- People of Kansas, this is a proud day for you. When one
of your elected representatives in the nation’s highest legislative body is
able to spark an international incident without even trying, that has to fire
up a constituency. The lawmaker in question is Republican Rep.
Kevin Yoder of Kansas, who is apparently not as conservative as many GOP
members would like him to be. Yoder was part of a group of Republican
lawmakers, along with a small group of aides and family members, who visited
Israel last summer and decided to cool off at the end of a long, hot day in the
Holy Land with a swim in the Sea of Galilee, a holy site for Christians where
the Bible says Jesus walked on water. That isn't a problem in and of itself,
but the controversy comes in with regard to what Yoder was wearing – or not
wearing for the swim sessions. It seems he decided that a holy site was also a
good skinny dipping site, as he waded into the water sans clothes. The story
took a year and an FBI investigation to surface, with the FBI saying it looked
into the incident to determine if U.S. officials were putting themselves at
risk, or if any information the lawmakers possessed could have been exposed by
a night of drinking and partying. Nothing came of the investigation and the
damage was more image-related than anything else. Having a group of elected
representatives goaded into jumping into the water by waiters at the restaurant
where they were eating doesn’t exactly reflect well on anyone. According to
members of the traveling party, about half of the 30 members of Congress on the
trip went swimming in the Sea of Galilee. Yoder merely went in with more gusto
than any of the others, not surprising for a guy serving his first term in
Congress and not used to the sorts of perks and benefits congressmen receive on
a regular basis. GOP sources claim that someone noticed his lack of clothes as
he was diving in and said the swim came to an end shortly thereafter. Republican
Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other GOP leaders were reportedly furious when
they found out, especially given that Yoder got naked in front of the whole
group – including at least two female staffers. Maybe they shouldn’t be so
offended because at least it happened in public instead of with one of those
female staffers during a late night with just Yoder and the staffer “working”
in his office………….
- Kobe Bryant has received plenty of good news this summer.
He won a gold medal with Team USA in London and while he was there, got the
news that the Los Angeles Lakers traded for the best big man in the NBA, Dwight
Howard. Prior to that, the Lakers traded for All-Star point guard Steve Nash
and they are now among the favorites to win the NBA title next season. Good
news is welcome for Bryant more than ever these days, especially given the fact
that he and his wife Vanessa have been trying to reconcile their marriage since earlier
in the summer. After appearing to be headed for divorce, the Bryants have
worked to pull their marriage back from the brink and the answer for their marital
woes may have an unlikely answer: win a ring. Vanessa Bryant, showing she has a
competitive streak of her own to match her husband’s said recently that she
only rolls with winners, period. “I certainly would not want to be married to
somebody that can’t win championships,” she said. “If you’re sacrificing time
away from my family and myself for the benefit of winning championships, then
winning a championship should happen every single year.” Wow. A wife supporting
her husband in what he does for a living is one thing, but demanding he win
titles is something else entirely. Everyone wants to roll with a winner, just
not enough to say that they wouldn’t want to be married to someone who doesn’t
win championships. Kobe Bryant already has five championship rings, but it
seems he could use a sixth one not only to match Michael Jordan’s total but
also to convince his own wife that she married the right man……..
- Shy people often avoid making eye contact and look to
blend in when they’re in a crowded room, but their reluctance to interact
socially doesn’t mean they’re oblivious to what is going on around them. In
fact, a new study suggests that shy people have a superior ability to recognize
certain facial expression. The study, conducted by researcher Laura Graves
O'Haver, a doctoral student at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale,
found that college-age adults who were shy were better able to recognize
expressions of sadness and fear compared with those who were not shy. O’Haver’s
findings contradict previous research showing that shy people tend to
misinterpret facial expressions. The difference could be explained by the age
of the subjects, as previous studies were focused on children instead of
adults. "We tend to give shy people a bad rap," but the new study
suggests there are some strengths to being shy, Graves O'Haver said. "It
might be nice to focus on those strengths." For the study, O'Haver
analyzed information from 241 college students who took an online survey
consisting of 110 pictures of faces. Participants were asked to identify the
facial expression represented by each picture: happy, sad, anger, fear,
surprise, disgust and a neutral expression. Researchers measured individuals’
level of shyness with a questionnaire about whether certain statements were
true for them, such as "I feel tense with people I don’t know well,"
"I find it difficult to ask for information," and "I'm
uncomfortable at parties." Most participants successfully identified the
facial expressions in the survey, with an overall 81 percent accuracy rate.
However, those with high levels of shyness were more accurate at identifying
facial expressions of sadness and fear. O'Haver theorized that their superior
ability to recognize sad and fearful facial expressions can contribute to
people's shyness, as in they can sense a person is feeling sad and are shy and
uncomfortable as a result……..
- Sometimes, music festivals can be beautiful places –
really. While a revolting level of filth caused by having thousands of people
camping out for days on end, suffocating crowds to the point of claustrophobia
and exorbitant prices for tickets, food and beverages, there can be plenty of
negatives as such gatherings. Yet every now and the, festivals put a smile on
one’s faces and the V Festival in southeast England did exactly that Sunday. Festival goers
were subjected to the musical garbage of former “X-Factor Karaoke” contestant
and awful mainstream pop singer Cher Lloyd, who took to the stage to sing
crap-tacular songs like “Swagger Jagger” and other awful mainstream pop tunes
of her own creation. Fittingly, an artist whose music is a giant pile of
foul-smelling refuse soon exited the stage in tears after she was hit with
bottles filled with urine. That’s right, someone in the crowd was either drunk
enough or hated her music enough (possibly both) to head off into the woods or
nearest portable toilet and bottle up their urine to lob at the stage. Lloyd was
struck by a bottle two songs into her set and left the stage, later returning
and scolding the crowd, “It's hard enough being up here, but it's not nice
having bottles of piss chucked at you.” Maybe if she wasn’t a former reality
karaoke show contestant whose horrifically bad pop music was an affront to the
ears of anyone who heard it, she wouldn’t be treated this way. Lloyd has shown
a tendency toward overreaction and immaturity during her short career,
admitting in October that the public's
criticism of her was almost enough to make her quit music and made her
scared to leave her home. She battled back on Twitter after her truncated run
at the V Festival, tweeting later in the day, “Thank you so much for all the nice messages,
shame that a couple of people had to ruin it," she wrote.
"Unfortunately a glass bottle got thrown at me on stage. Tomorrow is
another day, big love to my brats!!!"
If only she knew that the fool
chucking the bottle of urine didn’t ruin anything and actually saved the crowd
from having to listen to some of the worst “music” they have ever heard…………
- Congratulations to the government of Myanmar for
abolishing its direct censorship of the media Monday….sort of. The repressive powers
that be made a bold move toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-oppressed
nations, but those directly affected by the censorship laws doubt their world
will change all that much. Under the new laws, journalists will no longer have
to submit their work to state censors before publication as they for almost
half a century. However, many harsh laws abused by Myanmar's rulers to jail,
blacklist and control the media in the name of national security remain in
place. Critics are cautiously optimistic about the effects of the new law, but
expect the government to still try to assert some control, probably using
national security to keep the media in check. For several decades, the
Southeast Asian nation's media members toiled under the yoke of some of the
most restrictive laws in the world. They were subjected to constant state
surveillance, phone taps and censorship to the point that independent papers
were literally unable to publish on a daily basis. The law changes have begun
to trickle out under the rule of President Thein Sein's reformist government
and there have been stories printed that never would have seen the light of day
during the era of absolute military rule. Photographs of opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, recently freed after 20 years under house arrest, have even been
published. The official censors at the Information Ministry announced the “relaxed”
laws on its website Monday. After months and months of being postponed, having
the announcement take place was mildly shocking. Amazingly, though, the
government did manage to double back on its promise to abolish the censorship
board and instead will allow the board to remain in place and retain the powers
it has always had to suspend publications or revoking publishing licenses if
they deem publishing rules are violated. The only difference now is that the
media will be able to roll the dice, publish what it wants and take its chances
with the censorship board after the fact………
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