- If nothing else, Kerry County, Ireland deserves credit for
being original. No one has ever accused the Irish of being too friendly with
sobriety and with that in mind, the Kerry County Council, which governs an area with
a population of more than 120,000, is planning to formally ask the Irish government to
allow some drivers to have the equivalent of up to three pints of beer before
getting behind the wheel. These pre-DUI permits would allow people to drink
alcohol then drive and should be issued to make it easier for those in
isolated, rural areas to visit the pub, according to a motion passed by the
council. The vote was a close one, 5-3 with seven abstentions, but the majority
explained that the measure would “greatly benefit people living alone looking
at four walls and may also prevent depression and suicide.” It’s an honest
assessment and ridiculous solution for a common problem and predictably, the
idea has been condemned by leading politicians, including Ireland's Transport
Minister Leo Varadkar. Sadly, that means the measure is unlikely to be adopted.
The country's justice department reminded everyone in the aftermath of the vote
that Kerry does not have the power to change the law itself. Danny Healy-Rae,
the councilor behind the motion, would not be deterred. He coincidentally runs
a pub in the village of Kilgarvan and claimed that current laws were hurting
his business, er, that because people couldn’t drink alcohol in pubs then drive
home, they were instead buying it in supermarkets and drinking at home.
Following his convoluted and self-serving line of thinking, this pattern could lead to a
downward spiral that ended with some taking their own lives. “I know of
instances where the local garda [police] have to call out to these people to
see if they are all right, to see if they are still there,” he said. Even
though Healy-Rae’s plan called for permits to be issued only to people in
isolated rural areas who use narrow country roads where it is difficult to
travel faster than 25 or 30 mph, fighting to give drunk people the right to
drive to the pub “to meet…and to discuss the topics of the day, the price of
cattle and whatever” just doesn’t seem like sound logic, even if the number of
people who died on Irish roads is at a record low, with 161 people killed
in 2012…….
- A souped-up, gun-toting modern retelling of the old
children’s story Hansel and Gretel blasted its way to the top of the box office
earnings race this weekend, with “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters”
seizing the No. 1 slot with $19 million in its debut. Last weekend’s top film,
the horror flivk “Mama,” slid to second with $12.9 million and has banked $48.6
million in domestic earnings in two weeks. “Silver Linings Playbook” continued
to build off its Oscar buzz with a second straight weekend in third place,
making $10 million for a cumulative domestic tally of $69.5 million in 11
weeks. Fourth place belonged to “Zero Dark Thirty” and its $9.8 millio outing
for a six-week haul of $69.9 million and counting. The weekend was not so kind
to the latest movie starring Jason Statham doing the exact same thing he does
in every damn one of his movies; kicking everyone’s ass and having sex with hot
women. “Parker” could do no better than fifth place with $7 million in its
first weekend, which was just enough to edge out “Django Unchained,” which
chugged along in sixth place to the tune of $5.1 million for a six-week total
of $146.3 million. The overall star power of the supposedly funny “Movie 43”
fizzled in seventh place as the project debuted with a mere $5 million.
“Gangster Squad” claimed eighth place with $4.2 million and has a so-so $39.6
million in domestic earnings in three weeks of release. The disappointment
continued for “Broken City” in its second week as the Mark Wahlberg and Russell
Crowe-led film staggered to a ninth-place ranking with just $4 million. In two
weeks, the box office bomb has made a measly $15.2 million. “Les Miserables”
completed the top 10 with $3.9 million, good for an overall domestic take of
$137.3 million. “A Haunted House” (No. 12), “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
(No. 13) and “The Last Stand” (No. 16) all dropped out of the top 10 from last
weekend……..
- A gaping hole has appeared in the community fabric in
Waterbury, Conn. Monsignor Kevin Wallin had been a staple in the city for years, but
he’s been ripped from his post and gone from respected religious leader to
suspended Roman Catholic priest arrested on federal drug charges for allegedly
having methamphetamine mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and
making more than $300,000 in drugs sales out of his apartment in Waterbury in
the second half of last year. Functioning like the Catholic Church’s version of
“Breaking Bad” protagonist Walter White, Wallin allegedly used his drug profits
to buy a small adult video and sex toy shop named Land of Oz & Dorothy's
Place in the nearby town of North Haven and used the store to launder all the
money he was making. The good news is that he has pleaded not guilty, so he
obviously didn’t do it and will be acquitted when his trial takes place later
this year. Some have dubbed Wallin as "Monsignor Meth," which is fine
because he’s not going to be the monsignor of St. Augustine Parish in
Bridgeport ever again. Wallin actually resigned in June 2011, citing health and
personal problems, after previously serving six years in the same
capacity at St. Peter's Church in Danbury until 2002. Perhaps seeing the
trouble ahead, the Diocese of Bridgeport suspended him from public ministry
last May. The diocese reportedly became concerned about Wallin in the spring of
2011 after complaints about his appearance and erratic behavior, which makes
sense for a meth dealer who launders his drug profits through an adult video
store. "We became aware that he was acting out sexually with men in the
church rectory," diocese spokesman Brian Wallace said. Feel free to insert
your best rectum/rectory joke here before proceeding…..and then move on. Federal
agents arrested Wallin on Jan. 3 and a grand jury indicted him, along with four
alleged co-conspirators, on drug charges on Jan. 15. Wallin is also charged
with six counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and
also faces the same single count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more
of a substance containing methamphetamine and 50 grams of actual
methamphetamine as his four cohorts……..
- So….good news for anyone who has been hankering to get rid
of those pesky glaciers of the Andes Mountains. Those glaciers are going away quicker
than anyone realized and in fact, they have retreated at an unprecedented rate
in the past three decades, with more ice lost than at any other time in the
last 400 years. According to a new review of research that combines
on-the-ground observations with aerial and satellite photos, historical records
and dates from cores of ice extracted from the glaciers, this glacial retreat
is worse than the average glacier loss around the world. “Tropical Andes
glaciers have lost on average between 30 to 50 percent (depending on the
mountain ranges) of their surface since the late 70s," said study
researcher Antoine Rabatel, a scientist at the Laboratory for Glaciology and
Environmental Geophysics in Grenoble, France. That’s a problem with the Andes
Mountains of South America are home to 99 percent of tropical glaciers. These permanent
rivers of ice at high enough elevations are not affected by the types of balmy
temperatures usually associated with the tropics, but they are particularly
sensitive to climate change because there is little seasonality in temperatures
in the tropics. "Glaciers of the tropical Andes react strongly and more
rapidly than other glaciers on Earth to any changes in climate
conditions," Rabatel said. He and his team analyzed historical records
from early settlements, ice core data taken by drilling down into the annual
layers of ice that make up glaciers, aerial photographs dating back to the
1950s and satellite imagery from as far back as the 1970s and direct,
ground-based observations, to compose their gloomy picture. The current melt
dwarfs the period of accelerated melt in the late 1800s and since the 1970s,
the glaciers have followed a pattern of periods of accelerated melt with two to
three years in between of slower retreat and occasional advance. Glaciers at
lower altitudes (17,700 feet above sea level or lower) are melting twice as
fast as those at higher elevations and the overall average has been permanently
negative over the past 50 years, according to the study…….
- So….how was your Saturday? Do anything historic? The
Northern Illinois Huskies did. In fact, they were so historical that they
shattered a record they already held and just set about seven weeks ago. The
Huskies, who are currently masquerading as a Division I men’s basketball team,
broke their own NCAA Division I
record for futility Saturday by scoring just four points in the first half at
Eastern Michigan. That was enough to best the record the Huskies set for fewest
points in a first half in the shot clock era with five against Dayton on Dec.
1. The first half was the place Northern Illinois did most of its damage…to the
backboard, the side of the rim and the collective psyche and sanity of its
fans. In the opening 20 minutes, an atrociously offensive display of offense
that had Dr. James Naismith puking in his grave saw the Huskies trail 18-4
after shooting 1 for 31, including 29 straight misses. The lone field goal came
one minute into the game when Abdel Nader miraculously converted a fast-break
layup to put his team ahead 2-0. Little did NIU fans know their team would not
convert a field goal for the rest of the half and make just two free throws
before intermission. On the day, the Huskies set three Division I records, none
of them positive. Their 3.2 percent field goal percentage in the first half
Saturday bested (or worst-ed?) Savannah State's 4.3 percent against Kansas
State on Jan. 7, 2008 and their lone first-half field goal also tied a Division
I record set by Savannah State in that game. Their third record was a robust
13.1 (8 for 61) shooting percentage for the game. Sadly, the Huskies narrowly
avoided the record for fewest points in a game -- 20, set by Saint Louis in
January 2008, by finding their scoring touch late and managing 21 second-half
points in a 42-25 loss. Easily the most uplifting moment of the day was NIU
ending a 24-minute, 32-second drought without a field goal with a layup with
14:27 left to close the Eastern Michigan lead to 23-7.……….
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