FIREFLY - TRASH (episode 11)

I have moved all my Firefly episodes to my other blog.

Just click here.

These episodes are now independent of the Hulu feed and will not continuously disappear.


"Let's all be careful out there!"

AUGUST 2ND

Today is Saturday, August 2, the 215th day of 2008. There are 151 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On August 2, 1776, members of the Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

On this date:

• In 1790, the enumeration for the first United States census began; the final total was 3,929,214.
• In 1873, inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.
• In 1876, frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
• In 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco.
• In 1927, four years after becoming president, Calvin Coolidge issued a written statement to reporters: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."
• In 1934, German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.
• In 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.
• In 1943, during World War II, Navy boat PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands.
• In 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox suffered light damage from North Vietnamese patrol torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.
• In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.)

Ten years ago:

• Cyclist Marco Pantani of Italy won the Tour de France, which had been marred by a doping scandal.
• Ventriloquist Shari Lewis died in Los Angeles at age 65.

Five years ago:

• Saddam Hussein's two elder sons and a grandson were buried as martyrs near the deposed Iraqi leader's hometown of Tikrit, where insurgents afterward attacked U.S. troops with three remote-controlled bombs.
• Liberian President Charles Taylor agreed to cede power.

One year ago:

• Mattel apologized to customers as it recalled nearly a million Chinese-made toys from its Fisher-Price division that were found to have excessive amounts of lead.
• A Marine Corps squad leader was convicted at Camp Pendleton, Calif., of murdering an Iraqi man during a frustrated search for an insurgent. (Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III was sentenced to 15 years in prison.)
• Two small Russian submarines completed a voyage below the North Pole where they planted the country's flag on the Arctic Ocean floor.

Today's Birthdays:

• Former Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., is 86.
• Actor Peter O'Toole is 76.
• Country singer Hank Cochran is 73.
• Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 71.
• Movie director Wes Craven is 69.
• Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 65.
• Actor Max Wright is 65.
• Actress Joanna Cassidy is 63.
• Actress Kathryn Harrold is 58.
• Singer Andrew Gold is 57.
• Actor Butch Patrick ("The Munsters") is 55.
• Singer Mojo Nixon is 51.
• Actress Victoria Jackson is 49.
• Actress Apollonia is 49.
• Actress Cynthia Stevenson is 46.
• Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 44.
• Rock musician John Stanier is 40.
• Writer-actor-director Kevin Smith is 38.
• Actor Edward Furlong is 31.
• Rock musician Devon Glenn is 28.
• Actress Hallie Eisenberg is 16.

Thought for Today:

"A man who does not lose his reason over certain things has none to lose."
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German dramatist (1729-1781).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-215

"Let's all be careful out there!"

A SATURDAY STROLL...

THROUGH THE NEWS



Segway, meet the Toyota Winglet.

New Homeland Security rules now allows border agents to confiscate laptops, ipods, miscellaneous papers and pocket trash from all persons (including US citizens) for no reason other than they didn't blink the right number of times when passing through Customs. All these items, and more, may be transported to off-site locations for further scrutiny and decryption. Exactly how many of the towers on 9/11 were brought down by an mp3 player? George Orwell had everything right, except the time-line.

Besides, DHS has a shopping list of problems.

While I can't fault the concept, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now can regulate tobacco products. The same FDA that allowed poisoned medications in from China. That won't allow the import of cheaper phamaceuticals from Canada, even though they are made in the USA. That gave us Phen fen, Thamaldahyde, and countless more disasters. The same FDA that destroyed this year's tomato crop, when the problem was peppers. I often wonder if the "witches" of yore weren't as effective.

If you are a snorer the odds are you probably have sleep apnea. Which raises your chances of dying. Considerably!

As I've mentioned before, Alzheimer's Disease runs in my family (mother, maternal grandfather). It now appears that overthinking, worrying and ruminating may slow the disease's progress. I may have to sit and ponder that for awhile.



One destroyer. One mk-48 torpedo. Result: Kiss the boat goodbye.


This new type of torpedo doesn't actually strike the target vessel. Instead, it detonates just beneath the keel. Effectively breaking the ship's back.

I wonder if hiring a hitman to kill an IRS agent doing an audit of your business is a deductable business expense? Probably not.

Forget about casinos on indian reservations. The new concept is to erect power plants.

I checked and "slick Willy" is not associated with this law firm. But I bet he wishes he were.

66% of Americans are overweight. 32% are obese. How can skinny Obama be a "common person"?





Have a great weekend!

"Let's all be careful out there!"

FIREFLY - WAR STORIES (episode 10)

I have moved all my Firefly episodes to my other blog.

Just click here.

These episodes are now independent of the Hulu feed and will not continuously disappear.


"Let's all be careful out there!"

AUGUST 1ST

***

Today is Friday, August 1, the 214th day of 2008. There are 152 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On August 1, 1907, the U.S. Air Force had its beginnings as the U.S. Army Signal Corps established an aeronautical division.

On this date:

• In 1714, Britain's Queen Anne died at age 49; she was succeeded by George I.
• In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the 38th state.
• In 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War erupted, the result of a dispute over control of Korea; Japan's army routed the Chinese.
• In 1933, the National Recovery Administration's "Blue Eagle" symbol began to appear in store windows and on packages to show support for the National Industrial Recovery Act.
• In 1936, the Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
• In 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation, a revolt that lasted two months before collapsing.
• In 1946, President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Sen. William J. Fulbright.
• In 1946, America's Atomic Energy Commission was established.
• In 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, went on a shooting rampage at the University of Texas in Austin, killing 14 people. Whitman, who had also murdered his wife and mother hours earlier, was gunned down by police.
• In 1988, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program.

Ten years ago:

• Dismissing as "an empty promise" GOP-backed legislation to create a patients' bill of rights, President Clinton in his Saturday radio address pressed Congress to pass a measure that would allow patients to sue their health insurers.

Five years ago:

• A suicide bomber rammed a truck filled with explosives into a military hospital near Chechnya, killing 50 people, including Russian troops wounded in Chechnya.

One year ago:

• The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor-director Geoffrey Holder is 78.
• Singer Ramblin' Jack Elliott is 77.
• Cartoonist Tom Wilson (retired creator of "Ziggy") is 77.
• Actor-comedian Dom DeLuise is 75.
• Former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., is 71.
• Actor Giancarlo Giannini is 66.
• Blues singer-musician Robert Cray is 55.
• Singer Michael Penn is 50.
• Rock singer Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) is 49.
• Rock singer-musician Suzi Gardner (L7) is 48.
• Rapper Chuck D (Public Enemy) is 48.
• Actor Jesse Borrego is 46.
• Rapper Coolio is 45.
• Actor John Carroll Lynch is 45.
• Rock singer Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) is 44.
• Movie director Sam Mendes is 43.
• Country singer George Ducas is 42. Country musician Charlie Kelley (Buffalo Club) is 40.
  
• Actress Tempestt Bledsoe is 35.
• Actor Jason Momoa is 29.
• Singer Ashley Parker Angel is 27.
• Actress Taylor Fry is 27.
• Actor James Francis Kelly is 19.

Thought for Today:

"People say law but they mean wealth."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, poet and philosopher (1803-1882).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-214

"Let's all be careful out there!"

IS DARWIN CORRECT...

OR IS THAT AN INSULT TO APES?

Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree.
Discussin things as they're said to be.
Said one to the others, "Now listen, you two
There's a certain rumor that can't be true,
That man descended from our noble race.
That very idea is a disgrace.
No monkey ever deserted his wife
Starved her babies or ruined her life,
And another thing you will never see
A monkey build a fence around a coconut tree
And let the coconuts go to waste,
Forbidding all other monkeys to taste.
If I put a fence around this tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me.
Here's another thing a monk won't do,
Go out at night and get on a stew,
And use a gun or club or knife
To take some other monkey's life
Yes, man descended, the ornery cuss -
But, brother, he didn't descend from us.

Thanks, June.

Possibly the dumbest guy ever on Wheel Of Fortune:


"Of course I am driving, officer. I am too frakking drunk to walk":


Lets see, the Governator had his birthday and cut 200,000 State employees to minimum wage. So this must be how he earns some extra cash:


OMG! Did you know that Scientology is a crime syndicate?

Drunk driver crashes truck into parked car. Passenger takes over, crashes truck into another parked car. On the same street.

You invite 300 people to a "play fight" and a "riot" breaks out. In California, it would be called a minor disturbance. We have more exacting standards for rioting.

Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck debating Obama and McCain on the view:


Robbing a liquor store across the street from where the police are conducting a field training exercise earns this guy a nomination for the LLDE (Lex Luthor Doesn't Exist) award.

I guess if you can afford a Lamborghini then the cost of an oil change shouldn't bother you.

Its TGIF!
Enjoy your weekend!

"Let's all be careful out there!"

FIREFLY - ARIEL (episode 09)

I have moved all my Firefly episodes to my other blog.

Just click here.

These episodes are now independent of the Hulu feed and will not continuously disappear.


"Let's all be careful out there!"

JULY 31ST

***

Today is Thursday, July 31, the 213th day of 2008. There are 153 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On July 31, 1948, President Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.

On this date:

• In 1556, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus — the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers — died in Rome.
• In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.
• In 1875, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, died in Carter County, Tenn., at age 66.
• In 1919, Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted by the republic's National Assembly.
• In 1945, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government, surrendered to U.S. authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.
• In 1957, the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
• In 1964, the American space probe Ranger 7 reached the moon, where it transmitted pictures of the lunar surface.
• In 1972, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosures Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment.
• In 1987, Iranian pilgrims and riot police clashed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, resulting in some 400 deaths, according to the Saudi government, which blamed the Iranians for the violence.
• In 1991, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.

Ten years ago:

• President Clinton said he would "completely and truthfully" answer prosecutors' questions about Monica Lewinsky in testimony to be beamed by closed-circuit television to a grand jury.
• IBM's Russian subsidiary agreed to pay $8.5 million in federal fines for selling powerful computers ultimately destined for a Russian nuclear weapons laboratory.

Five years ago:

• The Vatican launched a global campaign against gay marriages, warning Catholic politicians that support of same-sex unions was "gravely immoral" and urging non-Catholics to join the offensive.
• Two of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's daughters and their nine children were granted refuge in Jordan.

One year ago:

• The Army censured retired three-star Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger for a "perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after the 2004 friendly-fire death in Afghanistan of Army Ranger Pat Tillman.
• The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur region.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor Don Murray is 79.
• Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 77.
• Actor Geoffrey Lewis is 73.
• Actress France Nuyen is 69.
• Actress Susan Flannery is 65.
• Singer Lobo is 65.
• Actress Geraldine Chaplin is 64.
• Former movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 64.
• Singer Gary Lewis is 63.
• Rock singer Bob Welch is 62.
• Tennis player Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 57.
• Actor Barry Van Dyke is 57.
• The mayor of Fresno, Calif., actor Alan Autry, is 56.
• Actor James Read is 55.
• Actor Michael Biehn is 52.
• Rock singer-musician Daniel Ash (Love and Rockets) is 51.
• Rock musician Bill Berry is 50.
• Actor Wesley Snipes is 46.
• Country singer Chad Brock is 45.
• Musician Fatboy Slim is 45.
• Rock musician Jim Corr is 44.
• Author J.K. Rowling is 43.
• Actor Dean Cain is 42.
• Actor Ben Chaplin is 39.
• Actor Loren Dean is 39.
• Actress Annie Parisse is 33.
• Actor Robert Telfer is 31.
• Actor-producer-writer B.J. Novak is 29.
• Actor Eric Lively is 27.
• Country singer Blaire Stroud (3 of Hearts) is 25.
• Singer Shannon Curfman is 23.

Thought for Today:

"We tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out."
Henry Watson Fowler, English lexicographer-author (1858-1933).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-213

"Let's all be careful out there!"

MEN OR WOMEN...

WHO ARE HAPPIER?

The answer changes with the demographics. As might be expected.

Well, bless my soul and kiss my grits. The San Andreas fault is longer than thought. Just an additional 18 miles but that explains the mud pots and mud volcanoes.

Right out of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. A guy in kiwi-land has developed the first practical "jet pack". Well, a least practical enough that the NYT wrote about it.


An 8 sq mile (28 sq km) chunk of arctic ice has broken free from the Canadian coast and could become a shipping hazard. Do you think global warming was part of some sinister master plan to make the oil at the north pole more accessible?

I knew it had to happen someday. A cop in Michigan, while riding a Segway, makes a bust for DUI.

Do you remember the Simba and Nala (The Lion King) dolls that communicated with each other? Now cars are doing the same thing to prevent theft.

Allah loves you and wants to chop you into many small pieces. The latest taboo in Saudi Arabia, being enforced by their religious police, are pets. Well, more specificly the selling of same and also taking them for exercise in the capital city of Riyadh. Seems that certain low life, scandalous pigs were using this as a way to approach women.

Wasn't this one of the running jokes in the movie Cat Balou?

Enjoy the last day of July. Hope to see you back here soon. Thanks for visiting.


"Let's all be careful out there!"

FIREFLY - OUT OF GAS (episode 08)

I have moved all my Firefly episodes to my other blog.

Just click here.

These episodes are now independent of the Hulu feed and will not continuously disappear.


"Let's all be careful out there!"

JULY 30TH

***

Today is Wednesday, July 30, the 212th day of 2008. There are 154 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On July 30, 1945, during World War II, the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered components for the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; only 316 out of some 1,200 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters.

On this date:

• In 1619, the first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown, Va.
• In 1729, the city of Baltimore was founded.
• In 1792, the French national anthem "La Marseillaise," by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris by troops arriving from Marseille.
• In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a gunpowder-filled mine under Confederate defense lines; the attack failed.
• In 1908, the first round-the-world automobile race, which had begun in New York in February, ended in Paris with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas Flyer, declared the winners over teams from Germany and Italy.
• In 1918, poet Joyce Kilmer, a sergeant in the 165th U.S. Infantry Regiment, was killed during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. (Kilmer is perhaps best remembered for his poem "Trees.")
• In 1932, the Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles.
• In 1942, President Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women's auxiliary agency in the Navy known as "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service" — WAVES for short.
• In 1965, President Johnson signed into law the Medicare bill, which went into effect the following year.
• In 1975, former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit — although presumed dead, his remains have never been found.

Ten years ago:

• Japan's Parliament declared Keizo Obuchi the country's next prime minister.
• "Buffalo Bob" Smith, the cowboy-suited host of "The Howdy Doody Show," died in Hendersonville, N.C., at age 80.
• A group of 13 Ohio machinists stepped forward to claim the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. (The workers opted to take the cash option — one payment of about $161.5 million.)

Five years ago:

• In his State of the Union address, President Bush took personal responsibility for the first time for using disputed intelligence, but predicted he would be vindicated for going to war against Iraq.
• Iraq's U.S.-picked interim government named its first president: Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite Muslim from a party banned by Saddam Hussein.
• Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis Presley, died in Memphis, Tenn., at age 80.

One year ago:

• President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meeting at Camp David, forged a unified stand on Iraq.
• Chief U.S. Justice John Roberts was taken to a hospital after a seizure caused him to fall on a dock near his summer home in Maine.
• A second South Korean hostage was slain by the Taliban in central Afghanistan.
• Death claimed Swedish movie director Ingmar Bergman at age 87; Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni at age 94; and Hall of Fame football coach Bill Walsh at age 75.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor Richard Johnson is 81.
• Actor Edd "Kookie" Byrnes is 75.
• Blues musician Buddy Guy is 72.
• Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 69.
• Feminist activist Eleanor Smeal is 69.
• Former U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., is 68.
• Singer Paul Anka is 67.
• Jazz musician David Sanborn is 63.
• California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is 61.
• Actor William Atherton is 61.
• Actor Jean Reno is 60.
• Blues singer-musician Otis Taylor is 60.
• Actor Frank Stallone is 58.
• Actor Ken Olin is 54.
• Actress Delta Burke is 52.
• Singer-songwriter Kate Bush is 50.
• Country singer Neal McCoy is 50.
• Actor Richard Burgi is 50.
• Director Richard Linklater is 48.
• Actor Laurence Fishburne is 47.
• Actress Lisa Kudrow is 45.
• Bluegrass musician Danny Roberts (The Grascals) is 45.
• Country musician Dwayne O'Brien is 44.
• Actress Vivica A. Fox is 44.
• Actor Terry Crews ("Everybody Hates Chris") is 40.
• Actor Simon Baker is 39.
• Movie director Christopher Nolan is 38.
• Actor Tom Green is 37.
• Rock musician Brad Hargreaves (Third Eye Blind) is 37.
• Actress Christine Taylor is 37
• Actor-comedian Dean Edwards is 35.
• Actress Hilary Swank is 34.
• Actress Jaime Pressly is 31.
• Actress Yvonne Strahovski (TV: "Chuck") is 26.

Thought for Today:

"The fellow who says he'll meet you halfway usually thinks he's standing on the dividing line."
O.A. Battista, Canadian-born author-scientist.

"Let's all be careful out there!"