via Fark: Scientology strikes again
Clearwater man at odds with Church of Scientology

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

A man who is making a documentary about the Church of Scientology in Clearwater says he's being targeted.Shawn Lonsdale of Clearwater got into a fight with someone claiming to be a Scientologist while he was filming on a street corner across from the church on July 8. After looking at Lonsdale's videotape, police arrested the Scientologist, Michael Fitzgerald, on battery charges Now, posters with a mugshot of Lonsdale are popping up in store windows near the church warning people that he's dangerous and has been arrested for sex crimes.

Not only a cult, but a vindictive one. In Germany they are not even recognized as a religion--it's a business.
- posted by Jasper @ 7:06 PM 0 comments

 
I should be a damn genius.....
Lack of sleep saps men's brain power
11:00 23 July 2006
New Scientist

IF YOU have ever thought you were stupid to sleep with someone, consider this. Sharing your bed could actually make you stupid if you are a man - at least temporarily. Even without having sex, bed sharing disturbs sleep quality, say Gerhard Kloesch and colleagues from the University of Vienna, Austria. Men and women fared differently. ......Lack of sleep led to increased stress hormone levels in men, and reduced their ability to perform simple cognitive tests the next day.
However, the women apparently slept more deeply when they did sleep, since they claimed to be more refreshed than their sleep time suggested. Their stress levels and mental scores did not suffer to the same extent.
How unfair...I have to do the time and don't even get to commit the crime.
- posted by Jasper @ 5:56 AM 0 comments

 
Sounds like a dirty joke but it isn't
Man robs fudge shop wearing women’s underwear as mask
July 22, 2006
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. – A man is caught on video robbing a local store using women’s underwear as a mask.
What the hell is wrong with people? Insert we're not in Kansas anymore joke here.
- posted by Jasper @ 5:46 AM 0 comments

 
Football season is almost here!
I like baseball and college basketball (the NBA is a sinking morass of overpaid "stars" and players with ironbound-team-handicapping contracts) but the NFL is my favorite. Yeah, there are plenty of overhyped players(Mannings, T.O., etc) but it's the best run league by far.

One thing I don't understand, why is Peyton "Heimlich" Manning such a bid deal? Great numbers in the regular season-with a strong team-but when it hits the fan what is he worth?
(2000 - 2005)
Peyton Manning 3-5
Tom Brady 10-1

And don't even get me started on his brother or his stupid commercials. Yes, Peyton has great skills but shut up until you put it up.

- posted by Jasper @ 5:19 PM 0 comments

 
Government tries to regulate free speech, fire teacher

Teacher under fire for his Cheney-9/11 theory

State legislators demand college bar him from teaching Islam course Friday, July 21, 2006; Posted: 2:29 p.m. EDT (18:29 GMT)
MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) -- More than 60 state lawmakers are urging the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fire an instructor who has argued that the U.S. government orchestrated the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It's not that I agree with the guy, but why are "52 Assembly representatives and nine state senators" telling this guy that he can't speak his mind? The government is supposed to defend the First Amendment. Empty headed patriotism like this is a small step from fascism. Maybe people are upset because he's a teacher? That just makes it more important. Are educators only allowed to speak positively of the government? Yes, comrades!? STFU. Go to college, hear different viewpoints, form your own opinion--that's an education.

• "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". Evelyn Beatrice Hall writing as S.G. Tallentyre in 1906 (Commonly attributed to Voltaire of whom Hall wrote a biography).
• "...if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility." John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859).
• "If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell, Preface to Animal Farm (1946)
• "Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech." Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992).

Thanks to Wikipedia for the quotations.
- posted by Jasper @ 4:48 PM 0 comments

 
No....he can't follow Nicholson!
Heath Ledger cast as Joker in "Batman 2"?
POSTED ON 07/20/06 AT 4:00 P.M.BY ETHAN AAMES
Latino Review (http://www.latinoreview.com/) is claiming that Heath Ledger has been cast as the Joker in the "Batman Begins" sequel and an announcement from Warner Bros. is expected shortly.
The site, who broke news of Brandon Routh's casting in "Superman Returns," says that plans are in place for the "Brokeback Mountain" star to join Christian Bale and director Chris Nolan for the next Batman movie.
I don't care about the Brokeback Mountain thing, I just don't see this guy as the Joker--and there is no way in hell he can follow Nicholson. But Brokeback Joker does sound funny...
- posted by Jasper @ 9:32 AM 0 comments

 
via FARK: Finally, a good fatwa
Saudi fatwa: Don’t support Hizbullah
ynet news
Leading Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia issues scathing fatwa against Hizbullah, declares it against Muslim Sharia law to support, join, or even pray for terror group; 'our advice to Sunnis is to denounce them, shun those who join them to show their hostility to Islam, to Muslims,' he rules.
Although the fanatics of Islam are a minority, the peaceful majority rarely speak up to denounce their violent actions. At least I rarely hear of it. Usually it's someone declaring a fatwa against Salman Rusdie, some cartoonist, Mr. Peanut, or something suprising. So two thumbs up for this guy, I don't care if he's anti or pro U.S. as long as he's anti-terrorist and steps up to the podium.
- posted by Jasper @ 9:10 AM 0 comments

 
The Vader Sessions
Some guys with too much time and a great sense of humor have taken Vader clips and put in dialogue from other James Earl Jones movies, great stuff.
- posted by Jasper @ 5:29 PM 0 comments

 
Via Fark: Best. Bad. Trip. Ever.
'Bridge Troll' Arrested After Confrontation With Deputy
Bridge Trolls For Thee
POSTED: 10:09 am MDT July 13, 2006
BOULDER, Colo. -- A man who acted as a modern-day bridge troll faces charges in Boulder after he and his companion allegedly got into a confrontation with an off-duty sheriff's deputy.

According to a police report obtained by 7NEWS, Robert Hibbs, 19, was arrested Friday in a park near Foothills Highway and Colorado Avenue after demanding money and attacking the deputy. Police said that Hibbs insisted he was a troll and owned the bridge the deputy was trying to cross.....Boville, who was with Hibbs, reportedly told police that they had consumed LSD and that Hibbs was having a bad trip.
Well the Middle East is about to burst into WWIII and our pres could get lost in a port-a-potty, but at least we're safe from bridge trolls. A little humor before the Apocalypse.
- posted by Jasper @ 12:49 PM 0 comments

 
FCC, a.k.a. Puritan Gestapo, back in action.
FCC combing air tapes for dirty words
Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:32 AM ET
By Brooks Boliek

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - In its continuing crackdown on on-air profanity, the FCC has requested numerous tapes from broadcasters that might include vulgar remarks from unruly spectators, coaches and athletes at live sporting events, industry sources said.

Yes, the pc fascists will now be looking for unruly fans at sporting events. Is anyone else in the U.S. embarassed at what these fucking idiots are doing to the media? Next up, book burning and death for nakedness. Showering without clothes is for infidels! She said 'poo', burn her at the stake. The dictionary has 'penis' and 'vagina' in it, let's fine the English speaking world--or at least all the libraries with a dictionary. I mean anyone with a library card could go in there and see the dictionary, even kids can look up words!! We can't live in a society like this or in ten years the movie Planet of the Apes will come true. We'll all be slaves to the gorillas because they don't swear or make movies showing boobies. Yeah, I know, makes about as much sense as the FCC...
- posted by Jasper @ 6:17 AM 0 comments

 
Anyone miss Calvin & Hobbes?
The title link has a strip each day, but the following two links are pretty useful.

The text of each strip and a reference # for each. Just search the page for say, "space alien I captured in my back yard",
http://www.geocities.com/root_node/calvin.html

Once you get the #, hit the following site and you find the strip. Or just browse here for fun.
http://www.shovelbeating.org/~ryan/calvin-and-hobbes/
- posted by Jasper @ 6:09 AM 0 comments

 
Hollywood staffed via the short bus
Raven Symone in remake of "Adventures in Babysitting"
POSTED ON 07/12/06 AT 5:30 P.M.

Why oh why? Next up: Showgirls, Ishtar, Howard the Duck, The Postman (but bring back Costner!), Pluto Nash, From Justin to Kelly, Glitter, Son of the Mask, Leonard Part 6, and of course....Gigli.
- posted by Jasper @ 6:33 AM 0 comments

 
Postons---Worst agents ever?

"Law told The Kansas City Star on Tuesday that he wanted fair-market value and that it was possible he might not sign before the start of training camp."

Fine, but I'm not too sure he knows what fair-market value is? (Blame the Postons, worst agents ever.) It's not about his play; he was great with the Patriots and then had a career high 10 interceptions with the Jets. Unfortunately for Law it looks like salary sanity has descended on the NFL (unlike every other professional sport).

Hey Carl Poston, detect a pattern?

2005 Law was released Patriots due to his $12,551,000 salary.

2006 Released by the Jets-- due to make $7.6 million for 2006

- posted by Jasper @ 6:29 AM 0 comments