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"It's too bad stupidity isn't painful."
Volume 15, Number 14, April 4, 2010
(To all who celebrate such, Happy Easter and Happy Passover. I recently heard a neat summary of much of Jewish history – “We fought; we won; let’s eat.”)
Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another week. Starting us off are a few news stories you may have missed. First,a Lowe’s Home Center in Tennessee is being sued for discrimination because it forced an employee who is Baptist to work on Sundays, although he said he held sincere religious beliefs against working on the Sabbath (that came years after he was hired). The lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said employee Mark Buehler submitted two written requests for a religious accommodation not to be scheduled for work on Sunday. Lowe’s ignored the request for two months and then denied the request because a human resources official said it might create a hardship on other employees who would like to have Sundays off, the lawsuit said. Buehler lost his full-time status and was reduced to part-time work. Buehler began working at Lowe’s in 2002, was baptized in July 2006, and the following year made a request for a religious accommodation, according to the lawsuit. The EEOC asked the court to order Lowe’s to reinstate Buehler to full-time status and accommodate his request for Sundays off. The EEOC also wants the company to provide back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages. (www.volunteertv.com) (Of course, there is another option – as long as working Sundays is part of the package for everyone (and was when he was hired), he could leave!)
Next, from ABC News, a Dubai appeals court on upheld a one-month prison sentence for a British couple convicted of kissing in a restaurant. The pair landed in court after an Emirati woman complained about the public kiss, which the couple insisted was just a peck on the cheek. They were arrested late last year and convicted of inappropriate behavior and illegal drinking. Cosmopolitan Dubai has the most relaxed social codes in the conservative Gulf, but authorities enforce strict decency laws and regularly crack down on people accused of pushing the limits, which can include everything from wearing a mini skirt to losing one's temper in traffic (yeah, that’s really pushing the limits… it must be nice to have some – seems that in the US, just about anything goes to accommodate the individual). So someone goes into another country, doesn’t follow the country’s rules, and pays a price. I thought people went to another country and ignored, changed or took advantage of the rules to benefit themselves… oh wait, that’s the US. It’s like I go to France and demand everyone learn and speak English to accommodate me….
Finally, Turkish pop-singer Metin Senturk became the world's fastest unaccompanied blind driver and said he felt he had danced with death (this Bit came from Reuters. If it were a US news company, I am sure it would read “visually impaired”). Senturk wept as he emerged from a Ferrari F430 at Urfa airport in eastern Turkey to learn from Guinness World Records officials his average speed of 181.993 mph broke the previous record. "I don't think there are any words to describe this feeling. I am really happy. It was really hard, like a dance with death," said Senturk, who has been blind since the age of three. Following Senturk in a separate vehicle was former rally driver Volkan Isik, who guided the blind man by radio. When visually impaired drivers are through with trying to break records, they return to their regular jobs as full-time Massachusetts drivers.
Stupid Pills (a double dose): In St. Tammany Parish, La., and near Miami Township, Ohio, “men” driving young female family members around decided it would be cool to pretend to be pulling off crimes as they drove. Tim Williams, 45, was arrested in Louisiana after the sight of his duct-taped 12-year-old daughter provoked at least three motorists to call 911. The Ohio man, detained by police after several 911 calls, admitted that he had thought it would be "funny" if his granddaughter held a BB gun to his head as he drove around Dayton Mall. (If it wasn’t Stupid Pills, it was good ol’ plain stupidity at work.) [Times-Picayune]
Speaking of Stupid Pills, from the mainstream Yahoo News, a young man with a promising future, was described as "drunk and belligerent" and was killed in a fall from a fifth-floor hotel balcony during his senior-year spring break in Florida, authorities said. The 17-year-old Notre Dame football was dead when officers arrived. "It appears to be a tragic accident," Panama City Beach police Maj. David Humphreys said. I happen to disagree! Of course, we’d have to define what an accident really is. My bottom line – so many tragic “accidents” didn’t have to happen! Arrrgh!
And I thought I lived in a small town: In Jericho, Ark., alleged harassment by cops got so bad that the fire chief went to court twice in the same day to complain about speed traps. The chief's charge so angered the seven officers attending the hearing, that a courtroom scuffle ensued, resulting in the chief's being shot in the back and hospitalized. WMC-TV reported that the shooter has not been charged but that an arrest warrant has been issued for the chief, who was then fired by the mayor. The police force has been disbanded by the Crittenden County sheriff, and all firefighters have resigned. [MSNBC]
Because They Can. A Californian dog lover has built a $20,000 mansion with its own garden and picket fence for her pampered pooches. Modeled on owner Tammy Kassis's own home, it features a television, vaulted ceilings and air conditioning plus wallpaper and hand-made curtains. Her three dogs, Darla, Chelsea and Coco Puff, even have their own designer doggy beds if they don't fancy the lawn. Tammy, 47, said: "My dogs are my life." The former insurance exec (she must have gotten a nice bonus) decided to give the dogs their own house after Coco Puff was almost kidnapped by an owl. She spent $20,000 on the project and had to hire a 45-ton crane to lift it when she moved the house to Winchester, California. Other accessories include ceiling fans, heating and blinds for the windows. (Ananova)
Because They Can – Part II. From UPI, a U.S. billionaire businessman says Christie's auction house conspired to sell bogus bottles of wine, including some supposedly from Thomas Jefferson's cellar. William Koch filed a federal lawsuit against Christie's in New York, the New York Post reports. Koch, who bought two bottles of the Jefferson wine, says he learned from 10 "confidential witnesses" that the wine was fake. In legal papers, Koch says Christie's did not dig into the true origin of Hardy Rodenstock's wines because the auction house wanted the 25 percent commission from the sale. One of the bottles with the mark "Th.J." was bought by politician and publishing heir Christopher Forbes for $156,000. Koch says he paid more than $300,000 for two of them. Koch said his witnesses include German glassworkers who described etching the Jefferson mark on bottles and former Christie's employees. In his lawsuit, Koch seeks financial damages and an injunction requiring Christie's to get an independent expert's opinion on all wines dating from before 1962. Me? Because of my Webmaster, a good Riesling will do.
From my Canadian Correspondent PJ, some more quotes of great interest: (1) "Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant." Mitchell Kapor. (That one has to be one of the best!) (2) "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living". The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” Mark Twain. (3) "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington. (4) "Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." Napoleon Bonaparte. (5) "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." Friedrich Nietzsche. (5) "Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users?" Clifford Stoll
A Chinese zoo has been criticized for letting a three-year-old girl walk a tightrope eight meters (26 feet) above a tiger enclosure. The little girl walked along the 427-foot- long high wire above six hungry Siberian tigers at Changzhou Yancheng Zoo in Jiangsu province. She was part of a routine which also involved two adult acrobats who crossed the wire using a bicycle and a ladder as props. But the crowd gasped when three-year-old Zhang Xiaoyan started to walk along the wire, with a thin safety rope attached around her waist. Witnesses said people screamed when she nearly lost her footing on the first step, as a strong gust of wind nearly blew her off the wire. The little girl walked along the wire without even a pole, using just her arms for balance, as the tigers prowled below. One even jumped up towards her. Horrified visitors criticized the zoo for putting on the stunt which they said amounted to child abuse. A zoo spokesman said they had hired a professional group, the Jiangxi Elite Children Arts Troupe, to put on the routine which met all safety requirements. Zhang Shenwen, director of Jiangxi Elite Children Arts Troupe, said Xiaoyan was the world's youngest high wire walker, and had been training since she was just one (o-kay). "She has very good psychological control," he added, saying she would retire at the age of seven to go to school and eventually planned to go to university. (Ananova)
Finally, a lucky day for all involved. A Florida restaurant said a fish that fell from the sky and landed on an employee's windshield is alive and on now display at the eatery's pond. Angel Pacheco, an employee at Chameleon's sushi bar in Melbourne, said a worker was preparing to leave for the day when the fish landed on the windshield of his truck, WESH-TV, Orlando, Fla., reported. "They brought him into the kitchen, put him in some water, he started flopping around and they said, 'Oh wow, we're going to have fresh sushi because we're a great sushi bar here,' and I said, 'Wait a minute. That's our lucky fish. That doesn't just happen every day. We need to put him in our pond up front so everybody can enjoy him,'" Pacheco said. The fish, which has a dent in its head believed to be from the fall, appears to be swimming happily with the restaurant's other fish. Workers theorized the fish was dropped onto the vehicle by a bird flying overhead.
Later.
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