- Sticking your index fingers in your ears and screaming,
“LALALALALALALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” is rarely an effective foreign policy
strategy. Myanmar – nee Burma – is going to give it a shot anyhow.
Specifically, the Burmese government is choosing to reject the obvious and
ignore its neighboring nations’ claims that it is responsible for foisting a
growing migrant crisis on its neighbors. See, crowded boats filled with
more than 2,000 desperate and hungry refugees have arrived in Thailand,
Malaysia and Indonesia in recent weeks and while a cynic might look at the fact
that most of those on board are ethnic Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in
Myanmar and infer that Myanmar has a lot to do with this problem, Myanmar
thinks otherwise. Choosing not to accept responsibility for those 2,000
refugees or the thousands more believed to be adrift in boats at sea is a
textbook case of denial and at the front of that parade is presidential
official Maj. Zaw Htay, who boldly proclaimed that his country "will not
accept the allegations by some that Myanmar is the source of the problem."
Well played, Z. Furthermore this anti-visionary thinker threw down the gauntlet
by letting the world know that Myanmar will let them know if it will attend a
meeting to be hosted by Thailand later this month aimed at easing the
humanitarian emergency once it knows what’s on the agenda. A week and a half
remains until the May 29 meeting and from the looks of it, Myanmar may well
decide to simply pretend the entire event isn't even happening at all……..
- The weird one has returned. Director David Lynch, who
just last month quit on a limited-run return of his iconic 1990s television
series “Twin Peaks,” has confirmed that he will return to directing the new
series. The past seven months have been full of twists and turns for both Lynch
and the “Peaks” revival, as just last October, Showtime announced that it was
bringing back the director’s cult favorite series for nine new episodes. It was
enough to get the show’s loyal, possibly disturbed following excited, right up
to April 5, when Lynch pulled the rug out from under those fans by announcing
that he had pulled out of negotiations to direct the project. That left the
world wondering about whether the project could soldier on and in an effort to
keep it alive, cast members made online videos pleading for Lynch's return. Those
videos and the outpouring of support from would-be viewers were enough to win
over the director of such films as “Eraserhead”
and “Blue Velvet,” prompting
Lynch to tweet out the good news that he was reversing field and hopping back
in the director’s chair. . "Dear Twitter Friends, the rumors are not what
they seem ….. It is !!! Happening again. #TwinPeaks returns on
@SHO_Network," he wrote. If this decision actually sticks, the show could
hit the air in a few months and while details of the plot remain closely
guarded, having the bizarre Lynch helming it ensures that it will be as kooky
and eccentric as humanly possible……….
- Being a third-grade teacher can be a) less financially
lucrative than one might expect and b) extremely stressful. It’s enough to
inspire a woman to go real-life Walter White, as evidenced by the white trash
case of Zebulan, North Carolina educator and future women’s prison inmate
Lori Whitley. Whitley has been a third-grade teacher at Wendell Elementary
School since 2002 and it appears that for at least part of that time, she has
also been running a meth lab in her home. Police in Zebulan said they found a
meth lab inside the home Whitley shares with her husband Gary and the couple’s
8-year-old son. Johnston County deputies located equipment to make
methamphetamine in the morning when officers served a search warrant on the
home, which is about 24 miles east of Raleigh. The Whitley clan now faces a
number of charges including manufacturing methamphetamine and child abuse. But
hell, it’s not like the 8 year old was home at the time and had to witness mom
and dad being hauled away in squad car by….oh wait, he was? Scratch that. One
of the most hilarious parts of the morning was neighbor Bernard Brodie calling Lori
Whitley a “good lady” while noting that he smelled a strong odor coming from
the home but did not know there was a drug operation going on in the house.
There are a lot of clueless people in the world, y’all. It seems that after
long days of dealing with snot-nosed 9 year olds for low pay, Lori Whitley
needed something to take the edge off and put some extra money in her pockets.
She’s likely headed to a place where neither pockets nor currency that isn’t in
the form of cigarettes are a part of daily life……..
- Do the Washington Capitals have a problem? That depends on whether you
believe that being unable to win a playoff series when you have a 3-1 lead and
merely need to triumph in one of the final three games to advance is a problem.
Ask some Capitals players and there is no pattern in blown playoff series leads
over the years or in their utter inability to reach the conference finals. This
season, the Caps choked away a 3-1 second-round lead over the New York Rangers
and bowed out of the playoffs with a 2-1 overtime loss in Game 7. They fell
after being a mere 101 seconds from advancing out of the second round, leading
the best-of-seven series 3-1 and ahead 1-0 in the third period of Game 5
against New York. And yes, they suffered similar beatdowns at the hands of the
Rangers in 2012 and 2013 and the core of the current team -- Ovechkin, Nicklas
Backstrom and Mike Green -- has never won more than one series in a single NHL
postseason. But that doesn’t mean anything, right forward Troy Brouwer?
"We've got to find a way to be able to get past this little hump of losing
in the first or second round, and it starts with closing teams out and not
being afraid to succeed," Brouwer said. "It could be a little bit of
a mental block for some guys, for sure." Ovechkin, who scored the team’s
lone goal in Game 7 but was largely invisible in Games 5 and 6, seemed in
denial and said the team “deserved a better result.” But the man in charge –
for now – is Caps coach Barry Trotz, so let’s hear his thoughts. "We're
going to have (to) find that next level of 'killer instinct,'" Trotz said.
Or you could accept that you’re really, really good at one thing and that one
thing is falling woefully short of expectations while failing to live up to
your hockey potential. Silver linings, yo……….
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