Some people stain the planet by their mere presence. This bitch is one such miserable cretin who is a shit-stain on the reputation of humankind. The only justice in this would be that her own son finally turned her in after she forced her own children into torturing animals. If you like animals, you probably don’t want to click that link. It’s really upsetting. I’m just not going to talk about it further.
Traffic cameras are slowly working their way into select cities in Florida. In Florida, they are illegal, so the cities found a way around it. They issue civil violations and not traffic violations, so you get a ticket but no points. They claim it’s to improve road safety, though everyone has long suspected and/or known it’s really just to take more money out of your pocket. Politicians are scum — it’s a good basic starting to point to work from. So a special YAY to the mayor of Dalton, GA who removed the cameras in his city after coming to the same conclusion. This article in USA Today explains how cities increase their revenue by changing how long the yellow light lasts — if that doesn’t prove it’s about the revenue, nothing goes. The first of these cameras was installed in Miami, this month. Expect more. Plantation, Sunrise, Weston, all have them as well. They’re coming to you soon. Beware. Be aware.
The people in Haiti need many things, and I am pleased to report that Interstate Screw Corporation, where I work, sent in checks totalling $4,000 — this includes employee and customer contributions plus our own matching funds on employee contributions. We sent half to the American Red Cross which provides food, shelter, clothing, and other supplies to people in need after a disaster. We sent the other half to Doctors Without Borders which supplies doctors and hospital supplies to places stricken by natural disasters. There are many charities helping Haiti, but these two are reputable and a very high portion of their fund-raising goes to the cause as opposed to more fund-raising. (If you want an embarrassing charity, check out your local PBA, many of which shovel nearly 80% of what they collect back into more fund-raising. Please, check your charities out before you donate.)
Speaking of things they need in Haiti, there’s this link from Mark Fischel who offers some biting commentary on what they might do with these solar powered bibles in Haiti. Indeed, if you collected enough, you could use them to build a roof. Sadly, they are not edible.
The Late Night Wars (O’Brien vs Leno, round 666) continue to amuse, though my desire to comment on them has shrunk considerably. This article talks about Jay Leno being “Mr Nice Guy No More” and then poses the question “was he ever?” — a valid point to be sure. Read it and make your own conclusion. This video courtesy of John Carney, my resident source of most Late Night articles posted this YouTube video. I do not speak Japanese Chinese, nor do most of my readers. Although this 1m54s video is entirely in Japanese Chinese, I promise you that you will still manage to understand what is said. It’s a serious news piece, but I laughed my way through:
[Video]
Speaking of amusing videos, here’s a second one that is the subject of much controversy by Kiwis. Air New Zealand produced some awesome safety videos under the tag “Bare Essential” using actual staff members wearing no clothes and body paint instead. They proved to be so popular around the world, commercials followed. Now there’s this mystifying advertisement which is brilliant for 90 seconds and decided less so for the final minute and the sole reference is a link to their website at the end. The PC police are up in arms. I don’t care one way or another, but it’s worth mentioning here.
“Something, Something, Something, Dark Side” is the second instalment of Family Guy‘s retelling of Star Wars. The first one was awesome beyond all belief and was funny as hell even after repeated viewings. This one, not so much. It was amusing but not wet-your-pants funny. I’m not sure what to say on this. I wanted to like it and I didn’t. Thomas, who watched it with me, agreed. It was just okay. As a direct-to-DVD release, I have to tell you to save your money and watch it free when they show it as a two-part episode at the end of this season. They’re going to do the third one “We Have A Bad Feeling About This” though I am not optimistic after seeing this one.