- Things
are getting tense in the Caribbean and this island is currently not big enough
for both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. At the heart of the heat is, what
else, money. Haiti started the showdown by dropping a ban
on some goods entering overland, banning 23 products from crossing by land its
border with the Dominican Republic, seeking to improve tax collection and
ensure better quality control. Not to be disrespected, merchants in the
Dominican Republic have shuttered the biggest border market for trade with
Haiti. It’s an economic pissing match that will likely hurt consumers more than
anyone, which is always a nice side effect when governments and businesses
declare fiscal war on one another. Haiti’s ban went into effect Oct. 1 and
includes items such as drinking water, flour and construction materials. Under
the terms of the ban, those items can arrive only by air or sea - in other
words, not from the Dominican Republic. Dominican traders in the market town of
Dajabon weren't about to take that sort of blatant disrespect without returning
fire and on Friday, they launched a strike to pressure Haiti to lift its ban. Union
leader Freddy Morillo described the work stoppage at Dajabon as
"indefinite." To illustrate what’s at stake, the banned goods
represent $500 million in annual sales and make up 6 percent of all Dominican
exports. The Dominican government has complained to the World Trade
Organization, but bureaucratic organizations like the WTO aren't exactly known
for delivering swift remedies for contentious situations………
- Keep
rollin, rollin, rollin….to the store to buy some ear plugs, residents of
Crimea. That’s the only proper response when you hear music murderer/Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst talking about his plans
to move to your corner of the world. You might know Crimea as the region of
Ukraine recently annexed by Russia, or you may have heard of it because of
Crimean authorities recent plea for Western celebrities to obtain residence in
the territory. Prime Minister of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov, possibly after downing
a few fifths of quality vodka, went so far as to lay out his vision of the
region as "the new Beverly Hills." Yes, Beverly Hills minus the
amazing climate, film and television industiries, trapping of Western fame and
celebrity and most everything else that makes people want to move to Beverly
Hills. But that offer must have been enough to entice Durst, who may have also
seen former boxing champion Roy Jones Jr. say recently that he wants to obtain
a Russian passport and pursue business interests there. Durst recently
indicated his desire to do the same. "I wouldn’t mind getting a Russian
passport. If you have communication with the relevant authorities, which could
assist with obtaining it… share,” he said. Durst actually does have ties to the
region as his wife, Kseniya Beryazina, is originally from Crimea. She’s
apparently teaching him Russian and as terrifying as it is to imagine the
sickeningly bad, poorly sung lyrics of the Bizkit spoken in Russian and written
in Cyrillic, at least America could finally be free of Durst if he truly is willing
to spend half of the year in Crimea working on TV and film content. The Russian
Embassy in the United Kingdom heard the news and tweeted of the news:
"@FredDurst of @LimpBizkit says he wants to live in Crimea –
welcome!" Be careful what you ask for,
Russia……….
- This
is surprising news, Detroit. Of all cities across the United States, few should
be more accustomed to this sort of sight than you. A bankrupt town where packs
of rabid dogs roam the streets, entire neighborhoods are abandoned like they’re
ground zero for a nuclear blast and hope in scarcer supply than skinny people
in Mississippi should be totally used to seeing a body lying facedown on the
ground. So why are so many of you getting Jedi mind-tricked by Larethia Haddon’s attempt at Halloween humor? The Detroit
woman’s Halloween decorations have prompted repeated visits by police namely because
each day she places a dummy face down in
her front yard. “We received one call each about the dummy on the sixth,
seventh and eighth,” police officer Jennifer Moreno said. Haddon said she places
the dummy facedown in a different location of her yard every morning and then gets
laughs out of the reactions of passersby as she sips her morning coffee and
starts her day. A few especially clueless saps have attempted CRP and “once
they find out it’s a dummy, it’s so hilarious.” Detroit should have known what
was coming, as Haddon ran the same prank before moving to town. “I used to live
in Redford Township, and oh God — the police department, fire department, they
would come out every day,” Haddon said. “Everywhere I’ve ever lived, it’s
always been this way. But this year, for some reason, it’s getting a lot of
attention.” This creative lady started her kooky tradition because her
husband’s birthday is on Halloween and as she sees it, the running gag should
be welcome in the Motor City. “I’m trying to bring laughter to Detroit,” she
said. “We really need it.” Almost as much as Detroit needs sound fiscal
management……….
- Mixed
martial arts, it’s time we had a talk. No, not about the scores of IQ-deprived,
Tapout shirt-wearing, monster truck-driving, protein powder-chugging sycophants
who support your sport, nor about the fact that you pay people to beat one
another within inches of their life. What we need to talk about is this
inexplicable beef you have with keef. You know, your insistence on testing your
fighters for marijuana even though the benefits of being a stoner run contrary
to everything MMA is about. Potheads are mellow to a fault, they lack energy
and they tend to have as much aggression as a Care Bear mixed with glitter.
There are plenty of performance-enhancing drugs out there, but ganja is not one
of them. This matters because of situations like the one involving former
Bellator featherweight and bantamweight champion Joe Warren, who faces a possible 90-day suspension for a positive result in his post-fight drug test
following his decision win over LC Davis at Bellator 143 on Sept. 25. Warren is
a known stoner whose positive test in 2007 kept him from participating in the
2008 Olympic Games, where he was the favorite to take home gold in Greco-Roman
wrestling. This time, he was barely over the acceptable limits, testing for 53
ng/ml, according to Texas Combative Sports Program documents, just above the
legal limit of 50 ng/ml. The fact is that even if you try to argue that pot
helps relieve pain and therefore might benefit an MMA fighter, if a dude is
willing to have his body battered, choked out, arm-barred and pummeled for a living,
allowing him to hippie lettuce his way to comfort is the least you can do for
him. Stop persecuting stoners, MMA promotions of all sizes, and marvel at the
fact that a guy can get baked and still have the level of rage necessary to
climb into the cage and try to tear another person’s limbs from their
sockets………
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