- Anders Behring Breivik described in detail for the court in Norway how he carried out his killing spree last July. The testimony is gruesome and disturbing, but that’s not the reason I’m sharing this link. Per the article, the main goal of the trial is to determine Breivik’s sanity. If insane he’ll naturally be committed to a psychiatric ward. If found sane he’ll face a maximum of 21 years in prison. Let me repeat. If he’s found sane, he faces a maximum of 21 years in prison. Only 21 years for killing 77 people? That’s almost a quarter of a year for each person he killed. Sane or insane this guy is a menace to society and whatever they find out about his sanity should be irrelevant. He should not be set free for the rest of his life, whether it’s to protect others or as punishment for his crimes.
- Some woman in New Zealand died of a heart attack at 30-years old in 2010. Cited among the many reasons that contributed to her heart attack was the woman’s Coke habit. No, not cocaine. Coca Cola. She allegedly drank between 2.1 and 2.6 gallons of Coke per day. Gallons!! Folks, my family of 5 doesn’t go through that many gallons of milk in a week, let alone pop (or soda or whatever it’s called where you live). Un-fucking-believable.
- There’s a museum in Big Rapids, Michigan that features racist artifacts. You just can’t make this stuff up. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia claims it has amassed the “nation’s largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.” Wow. Are they proud of this? Who would be interested in seeing this? Why would you want to look at evidence of the sorriest chapter in American history?
- Annie Clark, a 7-year-old born without hands has been awarded a national award for penmanship. The girl is somehow not only able to write, but write wonderfully gripping a pen between both of her forearms and manipulating it. What an amazing little girl.
- Ted Nugent was interviewed by the Secret Service after the idiot said, at an NRA meeting of all places, “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” The Secret Service concluded that there is no threat and the matter has been resolved. There has been no word yet on who will pick up the tab for the hookers.
- At George Zimmerman’s bond hearing, his wife testified that he’s not a violent man. I obviously don’t know George
at allas well as she does, but doesn’t shooting and killing someone kind of negate your assertion that he’s not violent? - I know I shouldn’t find this funny, but I do. 16 Amish men and women have been indicted for…beard and hair-cutting attacks against other Amish. Apparently in Amish culture it’s taboo for woman to cut their hair and men must stop shaving once they’re married. There was apparently some kind of religious disagreement that provoked the attacks (why does this seem familiar?) in which hair was cut against the will of the victims. Like I said, I shouldn’t find this funny but the idea of some Amish holding some other Amish down and cutting their hair is just hilarious.
- The so-called “personhood” bill in Oklahoma, which would give embryos full rights as a person (and thus making abortion a crime) failed before the Republican controlled state could vote on it. And here I thought it would be the Supreme Court striking it down.
- A Pakistani-born baby born with 6 legs had them all (the extra appendages) successfully removed by a team of 5 doctors. There’s a picture of the baby before surgery if you click here. It’s kind of freaky looking. I hope the baby recovers successfully and has a long, normal life.
- Homosexuality is apparently frowned upon in Japan, too. I love how they accuse a commercial of “encouraging homosexuality.” Like people have a choice. Like I could be completely straight until I saw that commercial and then turn gay. People have no control over what gender they’re attracted to, folks. Let’s get past this already.
- This article is just sad. It starts out by saying “A prominent U.S. Catholic nuns’ group said on Thursday it was “stunned” that the Vatican reprimanded it for spending too much time on poverty and social justice concerns and not enough on abortion and gay marriage.” How typical. Yes, let’s quit helping the poor and addressing social injustice so we can tell everyone what they already know: the Catholic Church is against abortion and gay marriage. This just in: the sky is blue, water is wet, and shit stinks. These nuns were shocked to hear the Vatican’s assessment and I don’t blame them. They’re priorities were, and are, fine.
Coke habit: My eldest sister Beth who was otherwise bright and wonderful, drank nothing but Coke for probably 50 years. She was a nurse, knew she needed other things, but nope she didn’t drink anything else, although not in this quantity. She developed severe kidney stones in her 50s, had a stroke because the kidney stones bunged her urinary tract so badly, and was on dialysis for three years. She died in 2009 of complications from all of this at age 61. Coke in large quantities, is, in my opinion very much part of what killed her. Water. Drink lots of water.
On the museum of Jim Crow stuff, I disagree (and not only because I knew you’d be disappointed if I didn’t. But remember, those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. It’s the same reason such horrible places as Auschwitz and Dachau and other places are maintained. People need to know. And they need to see it to believe it.
There’s places like the Freedom Center here in Cincinnati that teach about the Underground Railroad and the like, but I don’t think I’d like to see a whole exhibit filled with nothing but racist artifacts.
Yes, we should learn from the past and know about it, but I find this exhibit distasteful.
If we only looked at what was not distasteful, we would not know what people can do. My impression about the museum is that it is a teaching tool. And yes, distasteful or not, it is important to see.
Torture, physical torture was horrid — but we have museums throughout the world with the implements of torture.
We need to look ourselves in the mirror and see the blackheads, the warts, the wrinkles. The imperfections.
I’m tired of seeing the dark side of humanity. One need no go to a museum to find it. One need only turn on the news…
As to the Coke thingy, first of all, my condolences about your sister. Secondly, I quit drinking all pop in 2004, I think. I remember losing roughly 20lbs in the first two weeks after I did it. Just one 20oz bottle of pop has an insane amount of sugar in it. Ridiculous.
Thanks for the condolences. Losing both of my sisters really sucks, and I probably mention them too much. But various subjects often bring them to mind.
And yes, Coke and all soda is pretty awful stuff. I rarely drink it (I do only when driving long-distance — the caffeine keeps me awake without making me jittery.) But I really believe that if my sister Beth had cut her consumption, she would be alive today.
“I probably mention them too much”
You could never mention them enough. Obviously they were very important to you and they live on through you so keep remembering them and keep talking about them.
As to soda, the only time I drink it is if it has Southern Comfort in it. So it’s not that often…
Thank you for always reminding us of the “other side” of life; the one filled with whackos and indefinable oddities….
Indefinable oddities. How appropriately dubbed. Thanks for that.