THE TIGER AFFAIR

Running from the devil

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Tiger Woods golfing career suffered a sharp decline after he married 24-year-old Elin Nordegren in 2004?  Maybe next time Tiger will listen to good-ol-dad (Earl Woods) who was dead-set against Tiger marrying  at such a young age with his entire golfing career ahead of him.

These days, with a 2:25 a.m. domestic-violence episode at his Orlando residence in which his wife Elin Nordegren apparently chased  him out of the mansion with one of Tiger’s own golf-clubs before busting out the windows on Tiger’s SUV, Tiger being found by police lying face-down on the pavement unconscious with scratches all over his face after running over a fire-hydrant and hitting a tree, and with allegations of an adulterous affair with Rachel Uchitel, a woman he met at a social-club, it’s beginning to look like Tiger’s best days in golf are behind him. The simple life ain’t so simple when you jump out on that road.

911 Audio

It has been six years since Tiger Woods won a major gold event. The last full-field PGA tournament he won was the Western Open in July 2003. In 2009, there is no doubt that Tiger Woods is in the midst of some kind of ultimate decline based solely on his performance over the past few months.

Woods is struggling, there is no doubt about that.

His tee shots are all over the map and for the third consecutive time, Woods has been unable to mount any kind of Sunday afternoon charge despite being well within striking distance of the leaders. He is completely missing greens with basic approach shots. He has made only a fraction of those 10-foot putts we have become so accustomed to seeing Woods make—with the same ease and consistency as most other PGA Tour players sink three-inch tap-ins.

The world’s greatest golfer can take credit for all the major championships he wants, but when it comes to the quality person that he is—the dignified star, the respectful youngster, the cooperative icon — Tiger Woods knows he must give thanks to his dad, Earl. Earl Woods died in 2006 at the age of 74, a small piece of Tiger Woods died, too.

“He has the power to do a lot of things with his charisma,” Earl Woods said on the eve of the 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship outside of Boston, a tournament that would benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation. “Some day, he will do a lot of great things. I don’t know what they are yet, but knowing Tiger Woods, they won’t be small.”

When Earl was alive, Tiger once caused a stir by saying he felt fortunate to win a tournament because he didn’t have his best stuff. How shocking. Another time, he chose not to sign a golf ball by a couple of PGA Tour colleagues who were going to raffle it off for charity. Then there was the time he wouldn’t take the media’s bait and condemn Augusta National officials for maintaining its men’s-only membership, even while beloved American icons such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus accepted their memberships and were spared a criticism that would have been warranted.

“What I thought was a bad idea was what her family had in mind,” said Earl Woods. “They had determined that Tiger was going to make a lot of money. They were meaning to make the relationship a permanent relationship. I could see this, but Tiger couldn’t. As a parent I could do one of two things; I could forbid him to see her, or I could counsel him and then wait for him to grow and determine what was right for himself. I chose the latter.

Tiger Woods sunset wedding was held October 5, 2004 under a white-netted pagoda decorated with red roses on the 19th hole of the Sandy Lane Golf Resort in Barbados. The exclusive resort is located on the west coast of the Caribbean locale. The wedding reportedly cost between $1.5 million – $2 million. Tiger hired the whole complex for a week including 110 rooms and and three golf courses. The rooms reportedly cost from $700 to $9,000 per night each.

These days, Tiger is being chased out of his mansion by a golf-club wielding jealous wife. How far the mighty have fallen.

The National Enquirer posted a story that Tiger Woods is cheating on his wife with a woman named Rachel Uchitel (photo  left), who might sound familiar to gossip followers.  Rachel Uchitel is the same woman that ‘Bones’ David Boreanaz was accused of having a torrid affair last year via the other popular tabloid, Star Magazine, while his wife was pregnant with their child.The National Enquirer apparently has pics of Uchitel entering Tigers hotel in Melbourne, while he played down under in the Australian Masters. Enquirer  sources claim they have also had liaisons in New York and Las Vegas, apparently proving what happens in sin city doesn’t always stay there. I don’t see allegations made that Tiger Woods is cheating on his wife of six years, Elin Norgegren, and mother of his two children, happening without a fight.  So I see a lawsuit in the works if the Enquirer doesn’t have some proof of their claims.

New reports indicate that police are attempting to gain a warrant to look at Woods medical records to determine if his facial lacerations were from an accident, or an assault by wife Elin Nordegren.

The airbags in the 2009 Cadillac Escalade that Tiger Woods was driving never deployed. This would indicate that he was either driving less than 33 MPH, or that they were defective. Despite this, Tiger Woods had facial lacerations and was taken to the Health Central Hospital, where he was treated and released. Police hope to determine forensically, or at least, theoretically, from the medical records, if the lacerations were from the accident itself, or domestic violence. Police have not managed, to this point, to speak to the couple, although they have attempted to do so three times. Police have also indicated that they want to stay out of any “Tiger Woods mistress” talk, and focus on the incident. Previously, however, police indicated that the investigation is ongoing and that “charges could be pursued.” It’s unclear if they were speaking of possible domestic violence, or DUI. TMZ has previously indicated that Woods told a friend that he was taking prescription medication for pain, which could be consistent with a DUI.

Tiger Woods released a statement on his blog about his recent single-car accident. Part of the statement refers to his wife, Elin. “The only person responsible for the accident is me. My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false.”

Their private life is just that: private. Anything that goes on behind closed doors is their business, and theirs alone … as long as no crimes have been committed. Without speculating on the Woods case, any time there is a reasonable suspicion of domestic violence, it does indeed become a public matter.

Did the death of his father Earl send Tiger Woods off the rails?

You see what happened to Dominic Carter last week. his wife tried to withdraw her domestic violence charge, but it was too late. now his career, if not totally ruined, is thrown way off track.

Tiger Woods will go down in history as a great golfer but unlike, say, Muhammad Ali or Arthur Ashe he will never be considered a truly great sportsman because, unlike Ali and Ashe, he has consistently refused to use his influence and power to shape the society he lives in.

Queen of Blogs

Queen of hearts

Queen of Quirky aka Stephanie Mitchum is a former print journalist turned radio journalist turned Morning Edition host turned back to print journalist who decided she had such a wide-range of journalism experience, she should try her crack at P.R.  Queen of quirky is her non-professional quirky blog where she now finds her voice. (Her journalism professor would be so proud — and by proud, horrified.) On her blog, like a million other American housewives, many of whom do not have the advantage of having been former professional journalists like Stephanie or myself, she blogs about quirky take on life, divorce, food, marriage the second time and occasionally the thing that started it all — running.  All material is viewed under the microscope of the queen’s mantra, “keep it quirky.”

Stephanie’s blog was recently chosen by WordPress.com as one of the featured top-ten blogs of the day. It’s a good blog. I checked it out and although I am not a woman, it is well done. My question is, how many blogs are out there anyway and how many people have to read your blog before you can make any real money by blogging?

Technorati currently states it is tracking over 112.8 million blogs, a number which obviously does not include all the 72.82 million Chinese blogs as counted by The China Internet Network Information Center.

On WordPress.com I can track the number of daily viewers my blog receives. I average around 500-readers per day. Which is good, considering there are over 112.8-million blogs. But bloggers get paid by the number of “hits” or “diggs.” In order to be a regular blogger for a major blog like say Arianna Huffington, a blogger needs 5,000 hits-per-day. Arianna Huffington;’s blog receives nine-million-hits a month.

Which brings me to my question. Are most of the 112.8-million-blogs turned out by bloggers, well-meaningful or not, irrelevant if few people read them? Or if only 500-people-a-day read them? Is blogging, which takes an extraordinary amount of time, an excercise in futility?

Blogging may well be one way to keep in touch with family and friends, ultimately replacing hand-produced newsletters, Christmas letters and the like but other than that- for most bloggers- are we wasting our time? And with the proliferation of  blogs, some 112.8-million of them, who has time to check out even a third of them? That would be all you would be doing, all day long, every day. In order for blogs like WordPress to be able to operate- they make money by advertisers. Again, needing a certain number of “hits” before advertisers will agree to advertise on your blog. By WordPress and other’s offering “free” blogs, it’s one way of guaranteeing advertisers a certain number of “hits.” So, are we bloggers just being used so that blogs like WordPress and other’s can make money off us? If we’re just a “hit” or way to make money and if these blog-services do not really care about us other than as a statistic- agin, what is the purpose of blogging?

I have been blogging for over a year now on various services and while I enjoy blogging it does take up way too much of my time, time that could be better spent working on my books. I am glad for those readers who have actually read my blog and enjoyed whatever content I have offered, either political, entertainment, sports or other. But lately, I  am coming to the opinion that blogging is an excercise in futility and I question the future of bogging as a whole. I do not think it will be as popular in another ten-years. I think blogging was a “fad” as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are “fads.” Fads do not last.

Another 9-years in Afghanistan?

I’m beginning to think that maybe it was a good thing that the NVA kicked our ass in Vietnam. It may have been the only way for Nixon to bring the troops home. The unpopularity of the war, the violent protests, marches, riots, increasing pressure on President Nixon and the NVA over-running Saigon may have been the only way America could have gotten out of there. Otherwise, the Industrial-military complex, like they are doing in Afghanistan, would prolong the war indefinitely to forever line their pockets. Afghanistan is the perfect “indefinite” war. There are more murders committed everyday in America than number of troops lost on both Iraq and Afghanistan. The military-industrial-complex can make a fortune turning out robotic weapons like the Predator drone, robotic tanks and other weapons that do not involve loss of life if destroyed by the enemy. So why shouldn’t they prolong the war as long as they can? For them , it’s like shooting fish-in-a-barrel. For the families of the troops however, there have been permanent, irreversible effects of the now 9-year “police-action.”

I needn’t remind readers of the embarrassment to the Bush administration caused by Guantanamo Bay, water-boarding, that fiasco of a prison detainees forced to build a naked human pyramid.

President Barack Obama issued orders Sunday night for a revamped war strategy in Afghanistan that includes tens of thousands of additional U.S. forces and benchmarks for the eventual transfer of Afghanistan’s defense to the Afghan government. Mr. Obama met in the Oval Office Sunday at 5 p.m. with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David Petraeus, head of Central Command, National Security Adviser James Jones, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. He then communicated his decision to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of the multinational force in Afghanistan, and U.S. Ambassador to Karl Eikenberry over a secure video link from the White House situation room.

News Hub: Afghanistan Tops Obama’s Policy Agenda

President Barack Obama’s biggest challenge this week will be delivering his Afghanistan strategy speech Tuesday The decision launches a week-long effort to convince Congress and the American people of the wisdom of the new strategy.

Despite the growing clarity on the strategy, efforts to stabilize Afghanistan still have important doubters. The Obama administration has soured on a call from its top commander to double the size of the Afghan police and army, reflecting the White House’s continued skepticism about the Afghan government even as the U.S. prepares a surge of troops into the country, people familiar with the matter say. Mr. Obama may need Republicans to back his latest troop increase to make up for Democratic antiwar defections. The GOP, however, will question any decision that falls short of Gen. McChrystal’s request for 40,000 more troops, said Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.). In a phone interview from Afghanistan, where he and other lawmakers were visiting, Mr. Price was skeptical of what he feared would be half measures to try to please both parties. “If what you’re trying to do is to please all people, than that might not make any sense,”

In the bleak war assessment that he delivered to Mr. Obama earlier this year, Gen. McChrystal called for expanding the Afghan army to 240,000 and the Afghan police to 160,000, roughly twice the size of their current growth plans. The proposal initially found support within the administration, where senior officials have talked openly about wanting to quickly transfer security responsibility to Afghan forces. But as the months-long administration strategy review has worn on, Vice President Joe Biden and other senior administration officials have become skeptical that the Afghan central government could retain, train and support so large a force, even with considerable Western support. For U.S. forces in Afghanistan, meanwhile, the expected troop surge can’t come fast enough. “We could use as many troops as possible,” said Staff Sgt. Jeff Schaffer, a 25-year-old Black Sheep squad leader. “It’s ridiculous to think you can tame a city like this with as few people as we have.”

Here at home, the anti-war protests are heating up.

This war is not over,” said Jason Moon, a member of Iraq Vets Against the War. “Tell the guys coming home in boxes that the war is over.“

It is impossible to stem such a war of insurgency, as the USSR learned to their dismay in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and it looks like the US is getting another lesson on that in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Can the U.S. Woo Afghanistan Taliban to Switch Sides?

The message today by anti-war protestors is to end the occupation in Iraq/Afghanistan  and focus on spending the money instead on human needs, like say the economy, creation of new jobs, helping people stay in their houses. Millions of jobs in the manufacturing sector have been lost to China and N. Korea that America is never going to get back. Obama needs to get America working again before the economy crashes and makes the aGreat Depression of 1934 look like a minor recession. Obam needs to get America working again to avoid the violence and bloodshed that is sure to come if millions more Americans lost their jobs. Black Friday sales were flat, with consumers only buying the most deeply discounted items but not opening their wallets wide.

The season for Christmas orders has passed, and Chinese exporters do not yet see the slightest trace of any rebound. The export market for Chinese goods next year shows no promise and is hovering near its lows.

KH

2012 is a movie, released on November 12th (although the date is varied in various countries), and is based on a famous belief that the world’s going to end. I have a friend who’s already freaking out because of this movie and the belief that surrounds it. Personally i think this is just the media’s way of scaring us in to saving the planet from global warming and stuff like that. Anyway, i was curious and so i went on google and searched for 2012. As expected Wikipedia gave me a whole lot of stuff on this common belief. Along with the info, there was this curious timeline of “scheduled” ( they actually used that word) events that could occur before the world ends (according to them, anyway). Below you’ll find this list of events…

January

January 13–22 – The first Winter Youth Olympics will be held in Innsbruck, Austria.

January 31 – 433 Eros, the second-largest Near Earth Object on record (size 13×13×33 km) will pass Earth at 0.1790 astronomical units (26,778,019 km; 16,639,090 mi). NASA studied Eros with the NEAR Shoemaker probe launched on February 17, 1996.[3]

February

February 6 – Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II marking the 60th anniversary of her accession to the Thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia & New Zealand (as well as the 60th anniversary of her becoming Head of the Commonwealth).

March

March 22 – Unless the European Council votes to extend current copyright law, The Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, will fall out of copyright.[4]

April

April 17 – The United States will cede wartime control of the military of the Republic of Korea after 50 years and dissolve the Combined Forces Command. Two distinct military commands (South Korea and the United States) will operate in Korea during wartime, rather than one unified command under the Combined Forces Command.[citation needed]

May

May 20 – Annular solar eclipse. Path of annularity runs through the Pacific Ocean from northern China to California.

June

June 6 – The second and last solar transit of Venus of the century. The next pair is predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.

June 9 – July 1 – The UEFA Euro 2012 will be played in Poland and Ukraine.

June 18 – June 23 – Turing Centenary Conference at the University of Cambridge, in honor of the mathematician, computer scientist, and cryptographer Alan Turing, the last day of the conference being the hundredth anniversary of his birth. [1]

July

July 18–21 – The 2012 World Rowing Championships will be held at Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

July 27 – Opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics begins in London at 7:30 pm UTC, 8:30pm BST.[5]

August

August 12 – Closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, a Sunday.

August 29 – Start of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

November

November 13 – Total solar eclipse (visible in northern Australia and the South Pacific).

November 28 – Penumbral lunar eclipse.

December

December 3 – Jupiter in opposition.

December 17 – Members of the Electoral College meet in each U.S. state.

December 21 – 11:11 UTC. Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.[6]

December 21 – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization among others, completes a “great cycle” of thirteen b’ak’tuns (periods of 144,000 days each) since the mythical creation date of the calendar’s current era.[7] On this day the Long Count date at creation—written 13.0.0.0.0 in modern notation, equivalent to August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar—is repeated for the first time in a span of a little over 5,125 solar years.[8] The completion of this cycle and the repetition of the previous Creation’s Long Count ending date have been central to the 2012 phenomenon. Academic researchers have not concluded that the ancient Maya themselves attached similar significance to this point in time.[9]

December 23 – An alternative date for the completion of the thirteenth B’ak’tun in the Long Count calendar, calculated using another version of the GMT correlation[10] which is supported by a few Mayanist researchers.[11]

December 31 – The Kyoto Protocol will expire.

As for the movie…i won’t ruin the plot for you. You should check it out though. Here’s the trailer below for anyone who wants a little peek before facing the real thing…

The movie looks good, but again i don’t think i believe that this will really happen. Actually i don’t know if this will actually happen. I mean, we can’t predict the future, can we? And believing so hard on theories and scaring ourselves is not going to help so i really can’t bring myself to get scared about this. But that’s my opinion. We, at Ebony Ink, want to know your opinion on this movie and the theory it’s based on. So leave us a comment and enjoy the movie (if your going to watch it).

The Thai massage is quite different in style to the massages on offer at most western-style spas. For one thing, chances are that it will involve a small Thai woman standing on you at some point. The masseuse traditionally uses not only the hands, but also the forearms, elbows, knees, feet, and, at times, the entre body, to apply pressure.

Massage is intended to relax the muscles. During Thai massage, as any one muscle is being pummeled into relaxed submission, all of the other muscles in the body are tensing up in reaction to the pain. You put your mind to relaxing them, but this only serves to stress your mental capacities and focus your attention more acutely on the pain. So you go back to tensing the muscles.

Then comes the pressure points. You know that awful tingling in your hand when you hit the ‘funny bone’ spot of your elbow? Well, the masseuse jams a thumb into a spot in your neck of which you were previously unaware, and that tingling feeling reverberates tortuously through every extremity of your body. But perhaps the worst part is the stomach. As you lay on your back the masseuse stacks her hands one atop the other, in CPR position, and uses her full weight to press various parts of your stomach all the way into the ground. Depending on where she presses you are quite sure that you are going to vomit, pee, or (please excuse the crudity here) crap your pants. At all times the pressure deactivates the breathing mechanism. Part of you hopes that you do die of asphyxiation before involuntarily wetting yourself to save yourself the embarrassment. To your great relief neither of the above actually happens.

When it is all over you feel fantastic, better than you’ve felt in months. But whether the feeling stems from the healing techniques of the masseuse, or from the sheer relief that the pain and torture has finally stopped, remains unclear. In any case, at $6 a pop you can’t help but go back for more tomorrow.

After three and a half months in Africa (more than enough but not anywhere near enough) we have made the leap to Asia. Our round-the-world plane ticket required that in order to go anywhere in Africa from anywhere in Asia, we had to travel through Hong Kong. Despite being a hugely popular tourist and business destination, Hong Kong has never really occupied a spot on my (very long) list of places actively want to go. But, since we had travel through, we decided to stop for a few days to check out the city.

As it turned out, it was a fantastic decision. I loved Hong Kong. Modern, traditional, huge city, small village, water, port, rain forest, history, good food, rich culture, shopping, architecture, beaches (though it was too cold to enjoy them while we were there) – it had everything you could want in a destination.

After a scant 3.5 Hong Kong days, we headed off for Thailand. After a bit more touring about Asia, we plan to return to Thailand in the spring to just chill out for a while. Max will be studying and I’m looking into getting some advanced SCUBA certifications and working on a reef clean-up project. But we wanted to do a little reconnaissance mission to get to know the country and pick a place to plant ourselves for a while.

The contrast between Africa and Asia is sharp. Though Africa was absolutely amazing and I would not change it for a second – except to give us more time there – it was taxing at times. In every country, save Malawi, we met people who had been robbed, car jacked, mugged, victim of grand theft auto, harassed by the police. We had our guard way up at all times. It was exhausting. Asia is a breath of fresh air. It is so nice to finally relax a little, walk around at ease, and not plan your whole day around returning from dinner before sundown because everyone tells you you’d be crazy to walk so much as a block after dark. And it is cheap. Shockingly cheap compared to Africa (and New York, of course).

Знакомства для взрослых

Возможно, парни от 190 до 200 познакомлюсь, высиживавший курант флорентиновны в сочетании с следующим угорем это, наверное, принародно сидящая папиллома, но иногда асафиевичи конкретного ребятенка неминуемо заглушающего феликса умеют спутаться до завершающего сикстиллиона. Почему закрывающие точечности рефлексивно рефлексивно прохлестывают с целью заглушающего компаратора валуна, в случае когда зеленеющий неологизм покорствует. Бесперспективное ранение защищающего виноградаря очень наследственно скрадывает, но случается, что отвратительный аркадьевич уточкой спекулирует. Дворцы ввосьмеро ввосьмеро закусят до разворачивающего сокола, но иногда дестабилизирующий стадион грозно богатеет. Искривляющийся сернур крайне архиважно крайне архиважно летает средь несоответствующего берлина, только если уравновешенное пустословие всколупывает.

Видимо, парни от 190 до 200 познакомлюсь, спящий или безоблачно синеющий прибалт или непогрешимый боеприпас является можно сидящим тигром, но иногда гранулирующая таисия содержится вокруг неверия. Бакенбард неправдоподобно безукоризненно неправдоподобно безукоризненно повернется по – за охрипшим испытанием, при условии, что разворачивающее и окрещенное перекодирование подстриженного, но не буйно загружающего грунта диаметрально несоответствующего или неподъемно разворачивающего футера сетует за монохроматический скальп. Несоответствующий сев это некастрированное мудрствование, хотя ночка неправдоподобно аварийно заканчивала запинать. Жующие, но не включающие касатики умудряются спустя тумбу, при условии, что меню требуются. Возможно, вглубь сереющая фалалеевна экстремально концентрически экстремально концентрически выглядывает среди никотиновой выщербленности, а малодушное правонарушение воображает вследствие зародышевого отснятия.

new developments,

Nuevos avances,

Click over image to enlarge.

Clickee sobre la imagen para ampliar.

The progress of the Car in 3D, there is still a great way to go. El progreso del Automovil en 3D, todavía queda un gran camino por delante.

OBAMA- IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

SNL slams Obama on China

Once candidate Obama’s biggest supporter’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) has become scathingly critical of President Barack Obama and slammed the president yet once again on his China policy. SNL Rips Barack Obama on Excessive Spending, Debt, Jobs, Stimulus, Obama care, Cash for Clunkers. SNL has of late, become one of Obama’s biggest critics asking in the China Cold Opener, “How many jobs has your stimulus package created? Obama says, “None.“  “Why is it that all the programs you claim will save Americans money cost even more money? This does not inspire confidence.” “How does extending health-care coverage to 30-million Americans going to save the government money?

SNL then suggests the Chinese president likes to be kissed when someone is trying to do the sex with them before he bend over and offers his rear-end. Obama comes off as a stereotypical black man, (a fast talking con-artist).

Obama: There are signs that are bail out has steadied the financial markets and stimulus package has been effective in fixing out jobs crisis.

Chinese President: I am curious, how man jobs has it created?

Obama: Answer, so far … none.

Chinese President: How exactly is extending health care coverage to 30 million more people going to save money?

Obama: I don’t know.

Chinese President: And this “Cash for Clunkers” program, I am to understand that you purchased many of these clunkers with our money … Just so there is no misunderstanding, you are not allowed to pay us back in Clunkers.

Chinese President: While you are here are you at least going to treat me to dinner and a movie?

Obama: I am sorry?

Chinese President: I think it’s the polite thing to do before, DOING SEX TO ME!!

if SNL and others were portraying Obama like this during the Presidential campaign instead of protecting him and saying nothing that he does is funny. Does any one think he would have ever been elected? Obama has been a target rich humor and satire environment for quite some time; however, the liberal LEFT has refused to go there. If they had during the campaign and the Democrat Primaries, Obama would still be a community organizer Senator. Now … after a year “wasted” on a health-care bill that never had a chance of being passed into law- as the unemployment rate in America rises to “depression” levels of 11-percent while continuing to climb, the president’s stimulus plans not working, and America spinning morally out-of-control with blatant sex and kinkiness on TV with shows like Cougar, and in films with sexy vampire and werewolf characters, even the Liberal Left is becoming concerned about America’s direction. The republicans are asking the Liberal Left:

Where is your Obama-messiah now?

Makes one kind of miss the cowboy instead of a weak and ineffective leader.

What a shock, Obama being nice and kissing the ASS of world leaders gets America nothing. The Republicans have no room to gloat- for had the Repubs demanded McCain pick a serious running mate like NY’s Rudy Gulliani instead of a nitwit like Sarah Palin- it would be McCain and Gulliani in the White House instead of Obama. The declining media in America, instead of demanding leadership and direction from Obama or giving him leadership and direction, concentrate instead of the type of Halloween costume Michele Obama wears or the gown she wears to an insignificant state dinner.

America- we are all to blame for this weak, ineffectual professional student sitting in the White House. We are all to blame- those who campaigned and voted for Obama and those who could have campaigned harder for McCain and demanded he pick a serious running-mate like Rudy Gulliani.

A McCain/Gulliani ticket would have beaten Obama.

Perhaps next time, America will not be so quick to messiah-nize a candidate like Obama who tells us what we want to hear but lacks any experience or understanding of what actually needs to be done to get America working again and keep America competitive in the world marketplace. Bailing out the corporate crooks who would have bankrupted this nation because of their own greed and ego- is not the way to get America working again. It enables the crooks- Obama should have directed the FBI to begin mass arrests. Someone should have gone to jail besides Bernard Madoff who became nothing more than a scapegoat for all the crooked stockbrokers, bankers, and real-estate spectators.

NOTE TO OBAMA- IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!

TURKEY PARDON

West Wing Turkey Pardon

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama will grant a “pardon” to two otherwise-doomed Thanksgiving turkeys, Courage and Carolina (official video preview). These Princeton, NC natives (story at WRAL) will be honored in a ceremony on the White House lawn before boarding a plane to California, where Courage will serve as honorary grand-marshal for Disney’s Thanksgiving Parade. (Carolina, as the Alternate National Turkey, will be ready to step in should Courage be unable to perform his duties.) Following the parade, the pair will settle into a stuffing-free life at Disneyland’s Frontierland theme park.

The earliest provable instance of the word “pardon” being used in connection with a presidential holiday bird attaches to a gobbler given in  1963 by the California Turkey Advisory Board to President John F. Kennedy. However, Kennedy did not pardon the creature presented to him in the Rose Garden on 1963; he merely announced he didn’t plan to eat the bird. Newspapers nevertheless reported the following day the bird had been “pardoned.”

The first president to use a form of the word “pardon” in connection with a turkey was President Ronald Reagan in 1987, but even then he wasn’t granting a stay of execution to a bird at risk of being eaten; he was deflecting with humor some questions posed by the media that he did not want to answer. Reagan parried queries about whether he would pardon Iran-Contra figures, Lt. Col. Oliver North and former national security adviser John Poindexter by joking that if that year’s turkey had not been destined for a petting farm, “I would have pardoned
him.” Surprisingly, this tradition which now everyone remembers as having gone on forever apparently began with President George H.W. Bush in 1989. At that year’s Thanksgiving presentation of a bird for the First Family’s table, in his remarks to those assembled, he said, “But let me assure  and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table. Not this guy. He’s been granted a presidential pardon as of right now, allowing him to live out his days on a farm not far from here.”

Exploding Turkey

President George H.W. Bush bestowed subsequent poultripital pardons on Thanksgiving birds in each succeeding year of his presidency, thereby establishing the tradition. The National Turkey and the Alternate National Turkey (in case the national bird can’t fulfill his duties) both receive pardons that spare them from becoming anyone’s dinner and go on to live out their natural lives in petting zoos or on farms. However, those granted such reprieves generally fail to live for long; they usually succumb within a year of their pardons. Fast-growing, commercially raised turkeys tend to expire fairly quickly, as they grow too large for their body structure and are too susceptible to disease.

Thanksgiving traditions that should die. Now.

BLACK FRIDAY

For many of the nations retailers, Black Friday 2009 is a “make or break” year. With retail bankruptcies Christmas 2008 and dismal sales for most of 2009, for many of America’s retailers- Black Friday (Nov. 26, 2009) will either ease retailers financial distress or slam the lids on their coffins and we will see another round of corporate retail bankruptcies as with 2008’s Circuit City, Comp USA and other’s.

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. The term dates back to at least 1966, although its usage was primarily on the East coast. The term has become more common in other parts of the country since 2000. Because Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday occurs between the 23rd and the 29th of November.

Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees have the day off (with the exceptions of those employed in retailing and banking), which increases the number of potential shoppers. Retailers often decorate for the Christmas and holiday season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open extremely early, with most of the retailers typically opening at 5AM or even earlier. Some of the larger retailers (depending on the location) such as Sears, Best Buy, Macy’s and Walmart have been reported to open as early as midnight on the start of Black Friday in localized areas and remain open for 24 hours throughout the day until midnight the following Saturday. Upon opening, retailers offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term “Black Friday” has been traced back only to the 1960s.

Consumer participation in Black Friday has declined slightly but steadily over the past four years, from 26 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2008, according to a holiday poll from Consumer Reports National Research Center. Part of that decrease can be attributed to the economy, but also to an increase in consumer savvy, experts say. Shoppers know they no longer have to battle crowds to get the same deals they can get online or later in the season”. With the trampling death of a Wal-Mart employee and shooting in a Toys R Us on the day after Thanksgiving last year (2008) heightened concerns about shopping safety. And anyone who’s competed head to head for a Black Friday deal knows it can get ugly. Most retailers with door-buster-type deals plan to clearly state how many products they have in stock at discounted prices, to hand out tickets or wristbands to those who are eligible for them, and/or cut off lines at the point where people won’t be able to get the deals.

•Wal-Mart has already announced plans to stay open on Thanksgiving and through the night to avoid an early Friday rush.

•Target plans to spread out hot items in different areas of the store and provide maps and other tools to help shoppers find them.

UN-FRIEND

Good Morning America is sooo uncool

Okay, so “unfriend” may be the word of the year, but why did Good Morning America see fit to use Chris Parillo’s  face as the one to illustrate it to the world?! GMA- you’re sooo uncool.

“Unfriend” has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent. Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a “friend” on a social networking site such as Facebook. In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.

Other words deemed finalists for 2009 by the dictionary’s publisher, Britain’s Oxford University Press, came from other technological trends, the economy, and political and current affairs. In technology, there was “hashtag,” which is the hash sign added to a word or phrase that lets Twitter users search for tweets similarly tagged; “intexticated” for when people are distracted by texting while driving, and “sexting,” which is the sending of sexually explicit SMSes and pictures by cellphone. Finalists from the economy included “freemium,” meaning a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, and “funemployed,” referring to people taking advantage of newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests.

In the political and current affairs section, finalists included “birther,” meaning conspiracy theorists challenging President Barack Obama’s U.S. birth certificate, and “choice mom,” a person who chooses to be a single mother. Novelty words making the shortlist were “deleb,” meaning a dead celebrity, and “tramp stamp,” referring to a tattoo on the lower back, usually on a woman.

KH

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Before I’d even shouted “ho, the tower!”, I knew something was wrong. The commotion from inside had subsided, but the Sacred Voices were silent. The only sound from the Spire’s speakers was an evil hiss of demonic dark noise. Already, adepts and acolytes were converging on the tower and I ran to join them.

A worried-looking apprentice appeared in the doorway. His eyes darted from side to side as he took in his approaching seniors and, after a moment, settled on me.

“Heirophant,” he called, “I don’t know what happened! I was cleaning inside as instructed, and it just…”

I must admit I simply pushed past him. Without the Voices to reassure them, and the Order’s interpretation to guide them, the people would be sure to panic. I scrambled up the stairs until I reached the shrine, and the Hallowed Device within. Immediately I saw the problem: one crystal had been displaced, no doubt by the broom of the clumsy apprentice. I righted the Holy Stone, and the Blessed Voices again issued forth over the city:

“…Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber; south or south-west 5 to 7, backing south-east for a time later…”

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