BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 01:57 PM

Today's story (the way I would have written it for FOX)


An LAPD officer was wounded in the shoulder when a father run amok began firing a pistol while holding his baby daughter. The mother screamed to police to let her husband cool off but cooler heads prevailed and a hail of police gunfire successfully ripped through the baby and killed the gunman.
The mother is taking this rather hard and is now screaming for yet another frivilous investigation. A spokesperson for the police department has reminded the public that they do not negotiate with terrorists. We are currently at a partial code orange.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 05 - 01:01 AM

Don,

I read that and thought you were pulling a sick trick. Then I heard part of that story today. Geez. My apologies for thinking that you'd come up with a story so disturbing it couldn't possibly be true.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 05 - 06:07 PM

States Trying to Blunt Property Ruling
July 19, 2005

CHICAGO - Alarmed by the prospect of local governments seizing homes and turning the property over to developers, lawmakers in at least half the states are rushing to blunt last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding the power of eminent domain. In Texas and California, legislators have proposed constitutional amendments to bar government from taking private property for economic development. Politicians in Alabama, South Dakota and Virginia likewise hope to curtail government's ability to condemn land. Even in states like Illinois - one of at least eight that already forbid eminent domain for economic development unless the purpose is to eliminate blight - lawmakers are proposing to make it even tougher to use the procedure.

"People I've never heard from before came out of the woodwork and were just so agitated," said Illinois state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Democrat. "People feel that it's a threat to their personal property, and that has hit a chord."

The Institute for Justice, which represented homeowners in the Connecticut case that was decided by the Supreme Court, said at least 25 states are considering changes to eminent domain laws.

The Constitution says governments cannot take private property for public use without "just compensation." Governments have traditionally used their eminent domain authority to build roads, reservoirs and other public projects. But for decades, the court has been expanding the definition of public use, allowing cities to employ eminent domain to eliminate blight.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that New London, Conn., had the authority to take homes for a private development project. But in its ruling, the court noted that states are free to ban that practice - an invitation lawmakers are accepting in response to a flood of e-mails, phone calls and letters from anxious constituents. "The Supreme Court's decision told homeowners and business owners everywhere that there's now a big `Up for Grabs' sign on their front lawn," said Dana Berliner, an attorney with the Institute for Justice. "Before this, people just didn't realize that they could lose their home or their family's business because some other person would pay more taxes on the same land. People are unbelievably upset."

Don Borut, executive director of the National League of Cities, which backed New London in its appeal to the high court, said government's eminent domain power is important for revitalizing neighborhoods. He said any changes to state law should be done after careful reflection. "There's a rush to respond to the emotional impact. Our view is, step back, let's look at the issue in the broadest sense and if there are changes that are reflected upon, that's appropriate," he said.

In Alabama, Republican Gov. Bob Riley is drawing up a bill that would prohibit city and county governments from using eminent domain to take property for retail, office or residential development. It would still allow property to be taken for industrial development, such as new factories, and for roads and schools. In Connecticut, politicians want to slap a moratorium on the use of eminent domain by municipalities until the Legislature can act. One critic of the ruling has suggested local officials take over Supreme Court Justice David Souter's New Hampshire farmhouse and turn it into a hotel. Souter voted with the majority in the Connecticut case.

Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington already forbid the taking of private property for economic development except to eliminate blight. Other states either expressly allow private property to be taken for private economic purposes or have not spoken clearly on the question.

Illinois state Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, a Republican who is considering a run for governor, said the state's blight laws need to be more restrictive. "The statutory definition of blight in Illinois is broader than the Mississippi River at its mouth," he said. "They have taken everything from underdeveloped lakefront property to open green-grass farmfields as being defined as blighted."

Action also is taking place at the federal level, where a proposal would ban the use of federal funds for any project moving forward because of the Supreme Court decision. And the Institute for Justice said it will ask the Supreme Court to rehear the New London case, but acknowledged that the prospects of that happening are dim. "One of the things, I think, that is elemental to American freedom is the right to have and hold private property and not to interfere with that right," Rauschenberger said. "For Americans, it's like the boot on the door. You can't kick in the door and come in my house unless I invite you."

Subject: RE: BS: I heard it on NPR
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:43 AM

While recently serving as a judge in Washington DC the current Supreme Court nominee Roberts upheld the arrest of a little girl who was placed in handcuffs and removed to jail in a windowless van for eating 4 french fries while on a subway train.

His comment was "No one is happy with this situation but the law is the law."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:49 AM

Rose, The actual and official LAPD response was
"We did not have a choice."

NOT "we do not negotiate with terrorists."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:07 AM

SRS, somewhere back up there, told us:

It means that because these laws are poorly crafted and tie the hands of judges regarding things like "three strikes," a lot of people who have minor infractions end up with life sentences without parole. So the judges who made this idiotic decision have done an injustice to their colleagues in the field, to say nothing of the victims of this worm they released.

There is in the law a maxim that "Bad law makes hard cases, and hard cases make bad law."

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 05 - 12:18 PM

Hiker Survives Five Days in Lava Field
July 24, 2005

WAIMEA, Hawaii - A hiker lost for five days in a lava field near a volcano says he survived by drinking water he squeezed from moss in a mostly barren landscape. Gilbert Dewey Gaedcke III, 41, was rescued Friday afternoon after a teenager on a helicopter tour spotted him stumbling across the rocky lava, trying to attract attention with a mirror from his camera. Gaedcke had been missing since Sunday night, when he decided to take a hike across desolate lava fields near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to get a closer look at an active volcano. The experienced hiker from Austin, Texas, said he saw no water, but there were pockets of jungle-like vegetation sprinkled throughout the old lava flow.

Gaedcke said he crawled beneath the vines and lick moisture off leaves. Then he found moss growing on trees, and was able to squeeze enough water from it to drink. "It was muddy, green, mossy water, but it worked," he said Saturday. "If I hadn't found that I'd be dead right now," he said.

Gaedcke said tour helicopters had flown overhead all week, but he was unable to attract attention because clouds blocked the sun. Then, late Friday afternoon, another one flew over. Aboard was 15-year-old Peter Frank, who spotted the odd glint in the late afternoon sunlight. "It was the only thing like that out there," said Frank, of Pasadena, Calif. "As we got closer we realized it was a man."

Gaedcke, dehydrated, but otherwise OK after surviving five days in the heat, was lost amid acres of blackened volcanic rock. "I wound up on some of the most vicious terrain I've ever seen," he said as he rested at a friend's home before flying home. "It's all gray rock - terrible stuff - then vegetation like an oasis, then more gray rock." Gaedcke's rented car had been found days earlier at the end of a road near an old lava flow bordering the east side of the 333,000-acre national park. Police had few leads to follow.

Fire crews and rangers from the park searched for days on foot and on horseback. Helicopters buzzed the area, but there was no sign of Gaedcke.

Then, Frank spotted what looked like a toy pinwheel glinting in the sunlight. His mother, Diann Kim, said her son asked Blue Hawaiian Helicopters pilot Cliff Muzzi to get a closer look. "As we got closer you could see the man flashing a mirror and waving a dark orange fabric," she said. "As he was coming down the path, clearly he couldn't move that well." Kim's daughter, Hannah, and a friend wrapped bottles of water in airsickness bags to drop to the distressed hiker. "It was so amazing," Kim said. "To see a person out there was like seeing a person on the face of the moon.

After returning his passengers to Hilo International Airport, Muzzi headed back to retrieve Gaedcke, then whisked him back to the airport about 17 miles to the northeast. Medical crews were waiting to take him to Hilo Medical Center.

Gaedcke said he saw the bright glow of the lava and then turned to go back to his car, but missed it as he walked in the dark. He hiked inland, expecting to intersect with the road, but by morning, he was lost. "My feet feel like I had a 30-day adventure," he said. "And if it weren't for my feet, I'd be dancing a jig right now."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Aug 05 - 03:15 PM

Monroe sex secrets
By MICHELLE CARUSO link (I don't think it is a durable link)

LOS ANGELES - In private tapes for her psychiatrist, screen goddess Marilyn Monroe never hinted she romanced JFK, but she bemoaned her lack of "courage" to break off an affair with his married brother Bobby, a bombshell report says.

**

Monroe also revealed a one-night-fling with actress Joan Crawford and her undying love for her ex Joe DiMaggio, but she griped about the "so-so" sex with former hubby playwright Arthur Miller, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

On the 43rd anniversary of Monroe's death, former L.A. County prosecutor John Miner gave the newspaper never-before-published transcripts of tape recordings the actress reportedly made for Dr. Ralph Greenson shortly before she died.

Greenson reportedly destroyed the actual tapes before his own death, but Miner says he took detailed notes when the psychiatrist played them for him during a probe of Monroe's drug-overdose death in 1962.

Miner, now 86, released the transcripts because he doesn't think the star of "Some Like It Hot" and "The Misfits" took her own life and he believes the therapy tapes prove she was happy and looking forward to the future, the newspaper said. Miner did not return phone calls yesterday.

Far from the desperate woman on the brink of self-destruction often portrayed in media accounts, the 36-year-old Monroe was upbeat, the transcripts show. She credited the shrink with curing her

sexual dysfunction and frankly discussed her husbands, lovers and friends, including DiMaggio, former President John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra.

In her own words (she sometimes referred to herself in the third-person), here's what Monroe had to say, according to the transcripts:

On JFK: "Marilyn Monroe is a soldier. Her commander in chief is the greatest and most powerful man in the world. The first duty of a soldier is to obey her commander. He says 'Do this.' You do this. . . . This man is going to change our country."
Despite years of rumors, and her breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at his Madison Square Garden bash, Monroe didn't confess to a fling.

On Robert F. Kennedy: "As you see, there is no room in my life for him. I guess I don't have the courage to face up to it and hurt him. I want someone else to tell him it's over. I tried to get the President to do it, but I couldn't reach him."
Some past accounts have claimed Monroe was madly in love with RFK and was badgering him with phone calls right up to the bitter end.

On a one-night fling with Crawford: "Next time I saw Crawford, she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't much enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down, she became spiteful."

On baseball great DiMaggio: "Joe D. loves Marilyn Monroe and always will. I love him and I always will. But Joe could not stay married to Marilyn Monroe, the famous film star. Joe has an image in his stubborn Italian head of a traditional Italian wife. . . . Doctor, you know that's not me . . . . Anytime I need him, Joe is there. I couldn't have a better friend." The ex-Yankee slugger sent roses to Monroe's Westwood, Calif., grave for decades after she died.

On Sinatra: "What a wonderful friend he is to me. I love Frank and he loves me. It is not the marrying kind of love. It is better because marriage can't destroy it."

On Miller: "Marrying him was my mistake, not his. He couldn't give me the attention, warmth and affection I need. It's not in his nature. Arthur never credited me with much intelligence. . . . As bed partners we were so-so. He was not that much interested."

On how Dr. Greenson taught her to achieve orgasm: "You said there was an obstacle in my mind that prevented me from having an orgasm . . . . Bless you, doctor. By now I've had lots of orgasms. Not only one, but two and three with a man who takes his time."

Originally published on August 5, 2005

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 06 Aug 05 - 03:47 PM

Holy Moly!! My one true love has now spilled her guts tot he world. Dang!! I need to think about this...


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Aug 05 - 11:38 PM

Another link and a lot more detail.

Marilyn from beyond the grave
Did Hollywood's greatest female star really take her own life? Newly released transcripts of her final messages to a psychiatrist will only fuel the conspiracy theories. David Usborne reports
Published: 06 August 2005

Some mysteries never die even if they are meant never to be resolved. The death of Marilyn Monroe, found naked with her face down on her bed in her Los Angeles home 43 years ago yesterday, is one of those: was it really suicide, or something different? Only Marilyn herself could clear this one up.

But no one gets to speak from the grave, not even the biggest of all big Hollywood stars. Except that Marilyn has - sort of. Listen and you might be surprised and not just by the tittle-tattle about her faked orgasms, her enemas or her love-hate respect for Laurence Olivier. She talks like a person possessed but about the future, not by thoughts of death. She wants to love more, to act Shakespeare. (It is her plan to play Juliet and have sexual intercourse on stage with Romeo.) She is also plotting to fire her housekeeper.

It may be, in fact, that the entire mythology surrounding an actress who for the 15-year span of her film-making career stopped the hearts of men the world over - from ordinary cinema-goers to, it is said, a sitting American president - may be about to be re-written all because of a transcript of a tape she allegedly made very shortly before her death. A tape she handed over to her psychiatrist.

Responsible for causing this sudden upheaval in Monroe lore is John Miner, a former Los Angeles prosecutor who for some time has been telling researchers of the tape and of the written transcript he apparently made of it. Some authors have included some references to the transcript's contents in their works. But never before has anyone taken it seriously enough to broadcast it fully to the public.

But that changed yesterday when The Los Angeles Times, apparently confident enough in the credibility of Mr Miner, splashed the story on its front page to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of her passing. The significance of the lengthy text seems unmistakable: that she was not thinking about death at the time. Implication: her death was either accidental or prompted by a third party.

Mr Miner was in the District Attorney's office in Los Angeles at the time of her death - she was just 36 - and participated in her autopsy. It was during the investigation that he interviewed the psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson, who revealed the existence of the tape, saying it was a gift from Ms Monroe just a few days before she died. He did not give the tapes to Mr Miner. He did allow him, however, to listen to them and take extensive notes - thence the transcripts that now come to light for all to read.

"There was no possible way this woman could have killed herself," Mr Miner argues. "She had very specific plans for her future. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She was told by [acting coach] Lee Strasberg, maybe ill-advisedly, that she had Shakespeare in her and she was fascinated with the idea."

Arguments will break out over the reliability of Mr Miner, now 86, and, indeed, of the decision by The Los Angeles Times to run with his claims. His intention, it seems, is to persuade his successors in the DA's office once more to re-open the investigation into the actress's death. (Her body was found with a fatal overdose of the barbiturate Nembutal.) A brief stab at re-opening the affair was made in 1982. The DA's office said then that there remained "factual discrepancies" and "unanswered questions" in the case, but declined to open a criminal investigation.

Leave aside whether she killed herself, bungled her pill taking or was actually murdered. This text of personal musings (or, as she called them, " mental meanderings") on its own isn't going to put an end to the matter. But they do make a good read, especially if you are not already a Monroe fanatic. This reader didn't know she had been sleeping with Senator Robert Kennedy or that sex between her and Arthur Miller had been so lousy.

At the very end of the tape, she frets that Bobby Kennedy is in love with her and says she had thought about asking John F Kennedy, the President, to let him down gently. She decides against it, because "he is too important to ask". She goes on: "I think what happened to Bobby is that he has stopped having good sex with his wife for some time ... Well when he starts having sex with the body all men want, his Catholic morality has to find a way to justify cheating on his wife. So love becomes his excuse."

As ever, the currents of the actress's life were hardly smooth at the time. She had not long before been fired by the Fox studios, where she had been on contract to make Something's Got to Give. Fox had let her go for chronic lateness and drug dependency. And there was the hangover from two failed marriages, to Miller, the playwright, and to the baseball great, Joe DiMaggio. But if Ms Monroe was depressed at all, it apparently had nothing to do with her enduring ability to attract men. Though gravity was beginning to show, she was apparently still more or less satisfied with her extremely popular figure.

"I stood naked in front of my full-length mirrors for a long time yesterday. I was all made up with my hair done," she tells Dr Greenson. "What did I see? My breasts are a beginning to sag a bit. My waist isn't bad. My ass is what it should be, the bester there is. Legs, knees and ankles still shapely. And my feet are not too big. OK, Marilyn, you have it all there."

The purpose of making the tape appears to be to express gratitude to Dr Greenson, who died in 1979 and who has since been named by some biographers as a possible suspect in her death. She repeatedly credits him with helping her overcome neuroses, suggesting at one moment that she would love to become his daughter. (She expresses a similar fantasy over Clark Gable, recalling a dream where she is sitting on his knee.) Apparently, it was the doctor's success in giving her the ability to enjoy sex that she celebrates the most, however.

"What I told you is true when I first became your patient. I had never had an orgasm. I well remember you said an orgasm happens in the mind, not the genitals ..." The actress reminds the doctor of how he also instructed her on how best to stimulate herself. She recalled him telling her "when I did exactly what you told me to do I would have an orgasm ... What a difference a word makes. You said I would, not I could. Bless you Doctor. What you say is gospel to me.

"By now I've had lots of orgasms. Not only one, but two and three with a man who takes his time. I never cried so hard as I did after my first orgasm."

There are also passages that briefly dissect the failed marriages. Though she was Joe DiMaggio's wife for only nine months, in 1954, she makes clear her enduring affection for him. She admits, however, that she erred in marrying Miller. "Marrying him was my mistake, not his. He couldn't give me the attention, warmth and affection I need. It's not his nature. Arthur never credited me with much intelligence. He couldn't share his intellectual life with me. As bed partners, we were so-so. He was not that much interested; me faking with exceptional performances to get him more interested. You know I think his little Jewish father had more genuine affection for me than Arthur did."

Sex is part of what defined the public image of Monroe. No one will be much surprised that it weaves its way through so much of the transcript. Some may rock back, however, at the passages about sex with Joan Crawford.

"Oh yes, Crawford ... We went to Joan's bedroom ... Crawford had a gigantic orgasm and shrieked like a maniac ... Next time I saw Crawford she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't much enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down, she became spiteful." Other items not to be forgotten: that while Monroe liked an occasional enema, Mae West depended on them. "She is given an enema every day and she has at least one orgasm a day ... Mae says her enemas and orgasms will keep her young until she is 100."

Slightly more serious in tone, though arguably no less startling, is Monroe's apparent determination to change gear professionally, and take on Shakespeare on film. Maybe this had to do with Monroe's belief that, after 30 films and one Golden Globe Award, for Some Like it Hot, the critics were still not taking her seriously. The plan, she says, is eventually to " produce and act in the Marilyn Monroe Shakespeare Film Festival". She says she will dedicate a whole year to studying Shakespearean acting with Lee Strasberg and then will go to Olivier for additional help that he once promised her.

Monroe and Olivier had been in the film The Prince and the Showgirl. Her feelings for him seem a bit mixed. "The Prince was real ... He was superficial - no, that's not the word - supercilious, arrogant, a snob, conceited. Maybe a little bit anti-Semitic in the sense of some of my best friends are Jews. But, damn him, a great, great actor. She recalls a party where Olivier regales the guests with the Bard for two straight hours. " I sat and cried with joy for being so privileged," she says.

What you read in the supermarket queue may be gripping but is rarely believable. The Monroe transcripts may seem to fall in that category. But it is not just The Los Angeles Times that takes them seriously. Parts of the text were also used by the British author Matthew Smith for his book Marilyn's Last Words: Her Secret Tapes and Mysterious Death. He remains convinced Mr Miner is credible. "I believe he is a man of integrity. I've looked at the contents of the tapes, of course, and, frankly, I would think it entirely impossible for John Miner to have invented what he put forward - absolutely impossible."

Similarly convinced is James Bacon, 91, a former columnist who saw Monroe shortly before she died. She was drinking vodka and champagne and popping pills. But Mr Bacon, who took part in a symposium last night in Los Angeles dedicated to exploring alternatives to the suicide theory, insisted: " She wasn't the least bit depressed. She was talking about going to Mexico. She had a Mexican boyfriend at the time. I forget his name. This was the first house she ever owned. She was going to buy some furniture. She was in very good spirits that day. Of course, the champagne and vodka helped."

You are the only person I have never lied to

Dear Doctor, you have given me everything. Because of you I can now feel what I never felt before ...

Isn't it true that the key to analysis is free association. Marilyn Monroe associates. You, my doctor, by understanding and interpretation of what goes on in my mind get to my unconscious, which makes it possible for you to treat my neuroses and for me to overcome them.

You are the only person in the world I have never told a lie to and never will ...

Oh yes, dreams. I know they are important. But you want me to free associate about the dream elements. I have the same blanking out. More resistance for you and Dr Freud to complain about.

I read his "Introductory Lectures", God, what a genius. He makes it so understandable. And he is so right. Didn't he say himself that Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky had a better understanding of psychology than all the scientists put together. Damn it, they do.

You told me to read Molly Bloom's mental meanderings (I can use words, can't I) to get a feeling for free association. It was when I did that I got my great idea.

As I read it something bothered me. Here is Joyce writing what a woman thinks to herself . Can he, does he really know her innermost thoughts. But after I read the whole book, I could better understand that Joyce is an artist who could penetrate the souls of people, male or female. It really doesn't matter that Joyce doesn't have ... or never felt a menstrual cramp. Wait a minute. As you must have guessed I am free associating and you are going to hear a lot of bad language. Because of my respect for you, I've never been able to say the words I'm really thinking when we are in session. But now I am going to say whatever I think, no matter what it is.

While reading Molly's blathering, the IDEA came to me. Get a tape recorder. Put a tape in. Turn it on. Say whatever you are thinking like I am doing now. It's really easy. I'm lying on my bed wearing only a brassiere. If I want to go to the refrig or the bathroom, push the stop button and begin again when I want to.

And I just free associate. No problem. You get the idea, don't you? Patient can't do it in Doctor's office. Patient is at home with tape recorder ...

Well, that's something for you to sleep on, Doctor.

Good Night.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 05 - 12:23 AM

How sad. The best of luck to her in getting through this.

Christopher Reeve's widow announces she has lung cancer
AP--Posted on Tue, Aug. 09, 2005

NEW YORK -- Dana Reeve, who spent nine years caring for her paralyzed husband, Christopher Reeve, until his death last year, announced Tuesday that she has lung cancer.

Reeve, 44, said she decided to disclose her illness following rumors about her health in the media.

"I have recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, and am currently undergoing treatment," Reeve said in a statement. "I have an excellent team of physicians, and we are optimistic about my prognosis."

"Now, more than ever, I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge," she said. "As always, I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope in the face of life's adversities."

Reeve, who starred in the Superman films, was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995. He died Oct. 10, 2004.

Dana Reeve, an actress, was a constant companion and supporter of her husband during his long ordeal and his work for a cure for spinal cord injuries.

She is chairwoman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which funds research on paralysis. To date, it has awarded $55 million in research grants and $7.5 million in quality of life grants.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 10:39 AM

Here's a little something about life along the river that is my Mudcat namesake:
story link and photo link.

Festival attendance surges Life with the Stilly
Powwow packs in crowds at Stillaguamish Tribe's Festival of the River
By Bill Sheets, Herald Writer

Dancers are coming from all over the western United States. And some of the spectators are from other parts of the world. "I've never seen such a thing," said Vildan Islam of Anacortes, and a native of Turkey, of the 16th annual Festival of the River at River Meadows County Park east of Arlington on Sunday. Islam lived in New York for 17 years until moving to the Northwest recently. "For me it's very interesting," she said while watching the American Indian dancers at the festival's powwow.

An American Indian dancer performs during the traditional grand entrance of the dancers Sunday at the Stillaguamish Tribe's 16th annual Festival of the River at River Meadows County Park outside of Arlington. The Stillaguamish Tribe's event, which started as a way to promote education about the condition of the Stillaguamish River, has grown into a diverse, two-day event with live music, traditional dancing and drumming, a logging show and competition, storytellers, puppeteers, a birds-of-prey display, food and arts and crafts.

Final numbers weren't available Sunday, but attendance at the alcohol-free festival has reached an all-time high, organizers said. "This is bigger than we've ever had," said tribal member Mikki Swimmer, a powwow organizer. Another boost to the festival the past two years could be the absence of the Love Israel family's Garlic Festival, which was held nearby. The festival, last held two years ago, folded after bankruptcy forced the family to give up its land. "I think in the end it probably does have an effect," said Eddie Goodridge Jr., the tribe's executive director, adding that some attending the festival in the past went to both events in the same day.

At the Festival of the River, the live music packs 'em in and is probably the event's biggest draw, Goodridge said. But the powwow is catching up. "The attendance at the powwow's gone way up, it's a huge draw," Goodridge said. Some festival visitors said Sunday they enjoyed the variety at the event. But most said they were there to see the dancers, who dress in full regalia. "We're totally in awe," said Miki Durand of Mukilteo. She and her husband attended the festival for the first time after a friend told her about it.

"I like to see the Indian dancing and pretty costumes," said Louise Vienneau of Mount Vernon, also at the event for the first time. She brought a group of exchange students from Japan to the festival, she said.

About 200 American Indian dancers came in different types of regalia, all of it colorful. Some is a modernized style for "fancy dancing," as it's called, while other dress was from different traditions of the Plains, Southwest and Northwest coastal tribes, Swimmer said. Some of the young Stillaguamish dancers are learning the tribe's own traditional dances, which had nearly been lost, she said. "You get a chance to see some of the traditional native culture blended together with the modern way," said Gene Wiggins of Everett, who with his wife, Jessie, has attended the festival for several years. "The sense of community here, the closeness, I enjoy and appreciate (it)," he said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 03:49 PM

Well, duh. . . how do you suppose anyone can tell THIS is a scam? I'd think that anyone stupid enough to follow those directions should be arrested for being too idiotic to walk around free in public. . .


Con Artists Using Forged Arkansas Checks
August 15, 2005

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A check scam operation is sending job seekers forged checks from the state of Arkansas and asking them to wire the money overseas, state officials said Monday.

Some checks were successfully cashed, but state officials did not say how much money was involved. The checks are not honored when they reach Arkansas, and the state has not lost any money in the scam, state Treasurer Gus Wingfield said.

Reports of the forged checks have come in from 18 other states, officials said.

"These scam artists are using Arkansas' name to commit their crime," Attorney General Mike Beebe said. "Our state agencies will continue to investigate and trace these checks to put a stop to this activity."

The con artists are targeting job hunters posting resumes online. Job seekers are "hired" by a company calling itself Void Computers Inc., and are then asked to help the company cash checks worth $5,200 from Arkansas, which it says is one of its clients.

Checks were mailed from Turkey with instructions to cash the checks and wire the money to an address in Latvia, minus a 10 percent fee the consumer may keep. Applicants are urged to avoid banks, and instead go to a check-casher, liquor store or similar business.

No arrests were announced, but Beebe said his investigators have consulted with the U.S. Postal Inspectors Office and the FBI.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 04:03 PM

DUmber than a wagon-load of creek rocks, I reckon, to use my pasl Bobert's expression.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 05 - 05:25 PM

Idle brain invites dementia
Researchers say daydreaming may cause changes that lead to the onset of Alzheimer's disease

link

Scientists have scanned the brains of young people when they are doing, well, nothing, and they found that a region active during this daydreaming state is the one hard-hit by the scourge of old age: Alzheimer's.

"We never expected to see this," said Randy L. Buckner, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Washington University in St. Louis. He said he suspects these activity patterns may, over decades of daily use, wear down the brain, sparking a chemical cascade that results in the disease's classic deposits and tangles that damage the brain.

The regions identified are active when people daydream or think to themselves, Buckner said. When these regions are damaged, an older person may not be able to access the thoughts to follow through on an action, or even make sense of a string of thoughts. The study appears this week in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The scientists used a variety of brain-scanning devices in more than 760 adults of all ages. Usually, scanning is done when volunteers carry out a particular mental task, such as remembering a list of words. This time, they were scanned without anything to do.

What emerged on the images was what Buckner and his colleagues call the brain's "default" state. The brain remains in this state when it's not concentrating on a task like reading or talking. It's the place where the mind wanders. This default region lines up perfectly with the regions that are initially damaged in Alzheimer's.

"It may be the normal cognitive function of the brain that leads to Alzheimer's later in life," Buckner said. He suspects the brain's metabolic activity slows over time in this region, making it vulnerable to mind-robbing symptoms.

The scientists say this finding could prove useful diagnostically - a way to identify the disease early, even before symptoms appear.

"You have to get to this pathology before it has its biggest effect," said William Klunk, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and a co-investigator in the current study. Klunk developed an imaging tool that tracks amyloid plaque deposited in the brains of living Alzheimer's patients.

The next step will be to see whether the sticky amyloid-filled plaques are dependent on the brain's metabolism. If so, there could be novel ways to attack the disease.

The latest thinking among Alzheimer's scientists is that the underpinnings of the disease may be decades in the making. About a decade ago, David Snowdon of the University of Kentucky Medical Center published what has become a classic study of health and aging. He followed 678 nuns, ranging in age from 75 to 107, and analyzed journal entries and essays written when they joined the order as young women. He identified an association between the writing and the risk for Alzheimer's far into the future. The richer the detail in the essays, the less likely the writers were to develop Alzheimer's.

Others have confirmed these findings, including a study by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers. They recently published a study using high school records from the 1940s to identify nearly 400 graduates. They tracked their health status through adulthood into old age. A higher IQ in high school reduced the risk of Alzheimer's by about half.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Aug 05 - 07:47 PM

Use it or lose it!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 05 - 05:32 PM

You could say "use it or lose it" here also: these things are like snowmobiles, a real menace in the way they are operated by people who have no business charging around without some safety instruction first:

link

Watercraft worries climb
Inexperience often behind injuries, deaths on water

By Cathy Logg, Herald Writer

Peri-Lyn Johnson of Snohomish was driving her boat on Flowing Lake Aug. 13 when a boy flagged her down. The boy, 13, and a woman, both on Jet Ski-type watercraft, had collided. The boy was not injured, but the woman was facedown in the water. Johnson directed Snohomish High School students Josh Foust, 16, and Jon Richter, 15, to jump from her boat and rescue the unconscious woman. The boys and Johnson got her into the boat and rushed toward shore.

"She had an enormous gash over her eye," Johnson recalled. "Her shoulder was also dislocated." Johnson's husband, Mark, began administering first aid. The accident victim, Rebecca Oropeza, 48, of Lynnwood has been at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle since the accident. "Her life will never be the same," Johnson said. Oropeza was one of three Snohomish County residents seriously injured or killed in recent personal watercraft accidents.

Edward Ferguson, 45, of Everett died about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 14 when he struck an overhanging limb in darkness on the Snohomish River. His funeral was Aug. 19. And a 10-year-old Mukilteo girl lost her arm in an accident on Lake Goodwin.

According to state records, there about 26,000 personal watercraft licensed in the state in 2004, representing about 10 percent of all recreational boats. "That's just the ones that have registered," said Mark Kenny, coordinator of the state Parks and Recreation Commission's marine law enforcement unit. "Personal watercraft appeal to a wide number of people, not just young people who cowboy around," he added.

Considered the motorcycles of the waterways, personal watercraft are fast and fun, but too often are seen as water toys instead of motorized vessels that can cause serious injury and death. They're the only watercraft whose operators are required to be at least 14 years old in Washington state, but many underage youths, including two in the recent accidents, drive them anyway.

Between 1996 and 2002, all but two of those younger than 14 involved in boating accidents statewide were aboard personal watercraft, parks records say. During that period, the most common marine accident involved a personal watercraft or open motorboat shorter than 21 feet.

Authorities say that as state waters become more crowded with such watercraft, it's critical for their operators to know the vessels and their characteristics, as well as boating regulations, and to follow them.

Jet Skis and similar watercraft have grown in popularity because they are less expensive than conventional boats and are more versatile. While early models in the mid- to late-1980s were noisy and made for single riders, newer models are up to 12 feet long, can carry four people, have quieter engines and don't pollute. But they're technically a boat, and all state and federal boating regulations apply to them.

"Because people tend to view them as water toys and not as boats, they just go play with them and don't take the time to familiarize themselves with the machines and the characteristics," Snohomish County sheriff's Lt. Rodney Rochon said.

On Aug. 14, three middle school students were aboard a personal watercraft on Lake Goodwin near Lakewood, with a 13-year-old driving. A 10-year-old Mukilteo girl fell off, and her arm tangled in a rope used to pull skiers or inner tubes. The rope tightened and severed the girl's arm at the elbow. She is recovering and has subsequently been released from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Her name has not been released under federal privacy laws.

In the Flowing Lake crash, Oropeza's niece, Angela Smith, was on duty at the north county emergency dispatch center when she learned that Oropeza had been injured. Smith heard the dispatch for an airlift helicopter. "It was really awful, knowing how a lot of these calls end," Smith said. "An airlift isn't a good thing." Oropeza suffered broken ribs, a broken back, a fractured skull, internal bleeding and several ruptured or lacerated organs. Originally listed in critical condition, she is now in satisfactory condition. She is unable to breathe on her own, family members said. She's sedated and confused, so her family doesn't know what she remembers of the accident. "This is so strange. You're just out there having fun, and boom," said her sister, Kathy Scott of Oroville.

"Personal watercraft are boats; they're very powerful and very fast," Rochon said. "Because of their handling characteristics, you can get into trouble very easily and very quickly."

Even officers aren't immune to accidents. About 10 years ago, Lake Stevens police Sgt. Ron Brooks was on patrol on a personal watercraft. Another boater who was traveling too fast struck Brooks' craft, cracking its hull and knocking him into the water, Chief Randy Celori said. Brooks suffered broken ribs and missed several months of work. Rochon said the woman in that accident had only had her watercraft for a couple of hours, hadn't bothered to read the instruction manual and thought she'd be fine because she'd ridden one before.

Some riders get into trouble while being playful or because they don't know the "rules of the road" on the water. Many personal watercraft riders like to get close to boats to use their wakes for jumping, Celori said. "That's very dangerous, especially when the water is heavily populated with other boats," he said. "On a warm summer day, you'll have in excess of maybe 100 vessels" on Lake Stevens.

People also are unaware of how fast personal watercraft can go and may not realize that not all life jackets are rated for 60 to 70 mph, Celori said. At high speeds, some life jackets can be torn off as boaters hit the water. Many riders also aren't aware they can lose control of a watercraft when the throttle is released. "You reduce throttle and power out of a problem. If you completely cut the power, you have no forward thrust and no steerage," Kenny said.

"Experience is a great teacher in this. All too often, we see these accidents are the result of inexperienced operators riding a personal watercraft and not recognizing this until it's too late." People who think they're experienced because they've handled other boats don't necessarily know how to operate a personal watercraft, Rochon said.

Similarly, they may have operated boats after dark but aren't safe operating personal watercraft at night. "We were investigating the case on Lake Goodwin, and it was dark, and we still saw personal watercraft heading across the lake," Rochon said.

Another problem is operating them in hazardous areas. In Ferguson's nighttime accident, Everett police initially thought he had struck a submerged object in the water, Lt. Ted Olafson said. "There's quite a number of logs and debris and things in the water and floating down the river," he said.

Steps are being taken to improve the safety of personal watercraft. In its last session, the state Legislature mandated boating safety education for those 20 and younger beginning Jan. 1, 2008.

"We're using the time between now and the implementation of that law as a kind of grace period, but when that law goes into effect, there's going to be no excuse. They will be cited," Rochon said. He added that marine officers hand out pamphlets, and regulations are posted, but people don't read them. "We have the regulations to prevent a lot of problems already in place," Rochon said. "It's just that people have to abide by them."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 11:14 AM

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Machias Elementary School students find a loaded handgun during recess
Friends earn high praise for their quick thinking

By Melissa Slager and Diana Hefley, Herald Writers
link

MACHIAS - A new playground at Machias Elementary School was swarming with children Monday morning, their first chance to try out the brightly colored new jungle gym. Grayson Pope, 8, was sick of waiting. So he turned instead to an old standby and one of his favorites - a big metal swing set. As he soared higher and higher, the third-grader glanced down and saw something surprising. He turned to a friend. "Hey! There's a gun in the wood chips. We should go tell a teacher."

School staff, parents and police officers are praising Grayson and schoolmate Khoa Nguyen, 9, a fourth-grader, for doing the right thing - leaving the loaded gun they found untouched and immediately telling their teacher. Police say the incident could have taken a turn for the worse if one of the boys had picked up the gun. The .32-caliber pistol doesn't have an external safety, and there was a bullet in the chamber.

"If he would have picked it up and treated it like a toy, it could have been awful," said Snohomish County Sheriff's Office spokesman Rich Niebusch. "The (boys) did the right thing and should be highly commended."

Each year, about 25 children are hospitalized due to unintentional gun injuries, according to Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. Four to five children are killed in accidental shootings every year in Washington state.

Investigators don't know how the handgun ended up on the playground, Niebusch said. It doesn't appear that a student brought the gun to school. The sheriff's office didn't have any reports of shots fired in the area. Detectives are trying to track down the gun's owner using the serial number, Niebusch said. The person may be difficult to find unless the gun was purchased from a licensed dealer and is registered in a statewide database.

Both boys said they were "scared and nervous" about the discovery. "Why was it even there, and who did it?" Grayson asked.

Khoa wondered if someone from a nearby gun range "came over to play and dropped it." Either that, he said, "or it was a bad guy running and it slipped out of his pocket." Neither boy had seen a firearm up close before, but both have learned from their parents and in school assemblies and classes what to do if they came across a weapon. "They're really dangerous," Grayson said.

Francis and Alison Pope are proud of their son. "So many of these you're hearing, unfortunately, because someone got hurt," Francis Pope said. "It's kind of nice to know they're actually listening when you're talking to them."

Pope said their eldest son told him he probably would have picked the gun up, so it was a good lesson for him, too. "Grayson's my brother, and I'm proud of him," said Garrett, 11, a fifth grader at the school. The Popes took Grayson out to dinner, and the boy's soccer coach, a firefighter, gave him rolls of Lifesavers candies, telling him he had saved lives by his actions.

Khoa said his parents, Larry and Lynh Dicken, told him they were proud and let him have a sleepover that night. Principal Ginny Schilaty said custodians each morning scour the playground and adjacent fields for "stuff you don't want kids to see," such as beer bottles left by weekend revelers. Staff did not see the gun during their sweeps, she said.

The boys found the gun during the third- and fourth-grade recess at 10:15 a.m. More than 120 children were outside at the time. The recess came after two previous playtimes with about 200 younger students. The principal said she was grateful the new play equipment dominated students' attention, as well as brought out more adult supervisors than usual.

The school sent a letter about the incident home with students on Monday. When the principal on Monday led Grayson over to a sheriff's deputy to make a statement, she said the boy worried that he was in trouble. "No, honey," Schilaty told him. "You're a hero."

Keep your child safe

Parents are advised to take the following steps to protect their children from guns:

* Always lock up firearms when they are not being used. Don't assume your child will not find the gun.

* Always assume that any firearm is loaded.

* Use a locking device appropriate for the children living in your house. Do not depend on it as a sole safety measure.

* Never point a firearm at anyone, even in fun or as a joke.

* Teach your children that if they see a gun, they should not touch it and should immediately leave the area and tell an adult. Teach them that guns are not toys and that if a friend wants to show them a gun, they should immediately leave the area and tell an adult.

* Do not assume that other adults think the same way you do. Before letting your child play at someone's house, ask if there are firearms in the home and where they are.

Source: Safer Child

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Sep 05 - 01:57 PM

Israeli couple fined for kissing in India
September 21, 2005 link

NEW DELHI --India may be the land of the Kamasutra, the famed ancient treatise on sex, but in the country's hinterlands, public displays of affection remain strictly taboo.

An Israeli couple discovered just how staid the small towns of India can be when they were fined 500 Indian rupees (U.S. $11) each for embracing and kissing after getting married in the Hindu holy town of Pushkar in northwestern India, the Asian Age newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Israeli Embassy in New Delhi confirmed the incident and identified the couple as Alon Orpaz and Tehila Salev, who decided to get married on a visit to India. The embassy did not provide any additional details.

The Asian Age said priests at Pushkar's Brahma temple were so incensed when the couple, married in a traditional Hindu ceremony, smooched as hymns were still being chanted that they filed a complaint with the police.

A court in Pushkar then charged the couple with indecency and ordered them to pay the fine or face 10 days in prison, the newspaper reported, adding that the couple decided to pay up.

"We will not tolerate any cultural pollution of this sort," the newspaper quoted a priest, Ladoo Ram Sharma, as saying.

Asian Age reported that the priests planned to ask the government to require tourists to be appropriately dressed when visiting the holy town and its temples

Pushkar, located on the banks of Pushkar Lake, is a popular Hindu pilgrimage spot. But it is also frequented by foreign tourists, who come for the town's annual cattle fair and camel races.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 03:43 PM

This one is going to blow their on-time stats all to pieces:


Flight Leaves 43 Hours Behind Schedule
September 24, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS - A Northwest Airlines flight to Tokyo finally took off Saturday morning - 43 hours late. Mechanical problems and a lack of a crew had kept the Boeing 747-400 on the ground since its scheduled departure time of 3 p.m. Thursday.

The delay was not caused by the airline's mechanics' strike, which began Aug. 20, Northwest spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade said. "Northwest experienced mechanical issues prior to the strike and we continue to experience them today. So this isn't new," she said. Passengers were kept on the plane for a total of nine hours over a 24-hour period, said airline spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.

Bagdade said Northwest tried to rebook all the passengers on other flights, but many of those flights were full. When the plane finally left on the more than 12-hour-long flight, it carried about 100 fewer passengers than its original 365.

Northwest apologized to the passengers and will pay for two nights' worth of food and lodging and plans to give them $700 in travel certificates. "It's certainly an unfortunate delay," Ebenhoch said. "We regret the inconvenience; we apologize. We work hard to avoid this. It happens to other airlines as well."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 05:00 PM

http://www.rense.com/general67/voting.htm


Amazing Facts About
Voting In America
Watching Watchers.org
9-24-5

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

3. The vice-president of Diebold election systems and the vice president of aftermarket sales at ES&S are brothers.

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of General Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

15. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!

16. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

17. All-not some-but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

18. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

19. Serious voting anomalies in Florida-again always favoring Bush-have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://watchingthewatchers.org/index.php?p=318

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 11:41 AM

Missing man found driving dead deer in ambulance

Associated Press


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A man reported missing from a Florida hospital was found in North Carolina dressed like a doctor and driving a stolen ambulance with a dead deer wedged in the back, authorities said.

Leon Holliman Jr., 37, was reported missing from a River Region Human Services facility in Jacksonville last month.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol found him driving the ambulance with the deer on Sunday.

"I don't know how the man got it up in there," said Sgt. Robert Pearson. "It was a six point buck."

It wasn't known where Holliman got the deer, which had been dead for some time, Pearson said.

Authorities tracked the stolen ambulance through three rural North Carolina counties and one county in southern Virginia before its tires were punctured and it wound up in a ditch, Pearson said.

Holliman was admitted to a North Carolina hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Police said they would decide whether to charge Holliman after that evaluation is complete.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:44 PM

Maybe he'd just read Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. :)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 03:16 PM

Witness: 'Intelligent Design' Used in Book
October 05, 2005

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Early drafts of a student biology text contained references to creationism before they were replaced with the term "intelligent design," a witness testified Wednesday in a landmark trial over a school system's use of the book.

Drafts of the textbook, Of Pandas and People, written in 1987 were revised after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June of that year that states could not require schools to balance evolution with creationism in the classroom, said Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Forrest reviewed drafts of the textbook as a witness for eight families who are trying to have the intelligent design concept removed from the Dover Area School District's biology curriculum.

The families contend that teaching intelligent design effectively promotes the Bible's view of creation, violating the separation of church and state.

Intelligent design holds that life on Earth is so complex that it must have been the product of some higher force. Opponents of the concept say intelligent design is simply creationism stripped of overt religious references.

Forrest outlined a chart of how many times the term "creation" was mentioned in the early drafts versus how many times the term "design" was mentioned in the published edition.

"They are virtually synonymous," she said.

Under the policy approved by Dover's school board in October 2004, students must hear a brief statement about intelligent design before classes on evolution. The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps."

The trial began Sept. 26 and is expected to last as long as five weeks.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 05 - 09:55 PM

QUOTE
The statement says Charles Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps."
UNQUOTE

as is the case in all Scientific Theories. Witness the progress of the wave/particle theory of light (electromagnetism), Quantum mechanics, etc.

The gaps are indeed 'part of the theories' - and are where the knowledge advances.

Only simple minded idiots NEED to have absolute explanations without gaps for everything in life. Unfortunately many Religious Followers need such absolute security called 'facts'.

Even more unfortunately, real life is open ended, not closed.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 10:40 AM

Over-arching umbrellas are remarkably unstable in a breeze, let alone a high wind. Religion and science can coexist, but religions need to stop trying to co-opt science any more than they have already.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 11:01 AM

The "inexplicable gaps" are mostly places where the record of fossils is incomplete. This is not a cognitive flaw in the fundamental mechanism described by the theory, but an artifact of momentous historical waves of time, matter, and force.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 05 - 03:10 PM

Q: how do you spell l-a-w-s-u-i-t?


US Forest Service whistleblower fired

Last Update: 10/06/2005
By: Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - A US Forest Service official who voiced concerns about alleged pesticide misuse in forests across the Southwest has been fired. Doug Parker worked as the pesticide coordinator and assistant director of forestry health for the agency's Southwestern region.

Parker has told The Associated Press that he was removed from his duties last week because his supervisor said he failed to follow instructions.

Parker filed a whistleblower complaint earlier this year. He alleged a systemic problem when it comes to proper pesticide use across several forests in New Mexico and Arizona. Parker accused some managers of not preparing environmental risk assessments.

The Forest Service has declined to comment about Parker's case because of pending civil and legal actions.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 12:19 AM

Robbery Suspect Caught

Auburn, California, Monday, October 3.
The Auburn Journal, Oct 5

A Newcastle man who led police on a brief chase was behind bars in Placer County Jail Tuesday morning.
Kevin Stovall, 25, reportedly broke into a 1992 Dodge Caravan in the Auburn Town Center parking lot Monday afternoon around 3 p.m. while the owner of the vehicle was at the Flour Garden Bakery, said an officer of the Auburn Police Department.
Beverly Pando (who'd rather not tell her age) and Joseph Offer, 50 (well, 57), of Auburn, noticed the man near Pando's vehicle and walked up to him.
"(Offer) confronted the suspect who tried to give him some kind of story that he was getting the keys out of his girlfriend's car," the officer said. "The suspect gets out of the car as the victim is dialing her cell phone to call the police and he grabs it and says he's not going to go back to prison."
Stovall then fled the area and "the chase was on" (they didn't say it, but Offer did the chasing, walking rather briskly until the guy got out of sight. Then the police flushed him out and tackled him).
He didn't get far and was apprehended by an Auburn police officer.
Stovall was booked on charges of suspicion of robbery, burglary, and resisting arrest. He remains in Placer County Jail on $50,000 bail.

---

Gee, it was the first time I've ever seen a crime in progress, and I stopped it. Kind of an interesting experience. In my Walter Mitty reveries, I've wondered if I could bluff a criminal into custody by telling him to put his hands up against the car and frisking him. The guy didn't buy the bluff, so I had to chase him to try to get my friend's phone back. That didn't work, either. The cops got the guy, but not the phone.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 12:53 AM

Good guy, Joe!

And now you see why this thread is so handy? You can post this kind of article and a few folks will read it and enjoy it, but you don't have to worry about starting a new thread and all of the goofy stuff that goes with it, because all comers are welcome.

So what happened to your friend's phone between when it was grabbed and when the police grabbed him? With a $50,000 bail it looks like they mean business about keeping him.

I remember watching the news on a local Texas channel quite a few years back when a young upstart of a news reporter, on the air, actually caught a burglar in the act in a mall parking lot during his remote news segment. He asked him a couple of questions, and as the guy turned to flee, the reporter did a "what the hell" kind of look, tossed the mic down, and tackled the guy. It was great television!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 07:10 AM

Well done Joe. Of course, you may have been hurt. but what the hell, in those circumstances it seemed the right thing to do...

Out here, we regularly have stories of old pensioners beating up would be robbers muggers - thy just have to 'have a go' too.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 07:26 AM

Yayyyyy, Joe. What an offer!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JennyO
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 11:37 AM

Goodonya Joe. It's a pity there aren't more people in the world like you, who are ready to go the extra mile for their fellow human beings!

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 06:44 PM

Woman Charged in Pregnant Neighbor Attack
October 13, 2005

PITTSBURGH - A woman clubbed her pregnant neighbor over the head with a baseball bat, drove her to the woods and cut her belly with a knife in an attempt to steal her baby, police say.

Police said Wednesday's attack on Valerie Oskin was stopped before her baby was taken after a teenager on an all-terrain vehicle came across the women. Oskin, 30, later underwent an emergency Caesarean section at a hospital. State police Thursday said she was in critical condition and her baby in stable condition. She was believed to have been in her third trimester of pregnancy, authorities said.

Peggy Jo Conner, 38, of Ford City, was arraigned Thursday on charges of attempted homicide and aggravated assault and was jailed without bail. Conner had told her live-in partner before the attack that she was pregnant, and investigators found baby-related items in her trailer, Armstrong County District Attorney Scott Andreassi said. "Clearly, she was expecting a child coming in shortly," Andreassi said. "There's nothing to indicate she was pregnant."

The assault began Wednesday morning, when Conner hit Oskin several times with a bat, Andreassi said. Conner then put Oskin and Oskin's 7-year-old son in her car, dropped the boy off at a family member's house and drove the pregnant woman about 15 miles to a secluded area about 50 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Andreassi said.

There, Conner cut Oskin across her abdomen with a razor knife, authorities said. "She was sliced over an old (Caesarean) scar and severely bleeding," Trooper Jonathan Bayer said.

A 17-year-old boy on an ATV spotted Conner kneeling next to the pregnant woman on the ground, Bayer said. The boy rode home and told his father, who called authorities, who arrested Conner at the scene.

The pregnant woman "probably would have bled to death if this young boy had not discovered her when he did," Bayer said. A call to Conner's home went unanswered Thursday afternoon. State police said they did not know if she had a lawyer.

Last December, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, was strangled at her Missouri home, and her baby was cut from her womb. Prosecutors said Lisa Montgomery showed the baby off as her own before her arrest. She is awaiting trial.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 05:59 AM

[QUOTE]

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2005• THE WICHITA EAGLE 3B

WICKED WITCH'S DEATH CONFIRMED

BY KAREN SHIDELER
The Wichita Eagle

Ding, dong.
The witch is dead.
Or is she?

We all know that the Munchkin coroner declared the Wicked Witch of the East dead - not only merely dead but really most sincerely dead - in "The Wizard of Oz."

But the 1939 death had not been recorded as a Kansas fatality, as state law requires, until Friday.

The Shawnee County Commission appointed 90-year-old Meinhardt Raabe, the Munchkin coroner in the movie, as a spedal deputy coroner so he could sign the certificate and record it with the state. The certificate was accepted Friday in Topeka by State Registrar Lorne Phillips.

The certificate notes that death was by tornado trauma. And because the tornado picked up the house in Kansas, the death certificate gets signed here.

The reason for all this is so that the death certificate can be given to organizers of Wamego's first Oztoberfest celebration, this weekend. Phillips said his office wouldn't officially record the certificate.

Which leads to a question:

If the death certificate isn't officially recorded, can that wicked witch really be

Positively,

absolutely,

Undeniably

and reliably

DEAD?

[END QUOTE]



Comment: Probably the first sensible thing any member of Kansas State government has done in the past couple of years ... and they don't intend to finish the paperwork on it??????

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 10:17 AM

I heard something on the radio about the scheduling of this event. This must be a quick recovery gimmick after the theft of the Ruby Slippers. They went missing some weeks prior to this event.

Here's a bit from an article you'll find via Google News

No sign of ruby slippers stolen from museum
MEMORABILIA: The theft of the famous shoes from "The Wizard of Oz" draws attention to Judy Garland's birthplace.

BY JIM RAGSDALE, ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

GRAND RAPIDS - Shane Troumbley, who tests paper products by day and acts in "The Wizard of Oz" by night, was supposed to tell the Emerald City gatekeeper that Dorothy's ruby slippers were proof that she should be admitted to see the great and powerful wizard.

But during a rehearsal last week, Troumbley couldn't resist ad-libbing.

"She's wearing the ruby slippers we stole from the museum!" he said.

Art imitated life this week in Grand Rapids, a paper-making, hunting and fishing community along the upper Mississippi where the poplars and maples are in full color and Glen's Army Navy Outdoors store was busy with men with grouse or deer in their sights.

Troumbley's quip on the stage of the Reif Center, a showplace where a community production of Oz is being mounted, was a reminder of Grand Rapids' claim to artistic fame.

And infamy.

He referred to the bold, shocking and inexplicable theft of one of the few known pairs of the sequined ruby slippers used in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz" film. The famed pumps, on loan to the Judy Garland Museum, insured for $1 million and possibly worth far more in an open auction, disappeared from their plexiglass display case six weeks ago during an overnight break-in.

Grand Rapids is the birthplace of Frances Ethel Gumm, a musical prodigy who became a film and musical phenomenon under her stage name of Judy Garland. Gumm-Garland will forever be Dorothy, the role she played in the Wizard of Oz film, long after she and her family had left Grand Rapids for Hollywood.

She lived in Grand Rapids less than five years and returned exactly once, on a snowy March day in 1938 that some locals still remember. That didn't keep modern-day Garland fans from moving and restoring her birthplace, filling two museums with memorabilia and hosting an annual festival that draws serious Garland and Oz worshippers from places like California, England and Australia.

[snip]

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 03:59 PM

Mayor: Sever Thumbs of Graffiti Artists
November 03, 2005

RENO, Nev. - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has suggested that those who deface freeways with graffiti should have their thumbs cut off on television. Goodman, appearing Wednesday on the "Nevada Newsmakers" television show, said, "In the old days in France, they had beheading of people who commit heinous crimes.

"You know, we have a beautiful highway landscaping redevelopment in our downtown. We have desert tortoises and beautiful paintings of flora and fauna. These punks come along and deface it.

"I'm saying maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb," the mayor added. "That may be the right thing to do." Goodman also suggested that whippings or canings should be brought back for children who get into trouble. "I also believe in a little bit of corporal punishment going back to the days of yore, where examples have to be shown," Goodman said.

"I'm dead serious," said Goodman, adding, "Some of these (children) don't learn. You have got to teach them a lesson, and this is coming from a criminal defense lawyer."

"They would get a trial first," he added.

Another panelist on the show, Howard Rosenberg, a state university system regent, responded by saying that cutting off the thumbs of taggers won't solve the problem and Goodman should "use his head for something other than a hat rack."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 06:05 PM

Copernicus' Grave Found in Polish Church
Polish Archeologists Believe They've Found Grave of 16th-Century Astronomer Copernicus in a Church

WARSAW, Poland Nov 3, 2005 — Polish archeologists believe they have located the grave of 16th-century astronomer and solar-system proponent Nicolaus Copernicus in a Polish church, one of the scientists announced Thursday.

Copernicus, who died in 1543 at 70 after challenging the ancient belief that the sun revolved around the earth, was buried at the Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Frombork, 180 miles north of the capital, Warsaw.

Jerzy Gassowski, head of an archaeology and anthropology institute in Pultusk, central Poland, said his four-member team found what appears to be the skull of the Polish astronomer and clergyman in August, after a one-year search of tombs under the church floor.

"We can be almost 100 percent sure this is Copernicus," Gassowski told The Associated Press by phone after making the announcement during a meeting of scientists.

Gassowski said police forensic experts used the skull to reconstruct a face that closely resembled the features including a broken nose and scar above the left eye on a Copernicus self-portrait. The experts also determined the skull belonged to a man who died at about age 70.

The grave was in bad condition and not all remains were found, Gassowski said, adding that his team will try to find relatives of Copernicus to do more accurate DNA identification.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 07:55 PM

op-ed in Washington Post Nov.3

( link


Why Jesus Is Welcome In the Public Square
Religiosity Isn't Just the Right's Territory

By Jennifer Moses

Thursday, November 3, 2005; Page A21

BATON ROUGE, La. -- It's not news that the Christian right often appears to want nothing other than to impose its values, religious and otherwise, on the rest of the nation. But liberals would be mistaken to assume that it's only people on the far right who rely on the word of God for everything from Sunday sermon topics to public policymaking. In towns like Baton Rouge, religion is so much a part of public life that most folks can't begin to fathom that there might be something less than healthy in the blend. Of course, the religion in question is always a fairly distinct brand of down-home Protestantism, but what the hell. If you don't like Jesus, that's your business.

Actually, for a Jewish girl, I'm on pretty good terms with him. Despite my initial discomfiture with living in a place where people routinely ask "Where do y'all go to church?" I don't mind, and even welcome, being on the receiving end of blessings, Christian or otherwise. Being told "Jesus loves you, baby," by my favorite postal clerk doesn't offend me. Nor do I mind the billboards dotting the interstate ("Looking for a Sign from God? Here it is!") or the inclination of most of my neighbors to talk about their personal quests in terms of divine will.

Given the human habit of unleashing violence in the name of God, perhaps I'm naive, but I tend to believe that the Christian religiosity that's the common currency of great swaths of our country generally does more good than harm, giving people a sense of purpose and community where they might not otherwise have either. But I'm talking mainly about what I call the "good" Jesus -- the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, the one who, through his people, clothes the naked and feeds the hungry. In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it's that Jesus who's been making the rounds, so much so that Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, came to Baton Rouge to praise the efforts of local churches. (Well he should, too, since the federal government has all but abandoned us to our own resources.) The local newspaper covered the visit in detail. What it failed to do was mention that there might be something suspect in having a White House office of faith-based anything.

Welcome to the Bible Belt, y'all -- or at least to my small and not particularly dogmatic corner of it. (If you want the real thing, you have to go farther north, to Shreveport or Monroe.) South Louisiana is famously laid-back, and while there are those who believe, for example, that Catholics are going to burn in hell because they worship the pope, most folks just want to get along. That said, part of getting along means accommodating local norms, maybe even trampling on the Constitution now and then, because, after all, what's the big deal if the fellows pray before the high school football game? It's not like anyone's making them, and, anyway, most of the kids, maybe even all of them, are Christian.

So prevalent is this last sentiment that even the Louisiana State University law school follows it, hanging an enormous Christmas wreath over its imposing neoclassical entrance every December -- to the annual protests of faculty who point out that while such a display may be constitutionally kosher, it's also, at the very least, obnoxious. But the religious sentiments don't come only from the right. In March, the Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, endorsed publicly sponsored prayer at Tangipahoa Parish School Board meetings. The black community, which is generally liberal, uniformly voted in favor of a state amendment banning anything that so much as hinted at the legalization of same-sex unions. It's not unusual for a preacher to start things off at political rallies, either. I attended one rally last year, where, on the steps of the state Capitol, people carrying signs that read "Leave No Millionaire Behind" and "When Clinton Lied, No One Died" bowed their heads in the name of Jesus. Not to mention that Christian ministry is a major part of what passes for rehabilitation in the state prisons.

If one common mistake liberals make is assuming that the great majority of Bible-thumping (or tapping) comes from the right, a second -- and to my mind, more important -- mistake is equating this style of religiosity with something as simple as narrow-minded ignorance. Rather, bringing God and his word as expressed in the Bible into the debate points to a profound lack of meaning and vision in our public discourse, and a searing pessimism that anyone, or any institution, in public life might put things right. It points, also, to disgust: disgust not only with our elected leaders but also with the cheapening of life around us, whether by blatant sexuality on television, soaring drug abuse, the acceptance of out-of-wedlock birth or the loss of the communal ties that once grounded us.

As far as I can tell, progressives and liberals of all stripes don't even begin to fathom the despair and confusion most ordinary Americans feel when they hear the latest violent rap song or see a billboard plastered with an image of a 16-year-old clad only in Calvin Klein underwear. The right wing of the Republican Party, on the other hand, has long understood that most Americans yearn for something nobler in our national life, but it doesn't care unless it can use frustration and despair to harvest rage, and rage to harvest votes.

What's the answer? I don't know, but it might help if our political leaders stopped spinning and, like the prophets of old, spoke the truth.

Jennifer Moses is a writer who grew up in McLean and has lived in Baton Rouge for 10 years.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 10:59 PM

Good fer Jennifer.

She's moving her finger right toward the ole button -- the debasement of genuine purpose and the elevation of bread-and-circus mediocrity.The notion of elevating noptoriety and celebrity (the condition of being well-known for being well-known) to importance is a media trick that has eroded our mental and spiritual life for a fistful of advertising dollars. Smart of her to connect the dots like that.

As for old Nikolai Copernicus, that's a pretty good resting spot for a guy who blew the terra-centric cosmology right out the ole stained glass window. He shoulda given some tips to Galileo or had him move to Poland.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 03:25 PM

Drive-through robber leaves empty-handed

FORT WORTH - The convenience of bank drive-throughs is appealing to more than just customers nowadays. Robbers like them, too. Police say a man drove into Summit Bank's drive-through at 3000 Altamesa Blvd. about 11:30 a.m. Friday and tried unsuccessfully to make a big withdrawal using a robbery note. It was the second such episode in Fort Worth in a little more than a week.

"Maybe it's a lazier breed of bank robber," quipped Fort Worth police robbery Detective J.E. Livesay. In Friday's robbery attempt, the driver of a Chevy Astro van passed the note, tucked inside a small black bag that looked like a shaving kit, through the teller's drawer.

Fill up the bag, the note demanded. Large bills only. Don't sound the alarm. Put the note back in the bag.

The teller who read the note had been on duty during a similar robbery attempt at the bank this year, Livesay said. "She saw the note and read it, and she immediately dropped to the floor and told all the employees they were being robbed again," he said.

Employees took cover and sounded the holdup alarm. The robber, growing impatient, honked his horn after about two minutes and spoke briefly with the bank's manager over the intercom. "She yelled at him, 'What do you want?'," Livesay said. "He said 'I want my deposit back' and she said, 'You don't have a deposit. You're not a customer. You're trying to rob us. Get out of here.'" The robber pulled forward, then stopped and backed up, narrowly missing another vehicle behind him, Livesay said. The robber then fled before officers arrived.

He is described as an unshaven white man in his 40s driving a light blue Chevy Astro minivan with Texas paper tags dated Nov. 21. He has short dark hair and was wearing a brown cap and sunglasses. Livesay said police are investigating whether the robbery attempt is related to an Oct. 27 holdup of the Bank of America at 116 E. Seminary Drive. In that robbery, a man driving a silver or gray 1990s-model pickup passed a note demanding cash, then fled with an undisclosed amount.

In August, Fort Worth police arrested a 39-year-old man suspected of robbing two banks and trying to rob three others using drive-through windows, including one at the Summit Bank. In those robberies, a man whom authorities nicknamed the "drive-through bandit" passed threatening notes to tellers. The robber did not display a weapon and drove different cars, police have said.

Cleo C. Moore, a convicted bank robber who had recently been released from a Fort Worth halfway house, is awaiting trial on federal bank robbery charges in those cases.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 01:16 PM

Hmmm. I seem to be noticing these more, or are there just more robberies being reported?

Woman Robs Banks While on Her Cell Phone
November 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - These days it seems that some people just can't go anywhere or do anything without a cell phone in their ear. In northern Virginia the police say they're looking for a woman who's been holding up banks while chatting on her phone.

"This is the first time that I can recall where we've had a crime committed while the person was using a cell phone," Loudoun County sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell told The Washington Post in a story published Friday. "The question would be whether anyone is on the other end of the line or not."

Investigators believe the woman has hit four Wachovia bank branches in recent weeks in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties. In three of those bank jobs, she was talking on a cell phone, while showing the teller a box with a holdup note attached to it. In the most recent holdup, on Nov. 4, in Ashburn, the robber showed the teller a gun.

The woman is described as well-spoken, with a slight Hispanic accent. Investigators say they're not sure if she's actually talking to someone on the phone or just pretending. They also won't speculate on why she's chosen only Wachovia branches.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 11:13 AM

Boater Rescued From Sharks Off Fla. Coast
November 12, 2005

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland - A man whose boat capsized in rough seas off the Florida coast treaded water for six hours, watching his friend die, while two boaters refused to pick him up apparently thinking he was an illegal immigrant from Haiti. Rogers Washington was eventually saved by two other boaters on Thursday who spotted him frantically waving his arms and shouting "I'm an American! I'm an American!"

"It would have been very easy not to have seen him," said David Pensky, 61, who saved Washington. "At first, I wasn't sure if he was a diver trying to make sure I didn't hit him." he told The (Annapolis) Capital, a Maryland newspaper. Pensky and Richard Holden, 63, noticed the fisherman, orange whistle to his lips, floating with the aid of a cooler lid and a small life vest shoved under his arm.

"They are the best men in the world," Washington said on Friday. "They are God's children." Washington said he capsized while on a fishing trip with Robert Lewis Moore, 62, also from Florida, after two large waves hit his 22-foot (7-meter) boat. The boat went down quickly, leaving the men clutching life vests.

Moore probably had a heart attack and died when a shark began circling them, Washington said. He tried resuscitating Moore, but it didn't work. He held onto his friend for about 45 minutes. "I had to let him go so I could try to survive," he said.

Washington floated alone in the choppy seas for about five more hours, the coastline visible in the distance. A hammerhead shark came within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of him. Two boats, a charter and a sailboat, passed within a couple hundred feet (60 meters). No one on those boats offered to help.

"They waved at me. I know they saw me," said Washington, who is black and believes the other boaters thought he was an illegal immigrant from Haiti. Moore's body was found Thursday by a fisherman.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 12:45 AM

Man sentenced to 6 years for chipping Inca ruins during filming

LIMA, Peru - A camera crane operator shooting a commercial at the Machu Picchu Inca ruins whose equipment tipped and chipped a stone sundial there has been sentenced to six years in prison, officials said Friday. The local court in Urubamba, 338 miles southeast of the capital, Lima, said it had found Walter Leonidas Espinoza guilty on Nov. 3 of destruction and alteration of cultural goods. The charge carries a maximum penalty of eight years behind bars.

Antonio Terrazas, a lawyer acting as spokesman for Peru's Institute of Culture, said offenders are seldom charged and when they are prosecuted and found guilty, it normally results only in a fine or a few months in jail. Espinoza has appealed his sentence, authorities said.

The production company Espinoza worked for knocked a corner edge off the Intihuatana, or "hitching post for the sun," in 2000 while shooting the commercial for the Backus beer company.

The Intihuatana was used by Inca astronomers to predict solstices and was of great importance in Inca mythology and agriculture. It is considered to be the most important shrine in Machu Picchu, Peru's biggest tourist attraction, high in the jungle-covered Andes, about 310 miles southeast of the capital, Lima.

Officials with Backus, which faces a civil lawsuit along with the advertising firm that hired the production company, declined to comment Friday.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 11:44 AM

Texas Town Adopts Corporate Name
Various links to stories about this.

November 17, 2005

DISH, Texas - Back in the 1950s, Hot Springs, N.M., was renamed Truth or Consequences, N.M., after a popular quiz show. During the dot-com boom of 2000, Halfway, Ore., agreed to become Half.com for a year. This week, Clark, Texas, morphed into DISH in exchange for a decade of free satellite television from the DISH Network for the town's 55 homes. Residents in Santa, Idaho, meanwhile, are weighing the pros and cons of changing to Secretsanta.com, Idaho. Across the nation, small communities are being courted by large corporations who say renaming a town provides a marketing buzz that can't be bought in television ads. Though some worry about corporate America's increasing influence in local government, many towns seem eager to accept.

In a deal unanimously approved Tuesday by the two-member town council, Clark agreed to become DISH permanently, effective immediately. It's part of an advertising campaign for Englewood, Colo.-based EchoStar Communications Corp., which operates the DISH Network satellite TV system. The company pegged the deal at about $4,500 per home in the rural patch of ranch land, which is about a half hour's drive north of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Beyond the lure of free TV service for the 125 residents, the renaming is a way for the town to attract businesses and residents, said Mayor Bill Merritt, who courted EchoStar to pick the town. "We really look at this as kind of a rebirth for our community," Merritt said. "We want everybody to come here."

The town was founded in June 2000 by L.E. Clark, who sharply criticized the renaming. "I don't especially like it," said Clark, who lost to Merritt in May's mayoral election. "I worked my butt off a little over a year getting it incorporated."

It was 1950 when Hot Springs, N.M., voted 1,294-295 to change its name to Truth or Consequences. Host Ralph Edwards, who died Wednesday at age 92, had promised to broadcast the popular radio show from the town that agreed to the change. In 2000, Halfway, Ore., become Half.com for a year in an agreement that put $100,000 in the town coffer and a new computer lab in the school. Though the name is back to Halfway, the town still has signs that read "Welcome to Half.com, the World's First Dot-com City." "It was a good experience," said Mayor Marvin Burgraff, who served as mayor after the decision had already been approved. "It was kind of fun. You look back on it and it's good thoughts."

In an age of pervasive advertising that many people try to ignore, such stunts are a good way to grab the public's attention, said Mark Hughes, chief executive of Buzzmarketing and the former Half.com executive who devised the Oregon deal. "Word of mouth is the most powerful form of communication and marketing out there," Hughes said in a telephone interview from Santa, Idaho, where he's leading the effort to rename that town Secretsanta.com, after a gift-exchange Web site. "No one's going to talk about the 3,000th Web site that launched this week," Hughes said. "What this does is give people a reason to talk."

Still, some offers of corporate interest have backfired. In 2003, residents of Biggs, Calif., overwhelmingly rejected a California Milk Processor Board proposal to rename the city of 1,800 Got Milk? in exchange for a milk museum and money for the school. "People's take on it was, 'This is just an advertising ploy by the milk board.' There was a certain segment of population that wanted to tar and feather the mayor for even suggesting it," city clerk Marlee Mattos said.

Gary Ruskin, of the nonprofit Commercial Alert, said towns should provide services such as trash collection and education, not "hawk television at its residents," he said. "The names of our civic places reflect our values and our aspirations," Ruskin said. "It's wrong to sever the link between civic names and civic virtue."

But Merritt, mayor of the town now called DISH, said work had already begun to change the town's dozen street signs. He doesn't see the new name ever going out of favor. "I can't see right now that people would want to change it," he said. "Clark will always be a part of our history, but this is our new identity."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 12:53 PM

Cheap Laptops Are Planned for Kids
Cheap Laptop With Wireless Network Access and Hand-Crank to Provide Electricity Are Planned for Children
link

TUNIS, Tunisia - A cheap laptop boasting wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity is expected to start shipping in February or March to help extend technology to school-aged children worldwide. The machines are to sell for $100, slightly less than its cost. The aim is to have governments or donors buy them and give full ownership to the children.

"These robust, versatile machines will enable children to become more active in their own learning," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters. Annan and more than 23,000 people from 176 countries were attending the three-day U.N. World Summit on the Information Society, in its second day Thursday.

Although discussions about persisting U.S. control over the Internet's addressing system have consumed much of summit, its original aim was to find ways to extend communications technologies to the world's poorest through projects like the $100 laptop. MIT Media Lab chairman Nicholas Negroponte, who unveiled the textbook-sized laptop on Wednesday, said he expects to sell 1 million of them to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria.

Negroponte did not say who would build the machine, which will cost $110 to make, but at least five companies are considering bids to do so. He said a commercial version may be available at a higher price to subsidize machines provided to children. The laptop will run on an open-source operating system, such as Linux, which is generally cheaper than proprietary systems such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, said Negroponte.

The devices will be lime green in color, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off potential thieves people would know by the color that the laptop is meant for a kid. Also at the summit, Microsoft unveiled a new network of learning centers in Tunisia to train people to be teachers in technology. Jean-Phillippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, said the company would replicate the centers elsewhere as part of its outreach efforts.

Addressing delegates on Thursday, Pakistani diplomat Masood Khan said increasing access to communications can help improve relations between regions and religions. "Information is not just an economic tool," Kahn told delegates in the main hall. "We need its infinite power to combat the rising tide of prejudice and hatred."

Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade, said more time and effort was needed to help address the digital divide, but stressed that Africa in particular should do more for itself by providing education and jobs. "The computer specialists we train in Senegal, the English and the French come in and take them back to France and America," he told reporters. "We need to keep them with us."

The summit was engrossed in some controversy after Reporters Without Borders said its secretary-general, Robert Menard, was denied entry into the country after his flight landed at the airport in the capital. The Paris-based group, among the chief critics of Tunisia's stance on speech and human rights, said Tunisian police officers and other officials boarded the Air France flight that Menard was on and said he could not enter the country to attend the summit. Francine Lambert, a spokeswoman for the summit, said Menard was issued credentials but was held back because of outstanding criminal complaint against him by Tunisia.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 03:09 PM

Ah! A new word!

Schadenfreude

November 17, 2005

Woodward Feels Heat – Times Runs Amok?

It's clear today that Bob Woodward's involvement in the CIA leak case – and his decision not to reveal that involvement for more than two years – is now, officially, the latest Big Journalism Scandal. Woodward's behavior is reminding some of another such scandal, the one involving former New York Times reporter Judith Miller: "There are a number of ingredients in this unsavory stew that weirdly echo the Judith Miller imbroglio," wrote Rem Rieder in The American Journalism Review.

When we came into work this morning, we couldn't help but wonder: How would the Times cover the story? Would there be hints of Schadenfreude in their coverage? (FYI: scha•den•freu•de: Noun. German. "Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.") Would the Times revel in the fact that the wrath of media critics is suddenly shifting elsewhere? Would the paper try to cast Woodward in the worst possible light – and in the process help people forget a little more quickly about their dear departed "Ms. Run Amok?"

long story, and one that I'll have to go read some more sources to see what it's all about. But interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 03:09 PM

Me again. . .

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 03:15 PM

Damn! A few weeks back I heard a word that was defined as "suddenly feeling guilty because of your schadenfreude," but I can't remember it now!

Anybody heard it?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 03:16 PM

The San Francisco Chronicle has covered it.

Ah! Details!

Woodward's disclosure could aid Libby
Reporter's testimony on Monday adds new wrinkle to CIA leak investigation

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Washington -- The revelation that the Washington Post's Bob Woodward may have been the first reporter to learn about CIA operative Valerie Wilson could provide a boost to the only person indicted in the leak case: Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Legal experts said Woodward had provided two pieces of new information that cast at least a shadow of doubt on the public case against Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

Woodward testified Monday that contrary to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's public statements, a senior government official -- not Libby -- had been the first Bush administration official to tell a reporter about Wilson and her role at the CIA. Woodward also said that Libby had never mentioned Wilson, also known as Valerie Plame, in conversations they had on June 23 and June 27, 2003, about the Iraq war, a time when the indictment alleges Libby was eagerly passing information about Wilson to reporters and colleagues.

While neither statement appears to factually change Fitzgerald's contention that Libby lied and impeded the leak investigation, the Libby legal team plans to use Woodward's testimony to try to show that Libby was not obsessed with unmasking Wilson and to raise questions about the prosecutor's full understanding of events. Until now, few outside of Libby's legal team have challenged the facts and chronology of Fitzgerald's case.

"I think it's a considerable boost to the defendant's case," said John Moustakas, a former federal prosecutor who has no role in the case. "It casts doubt about whether Fitzgerald knew everything as he charged someone with very serious offenses."

According to the statement Woodward released Tuesday, he did not appear to provide any testimony that goes specifically to the question of whether Libby is guilty of two counts of perjury, two counts of providing false statements and obstructing justice. The indictment outlines what many legal experts describe as a very strong case against Libby, because it shows the former Cheney aide learned about Wilson from at least four government sources, including the vice president -- and not a reporter, as he testified before the grand jury.

Randall Eliason, former head of the public corruption unit for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington D.C., said he doubted the Woodward account would have much effect on Libby's case and dismissed such theories as "defense spin."

"Libby was not charged with being the first to talk to a reporter, and that is not part of the indictment," he said. "Whether or not some other officials were talking to Woodward doesn't really tell us anything about the central issue in Libby's case: What was his state of mind and intent when he was talking to the FBI and testifying in the grand jury?"

Eliason added: "What this does suggest, though, is that the investigation is still very active. Hard to see how that is good news for (White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl) Rove or for anyone else in the prosecutor's crosshairs."

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Rove's legal team, said Rove was not the official who had talked to Woodward. Rove was referred to, but not by name, in Libby's indictment as having discussed Wilson's identity with reporters.

Since December 2003, Fitzgerald has been probing whether senior Bush administration officials illegally leaked classified information -- Wilson's identity as a CIA operative -- to reporters to discredit allegations made by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Robert Novak revealed Valerie Wilson's identity in a July 14, 2003, column, eight days after her husband publicly accused the administration of twisting intelligence to justify the Iraq war. Rove is still under investigation.

Libby's attorneys have asked whether Fitzgerald will correct his statement that Libby was the first administration official to leak information about Wilson to a reporter. Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment. At a news conference Oct. 28, Fitzgerald specifically said that Libby was the "first official known" at that time to have provided such information to a reporter.

The White House declined to comment.

In October 2003, President Bush pledged cooperation with the investigation, and investigators requested and subpoenaed all records of contacts with reporters.

Chronicle news services contributed to this report.