- Because every athlete, actor or musician wants to be good
not only at their primary profession, but a true crossover sensation, Kristen
Stewart. Stewart has revealed she’s working on a new project with Scottish
electro group Chvrches and while this might seem like an actress trying to
branch out and expand her brand, the effort is actually to raise awareness for
Planned Parenthood. Chvrches are in the middle of recording their third album
and according to Stewart, she’s been hankering for a chance to work with the
group for a while now. She explained that she asked Chvrches for a chance to
pitch in and apparently, helping out Planned Parenthood was a reason to say
yes. Stewart hasn’t revealed how she’ll contribute or whether raising money for
the organization is part of the process, but said she “ended up with a pretty
simple but definitive narrative arc that highlights the cause in a sweet but
quiet and confronting way.” Very vague and cryptic and for someone who’s an
outspoken critic of Donald Trump, who earlier this year signed an executive
order to attempt to strip funds from Planned Parenthood, this makes sense. There
was also that one time Trump tweeted about her relationship with Robert
Pattinson - though Trump tweets about damn never everything and everyone,” but
Stewart explained recently that his election as president spurred her to become
more involved in politics and since Chvrches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry is a
vocal presence on LGBT issues, teaming up with Stewart fits………
- Profit always triumphs over conservation…or so it seems.
It does in South Africa, where the government is moving ahead with plans to
allow a domestic trade and limited export of rhino horns over the vociferous objections
of many animal rights activists and conservationists about poachers being
responsible for a record slaughter in the past decade. The new rules aren't official
yet, but draft regulations would allow foreigners with permits to export
"for personal purposes" a maximum of two rhino horns. That has alarmed
critics who contend that exported horns would be hard to monitor and likely
would end up on the commercial market despite global agreements to protect
threatened rhino populations. Since most of the world's rhinos live in South
Africa and an international ban on trade in rhino horns has been in place since
1977, this is a hot button issue. South Africa imposed a moratorium on the
domestic trade in 2009 to slow the soaring demand for horns in parts of Asia,
especially Vietnam, but has since lost court battles to preserve the 2009 ban,
which was challenged by rhino breeders. The most recent attempted change of
course came last year, when South Africa backing a failed proposal by
neighboring Swaziland at a U.N. wildlife conference in Johannesburg to legalize
the international sale of rhino horn. In a hollow display, the government held
a 30-day period during which the public was invited to express opinions about
the draft legislation on rhino horn trade, but that period ended last week and
now….we wait. "The comments will be evaluated, the draft regulatory
provisions will be revised based on the comments received, and the process for
approval of the final legislation will be set in motion," the government
said. Under the proposed law, a foreigner who takes rhino horns out of the
country must do so through OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and
cannot carry them in hand luggage, but however they may be carried, dollar
signs will almost certainly hover overhead……..
- At least this time, it was acquired legitimately. Many
times, a wealthy professional athlete ends up with an ugly black eye and the
true story is cloaked soon behind lies and half-truths, but Miami Heat point
guard Goran Dragic sitting out a 102-98 loss to the Indiana Pacers with a
grotesque shiner engulfing his right eye is as legit as they come. Dragic
suffered the injury when he took an elbow to the right eye during the team's
win against the Toronto Raptors the previous night and said he expected to play
against the Pacers, only to have the injury worsen overnight to the point where
the swelling completely shut his eye. "I cannot even see in the right
eye," Dragic said. "I didn't imagine it was going to be so bad. The
right eye is completely closed. The doctor checked the eye last night. He said
the eye is fine. Just swelling. We will do treatment [to get some] swelling
down. There's just pressure. No pain." The good news for the team’s
leading scorer is that doctors have assured him that there will be no long-term
damage in the eye. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra noted that the team had taken to
calling Dragic by the nickname Drago, an obvious reference to the iconic
“Rocky” villain who suffered and dished out a massive amount of fictional pain
in the boxing ring. On some level, the Heat had to be relieved that the black
eye didn’t happen when Dragic was out in the club at 2 a.m., only to have some
troll roll up on he and his boys, start a fight with the intention of suckering
a professional athlete into doing something dumb and giving them a reason to
sue for a nice, seven-figure sum in court. Still, it’s extremely difficult for
a point guard to have great court vision when he can only see out of one eye,
so sitting a top player is the right call for a team to make, even if that team
is currently on the outside of the playoff picture, looking in any trying to
gain ground……..
- Rink you, South Middleton Township, Pennsylvania. That
message goes out in direct response to your general bureaucratic bullsh*t that
has robbed a local family of one of the only joys of living in a remote, frozen
wasteland like South Middleton Township, Pennsylvania at this time of year. The
Beam family figured it was creating magic and memories for its children and
their friends by building a hockey rink in their backyard, but the powers that
be in their quaint hamlet put them in the penalty box. “We want a space for
them to... just get outside and get some exercise and kind of bring back the
old school fun that we had when we were kids,” Terry Beam said. Yet news of
building something like a hockey rink doesn’t go unnoticed and when word
reached the township engineer, he sent the family a letter informing them that
their rink was a code violation. “A drainage easement is located on your
property,” the letter stated. "By placing objects and fences that block
the water, such as the skating rink constructed on your property, the amount of
storage available is reduced, and the basin will not function as
designed." The family appealed, claiming that the rink was a temporary structure that wouldn’t
pose any serious hazard, but after the local board of supervisors held not one,
but two meetings to address the subject, they decided against the family. They
claim the Beams failed to show for the meetings, while the family contends they
were never invited. Terry Beam wrote a letter protesting the decision, but
township manager Cory Adams was having none of it and ass-hattedly declared
that in this township, they “take storm water management very seriously.”
Hopefully more seriously than you take that stick shoved up your ass……..
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