- The pertinent question with cantankerous Beady Eye and former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher is whether he has an infinite supply of “bitter a-hole” or if he’s going to run of out bile to spew if he continues at his current pace. He seems ready and willing to light up anyone and everyone who crosses his path of consciousness, whether he knows them, has a direct link to them or has never met them. Much of his rage has been directed at his former Oasis bandmates, especially brother Noel, but he has also taken to lighting up other artists both past and present, saying his new band will be producing songs better than the Beatles. In his most recent interview, this one with a British newspaper, Gallagher’s target was folk legend and pop icon Bob Dylan, a man often criticized for his gravelly vocal stylings but almost universally renowned as a great songwriter, storyteller and artist. Liam Gallagher seems to feel none of those things about Dylan, otherwise he would not be lighting him up as a “miserable c________ (rhymes with bunt).” When asked if he had celebrated Dylan's 70th birthday last month (probably a silly question just to throw at someone because they are a musician, but there’s still no need for an a-hole response), Gallagher responded by saying: "I know all about him and that, but he’s a bit of a miserable c**t as far as I’m concerned. I like that tune he did 'Lay Lady Lay'. People go nuts for him, but he doesn’t really do it for me." Well hey, if he doesn’t “do it’ for you, then maybe the rest of us should revise our opinion on Dylan accordingly. But Gallagher didn’t limit his anger to Dylan and found an extra dose to hurl like a monkey projecting his waste and zoo visitors standing in front of his cage, ripping acts from the 1960s and 1970s making comebacks at the summer festivals this year. "All those fuckers playing their greatest hits are sh*tbags," he fumed. Go ahead and assume that sh*tbags is code for, “More people want to hear them than want to hear my crappy new band and our poppy, top 40 tunes that sound like a lite-beer version of the much-better band I used to be in before my immense ego played a key role in ruining it.” Stay bitter Liam, stay bitter…………
- Well done, New York, well done. Why previous stops on Sarah Palin’s “One Nation” bus tour couldn’t get the job done, I don’t know, but leave it to New Yorkers to do the right thing and tag Palin’s bus with some well-reasoned, accurate graffiti. Although it wasn’t spray-painted on the way it should have been (when opportunity strikes, a can of spray paint may not always be handy and a hardware story may not always be nearby), someone hit Palin’s expensive, luxurious tour bus with a handwritten sign reading "I, the media whore," to express the widely held opinion that Palin is a bit too fond of herself getting time in front of cameras and is pimping out what is supposedly a family vacation to historical sites along the East Coast so she can generate publicity ahead of a (sure-to-fail) presidential run. Whoever the great American was who graffiti-ed the bus, he or she did so not long after Palin hit up a chain pizza shop in Times Square and paid visits to such treasured landmarks like Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Starstruck New Yorkers inexplicably greeted a woman most of them will never vote for with handshakes and smiles, but at least one local wasn’t down with the Palin Media Whore Tour and that person made his or her voice heard while Palin and her crew met with top executives at FOX News headquarters in Midtown. As with anything remotely interesting these days, the sign went worldwide quickly, as photos of it soon appeared on social media side Rumproast within a few hours of the sign being posted. Unfortunately, Palin never got the chance to see the sign on the side of the bus herself, as it remained in its posted position for about 15 minutes before being removed by a Palin aide. Of course, the former Alaska governor (before she quit) could end this sort of vitriol if she would merely come clean and admit she will run for president next year. At that point, the world can stop hating her for being a media whore and begin hating her because she’s vapid, clueless, flighty and has none of the skills she would need to successfully lead a world power…………
- As if relationships and especially marriages weren’t already difficult enough, researchers at Umea University in Sweden have piled on with a study suggesting that a 45-minute commute each way increases the likelihood of a breakup by 40 percent. Social geographer (apparently what we’re calling sociologists these days) Erika Sandow and her team examined the habits of 2 million couples over 10 years and concluded that the social costs of work travel may outweigh the monetary gains. With longer travel times, researchers for a myriad of issues that could arise for a couple: one partner getting saddled with greater family or household duties, lack of time spent together and fatigue among them. There is always the possibility that the couple wasn’t meant to be together in the first place, but that’s not really possible to measure in a scientific setting. There also seemed to be a benchmark of sorts at the one-year point in a relationship. Sandow and Co. found that those who managed longer commutes and made it through one year tended to have relatively normal breakup rates. Even so, there’s no denying the strain a long commute each day places on a person and by association, their personal relationships. Whether the commute is by train, car, subway or another method, traversing a long route from home to work and back again is bound to be frustrating more often than not. Traffic jams, late trains and ass-hatted fellow travelers add to the stress level and one recent study suggested long commutes contribute to obesity, neck pain, loneliness, stress, insomnia and a general reduction of happiness. The same study found that so-called “extreme commuters” who commute 90 minutes or more each way daily spend 164 billion minutes every year traveling between work and home. For that effort, they just might be rewarded with a broken relationship with their significant other than they don’t have the time or energy to fix…………
- Auto racing still isn't a sport, but that doesn’t mean what NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Brian Vickers dropped did Wednesday wasn’t cool. Vickers decided to drop in on a place he knows well - literally - but becoming the first driver in series history to parachute into the Daytona International Speedway. A veteran skydiver of four years, Vickers parachuted in as a promotional kickoff for the July 2 Coke Zero 400. His effort may not have been a work of skydiving beauty, but he did manage to not impale himself on anything and rumbled to a rough stop on the grass in the speedway's tri-oval after his first jump in the rain that started from about 5,000 feet above the track. "It's not the first time someone has barreled rolled through the front stretch at Daytona," he joked. "The only problem is sticking the landing when you're sliding through the water, the mud and grass." Vickers estimates that he has recorded between 70 and 75 jumps and planned to attempt the leap last year before medical problems derailed him. He was diagnosed in May with a hole in his heart and blood clots down his left leg and underwent heart surgery in July repaired the hole. The surgery was successful, but it also brought additional bad news as he was diagnosed with May-Thurners syndrome, which caused the clots. He went right back under the knife for the blood clots the next day and missed the last 25 races of the season. "This one's been a long time coming and I think that's what increases the significance of it for me is that we had this planned last year," he said after the jump. "To be able to come back and finish what we started was pretty special." His season hasn’t gotten off to a great start this year, as Vickers ranks 28th in points with one top-five and four top-10 finishes. Still, the North Carolina native says he’s in better shape than he’s ever been in because he’s done something NASCAR drivers aren’t known for - get into shape. "I'm just in better shape. I spent all last year training and preparing for this season and taking health to a whole other level," he explained. Asked if he worried about missing his designated drop zone parachuting into Daytona, Vickers admitted to being a bit nervous because the landscape is significantly different from other places he has jumped. “If you miss the drop zone there's nothing around them,” he said of other jump sites. “Here there's grandstands, buildings, light poles, towers, scoring towers, a lot of stuff." If nothing else, the jump proves that not everything surrounding auto racing has to be completely boring……….
- Clearly, the Lebanese government wants its people to riot. Otherwise, why would its officials ban all demonstrations near the Israeli border as the Palestinians gear up to mark 44 years since the seizure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Six Day War? No regime throws down a “No protesting” gauntlet unless it wants its people to do exactly that. There is no surer way to get any group of people to engage in a behavior than to tell them it is forbidden, regardless of their race, creed, sex or culture. An unidentified Lebanese security official confirmed the ban Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press. "The army has taken the decision to ban any demonstration south of the Litani and particularly at the border," the official said. "The army will not allow anyone to approach the border." In this case, the protest ban seems to be a precautionary measure, but to a true dissident, the reason for such a ban is irrelevant. The Man says you can’t protest, then there is one thing on your agenda and one thing only: protesting. Ahead of the ban, Palestinians in Lebanon joined their countrymen in other Arab states neighboring Israel in saying they plan to march on the Jewish state's borders on Sunday to mark the anniversary, known in Arabic as the "Naqsa" or "setback." A similar demonstration took place on May 15, as thousands of protesters in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza tried to force their way across the borders in a mass show of mourning over the 1948 creation of the Jewish state. The situation quickly turned ugly as Israeli troops opened fire, killing four along the Syrian lines, and another 10 along the border with Lebanon. A similar protest in northern Gaza left more than 120 injured. To prevent a similar occurrence for Sunday’s anniversary date, the Israeli army deployed extra troops along the Lebanese border as well as along the ceasefire lines in the occupied Golan Heights. On Thursday, Israeli soldiers were spotted along the border with south Lebanon, putting up new barbed wire along the border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted he had ordered the army to act firmly but to avoid any bloodshed if possible during any border protests. "My instructions are clear: to act with restraint but with the determination necessary to protect our borders... and our citizens," he affirmed. Lots of success on that one, B……………
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