Shop at the Hagerstown Prime Outlets and you might have your car towed away
Some Black Friday shoppers at the Hagerstown Prime Outlets mall discovered upon finishing their shopping that their cars had been towed away. There were so many shoppers at the Prime Outlets that all of the parking spaces were full. Many people began parking on the grassy areas.
Evidently the Prime Outlets has a rule against parking on the grass. The problem is, they do not post signs stating this fact. They keep this rule to themselves.
Shoppers who had their car towed away were forced to pay a towing company $250 to get their vehicle back.
I know where these people were parking. The only reason anyone would ever park there is because there’s no other place for them to park. This is such a scam. [MSNBC]
India links Mumbai terror attacks to Pakistan
Now that the Mimbai crisis is finally over, Indian is casting suspicion on Pakistani militant groups.
One of the terrorists, Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, was captured alive. He had been pretending to be dead and when he was being transported to the hospital, someone noticed he was breathing. His injuries turned out to by very minor.
Kasab told investigators that he and his fellow terrorists were told to target whites, preferably Americans and the British.
It’s also been reported that the Mumbai attacks were funded in part by cash raised in British mosques.
Pakistan officials are adiment that they were not involved in the attacks and are demanding that Inda prove that Pakistan is responsible by producing evidece linking them to the attacks.
If India confirms that Pakistan is involved in the attacks, how do they respond? Both Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons. If the two countries go to war over this incident, can they refrain from going nuclear?
This is why I don’t drink wine or go to college football games
Lois Feldman, 38, married mother of three, Sunday school teacher, drinker of wine, Iowa Hawkeye fan, and bathroom stall sex bandit wants the world to know that her life is ruined.
At least that is what she told the Demoines Register.
In case you haven’t heard, Feldman was caught making love with a 26-year old stranger in a men’s room stall at an Iowa Hawkeye – Minnesota Gophers college football game. She and her husband had gone to a party before the game where she drank mass quantities of wine. She and her husband then left the party to attend the game. Shortly before halftime, she left her husband to go use the ladies room and the rest is college football men’s room stall history.
She claims she doesn’t remember the event. She says that she only remembers leaving her seat to use the restroom and the next thing she remembers is a police officer pushing the door open and separating her from her stall companion.
If you are thinking that Feldman’s husband is wasting no time in starting divorce proceedings, you are wrong. Not only does Mr. Feldman fully support his wife through this, he actually blames himself. Whatever.
If she thinks her life is now ruined over this, why is she talking to a reporter? All she’s doing is perpetuating the story. There’s nothing she can do or say to make it any better. She needs to just shut up. And not drink wine.
Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the leg
New York football Giants Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday:
The New York Giants wide receiver accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday night, FOXSports.com has learned, not long after being ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Redskins with a hamstring injury.
He spent the night in the hospital and the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The team is still trying to gather further information on the incident.
Once again Fox Sports breaks a story that ESPN only knows about if they are constantly patrolling the Fox Sports website. I realize that ESPN has crowned itself the worldwide leader in sports, but how many times do they need to get out scooped before the relinquish their crown to Fox Sports?
ESPN sucks.
More about the Walmart trample death
The New York Times has reported more details about the Black Friday stampede at a Long Island Walmart that resulted in the death of one of it’s employees.
The crowd on hand was estimated to be more than 2,000. The doors were never actually opened by any of the Walmart employees. The mob began beating on the glass doors shortly before Walmart was to open at 5:00 am. A number of Walmart employees on the other side of the doors were attempting to push back against the crowd. There were so many people pressed up against the sliding-glass doors that the doors bowed in and then shattered.
Jdimytai Damour, 34, was pushed back when the doors shattered and he was thrown to the floor. Frantic shoppers then stepped on him as they were entering the store. Other Walmart employees were hurled back and run over, but it was clear to witnesses that Mr. Damour was getting the brunt of the crowd. Some Walmart employees fought their way to get to him. Rescue workers tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital.
The pregnant woman that was also trampled only sustained minor injuries. She did not lose her baby as reported earlier.
Nassau County police are reviewing the security tapes. If any of the individuals can be identified, criminal charges for the people that stepped on Mr. Damour are possible.
I can’t even figure out what drew the mob to Walmart in the first place. I remember looking though the circular, but I don’t remember seeing anything that would prompt me to go out first thing in the morning, let alone storm the front door with a mob of 2,000 other shoppers.
When I see an unruly mob of 2,000 people, I tend to go the opposite direction.
Walmart Black Friday trample death: the photos
The New York Daily News has posted photos taken at the Green Acres Mall Walmart Long Island, New York where Black Friday shoppers trampled and killed a Walmart employee. A pregnant woman was also injured. She lost her unborn baby.
It’s pretty clear from the photos that Walmart had a problem before the doors were ever opened. People were pressed right up against the doors. The manager should have done something instead of simply telling an unlucky employee to open the doors.
By looking at the photos, I’m not even sure the people at front of the mod could have stopped if they wanted to. There is a large crowd off people behind them who most likely pushing the mob forward. If they were to stop, they most likely would have been trampled on too.
Walmart employee trampled to death by Black Friday shoppers
A Walmart employee was trampled to death at a Long Island, New York Walmart as he was attempting to open the doors of the store this morning to allow Black Friday shoppers to enter. From the New York Daily News:
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.
“He was bum-rushed by 200 people,” said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. “They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too…I literally had to fight people off my back.”
Nassau County Police are still investigating and would not confirm the witness accounts. Police did say there were several injuries but weren’t more specific.
The article also mentions that a pregnant woman at the same store was trampled and as a result, lost her baby.
Pakistan behind trouble in India?
I’m not sure this is of any suprise to anyone, but officials in India are coming to the conclusion that Pakistan may be behind the terror attacks in Mumbai. From The Times of India:
While initial reports from India suggested the Mumbai carnage was a localised attack by militant malcontents in India because of the “Deccan Mujaheddin” decoy that was used to claim responsibility, evidence cited by Indian army and security experts based on phone intercepts, nature of weaponry, mode of entry by sea etc., has quickly focused the attention on Pakistan.
I’ll admit that when I first heard that the attacks were being carried out by Islamic terrorists, I immediately thought Pakistan was involved. Mostly that’s because I know that India and Pakistan don’t get along. I’m also somewhat of a religious bigot and when I hear that something blew up and people were killed, I think that Muslims and not Southern Baptists or Mormons were involved.
I’m not saying that all Muslims are terrorists. I’m only saying that most terrorists are Muslim.
Vote for Saxby Chambliss, mauler of pre-teen boobies
Vote for U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss in the Georgia runoff election or he will force his granddaughter to sit on his lap while he gives her a never ending titty-twister. This video is disturbing on so many levels. When I first started watching it, I was thinking the girl on his lap looked a little old to be sitting on an adult male’s lap. And that was before he started going all Saturday night drive-in movie on her.
Yuck. What a creepy old coot.
Chambliss is that pathetic loser that ran negative ads six years against incumbent Senator Max Cleland calling Cleland’s patriotism into question. Max Cleland won a Silver Star and Bronze Star for fighting in Vietnam. Max Cleland also lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam. Saxby Chambliss never served in the military because he had a bad knee.
I don’t know if that is the same knee his pre-teen granddaughter is perched on.
Wow, the Lions really suck
Like a good American I’m watching the first NFL game between the Tennessee Titans and the Detroit Lions. I cannot believe just how bad the Lions really are. Granted, I realized before this game that they were a whopping 0-11 for the season. If anything, they are even worse than their meager record suggests.
Why than are they even on national TV?
I know that they have always been shown on TV on Thanksgiving Day and it’s some sort of tradition, but enough is enough. The NFL should have yanked them from their Thanksgiving Day obligation years ago. You don’t showcase your worst team on national TV for the entire country to watch.
I have to hand it to Lions fans. It looks as though the stadium is packed with people. It’s not like they don’t have anything better to do. It takes a lot to be a Lions fan in 2008.
Battle of the Black Friday Blu-ray players
Like a lot of Americans, I’ve been checking out the Black Friday websites for a deal on Blue-ray players. From what I can tell, there are two different units from two different companies making an appearance early tomorrow morning. One from Sony and one from Samsung. From what I can tell, both players are essentially the same in that they play both high definition Blue-ray discs and standard definition DVD discs.
The two players are:
Sony BDP-S350 Blu-Ray Disc Player
- Best Buy $249.99
- Sears $179.99
- K-Mart $179.99
Samsung Blu-ray Disc Player BD-P1500
- Best Buy $199.99
- Circuit City $199.99
- Sears $199.99
- Wal-Mart $198.00
Best Buy being Best Buy of course has to charge more for the Sony player then K-Mart and Sears. Wal-Mart being Wal-Mart has to get all cute with their price, charging $1.99 less than everyone else.
I hate Wal-Mart.
I don’t really want to go out this Black Friday. I definitely don’t want to go out at oh-dark thirty and engage in hand-to-hand combat with shoppers looking for a deal. We might head out later in the day and see if we can buy one of these Blu-ray machines. I’m thinking that Wal-Mart will stock up on Blu-ray players if for no other reason then to sell lots and lots of Blu-ray discs. Maybe if they stock up enough, they’ll have them available even later in the day after the crowds thin out.
Incestuous German brother and sister fight to stay married
Patrick Stuebing, 31, and his sister Susan Karolewski, 23 are married. They claim that it should not be illegal for them to marry because they didn’t know each other as children. Patrick was adopted by another family at a very young age and wasn’t reunited with his biological family until he was 18.
Patrick then moved in with his biological family and a romance with his sister Susan soon followed. If my math is correct, that means the two “fell in love” when Patrick was 18 and Susan was 10. And who thought brother-sister love wasn’t creepy enough?
The couple have four children together, two of which have disabilities. The child shown here in this photo doesn’t even have a face. And this is supposed to be the master race? [OK! Magazine]
More about the demise of Blog@Newsarama
Heidi at The Beat has some more details concerning the news that the people behind the popular blog section of Newsarama are leaving at the end of this month.
JK Parkin explains:
Anyway, everything came to a head in September, when I decided to step down and the rest of the blog said they were going with me. The headaches, problems and lack of response from Imaginova just weren’t worth it anymore. But Matt (Brady) talked us into staying, promising some changes in how things worked, how we interacted with Imaginova and our first pay raise since we started with the blog back in 2006. He offered a pretty decent pay system that turned this from a side hobby we were all probably spending too much time on into a legitimate freelance opportunity.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he came back in November and said those changes he’d promised were effectively null and void. So we decided to leave, effective Nov. 30.
JK Parkin states that he decided to leave Newsarama and the rest of the team, Kevin Melrose, Tim O’Shea, Carla Hoffman, Melissa Krause, Jeff Trexler, Matt Maxwell, and Jennifer de Guzman, decided to go with him. Or maybe not. In the same post over at The Beat, Matt Maxwell left a comment stating that he hasn’t yet decided if he is leaving Newsarama or not. Maybe there’s others who having decided to leave quite yet.
It doesn’t make much sense for any of them to remain blogging over at Newsarama. As I pointed out in an earlier post, traffic to Newsarama seems to have dropped off dramaticly since Imaginova relaunched the site. If making money is their goal, they could still do that on their own site by placing ads for the same entities that were buying ad space on Blog@Newsarama.
Happy Thanksgiving
If you live in the United States of America, chances are you will be eating turkey at least once today. It’s that time of year when we stop the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives and give thanks for all the wonderful things we have.
How do we do that? By stuffing our faces with as much turkey meat and carbohydrates as we can. It’s how we Americans say thanks.
The goal is to eat so much that you go into a glucose and tryptophan induced coma by the third quarter of the Lion’s game. Tryptophan is that magical substance found in turkey that makes you sleepy. It’s kind of like heroin, but not as addictive.
The Newsarama bloggers are leaving at the right time
With news coming out that the entire blog@newsarama blogging staff was leaving Newsarama at the end of this month, I thought it might be interesting to see how if Newsarama’s Alexa ranking has changed much since it was acquired by Imaginova and then subsequently “made over” by the new owners.
The above chart shows a steady decline in traffic to Newsarama since Imaginova relaunched the “new” Newsarama on June 26. By looking at this Alexa chart, traffic has dropped by nearly half.
The death of Blog@Newsarama
The folks that post content to Blog@Newsarama have announced that they collectively will be leaving Newsarama on November 30. On December 1, Blog@Newsarama will continue with all new people. In other words, the only section of Newsarama worth reading since the acquisition by Imaginova is going bye-bye. I wonder if any of these new people even read funny books?
JK Parkin writes on Blog@Newsarama:
It’s kind of bittersweet, then, to announce that those of us who currently write for the blog are leaving Newsarama. It’s no secret that the site has gone through tremendous growing pains over the last few months and has been moving in a new direction since being purchased by Imaginova. Behind the scenes, there’s been a lot of growing pains as well, and we’ve reached the point where we think it’s better for us to move on. Nov. 30 will be our last day, and starting Dec. 1 you’ll be seeing a new crew take over the site.
Later on in the same post, JK Parkin hints to the fact that the team behind Blog@Newsarama will be forming up somewhere else to deliver the same excellent content:
Like I said, this isn’t a goodbye; it’s more like a “see you later.” Take care until then.
Like a lot of people, I look forward to where ever they end up next.
Barack Obama picks a man with a bad toupee to be in his administration
President Elect Barack Obama announced yesterday that Peter Orszag will be placed in charge of the White House Office of Management and Budget. For the past two years he has been in charge of the Congressional Budget Office. I take it from reading his bio that he is a scary smart economist. He even has a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.
With that said, if he is so smart, why does he thinks that godawful hair piece on top of his skull is fooling anyone? That’s not a toupee, that’s a hair hat.
I say to you Peter Orszag, one bald man to another, take that dead racoon off your head and let your scalp breath.
Read ‘Spawn’ #185 on MySpace for free
If the only reason you aren’t reading Spawn is because you can’t afford the $3 cover price, I have really good news for you. You can now go to MySpace and read Spawn #185 for free.
Each page is posted as a 750px x 1153px image. All of the images appear on the same page. Once you allow the page to load up, all of the images (comic pages) are available for your reading pleasure. No extra software needed or special hoops to jump through.
This is how digital comics should be done.
Evidently this issue of Spawn is a big one in that something major happens. Usually in the world of funny books, this means that the lead character dies. I don’t know if that’s the case here because Spawn is actually already dead.
Judge overturns Florida ban on gay people adopting
Gay people in Florida can now adopt children.
From the Associated Press:
A judge on Tuesday ruled that a strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children is unconstitutional, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state’s arguments that there is “a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children.”
This a huge civil rights victory. I think it’s great that people who want to be parents through adoption are allowed to do so. Adoption is a wonderful thing that should be encouraged, not discouraged or banned.
The sexual orientation of the parents shouldn’t matter. What kid wants to think about their parents — straight or gay — having sex? It’s equally creepy either way.
Now if only all parents of adopted children were allowed to marry in all 50 states.
Let Citigroup fail
I noticed on my Citi Mastercard statement that Citi is raising my interest rate from 7.99% to 14.99%. There was no reason given. There was no justification for this huge increase.
I went online to see if anyone else was having this problem and it appeared that I was not alone. I read a New York Times article that talked about Citigroup raising the interest rates of most customers, the average being 2%-3%. Mine’s going up 7.99%.
I called Citi and asked why my rate is being increased 7.99%. I got to speak to someone who obviously was merely reading from a script. She couldn’t tell me why my rate was being increased to 7.99%, only that everyone was getting a rate increase. I told her about the New York Times article and pointed out that is said on average customers were looking at a 2%-3% rate increase. This is when she began to go off script. She informed me that I shouldn’t believe a magazine like the New York Times because they are routinely being sued for spreading false information. I informed her that the New York Times was actually a newspaper, not a magazine.
Getting nowhere with her, I asked to speak with someone else. She transferred me to someone else who seemingly had no idea what I was calling about. I had to repeat everything I had already said to the first person, repeating my question as to why my rate was being jacked up from 7.99% to 14.99%. He repeated that everyone was getting their rates increased. I asked him if everyone was looking at a 7.99% increase. He informed me that everyone is different and he couldn’t answer that question, but he offered to direct me to their public relations department. Huh?
My problem with this is that I cannot understand why my account is looking at 7.99% increase. I have excellent credit. I pay all my bills on-time. My Citi Mastercard is the only credit card I have. I routinely get pre-approved credit card offers in the mail with a interest rate far lower than 14.99%. In fact, only last week I got an offer from Citi offering to transfer any existing credit cards to Citi at the interest rate of 2.9% until July 2010.
Why would they extend this offer to me at the same time they are doubling my interest rate?
With talk of the federal government stepping in to bail out Citigroup with a large infusion of taxpayer funded bailout money, I cannot ignore the irony. My taxes will be going to help keep a company solvent that not only will be doubling my interest rate — even though they told Congress they wouldn’t do that — they cannot tell me why my interest rate is being nearly doubled.
Notre Dame students show class by throwing snowballs at their own football team
What’s even better than watching Notre Dame get beat at home by a truly bad team? Seeing Notre Dame students demonstrate just how pathetic they really are. From Fox Sports:
Fans at first threw snow in the air, but then quickly switched to tossing snowballs toward the Notre Dame sideline. Defensive lineman Ian Williams got hit in the helmet, defensive end Ethan Johnson was struck on the left cheek and a St. Joseph County police officer on the sideline looking into the crowd got hit in the chest. An NBC camera man also was a frequent target and several snowballs reached the field, although none landed near where play was occurring.
I wish that I had watched the game. Not only do I despise the Fighting Irish, I like the Orangemen. Technically, I’m sort of kind of a Syracuse alumni in that I completed my associates degree (the 14th grade) by taking night classes at Utica College of Syracuse University. I used to go to both Syracuse football games and basketball games while I was stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base back in my Air Force days.
Good times!
You know why Kiss is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
Gene Simmons is perturbed that Kiss isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Evidently he mouthed off about the supposed snub on his crappy reality TV show, Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Not that I would ever watch it and I’ve been known to watch quite a bit of crappy reality TV.
The reason Kiss isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is because they aren’t a real band. They may have played their own music and sung their own songs, but they never created real music. They created theater. It was all about putting on a stage show.
When they wore costumes and face paint, people cared about Kiss. When they took off the face paint and just wore regular clothes, people could care less about Kiss. When they put the face paint and costumes back on, people suddenly cared again.
Kiss belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame about as much as the cast of Cats or any other Broadway production that relies on make-up, costumes, complicated light shows to perform does.
I’ll be the first to admit that there are a few bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that probably shouldn’t be there. My guess is that Gene Simmons has been such a raging douche for so long to so many people that he’s not very popular with some of the people with involved with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
If it makes him feel any better, maybe he could go to Spencer’s at his local mall and bask in all the Kiss merchandise. Maybe he could make Spencer’s his own little hall of fame.
The Oklahoma City Thunder
I just read a headline on a sports website that said the Oklahoma City Thunder have fired coach P.J. Carlesimo. At this point, I’m not sure that P.J. Carlesimo getting fired from a coaching position qualifies as news. I’ve lost count of how many times the man has been fired from an NBA team.
The headline reminded me of the fact that Oklahoma City has an NBA basketball team. During the off season, the Seattle SuperSonics pulled stakes and moved to Oklahoma. No, they aren’t being punished by the league. The owner actually wanted to move the team from Seattle to Oklahoma City.
I’d say that Thunder was the dumbest name ever for a professional basketball team, but I’m sure there is a semi-pro basketball team some where in the Philippines called something even dumber, but since I don’t understand Tagalog, I can’t really tell. I bet they named the team Thunder just so they could play the AC/DC song Thunderstruck during timeouts.
I cannot imagine them signing any quality free agents. Who would want to live in Oklahoma City when they could live anywhere else? Maybe having a perennial lottery pick team in Oklahoma City will help keep more underclassmen in college. If they know they have a good chance of being forced to play in Oklahoma City, they might just stay in school.
This is why I wont be taking a cruise anytime soon
This is footage from a security camera from a cruise ship when the ship encounters some rough water. I don’t know who the ship’s captain is, but he ain’t no Capt’ Stubbing, that’s for sure.
Sikh man told to remove his turban because he was in the United States of America
United States citizen and North Carolina resident Gary Khera was told while trying to make a monetary donation to a local mission that he would have to remove his turban. Khera practices the Indian religion of Sikhism. Sikh men do not shave or cut their hair and they always were a turban in public.
Khera was told by the in-take director, “Sir, you have to take your turban off. This is the United States.” Quite understandably, Khera refused to remove his turban. He was then told to leave.
He wasn’t able to even give the planed donation.
There are reasons the South has a certain reputation. This is just one of those reasons. Even if the people at the mission had no clue about one of the world’s most practiced religions, it’s obvious this man is wearing this turban for a reason. It’s not like he was wearing a Dale Earnhardt hat. These people at the mission acted extremely ignorant.
Sounds like to me that the entire staff of the mission needs to sit down and watch Bend it Like Beckham. Not only is it a good movie, they would learn a thing or two about Sikhism. [Channel 5 WRAL]
Scars on Broadway
I was listening to one of the rock channels on Sirius the other day when I discovered a band I hadn’t heard before, but one I really enjoyed. They are called Scars on Broadway and I thought they had a sound that sounded very similar to System of a Down. There is a reason for that. The band consists of two members, System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan.
Their debut self titled album Scars on Broadway was released this past July.
I read that the band got it’s name not from that famous street in New York, but from the not so famous street with the same name in Glendale, California. Evidently there are some old lamp posts up and down Broadway with strange swastika looking symbols on them. It’s the basis of the song Funny. Next time I go home to visit, I’ve got to check them out.
They were going to call the band Swastikas on Broadway, but that would just be silly.
It’s far and away the best album I’ve heard all year. I highly recommend it.
Your tax dollars at work: The FCC’s war on boobies
The Federal Communications Commission along with the Justice Department is taking the Janet Jackson Superbowl boobie incident to the U.S. Supreme Court. In case you have somehow forgotten, during the 2004 Superbowl halftime show, Janet Jackson’s right breast was momentarily exposed in what was later described as a wardrobe malfunction.
The FCC fined each CBS station broadcasting the Superbowl a $550,000 fine for indecency. CBS understandably has been fighting the fines in court. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the fines this past July.
This is one of those things that makes me embarrassed to be an American. When did we as a people decide that a woman’s exposed breast was indecent? It’s just a boob. Half the people in the world have (or at one time had) two of them. They are no more indecent then an elbow or a knee.
Woman goes to trial in MySpace suicide case
Remember that Missouri woman that pretended to be a 14-year old boy so that she could bully a vulnerable 13-year old neighborhood girl and it resulted in the girl killing herself? That woman is finally going to trial.
Lori Drew, 49, posed as a teenage boy named “Josh Evans” so that she could tease and humiliate Megan Meier. Megan had struggled for years with depression and school bullying. The woman’s daughter and Megan were friends until something happened between the two.
U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said that one of Drew’s plans was to print out the conversations between “Josh Evans” and take it to Megan’s school and let people make fun of this depressed 13-year-old girl.
Missouri officials had earlier declined to charge Drew with any crime. Federal prosecutors in California claimed jurisdiction because MySpace has operations in Los Angeles County. She’s being charged with four different crimes including conspiracy. The Four charges each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Personally, I hope she gets the maximum and dies of colon cancer in prison.
Mike Mussina to retire after first 20-win season
Yankees 40-year old pitcher Mike Mussina is calling it quits after achieving his first 20 win season in 18 years of playing Major League Baseball. Mussina was an Orioles first round draft pick in 1990. He played for the Orioles from 1991 to 2000, and then went on to sign a free agent contract with the rival Yankees.
The big knock on Mussina – if there was one — was that he never registered a 20- win season. He had two back to back 19-win seasons while playing for the Orioles as well as two 18-win seasons. With that said, he was almost always the number one pitcher on his team for much of his entire career.
I happened to be in Camden Yards the night he scored his 100 win. I don’t remember the date, but it was an interleague game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles. I remember there being more Philly fans in attendance then Oriole fans. That’s a trend that only worsened as the Orioles worsened. Not just with the Phillies, but with the Yankees and the Red Sox too.
The most exciting sporting event I have ever seen in my life was a game between the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles. Mussina was on the mound. He had a perfect game going into the ninth inning. Indians catcher Sandy Alomar then got a one-out single to break up the perfect game.
If Mike Mussina somehow doesn’t end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, it will be a crime against humanity. He finishes his career with a 270-153 record and 3.68 ERA. He has 2,813 career strikeouts and just won his seventh Gold Glove award. He spent his entire career in the offense happy AL East and 10 years of that pitching in hitter-friendly Camden Yards. He’s also a total class act. That shouldn’t matter much when it comes to Hall of Fame consideration, but it counts a lot in my book.
Not that I even have a book.
The one thing I don’t want for Christmas
Contrary to what it says, this would not be the perfect Christmas gift for me. In fact, I can’t think of anything I would want less then a ticket to see Hannity and his band of losers perform at a concert.
I don’t understand people who will only allow themselves to be entertained by performers that share their specific narrow political viewpoint. Talk about limiting yourself. People like Charlie Daniels and Billy Ray Cyrus take advantage of people like that.
I’ve never heard of Michael W. Smith, but I’m sure he does this too.
When did Charlie Daniels start to look like Santa? Maybe he should avoid wearing red. And what is Oliver North going to do at a concert? Testify under oath? He should be in prison.
Some idiots still think Obama is a Muslim
A church in Wichita, Kansas has a sign in front of their church declaring that America now has a Muslim President and the LORD is really bothered about this. Included is a reference to the part of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3) that talks about having no other gods.
Muslims, Jews, and Christians worship the same god. Contrary to what you might learn from reading a Chick tract, Allah in the Islamic faith is the same god found in the Old Testement. Allah is simply the Aribic word for ‘God’. [MyFox Kansas City]
Trailer for ‘Star Trek: 90210′ now online
The official trailer for the new Star Trek movie is now up on the Apple website and it looks like this will not be a movie for me. Not only does Captain Kirk look to be younger than just about everyone in his crew, it looks like they are building the Enterprise not in an orbiting ship yard in space, but somewhere on the ground here on Earth.
NFL referees must have a soft spot for Las Vegas bookmakers
During the final seconds of the Chargers-Steelers game Sunday, the Steelers were up on the Chargers 11-10. The Chargers had only time for one play. Chargers QB Philip Rivers made it a short pass to Ladainian Tomlinson, who flipped it back to Chris Chambers, and Chambers lateraled it to the ground because I guess the ground was wide open.
Steelers long haired hippie Troy Polamalu picked the ball up and ran it back for a touchdown, giving the Steelers a 17-10 lead as time expired. Before the Steelers could kick the extra point making the final score 18-10, an official in the booth reviewed the play and announced that one of the lateral passes was not a lateral, but an illegal forward pass. The touchdown was called off and the final score resorted back to a final of 11-10.
Either way, the Steelers would have won the game. The only difference is that in Las Vegas, the bookmakers had the Steelers as five point favorites. This meant that if you placed a wager on the Steelers, they would only win your bet if the Steelers won by more then five points.
From Pregame.com:
An estimated 100 million dollars was wagered worldwide on the Pittsburgh/San Diego game, according to RJ Bell of Pregame.com. Approximately 66% of that money was on the Steelers; with only 34% on the Chargers.
“If the touchdown was properly upheld, Steelers bettors would have won about 32 million dollars instead of losing big. This admittedly incorrect call resulted in a 64 million dollar swing in favor of the bookies,” said RJ Bell of Pregame.com.
There was no valid reason for the official in the booth to reverse the call. There was no flag on the play. There was no whistle blown. When Troy Polamalu picked up the ball, it was a live ball.
Part of me thinks it’s funny that so many gamblers lost money when they really shouldn’t have. Anyone stupid enough to bet their money on something they have no control over deserves to get fleeced. With that said, I think this makes the NFL look really bad. It looks like they have a problem with officiating in that game officials have an interest in things such as a gambling points spread.
How much does an American auto worker make?
With all the take of a possible government handout for the American auto industry, I started to wonder how much an American auto worker who is a member of the UAW union makes? From CNN Money:
The current veteran UAW member at GM today has an average base wage of $28.12 an hour, but the cost of benefits, including pension and future retiree health care costs, nearly triples the cost to GM to $78.21, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
By comparison, new hires will be paid between $14 and $16.23 an hour. And even as they start to accumulate raises tied to seniority, the far less lucrative benefit package will limit GM’s cost for those employees to $25.65 an hour.
So not only do they make a substantial amount of money for doing basically unskilled factory work, they receive a substantial benefits package including a pension. I didn’t even know people still got pensions. I cannot imagine making $28 an hour to work on an assembly line and not have to put one single penny of that money into a 401K for my retirement.
It must be nice.
Gay marriage, Mormons, and WordPerfect
I read an article over on the New York Times website detailing how the Mormon church was such a driving force in the movement to ban same-sex marriage in California. It’s an interesting read:
On Oct. 28, Mr. Ashton, the grandson of the former Mormon president David O. McKay, donated $1 million. Mr. Ashton, who made his fortune as co-founder of the WordPerfect Corporation, said he was following his personal beliefs and the direction of the church.
“I think it was just our realizing that we heard a number of stories about members of the church who had worked long hours and lobbied long and hard,” he said in a telephone interview from Orem, Utah.
In the end, Protect Marriage estimates, as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised on behalf of the measure was contributed by Mormons.
So Alan Ashton, a man who doesn’t live in California, who made a fortune selling word processing software — coincidentally enough, I have to think that at least some of those WordPerfect users were gay — was directed by his tax exempt church to donate a vast sum of money to an organization dedicated to denying a basic civil right to a whole group of people.
I’ve got a huge problem with that.
I have nothing against Mormons. I’ve known quite a few over the years and I’m hard pressed to think of even one Mormon who I didn’t like on a personal level. With that said, I detest the fact that they have used their church to facilitate stripping a basic civil right to so many people with no connection to them whatsoever.
Thinking of ordering something from Borders?
Last month I got an email from Borders that included a 40% off coupon on any purchase over $20. Coincidentally, there was a $50 book over at Borders that I wanted. Realizing that the coupon I had just received would take $20 off the book, I decided that I would stop by after work and buy it.
I then remembered something in the email about the coupon being able to be used online as well as in person in the store. I decided to go ahead and place the order through the Borders website. My local Borders only had one copy of the book I wanted and I didn’t want to chance them selling that one copy before I could get over there and buy it.
Ordering the book through their website was easy enough. Because my purchase totaled over $25, it was eligible for free shipping. I also had the choice of having the book delivered to my home or having it delivered to my local Borders store. I thought it over and decided to have the book shipped to my local Hagerstown Borders. I figured that if I had it shipped to my house, I most likely wouldn’t be home at the time it was delivered and I would probably have to go either to FedEx or UPS and pick it up. If I had to pick it up, the Hagerstown Borders would have been easier then any of the other possibilities.
I placed my order on October 31. It’s now November 17 and I still have not received my book. I’ve contacted Borders three times now, but I have yet to receive any kind of response. Here is the latest message I sent them:
It’s been 17 days now and I still have not received my book. The email you sent to me states that it should have taken 3-8 business days to have my book delivered to my local Borders, but every time I check the status by clicking the link you provided, it shows the book is still in in a FedEx sorting station in Edison, NJ. It’s shows that it’s been there since Nov. 5.
Please refund the money I spent on this book I never received.
In closing, I have ordered books from Amazon and even Wal-Mart. I have never had a problem with either one of these two companies. The first time I purchase something from Borders, you cannot even ship my purchase to one of your own stores.
If you click on the above link, it takes you to the FedEx website. It shows that my purchase has been sitting in New Jersey since November 5. If they don’t reply to this third request, I’m going to have to contact my credit card company and request a chargeback.
Do yourself a huge favor this holiday season and avoid ordering anything from Borders.com. Not only did they not deliver my book, they are now ignoring me. Who needs that?
Watch remastered episodes of classic ‘Star Trek’ on the CBS website for free
Just when I thought Paramount Studios was incapable of passing up an opportunity to make a nickle from anything Star Trek related, they turn around and make remastered versions of classic Star Trek episodes available for free on the CBS website.
The taxpayers should not bailout the American auto industry
Maybe if GM and other American auto manufacturers had not spent so much time and money designing, building, and than marketing gas guzzling bohemiths, and instead concentrated efforts on designing fuel efficient cars (not trucks or SUV’s) they wouldn’t be losing so much money right now. They would not be asking for a $25 billion bailout from the U.S. federal government.
The American auto industry is in trouble right now because they build expensive products that people don’t want. Supporters of a government bailout for the American auto industry argue that if there isn’t a bailout, GM, Ford, and Chrysler will declare bankruptcy. So what? Isn’t that that the way it’s supposed to work? Poorly run companies declare bankruptcy every day. Why should the American auto industry be any different?
Why should someone who drives a Toyota Prius or a Honda Civic Hybrid have his or her tax dollars go to GM, Ford, and Chrysler?
So much for the Sirius-XM merger not requiring a new radio
To say I’m not happy with the reality of the Sirius-XM satellite radio merger is an understatement. I’ve already blogged about the fact that they removed one of my favorite music channels. I’ve now learned that my $150, 6-month old radio does not support the new A La Carte pricing packages.
Back when the two companies were attempting to get the federal government to change the law and allow the two competing satellite radio companies to merge, this was one of the things that would make the merger cheaper for the consumer. Instead of having to pay for channels you do not want, you could select 50 total channels that you wanted and pay less then the standard $13 bucks a month.
This past May I purchased a Sirius Sportster 5. It was (and still is) the most expensive radio sold by Sirius. It does not support A La Carte pricing.
Instead of paying less, I am now paying even more. The reason? To get some of the XM-only radio programing such as the NHL and NBA along with Ron and Fez, I had to cough up another four bucks a month for their “Best of XM package”.
You can’t tell me that they could have made the A La Carte pricing package available to everyone if they chose to. Instead they are using it to sell new radios.
Man pays $12,000 in child support for a kid that is not his
From the The Patriot-News:
When Walter Andre Sharpe Jr. signed for a certified letter from Dauphin County Domestic Relations in 2001, he didn’t know he was signing on for a seven-year nightmare. Since then, the Philadelphia man has been thrown in jail four times, lost his job, become estranged from his four children and spent more than $12,000 to support the child of another man.
It finally stopped in May 2007 when a judge reversed a finding that he was the father. But the same judge has since ruled that Sharpe is not entitled to any compensation, not even the money he was forced to pay to support the child.
Sharpe’s attorney, Tabetha Tanner, said the county Domestic Relations office “stole” Sharpe’s identity by exchanging his date of birth, address and Social Security number for that of the father.
The agency fought Sharpe’s attempts to have DNA testing and said it determined he was the father “after reasonable investigation.”
Well, it certainly sucks to be Walter Sharpe. Not only did he have to pay $12,000 for a child that is not his, he wont be getting any of his money back. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of something like this happening. The courts almost never allow someone who paid child support to get their money back even when it has been determined that the child support was fraudulently taken.
Let this be a lesson that you should never sign for a certified letter. No good can come out of it.
LED circuit board Menorah
I’m not Jewish, but why should that stop me from celebrating the festival of lights? This snazzy Menorah is made from green circuit board material and each light is a light emitting diode (LED). You select which ones of the individual lights to light up by flipping it’s corresponding DIP switch to the “up” position.
The LED circuit board menorah can be purchased from Fred Flare for $25 (link via Boing Boing).
Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8
I could try to sum up my feelings about Proposition 8, California’s ballot inititive to ban same-sex marriage, but I could never come close to articulating exactly how I feel about this topic. Fortunately, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann did it for me. He was able to put into words how I feel on this matter.
I feel strongly about this. I didn’t “choose” to be heterosexual. Why should I be able to marry the person that I love while gay people cannot? To me, it’s a civil rights issue. I’m not old enough to remember what things were like under Jim Crow. If I lived in a society where I could sit at the front of the bus, but a black person could not, I would feel extremely embarrassed and even ashamed.
That’s how I feel about marriage.
The Accidental Time Machine
The Accidental Time Machine
Joe Haldeman
Ace Books
ISBN 978-0-441-01499-6
This book begins in the 2050’s. Matt Fuller is a twenty something graduate assistant in the physics department at MIT. His life is going nowhere. His girlfriend just left him. His dissertation is dead in the water. While working as a lab assistant, he constructs a calibrator that emits one photon per chronon. He quickly learns that there is a problem with the calibrator. When he presses the reset button, the device disappears and then reappears.
Matt notices that each time he presses the button, it takes longer for the calibrator to reappear. He begins to keep a log of how long it takes to reappear after pressing the button and soon learns that each time it disappears and reappears, it takes twelve times as long as the previous journey. It also physically moves from the time before.
Matt ascertains from this that the calibrator is traveling forward in time. He has accidentally created a time machine.
He realizes that if he attaches a metal container to the calibrator with a wire, the metal container and anything in the container will travel with the calibrator. He first tests this out with a turtle he purchases from a pet store. He then decides to attach the calibrator to an old car, get inside, and press the button.
Every time he does this, he travels farther and farther through time, traveling twelve times as long as the journey before. Each time he appears in the future, he finds a far different world from the one he left before. In this, the book is similar to Haldeman’s science fiction classic The Forever War in that the central character finds that society is constantly evolving and changing.
I enjoyed this book. I love time travel stories and this is one of the best I’ve read. I highly recommend it.
How much of the auto industry bailout will go to NASCAR?
Evidently there is now talk in Washington D.C. of giving around $50 billion to the American auto industry. I think before either General Motors or Ford is given any tax dollars, someone needs to find out how much of that money will be trickle down to NASCAR. Both companies spend millions and millions of dollars every year on NASCAR.
Instead of spending millions helping Jeff Gordon turn left really, really fast, they should be investing in developing technology to make cars more fuel efficient.
They of course wont be doing that.
New Watchmen trailer
Though this trailer is technically new, it contains a lot of the scenes already seen in the other Watchmen trailers, including Rorschach acting as if he was bitten by a radioactive spider.
When was the last time Stan Lee made something good?
Variety is reporting that Stan Lee has signed on to be a producer for an upcoming Showtime series about an up-and-coming gay superhero who struggles to hide his secret identities. It’s based on the book Hero by Perry Moore.
I don’t understand why Stan Lee is still getting work. When was the last time he created something good? I understand he co-created quite a few superheroes a long time ago, but what’s he done lately? When was the last time he even wrote a comic book? I seem to remember he wrote a sucky comic in the 2099 Marvel line in the early 90’s, but I might be wrong.
The man is 85 years old. Why won’t he just retire? It would be different if he was still producing new and innovative stories or interesting characters, but he’s not. With that said, he still gets jobs.
Yogi Berra used to be a really good catcher for the New York Yankees. I don’t know of any baseball fans that think 83 year old Yogi should get signed to a team and resume playing baseball. He’s too old.
The same can be said for Stan Lee.
The American auto industry sucks
With all the talk of General Motors needing a bailout from the federal government just to stay afloat, I had to laugh when I read the following:
Despite the down economy, falling gas prices have driven consumers back to the sport utility vehicles they once gave the cold shoulder.
Workers at General Motor’s Arlington, Texas, SUV assembly plant began working overtime this month and are scheduled to remain on overtime for the rest of the year.
The plant, which employs 2,500 workers, is now the only GM factory building full-size sport utility vehicles like the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade.
The minute gas prices fall back to somewhat reasonable levels, GM responds by cranking out the Escalades. One of the reasons GM is facing bankruptcy is because of the vehicles it chooses to produce, mainly gas guzzling behemoths. Vehicles like the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade.
If the auto industry needs a bailout, let the oil industry bail them out. The American auto industry helped Big Oil generate massive profits by refusing to produce energy efficient vehicles.
HeroClix has been discontinued
WizKids, the makers of the popular tabletop superhero miniatures game HeroClix is history. At least I think it’s popular. From the official WizKids website:
The Topps Company announced today that WizKids will immediately cease operations and discontinue its product lines.
Scott Silverstein, CEO of Topps, said “This was an extremely difficult decision. While the company will still actively pursue gaming initiatives, we feel it is necessary to align our efforts more closely with Topps current sports and entertainment offerings which are being developed within our New York office.”
Upon notifying our partners, Topps will immediately pursue strategic alternatives so that viable brands and properties, including HeroClix, can continue without noticeable disruption. To that end, WizKids will continue supporting Buy it By the Brick redemptions for Arkham Asylum, and the December Organized Play events for HeroClix.
For consumer announcements, please refer to www.wizkidsgames.com over the coming days for further information.
I don’t really understand this. From what I could tell, this game was a money maker. I’ve seen individual game pieces go on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Why Topps would take something that was making money and immediately shut it down seems strange. If they want to sell off the HeroClix line to a third party, this seems like a really poor way of doing it.
This wouldn’t be the first stupid thing done by a Topps CEO.
Sirius kills the punk rock channel
Sirius XM (or whatever they are calling themselves) rolled out their new channels today and I was disappointed to discover that they dropped the punk rock channel. I thought it was bad when they “temporarily” converted the channel over to a 24 hour AC/DC channel.
This really irritates me. Since my personal music collection is really quite limited when it comes to punk rock, I found myself listening to channel 29 quite a bit. I checked out the Sirius XM website and it said that if I like the punk rock channel, I should listen to The Fraction on channel 28. Really? This is what Sirius XM says about channel 28:
Where heelflips, handplants, half-pipes and hard rock join hip-hop and the biggest names in skateboarding, surfing, freestyle skiing and more. Faction is the music that defines the action sports lifestyle. Hear exclusive shows from Tony Hawk, Bam Margera and more.
What we play: System of a Down, Offspring, NOFX, Metallica, 50 Cent, Green Day, Beastie Boys, AFI, Korn, Snoop Dogg, My Chemical Romance and Sex Pistols.
I don’t want a channel that is dedicated to the action sports lifestyle. I don’t want to hear shows by Tony Hawk or Bam Margera. I don’t want to hear the music of 50 Cent, Metallica, or Snoop Dogg.
Instead of a music channel dedicated to punk rock, I get a channel dedicated to the skateboard dorks that you find hanging out at the mall food court.
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