- Almost,
gun-happy Florida kooks. You had a chance to open fire on humanity’s furry
tormentors with the blessing of your state government and yet, you couldn’t hit
the mark. The Sunshine State held a statewide bear
hunt to end last week and the hunt ended Saturday with 207 bears killed across
the state. That was just under the limit set by the state as 99 bears were
killed in Central Florida, 12 in North Florida, 15 in South Florida and 81 in
the panhandle. While hunting is expected to continue statewide in some parts
that haven’t reached a quota set by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission, failing to off as many of these toothy killers as possible is
disappointing. "The harvest
objective was set as the number we want to achieve to stabilize the growing
populations," commission spokeswoman Susan Smith said. "When we set
them, we did so with allowable range, recognizing that the harvest may exceed
the objective." The plan is for the weeklong hunt to continue until 320
bears are killed and registered at the 33 “check-in” stations the commission
set up around the state. Hunters who blast a hole in ol’ Smokey have 12 hours to present the carcass to wildlife
agents, who will update the statewide tally each night. Depending on whom you
ask, the purpose of the hunt is to either cut down on the surging population of
the black bears or senselessly slaughter some of God’s most misunderstood, warm
and cuddly critters. The state estimates there are about 3,000 bears roaming
parts of Florida, with hundreds of neighborhood bear incidents in recent years.
This is Florida’s first bear hunt in 21 years and predictably, it was met by a
lawsuit from animal rights kooks who argued that the purpose was giving hunters
something new to hang on their wall. That lawsuit was rejected and the hunt
continues………
- The best
smartphones may offer a variety of options when it comes to alarms, tones and
means to ensure a person wakes up on time, but one thing no iPhone or Droid
comes equipped with is the capability to overcome laziness and stupidity. That’s
a problem for Houston Texans backup quarterback Ryan Mallett, whose issues with
sleep and time management have become a real problem for both he and the team.
The Texans, who traded a draft pick to the New England Patriots on Aug. 31,
2014 for what they thought was a promising young quarterback who just needed a
chance and signed Mallett to a two-year, $7.005 million contract this offseason,
left their second-string signal caller behind when the team charter took off
for Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins. Mallett missed Saturday's team
charter to Miami and the 6-foot-7 veteran quarterback later took a commercial
flight to south Florida. He also missed a practice during training camp, two
days after the Texans named Brian Hoyer their Week 1 starting quarterback,
telling the team at that time he bought an alarm clock and promising general
manager Rick Smith that that kind of thing would not happen again. Despite not
being able to use the clock/alarm app on his phone, Mallett got a chance to
play when Hoyer struggled in the first game and even started in Week 2. Over
the next three games, Mallett went 1-3,
completing 52.2 percent of his passes for 672 yards with two touchdowns and
four interceptions. He lost the starting job again and has shown his discontent
with a prickly sideline demeanor in the weeks since. Teams are generally
reluctant to hand a starting job to a guy not smart or responsible enough to
wake up and get to work on time, so flying in coach with a bunch of tourists
heading to Miami for the weekend might be the first of many indignities Mallett
will suffer over the last two months of the season before he’s released this
winter………
- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! Sh*t got real this weekend in Kosovo, where police say one
officer and two protesters have been injured in clashes in the capital city of
Pristina just one day after the opposition disrupted parliament with tear gas
to protest against agreements with Serbia and Montenegro. The rage was real in
the early morning hours as several hundred opposition supporters threw petrol
bombs and other objects outside the parliament building in Pristina. The sight
of enraged rioters hurling fuel bombs, Molotov cocktails and whatever the hell
else they can get their hands off is always an uplifting one, even if 10 of
these maniacs were arrested for their efforts. Those 10 detainees can take
pride in the fact that their efforts were part of a weekend that saw the
opposition twice disrupt lawmakers’ efforts to hold the parliament session in
their chamber. Parliament members of the two governing political parties were
eventually forced to a different space in the building to meet — without their
opponents - which was a bit offensive given that those opponents had people
outside trying to burn their city to the ground all in the name of making their
voices heard. Opposition members demanded cancellation of Friday's session
unless the government renounced deals with Serbia to give more powers to
Serb-dominated areas in Kosovo, and with Montenegro on border demarcation. Fear
of losing chunks of your country and control over it is enough to strike fear
into the heart of most any über-nationalistic soul, so this is a battle that won't
end quickly or quietly. Burning down parliament hasn’t worked so far, however,
and as a new week begins it might be time to find a new tactic to create change
in one of the world’s most combustible regions……….
- Not
the point, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards,
not the point. Richards seems to believe that the purpose of rock stars
ingesting immense amounts of various illegal substances is to somehow enhance
their creativity by expanding their minds and removing barriers to free
thinking courtesy of chemicals. Richards, who famously admitted to snorting his
late father’s ashes as if they were a vial of premium cocaine, was asked about
the possible connection between drug use and creativity. "I have never felt it did anything for my
creativity. It kept me up a lot at nights looking for the stuff,” Richards
said. "It was something that I had to stop because I realized there are
experiments that go on too long. Some people can handle things and other people
can't. If the drugs become more important than the music then you've lost the
battle." Fine, but the point of taking drugs isn't to make you a
better musician. No, free blow, pot, X, heroin and the like are merely one of
the perks of being a rock star, a way to certify that you’re one of the cool
musicians who’s made it to a place where narcotics, booze and groupies flow
freely and the rules of civilized society don’t apply. No one does a row of the
Bolivian marching powder off a groupie’s stomach before having sex with her in
the dressing room because it’s going to help them write the next “Let It Be.”
They do those things because they’re an effing rock star and that’s what rock
stars do. Maybe weaning themselves off drugs is part of what’s gone wrong with
the Stones as they’re morphed from awesome, blues-rooted rock band to a bunch
of commercialized sellouts cranking out a steady stream of arena rock and car
commercial jingles as they refuse to admit that their time of relevance is
over……….
No comments:
Post a Comment