reduce the number of Salmonella enteritidis infections from eggs by nearly 60 percent." The FDA is not alone in having a beef with Wright County Egg, as numerous animal rights groups have vociferously criticized the cleanliness and operations of the company’s farms in recent months. "It's no surprise that these birds that are crammed together, basically defecating on top of other birds," said Dan Hauff, director of investigations for Mercy for Animals. "It's no surprise that this is the outcome, this type of outbreak." Now, the obvious question is what danger these possibly lethal eggs pose to the average consumer. Well, if a person thoroughly cooks an egg, that will kill salmonella bacteria within, but there is still risk of cross-contamination if all kitchen surfaces the egg came into contact with aren’t properly sanitized afterward. So cook your eggs through and through, clean your kitchen like it’s an operating room and you should be just fine….probably………

- Still having a tough time dealing with the end of your favorite ABC drama, “Lost” fans? Well, that huge letdown of a finale with its moronic ending that retroactively torpedoed the entire final season should have helped with that grieving process, but if you still can’t let Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Charlie, Claire, etc. go, then maybe this is the answer to your prayers. Today and tomorrow, hundreds of props, costumes and other artifacts from the show are going on the auction block in Santa Monica, Calif., as well as online through Profiles in History. The items will range from the small - some of John Locke’s (played by Terry O’Quinn) knives he used for throwing and hunting wild boar on the island - to the ginormous and ridiculously expensive - the submarine that played such a big role in the final season, for example. "We have some of the plane wreckage -- some really large pieces, like 8 by 12 feet in size [with] the Oceanic logo. I think those [will be big], I think the Dharma van, Hurley's [Jorge Garcia] Camaro, and we have the sub," Profiles in History owner Joe Maddalena said. "Charlie's (Dominic Monaghan) Driveshaft ring, Locke's (Terry O'Quinn) knife -- and then pieces of the temple. We have giant set pieces." Other items on the auction block include Penny's (Sonya Walger) engagement rings to Apollo bars to some of Jacob's (Mark Pellegrino) tapestries, although it would be fair to assume that even the smallest items will go for absurdly high prices because there are still enough devoted, out-of-touch-with-reality “Lost” fans out there to drive up the price for a Dharma Initiative jar of peanut butter……….

- Justice is not a fixed, stationary concept that looks the same in every country. In some corners of the world, the local views on justice would be construed as barbaric and socially retarded by other more “civilized” peoples. That seems to be the case in an ongoing situation involving a man sentenced to the bizarre punishment of paralysis by the Saudi Arabian court system as punishment for his having paralyzed someone else, allegedly during a fight. The man, whose identity has not be released, allegedly stabbed Abdul-Aziz al-Mitairy in the back with a large knife during a fight more than two years ago. "The accused confessed to the crime in front of police, resulting in a general sentence of seven months," al-Mitairy said. However, that was far from the end of the case. In the time since, the judge in the case has sent letters to several hospitals in Saudi Arabia asking if they could sever a man's spinal cord, as the man he allegedly stabbed had requested and, under sharia law, was his right to seek. That’s right, the victim has input on what sentence his or her violator receives. In assessing this request, the court in the northwest province of Tabuk debated how to carry out the surgery al-Mitairy was seeking as punishment for his alleged attacker. One hospital contacted by the court, Riyadh's King Faisal Specialist Hospital, responded that, from a medical perspective, it would not be possible for them to cause the injury by performing such surgery. That hasn’t deterred the court, nor have repeated pleas from Amnesty International not to paralyze the convicted man. Such a punishment would amount "to nothing less than torture," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, acting director of the organization's Middle East and North Africa Program. "While those guilty of a crime should be held accountable, intentionally paralyzing a man in this way would constitute torture, and be a breach of its international human rights obligations." However, the court did find one hospital that claimed the surgery was possibly by medically administering the injury at the same place on the spinal cord as the damage the man is alleged to have caused his victim using a cleaver, during a fight more than two years ago, causing similar paralysis." The ultimate decision in the case rests with the court, which can impose the paralysis punishment or sentence the man to imprisonment, financial compensation, or flogging. Infuriating Amnesty International and other human rights groups is the fact that the alleged attacker was supposedly convicted and sentenced following a trial where he was said to have had no legal assistance. under international human rights law, such a sentence would be a violation of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and break the U.N. Convention Against Torture, to which Saudi Arabia is a party. Now, Saudi Arabia would argue that it has a right to administer justice as it sees fit and to be certain, anyone who has never suffered paralysis at the hands of another person can attest to how just this punishment would truly be. Still, there has been a rush of opposition to the proposed punishment even within the country, especially among progressives, who consider such sentences to be draconian and bad for the country's international image.

- It could be because of the fact that I don’t have anything of immense value on a global level to be stolen in a dramatic heist, but part of me always enjoys the dickens out of a good, old-fashioned, Hollywood-esque theft. You know, thieves in all black, using all manner of high tech gadgets like infrared glasses, electronic toys, night vision goggles, zip lines and the like to steal priceless jewelry or art, that sort of thing. Those thefts don’t happen nearly enough for my taste, so I have to milk extra enjoyment out of them when they do occur. Thus, join me in reveling over the incident that took place at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida early Wednesday evening. For the past 25 years, visitors to the museum had been able to enjoy a special thrill by lifting a $550,000 gold bar found on the sea floor, with the aid of a special display case. "It was touching something that came off the ocean floor," said Melissa Kendrick, the museum's executive director. Yeah, whatever. Let me ask this: What’s more entertaining and a better story, museum visitors “lifting” the gold bar inside that special display case or two brazen thieves snatching said gold bar and setting off what could ultimately turn into a global manhunt? I thought so. The two thieves got the gold bar and walked out of the building, having accomplished their task in just a few short minutes. These two heroes walked into the gallery room around 5:10 p.m. and walked out with the gold bar. Now, Key West Police and the FBI are trying to identify them and track them down. What is known at this point is that one of the men served as a lookout while the other swiped the bar. Police are checking fingerprints and refining security video from the scene still, but have no official suspect. Yet they remain confident that they are making progress in tracking down the culprits. There's been progress but no changes," said department spokeswoman Alyson Crean. As for the gold bar in question, it was recovered by treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his crew in 1980 from the shipwreck of the Santa Margarita, which sank 25 miles west of Key West. You might be familiar with the Santa Margarita’s sister ship, the legendary galleon Atocha, also worked by Fisher. Between them, the vessels carried 250,000 silver coins at the time they went down during a storm. Fisher’s link to the gold bar has led to even more interest in this theft than would be expected. "Mel Fisher was such a dream builder," Crean said. If you know anything about the theft and don’t mind ratting out two amazing gold thieves, you can take advantage of the museum's insurance company offer of a $10,000 reward for the return of the 16.5-karat gold bar, which weighs 74.85 ounces. Because of its uniqueness and history, the bar is valued at $550,000, so perhaps the reward should be a bit higher. Fisher, who passed away in 1998, may not be around to see all of this, but he reportedly loved having the bar in a special reach-in case because it allowed visitors to make a connection the piece of history. If recovered, the bar will be returned to its case - after a few security modifications are made. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the thrill of a bold daring daylight theft………