OK, you get your "Friday WTF?" story early (mostly because I'm going to be unconnected to the 'net tomorrow).

Here's a doozy. A guy in Poland gets pulled over for DUI, reeking of vodka. What is his defense?

A Polish former MP has escaped a drink driving ban after telling cops he had only been using vodka as mouth wash.

Grzegorz Gruszka was arrested after being pulled over by police in a routine check and failing a breath test.

He was acquitted after he told prosecutors he had not actually swallowed any alcohol, and had only rinsed his mouth with "jogobelka" - a popular local mixture of vodka and mustard.

Posted by: Gary at 10:15 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I wanted to take a moment to express a little appreciation to my friend Sadie who recently gave me some assistance on this site.

For those of you who aren't aware, she and her partner Phin are the creative force behind Apothegm Designs, and they did the facelift on the ol' Ex-Donkey Blog almost a year ago.

If you have a website (or know someone who does) and you're kicking around the idea of taking the next step beyond the standard, garden-variety (i.e. BORING) template then Sadie and Phin are the folks to call. Working with Apothegm Designs is a true collaborative effort that'll give you a site as unique as you. You can check out their portfolio here. Tell 'em Gary sent ya!

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1 You two are too kind. Thank you!

Posted by: sadie at July 03, 2006 08:14 PM (xV63t)

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Soccer?

A little to "personal" for my tastes. Do they issue penalties for giving wedgies or is this just a cultural thing and I don't get it?

Do you think the guy even considered running around his opponent or was "straight through his crotch" his first instinct?

Posted by: Gary at 03:45 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Imagine if the fellow in the blue shorts was facing the other direction!

Posted by: mdmhvonpa at June 30, 2006 01:11 PM (i/17h)

2 Hey Gary. Trackbacks appear to be "fruitcaked" over the weekend and continuing, so I wanted you to know that I did a "gay soccer" post that you might find amusing.

Posted by: agent bedhead at July 05, 2006 01:50 PM (xV63t)

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An aide for Hillary went off on a spokeswoman for Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid because she felt her boss was blindsided by a hastily arranged news conference on a demand for an increase in the minimum wage before a Congressional pay raise be approved.

According to a tip to Matt Drudge: "The Clinton aide, Laurie Rubiner, was overheard saying to Reid spokeswoman Rebecca Kirszner, “You suck” and “How could you do this?”.

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As it should. State legislatures - the "elected" branch - have the right to determine how its districts are drawn. It's called the will of the people. Duh.

Democrats loved this policy just fine when they were in the majority of the Texas legislature. Now that they're on the outside looking in, they whine about it and take it to court.

Sorry Dems. Listen to Willy Wonka.

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Your results:
You are

Spider-Man

Spider-Man 70% Superman 65% The Flash 60% Batman 50% Iron Man 50% Robin 47% Hulk 45% Supergirl 42% Green Lantern 40% Catwoman 40% Wonder Woman 27%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Posted by: Gary at 10:03 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, not exactly. Although the AP would like you to believe it. Yes, some "scientists" gave Gore's An Inconvenient Truth "five stars for accuracy" we need to take a closer look at this report. And the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works did just that. And they say "whoa, hold on a minute":

AP chose to ignore the scores of scientists who have harshly criticized the science presented in former Vice President Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.”

In the interest of full disclosure, the AP should release the names of the “more than 100 top climate researchers” they attempted to contact to review “An Inconvenient Truth.” AP should also name all 19 scientists who gave Gore “five stars for accuracy.” AP claims 19 scientists viewed Gore’s movie, but it only quotes five of them in its article. AP should also release the names of the so-called scientific “skeptics” they claim to have contacted.

The AP article quotes Robert Correll, the chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment group. It appears from the article that Correll has a personal relationship with Gore, having viewed the film at a private screening at the invitation of the former Vice President. In addition, Correll’s reported links as an “affiliate” of a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that provides “expert testimony” in trials and his reported sponsorship by the left-leaning Packard Foundation, were not disclosed by AP. See http://www.junkscience.com/feb06.htm

The AP also chose to ignore Gore’s reliance on the now-discredited “hockey stick” by Dr. Michael Mann, which claims that temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere remained relatively stable over 900 years, then spiked upward in the 20th century, and that the 1990’s were the warmest decade in at least 1000 years. Last week’s National Academy of Sciences report dispelled Mann’s often cited claims by reaffirming the existence of both the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. [my emphasis]

This is about as self-selected a group as it's possible to compose: climate scientists who actually take Algore seriously as a spokesman for the dangers of "global warming pollution!"

(While AP is quick to note that some of those they contacted were "vocal skeptics of climate change theory," you may notice they oddly fail to mention how many of the 19 who responded to them were among those "skeptics." At a guess, I'd have to say -- zero?)

If you're a climatologist -- and even if you more or less support the IPCC position on global climate change -- how likely would you be to seek out a showing somewhere of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth? Most scientists I know cringe at such populist caricatures, even if they agree with the basic premise... especially if they agree.

Scientists tend to be irritated anyway by the depiction of science in movies, even so-called documentaries: everything from orbits that "decay," to explosions that can be "outrun," to a rotating space station that produces a gravitational-like force... directed along the axis of rotation.

But they're even more skeptical of science when the subject is controversial within the scientific community (which anthropogenic global warming certainly is) -- and in spades and doubled when the moviemaker is not himself a scientist but a politician with no formal training in any math or science beyond what he learned in high school (which, considering Algore's GPA at St. Alban's and at Harvard, was probably not very much).

Most climate scientists would steer so far away from An Inconvenient Truth, even if they supported global-warming theory, that they would probably pretend they didn't even know it existed. Those who went to pains to actively seek it out would be a special breed: scientists who were so tickled that someone as important as Albert A. Gore, jr. would make a movie about their crackpot theory, that they could hardly stop themselves from gushing.

I wish the Associated Press had thought to ask those 19 gushers who they thought had really won the 2000 election.

The very essence of scientific consensus is that every person must give an opinion; every position must be canvassed; all objections must be answered. If you contact 100 scientists and only 19% have seen some work, their opinion is not a consensus: at best, it's a sampling; but more likely, it's a biased pool that does not represent the whole. [all original emphasis]

How much you want to bet those 19 agreed with Gore before they saw the movie. Now how much you want to bet the other 81 didnÂ’t want to see the movie because its fiction?

Posted by: Gary at 09:30 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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You've got to love the unbelievable variety of unique animals that roam the Australian countryside.

I mean, just look at the choppers on this puppy:

Posted by: Gary at 12:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I missed this yesterday but Aaron Spelling has passed on.

Aaron Spelling
1923 - 2006

Spelling was a pioneer in "bad" TV shows that so many of us grew up with and loved so much. Who can forget Saturday nights watching "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" (with the same guest stars rotating through each show)?

Spelling's shows created pop culture icons and launched careers from "Starsky and Hutch" to "Charlie's Angels" to "Dynasty". What we most remember about the '70's and '80's we owe to him. Even made for TV movies like "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble" with John Travolta were his babies. If you recognize the names Dan Tanna, T.J. Hooker or Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, it was Aaron Spelling who's responsible.

And of course, who can forget "Beverly Hills, 90120" and "Melrose Place"? C'mon, admit it. You watched them and you couldn't get enough of them!

RIP, big guy.

Posted by: Gary at 10:00 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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...this one sits way near the top of the list.

A study in Canada (why do these studies always seem to come from Canada anyway?) is claiming the the more older brothers a man has, the more likely he is to be gay. No, it's not an argument in favor of environmental factors. It seems the people behind this study believe that having many older brothers has the effect of "tricking" the womb into making you gay. Check this out:

[Professor Anthony Bogaert] suggests the effect is probably the result of a "maternal memory" in the womb for male births.

A woman's body may see a male foetus as "foreign", he says, prompting an immune reaction which may grow progressively stronger with each male child.

The antibodies created may affect the developing male brain.

In an accompanying article, scientists from Michigan State University said: "These data strengthen the notion that the common denominator between biological brothers, the mother, provides a prenatal environment that fosters homosexuality in her younger sons."

"But the question of mechanism remains."

Andy Forrest, a spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall, said: "Increasingly, credible evidence appears to indicate that being gay is genetically determined rather than being a so-called lifestyle choice.

Look, do I know exactly what factors go into making someone gay? Of course not. Nor do I claim to. But if someone's going to convince me that it's 100% biological, they're going to have to do a whole lot better than this nonsense. And if you ask me, based on the content of this article, it flies in the face of journalistic integrity to have the headline read "Womb environment 'makes men gay'" as if it were a statement of fact.

But then, we are talking BBC News here.

Posted by: Gary at 09:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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And rightfully so:

"The American people expect this government to protect our constitutional liberties and, at the same time, make sure we understand what the terrorists are trying to do. The 9/11 Commission recommended that the government be robust in tracing money. If you want to figure out what the terrorists are doing, you try to follow their money. And that's exactly what we're doing. And the fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on terror."

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Jonathan V. Last at The Weekly Standard explains why America will never embrace professional soccer (i.e. non-American "football"), the ceremonial "flop-'n'-bawl":

Turn on a World Cup game, and within 15 minutes you'll see a grown man fall to the ground, clutch his leg and writhe in agony after being tapped on the shoulder by an opposing player. Soccer players do this routinely in an attempt to get the referees to call foul. If the ref doesn't immediately bite, the player gets up and moves along.

Making a show of your physical vulnerability runs counter to every impulse in American sports. And pretending to be hurt simply compounds the outrage. Basketball has floppers, but the players who do it--like Bill Laimbeer, whose flopping skills helped the Detroit Pistons win two NBA championships--are widely vilified and, in any case, they're pretending to be fouled; they never pretend to be injured. When baseball players are hit by a pitch, the code of conduct dictates that they can walk it off, if they must, but by no means may they rub the point of impact. And pretending you're hurt? There's not even a rule against that--every red-blooded American baseball cheater knows nobody would ever do that.

Not to mention that a scroll through the most recent posts at "Caption This?" doesn't exactly reinforce a "manly" image of the sport.

Posted by: Gary at 12:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 In US sports, there are only wusses :-) They fear aproaching the court w/o halmets and 100lb of other protective devices and 10-inch thick air sneakers. Guys even cheat by measuring their height with sneakers on.

Posted by: ding at June 27, 2006 01:08 AM (6RVEW)

2 I can only assume your references to helmets and protective gear are directed at American Football. Yeah, I can see how participants of such a full-contact sport would be "wussy" for not wanting to suffer severe head trauma or full paralysis. What's the worse that can happen in soccer? Somebody accidentally kicks you in the nuts? "Guys even cheat by measuring their height with sneakers on." And this comment makes zero sense. What American sport has a minimum height requirement?

Posted by: Gary at June 27, 2006 07:54 AM (QoxB+)

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Bright and early on a Monday morning. This week's edition brought to you by Searchlight Crusades!

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Oh man, the longest serving Transportation Secretary in history will at last be history himself. Look, I'm sure he's a nice guy and all but could there really be any reason the Bush hired him in the first place other than he wanted a Democrat in his cabinet to reinforce his "uniter, not a divider" image?

Norm Mineta was fine in his office until 9/11. Then he instituted the "search everybody at the airports" rules that wasted valuable resources in identifying possible terrorists. Mineta is the reason the average air traveler - who in no way fits the profile of an Islamofascist terrorist - has to be pulled out of line and searched. STUPID PC BULLSH*T!

And why? Because when he was a kid his family, which is of Japanese descent, was interned during WWII. So because he was still smarting from that experience, he made sure that we avoided any appearance of ethnic profiling. Rich Lowry of National Review wrote about this ridiculous policy back in 2002:

Asked on 60 Minutes if a 70-year-old white woman from Vero Beach should receive the same level of scrutiny as a Muslim from Jersey City, Mineta said, "Basically, I would hope so." Asked if he could imagine any set of circumstances that would justify ethnic and racial profiling, Mineta said "absolutely not."

Bush has replaced so many other cabinet members in the last five years, yet he kept this guy hanging around. Mineta should have been shown the door years ago.

Unfortunately, this policy - his legacy - is still in place. Hopefully, his replacement can make some changes. But I'm not holding my breath.

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It's Friday and a photo of Melissa Theuriau is like a summer breeze...

Happy Weekend!

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...one "scoop" at a time.

Douche Bags.

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Didn't it seem a little odd that the Dixie Chicks' latest album would hit number one in its debut week when their overall sales have hit the skids? I mean, they are (or were) a country music group and country music fans have pretty much left them behind since they not only insulted the President on foreign soil in a time of war but have completely dissed their old fan base at every opportunity. Something didn't add up in my mind.

Lorie Byrd writes this morning what I had suspected about this as well as some advice for Democrat politicians:

"The new Chicks CD sold well the first couple of weeks, topping the charts. It is hard to imagine with the cover of Time Magazine, a 60 Minutes feature and an avalanche of favorable media, that the CD would not be a top seller. I recently heard Democratic Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. say he went out and bought a copy the first week.

I suspect that many who never would have paid a dime to listen to the Dixie Chicks when they were a kitschy country band, went out and purchased a copy as a political statement.

Although sales the first week put the CD at the top of the charts, compared to the previous Dixie Chicks CD, sales were down considerably. Concert ticket sales in some venues have been so slow that some shows may even be cancelled.

The example of the Dixie ChicksÂ’ rejection by many country music fans is one that carries a lesson those marketing any product would do well to heed. It easily translates from musicians and fans to politicians and voters, too. When politicians treat voters as ignorant and backward for not accepting their position on an issue, the voters are likely to go elsewhere."

UPDATE: 11:15am
Then again, if Natalie Maines can't understand the NYC subway system, how can we expect this dim bulb to understand her fans?

h/t: HotAir.com

Posted by: Gary at 09:25 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Guess she can't read a subway map...nor can she ask directions. I rather doubt many New Yorkers would know her by sight, so she doesn't have to worry about being mobbed!

Posted by: Pam at June 23, 2006 08:56 PM (OdalM)

2 Odd? Not at all. Most people are only fooled once. After buying the Dixie Twits CD, they realized how awful the dixie twits sound musically...hence the slump in concert ticket sales. ----------------------------------- Didn't it seem a little odd that the Dixie Chicks' latest album would hit number one in its debut week when their overall sales have hit the skids?

Posted by: Skye at June 25, 2006 10:07 AM (bZ0mc)

3 Steve Johnson of Chicago Tribune said it's proof that far more people than you would think still can't handle the idea of a strong-minded woman. I say people can handle strong-minded women. It is the dumb ones who keep on talking people cannot handle.

Posted by: Tess at June 26, 2006 02:49 AM (ZSAtj)

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U.S. eliminated in match against by...Ghana? Apparently, they were unable to come back from Ghana's insurmountable 2-1 lead. Must have been quite a yawner. Whatever, somehow I think I'll survive.

In the meantime, check out the buns on Brazil!

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Whether you've been following this story or not, the graphic below (posted on Sanctuary) is just too funny.

hat tip: John Hawkins

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No big surprise - the tally was 13-86.

Because the only word besides "fail" that's more appropriate to be read in the same sentence as the name John Kerry is "gigolo".

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