- Most of the United States is reeling from this summer’s
drought, bracing for skyrocketing food prices and watching rather helplessly as
farmers in their states and communities suffer massive financial hits they may
never recover from. But this being a land of opportunity, at least a few
industrious souls are making something positive out of the national lack of
rainfall. Granted, these people are gold-digging kooks hoping to strike it rich
with America’s heartland 136 days into
the drought, but give them credit nonetheless. The kooks in question have
descended upon Tower Rock in Perry County, Mo. Tower Rock is a landmark island
in the Mississippi River and has long been a popular area for tourists and
locals. These days, the tourists who visit the island are largely hunting for
treasures, hoping to find fossils and other historic junk now that the receding
waters have exposed ground that normally is buried beneath a few feet of water.
The drought has exposed a few historic items already, including an old, mysterious
boat that was uncovered in New Madrid County. "People have been going
up and down the Mississippi for hundreds if not thousands of years so we have
no idea what's on the bottom," said Dr. Frank Nickell,
director of the Center of Regional History at Southeast Missouri
State University. "If the Corps of Engineers are correct we may see
bottom areas of the Mississippi River that have not been visible in modern
times.” Nickell pointed out that the river bed near the island is “a section of
river that has not been seen for a very long time.” So far, no amazing
historical artifacts have been found and odds are, none will. There is a solid
shot that someone will ignore wildlife officials’ warnings to stay off of
sandbars because they could collapse under the weight of a person, meander out
onto a weak sandbar and suffer a nasty spill, which would at least be
entertaining……….
- The Chicago White Sox are locked in a heated pennant
race with the Detroit Tigers and there is a better-than-average chance that whichever
of the two American League Central rivals does not win the division will miss
the playoffs entirely. Players on both sides are feeling the pressure, but
they’re not the only ones amped up by the intensity of the race. White Sox television announcer Ken
"Hawk" Harrelson, renowned as the biggest homer announcer in Major League
Baseball if not all of professional sports, was reprimanded by commissioner Bud
Selig earlier in the season when he ranted on air about home-plate umpire Mark
Wegner during a May 30 game in which Wegner had ejected White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana after
Quintana threw behind a Tampa Bay Rays' hitter. White Sox manager Robin Ventura
also was ejected from that game, prompting Harrelson to exclaim that Wegner
knew "nothing about the game of baseball." After the heat he took for
his over-the-top homerism, Harrelson expressed contrition for his remarks and
said he would try to never let it happen again. "(Selig and team chairman
Jerry Reinsdorf) just both (chewed me) out, which they should have,"
Harrelson said. "I'm a big boy, and I'm a tough guy. I don't want to go
through that again. I'd rather fight Rocky Marciano. It's done, it's over, I
said what I said and we're going to move on from there. It's not going to
happen again.” And when Hawk Harrelson says it’s over, you can count on it
being over….for less than three months. That’s how long it took Harrelson to
launch into another reprimand-worthy tirade, this one directed toward
home-plate umpire Lance Barrett on Saturday after Barrett ejected White Sox
catcher A.J. Pierzynski and manager Robin Ventura for arguing Barrett's strike
zone. Both men were booted from the game after Quintana's first delivery to
Seattle Mariners hitter Justin Smoak in the third inning was called a ball. Harrelson
saw a replay and went off, offering up gems like, “Lance Barrett has been
absolutely brutal. Brutal," and "Lance Barrett has just stunk the
joint up is all he's done. That's all he's done. He's terrible." Harrelson
went on to say the game was one that should be sent “back to the American
League office to show how bad he is" and suggested that Barrett had
different strike zones for the two teams and threw Ventura and Pierzynski out
of the game “because he's brutal." Hey Hawk, you may want to get your
phone that’s ringing right now because the commissioner would like to speak
with you…..again………
- A sequel full of has-beens had a sequel triumph at the box
office this weekend, with “The Expendables 2” strolling its way to a win in an
extremely low-dollar run at the local multiplex. With a mere $13.5 million that
would barely crack the top five many weekends, the action movie featuring
geezer action stars of days gone by bested the über-disappointing “The Bourne
Legacy,” which held in second placed but managed only $9.4 million in its third
weekend. Through its first two weeks, “Expendables 2” has managed $52.4 million
in domestic earnings, while the Bourne-less “Bourne” flick has conjured up a
meager (for the franchise anyhow) $85.5 million in three weeks of release. Third
place went to kid-friendly flick “ParaNorman,” adding $8.6 million to its bank
account for a two-week tally of $28.2 million and counting. Overachiever “The
Campaign” ranked fourth with $7.4 million and has managed a solid $64.5 million
in its first three weeks. Moving up one spot from last weekend was “The Dark
Knight Rises,” which inched closer to the $500 million mark in domestic
earnings with $7.2 million, bringing its six-week haul to $422.2 million. “The
Odd Life of Timothy Green” also moved up one spot from last weekend, earning
$7.1 million to elevate its cumulative total to $27 million through two weeks.
Newcomer “Premium Rush” debuted in seventh place with $6.3 million, in the
process giving Joseph Gordon-Levitt two movies in the top 10. “2016 Obama's
America” jumped up to snag the eighth slot in its seventh weekend of release
with $6.2 million in earnings, more than doubling its earnings in its first six
weeks. It has now made $9 million and counting. Geezer romantic comedy “Hope
Springs” checked in at No. 9 thanks to a $6 million weekend and its three-week
haul now stands at $45 million. The final top 10 spot belonged to newcomer “Hit
and Run” which could not capitalize on Kristen Bell’s über-hotness and only
managed $4.7 million in its first weekend for a tenth-place finish. “Sparkle” (No.
11), newcomer “The Apparition” (No. 12) and the bastardized, diluted remake of “Total
Recall” (No. 14) all dropped out from last week’s top 10…………
- That any sort of Nazi philosophy or ideology still exists
anywhere in the world is disturbing. That these entities still exist in
Germany, where so much as performing a Nazi salute is grounds for jailing,
fines and prison time, is even more unnerving. Yet Nazism is sadly alive and
kicking in Deutschland, as evidenced by the fact that nearly 1,000 police
officers raided clubhouses and apartments of known neo-Nazis in western Germany
on Thursday after a ban was placed on three violent far-right groups in the
country's most populous state. Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of the state of
North-Rhine Westphalia, announced the crackdown on neo-Nazis in the industrial
state as police searched 146 properties, confiscating weapons, hard drives and
even election posters belonging to the far-right National Democratic Party
(NPD). "(The objects seized) expose the tight bonds within the far-right
scene,'' Jaeger said. He was alluding to the relationship between the NPD and
groups of violent militants known as "Kameradschaften," which loosely
translates to
"comradeships." Not mincing words, Jaeger deemed the groups
impacted by the ban "xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic.” He criticized them
for “employing fists and knives against their political opponents.'' There were
no arrests made during the raids, but the efforts to ban the NPD and its
racist, anti-Semitic has managed to evade all previous attempts to quash it. "We
will continue to crack down on these enemies of the state and tread on their
black leather boots,'' Jaeger said, referring preferred footwear of the group’s
ass-hatted skinheads. The NPD does not have any representatives in the federal
parliament, but uses violence to promote its agenda based on blaming immigrants
for crime and unemployment. State authorities in North-Rhine Westphalia set up
a new unit in Dusseldorf in December aimed at curtailing neo-Nazi activities
after disclosures that a secretive neo-Nazi cell based in the eastern state of
Thuringia had murdered 10 people between 2000 and 2007. The fight is a
necessary one, but that does not make its necessity any less discouraging……….
- Technology is a wonderful thing, right up until the point
when The Man uses it to spy on and invade the privacy of citizens. At least in
theory, that is the very sort of activity California legislators are looking to
curtail with the passage of SB 1434, a bill that would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a
search warrant when they want to collect location information from electronic
devices, such as data from GPS devices and
GPS on cellphones. The bill was passed by the California Assembly
this week and those behind it alternated between giving themselves credit for
the new law and hailing the bill’s potential impact. "Location privacy
scored a victory," wrote Hanni Fakhoury of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, which co-sponsored the bill along with the ACLU of Northern
California. Fakhoury drew a link between the bill and the U.S. Supreme Court
decision last January that police must get a search warrant before using GPS
technology to track criminal suspects. Policing how and when law
enforcement collects data from GPS vehicle tracking, cell phones, tablets and
the like is a fast-rising issue that police departments and agencies around the
United States will be forced to deal with in the near future and the EFF wrote
a few weeks back that the information "should be available to police when
it's appropriate." Police knowing when a person goes to church, visit the
hospital or meet with a friend is creepy, to say the least, especially if no
illegal activity is involved. The ACLU has pointed to data showing that
"law enforcement agencies across the country are collecting location data
without a warrant or any court approval." "We shouldn't have to
choose between using our smartphone and protecting our privacy,"
said Chris Conley, technology and civil liberties policy attorney for the
ACLU of Northern California. Before supporters of the bill get too excited,
they must wait for California Gov. Jerry Brown to approve the legislation, no
sure thing after he vetoed a privacy bill last year, SB 914, that would have
required police to get a search warrant before searching the contents of an
arrested person's cellphone. Hopefully the governor will be smarter this time
around………
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