No Really...Pull My Finger..."

Here's a portion of the article in the Projo today regarding the state employees unions' fight to prevent shutdown days because the state can't afford it....


"PROVIDENCE — State government will open on Friday after all, as a result of a temporary stay issued by Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg that put the kibosh on the first of Governor Carcieri’s 12 government shutdown days.
State workers in matching green T-shirts cheered outside the courthouse. But the celebration was short-lived.
Little more than an hour after the judge ruled, Governor Carcieri said the judge left him “with no option but layoffs.”
He said layoff notices would go out within a week to the last 1,000 union and non-union people hired, which presumably would include the state’s new Medicaid director and education commissioner. “It should greatly disturb every state employee and every Rhode Islander that labor leaders are willing to sacrifice people’s jobs so they can maintain their stranglehold on the citizens of this state,” Carcieri said."


That last sentence by the governor is SPOT ON. No, really.... that's fine. People who are in the unions pay their dues and the union leaders say they are there "to protect their members". Well..how is the choice of MORE for some and ZERO for others ANY kind of fair representation
or protection. It shows arrogance, power-hunger, and a severe lack of common sense. Of course, in THIS state, the unions are so entrenched that people actually PUT UP WITH THIS.
The legislature is elected and charged with making a budget. In RI, the legislature is ruled by democrats. They DIDN'T create a budget that the state can live within. In fact, they increased spending. Now the REPUBLICAN governor - a lone member of his party in this sea of Democrats - must do something.

(from the projo) "The 12 shutdown days are a key part of (governor) Carcieri’s response to the $67.8 million in unspecified savings that lawmakers directed him to produce in the new state budget they adopted in June. While leaving the actual cost-cutting decisions to him, they required “reductions of 6.25 percent of recommended salary and benefits.” "


He proposes 12 shut down days.... even suggesting that employees could work out WHICH days so that it would be to their benefit AND allow the state services to stay in operation. But the unions fight it. And so now their must be layoffs.
And the ignorants of the state will say it's because of the governor, because, well, he IS a Republican. Right. Her eat the center of legislative and elective Democratic corruption.
How lame. How disgusting.

To my favorite Patriot... Congrats on a Fantastic & Honorable Career!!!

Tedy Bruschi Retirement
New England Patriot: 1996 - 2008

The only pro player whose jersey I actually purchased....


BRUSCHI MAKES HIS LAST PLAY

Posted by Tony Massarotti, Globe Staff August 31, 2009 12:18 PM
Thirteen seasons later, this is how Tedy Bruschi makes his last play: he walks. He leaves with pride and he leaves with dignity. He leaves behind a heart, body, and soul that he entrusted to no team but the Patriots and to no region but New England.
And so with Bruschi announcing his retirement this morning at Gillette Stadium, maybe it is time to take pause. Maybe there is still some loyalty in sports after all. Maybe a guy like Bruschi can come here, as he did in 1996, and play in six AFC Championship Games and five Super Bowls, winning three titles and appearing in one Pro Bowl. Maybe he can survive a stroke and declining skills. And maybe, at the end of it all, he can go out wearing the same uniform he wore in, an increasingly rare example of the company man who stood for principle and values more than he did the bottom line.
But then, we always knew Bruschi was old school, right down to the Ray Nitschke mentality and the genetic eye black.
"There's a sign when you come into this facility that says, 'Do your job.' I did my job for 13 years,’" Bruschi said. "Now my job is done. My job is done. I’m looking forward to living the rest of my life."
The Patriots turned another page today, folks. At roughly 10:45 a.m., Bruschi officially and formally handed the keys to Jerod Mayo, then began the rest of his life. Even the steely Bill Belichick got a little choked up. Bruschi went out the way Mike Vrabel did not, a Patriot from beginning to end, a man to whom Belichick and the Patriots were every bit as loyal as Bruschi was to them, even amid a decline in performance that was apparent to everyone.
Bruschi stayed. The Patriots kept him. A New England organization more businesslike than any in professional sports made obvious choices and sacrifices to accommodate a player who was, if nothing else, different.
Was Bruschi the best player ever to wear a Patriots uniform? No, no, no. But this is about so much more than that. These Patriots will forever go down as a team that belonged to Belichick and Tom Brady, though the club’s identity was formed just as much around people like Bruschi and Troy Brown. Those are the men who defined the Pats as much as anyone, smaller and less physically gifted players who brought a tireless spirit and a desire to win, the latter of which requires a selflessness and coachability that few players ever get credit for.
Every Sunday, from September 1996 through December 2008, the Patriots always could count on getting Bruschi’s best, however good that was.
Along the way, lest anyone forget, Bruschi endured the kind of cataclysmic event that would have (should have?) ended most careers. It was shortly after the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory in 2005 when Bruschi suffered a stroke. Most everyone thought he would never play again. Bruschi missed training camp and opened the year on the physically unable to perform list, then made a celebrated return to the field on October 30 against the Buffalo Bills.
"This is something I’ve never done before -- jumping back in the seventh week," Bruschi said. "It’s just a process. I think it's gotten better as it's gone along. To tell the truth, right now I think I'm close. I can't say I'm all the way back because I believe in the process."
So here we are now, four years later, and Bruschi still believes in the process. The Patriots defense, in particular, has been in a transitional state for the last few years, from the secondary on up. The defensive backfield has completely turned over in the last two years. Now the linebacking corps has, too. Bruschi is one of the original cornerstone of this Patriots dynasty, the ground floors of which were built during the reign of Bill Parcells. He walks away now in good conscience, knowing he has given the Patriots everything he has, and that he can no longer give them enough.
Almost certainly, there was a process here. Maybe the Patriots told Bruschi he was no longer good enough. Maybe they didn’t need to. In this case, the specifics do not really matter. Bruschi was one of the original Patriots who fostered the idea of togetherness, who believed in the players and the coach being on the same page, who believed in the good of the group and the parts being secondary to whole.
Tedy Bruschi now walks away proudly, the consummate playmaker making the final, decisive play.

"We Lose the Last Brother Today ..."

Edward Kennedy, 1932-2009

For those of us who grew up in this time, these men defined the politics of our youth and beyond. They were also part of the social pain that was the 1960's ...

RIP Senator Kennedy

Sigh...

From Boston Dirt Dogs

Tested Positive in 2003 ...

Disappointed? Most Definitely.

Sad? Yes, very.

Surprised? I guess not.

The numbers reflect SOMETHING for every player who took P.E.D.'s

And as a Boston fan, I always agreed that perhaps we could feel a certain moral superiority because none of the Red Sox were linked to juicing - unless it was far before or after their tenure there. But now all I can feel is disappointment for the entire situation...for the fact that EVERYONE allowed it to happen.

And it CERTAINLY won't be fun next week to hear the crowd at the new Yankee Stadium when Big Papi comes up....

Why? All I wanted was a pure, wonderful memory of 2004 and 2007..... and now it's a little less "Clear"....

Walter Cronkite: RIP July 17, 2009

The man who formed network news, who brought us through the Vietnam War and the race to the moon.

How sad that he died so close to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing...

40 Years: July 20, 1969

NASA photo

I am forever in awe of the accomplishments of the US space program, of the bravery of the people involved, and the endless benefits derived from human exploration.

As am 11 year old boy, I thought that those kinds of peaceful accomplishments in space would continue and accelerate...

As wonderful as the Space Shuttle is, I cannot WAIT for the new Constellation Program to bring man back to the moon and Mars.

R.I.P Michael

In spite of earlier posts, I find I cannot ignore the talent that was Micheal Jackson.

I hope he is happy and in a better place....

RI Legislators Once AGAIN Proving their Irresponsibility

from Projo.com 06-27-09

“We worry about House business. We are still going to continue to work,” House Speaker William J. Murphy said through a spokesman.

The House’s small but steadfast Republican opposition, meanwhile, offered harsh words over the breakneck pace and lack of a schedule. When the day began, the House had 142 items on its agenda, with dozens more added as the hours passed.

“What you’re seeing now is passage of the bills that were previously held hostage by the speaker so he could corral the votes he needed to get the budget done,” House Minority Whip John Loughlin, R-Tiverton said as the sun set.

“… Now there is a very limited time to pay back all of those favors, so you’re seeing this tremendous crush of questionable legislation cramming out all at once. There is no reason why any of these bills couldn’t have been done in March, but for the fact that they were being held hostage by the speaker.”

What a bunch or arrogant, ignorant idiots. And RI voters ALLOw it to happen every year.

"They Want You Back"...

Ummm....

Yeah ~ SCREW the Iranian people's struggle for free elections, and their fight against an intolerant oppressive theocracy, damnit!! Michael Jackson died!!!!!

Look - I understand, to a point. He was an incredible talent, and his death is certainly unexpected. And really - I can vividly remember how great the Jackson 5 was. "I Want You Back" is one of the greatest pop songs ever. And "Thriller" was a massive influence on so many things, from music videos to MTV to theatrical pop. He was an entertainer below few others.

But c'mon!!!! There was quite a bit of freakish, scary behavior there. And he was only ABOUT to try to make a comeback. It might or might not have gone anywhere. No one even knows how he would have been received or how good he would have been. (And just WAIT - with MUCH bluster and fanfare, there will be a release of some kind of video of his rehearsal sessions for this 'comeback tour', I have no doubt..... because rust and money-grubbing-promoters NEVER sleep).

So now it's 24 hours later and, as can be seen above from the screen shots, the major "news" networks are still in full-blown tabloid mode.

I smell a fully dedicated "MJ-TV" channel in our future.....

Oh - and let it NOT be lost on anyone the pose that is being used on MS-NBC. Jesus, indeed.

Poor Farrah Fawcett.... about the only pop icon that could have usurped her in death actually did.

Cool RI Airshow Pic

Oracle bi-plane over the RI Statehouse - from the Projo,com 06/26/09

NEDA...

To me, a very real question is touched on in the link below.
Would any of us in the US today have the courage to stand up if we thought our government was severely wrong? Would you risk your life? Would you stand up for your belief?

I think that the writer at "Gawker" is probably right in saying that Neda will tragically now be the face of this Iranian Revolution. It remains to be seen HOW far the people will go in trying to change things, however...

All I can say is, it once again brings up some very serious contemplation points on everyone's part.

http://gawker.com/5299414/neda-the-face-of-a-revolution?skyline=true&s=i

Out Idiotic State Legislators at Work

Well, it's that time of year again - the end of the legislation session, and the days when Rhode Islanders have a myriad of laws suddenly shoved down our throats. This way, the elected officials don't have to hear any opinion or response from constituents, and they can of course take their summer vacations. After all, that is MUCH more important than doing an honorable job of passing thoughtful, enforceable, common sense laws.

Example 1: Outlawing Organized Pub Crawls as a result of a person being killed by a bus 5 years ago. This law will make it illegal for a group of people to g from bar t bar in an "organized" fashion. So what - they want people to now take separate cars? How is this enforceable? Or is this more of a power shift to police so that they can now easily close/regulate those establishments they wish not to be in business? This is the result of a person who fell/was pushed off a sidewalk at a corner in Newport 5 years ago. The PUB CRAWL they were on didn't kill him. A BUS did. what about the enforcement of personal responsibility? This is a thoughtless, ignorant law that was passed out of the blue on the last week of the legislative session. The state is in economic shambles and this is what they spend their time on. Are they going to stop bachelor parties? bachelorette parties where a SOBER driver of a bus or limo is hired ....you know... in a RESPONSIBLE ACT?
How do you enforce this ridiculousness? A BAR OWNER has to recognize a certain side group of people?

This sounds unconstitutional at first blush anyway.
And the simple concept of this kind of "safety legislation" angers me as a citizen.




Lawmakers outlaw pub crawls in wake of student’s death
Friday, June 12, 2009 PROJO
By Cynthia Needham Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — Five years after a college student was struck and killed by a bus during a pub crawl in Newport, Rhode Island lawmakers have voted to impose a statewide ban on such events with the onus on bar owners to enforce the rule or risk losing their liquor licenses.
What started as a low-profile proposal erupted this week into full-scale debate on civil liberties and the General Assembly’s role in legislating public behavior.
“I think we need to make it a state policy not to encourage irresponsible drunkenness,” said Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, in proposing the ban. “We need to say, this is not acceptable behavior in our state. Too often action isn’t taken until there is a tragedy, which is why we need to do this now.”
Opponents, among them Minority Leader Robert Watson, argue that tragedies happen and banning pub crawls won’t prevent them.
“The idea that you are telling me that I can’t get a bunch of friends together and go from one bar to the next flies in the face of what we believe is constitutional and our rights as citizens, not only in Rhode Island, but in America,” Watson said in the floor discussion this week.
House lawmakers approved the bill by a razor-thin 35-33 vote. The Senate gave unanimous approval to the bill on Thursday night. Once each chamber passes the other’s version they will head to the governor’s desk for his signature.
In May 2004, a 21-year-old Fairfield University student, Francis J. Marx V, fell in the path of a bus bringing University of Rhode Island students to Narragansett after a pub crawl. Months later, state lawmakers passed a bill allowing individual cities and towns to ban such drinking events, but only a few did, with Newport, Narragansett and Cranston among them.
If the statewide proposal becomes law, communities won’t have that choice, something Lima says will go a long way in keeping Rhode Islanders safer.
But critics predict the proposal will cause problems for bartenders and their establishments whose job it will be to distinguish between organized crawls and groups of friends out for a drink — risking their liquor licenses if they are wrong.
As for Marx, opponents argue that as tragic has his death may have been, he was not killed because a pub crawl happened, but because he was hit by a bus.
“What we keep trying to do in this building is control how people live their lives,” said Rep. Joseph Trillo, D-Warwick. “We try to give people common sense. You can’t legislate common sense and that’s what we keep trying to do.”

"I Don't Want to be a Distraction..."

Ramirez visits with Dodger teammates
ESPN.com news services
LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez visited his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates before their game against San Diego on Tuesday night (06/09/09), popping into the clubhouse before a home game for the first time since his suspension for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy.
The dreadlocked slugger, who also talked to manager Joe Torre, told reporters he isn't going to formally address the media about what led to his 50-game ban because it's in the past.

"I don't want to be a distraction for this team," Ramirez said. "What happened, happened. I spoke to [owner] Frank McCourt, I apologized, I spoke to Joe, my teammates and I'm ready to move on.

"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it, I'm just going to come and play the game."

The fact that he spoke at all could be a problem, however. The terms of his suspension restrict him from addressing reporters, ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney reported.

_______

I think it's awesome and incredibly thoughtful of Manny to not want to be a distraction to his team, or to baseball in general. If it wasn't for such sensitivity, empathy and consideration, that whole situation could be a mess. After all, it's not like he disappointed anyone, let anyone down, or betrayed his team. And it's not like the Dodgers had spent a lot of money to center an entire marketing campaign around him. And really - there's NO reason for him to feel the LEAST bit of pressure to answer questions about his VOLUNTEERED EXPLANATION to the media.... the one that made zero sense at all. Naaaa.
The best part is that he's not allowed to speak to the media... so what does Manny do? He speaks to the media.

Because - you see - on HIS PLANET, things are different than here.
Doesn't anyone get that?

From the bike path - Barrington, RI

I-Way bridge & huricane barrier in Providence.

The Point of KNOW Return...

(Apologies to the band KANSAS for the Headline)


CNN.COM 06/02/09
Excerpt from and interview with the CFO of GM regarding their current position, and plans moving forward (the bold highlight is mine):


"....Kiran Chetry (CNN): Under the restructuring plan, the government will give the company $30 billion additional in taxpayer money, amounting to $50 billion so far. It’s the largest amount, besides AIG, dolled out by the government. In a nutshell, can you explain what went so wrong for General Motors?
Ray Young (GM CFO): Kiran, we admit there have been errors in the past that we’ve made at General Motors. We’ve had a lot of extra excess costs, excess capacity over the years. We’ve got…defined benefit obligations that have really hurt us in the balance sheet. But going forward, Kiran, we’re going to learn from our mistakes. And we’ve been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to restructure the balance sheet, to shed a lot of our extra capacity, extra costs, and move forward with a profitable new General Motors that’s going to be smaller but more focused with four core brands and with a cost structure that is very, very efficient...."



Noooo...... WRONG. And arrogant. GM's "once in a lifetime opportunity" was back in the late 1970's, when they INITIALLY weren't able to compete in the auto market. By not looking ahead, learning the lessons of the day, and becoming VIABLY competitive then, they merely set the stage for this debacle.

How DARE you?!! Any intelligent person could see that for the past 30 YEARS, the American auto industry was not learning or changing to maintain viability. Sure - build those massive, inefficient trucks and focus sales and marketing on the SUV. It goes beyond "being green". It screams of short sightedness. Pollution, and the simple fact that were were more and more dependant on a dwindling, finite fuel made that business plan arrogant and idiotic. Did NO ONE look at the path of American manufacturing of ANYTHING and take heed?

"But Americans WANT big cars...." Then you sucked at salesmanship.
And now we "have" to help in order to prevent unfathomable unemployment and a cascading landslide of wrecked businesses, communities and lives.

Thanks for being such crappy business people. Let's see... here's a concept that doesn't make sense to a 2 years old: People want to pay NOTHING for a big, huge truck or monster SUV, and yet work for the company that MAKES these vehicles and receive full pensions, not contribute to their health benefits and make massive wages.

Stupid fools.

You HAD your once in a lifetime opportunity - and you screwed the pooch.

No, No, NOOOOOOO!!!!

GREAT. SUPER. EXCELLENT.

The newest from Red Sox marketing.

I can't take it.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY???!!!

Please, PLEASE STOP.

Oh, and to top it off? It's a 'scratch & sniff"

Just shoot me now.

Today, from CNN.COM, through Life Magazine, 5 previously unpublished pictures of Marilyn Monroe emerged. they were apparently taken in 1950, when she was primarily known as a model only, and were never used in any story or on a cover.

Obviously MM was quite beautiful, but I was so struck by this picture of her.... to me it portrays her so differently than the thousands of other images that have been shown of her. I don't know why ~ I have never really been a huge MM fan per say, but this new picture is different. Maybe part of it is knowing that this was before her life was so changed by stardom, excess and exploitation.

Ogunquit - it's not summer YET.

"What happened to my jet pack?"

CNN.COm had an article today about science-fiction technology. It asked why we never got what was predicted, and outlined the view by author Daniel Wilson that, in many case, the overall prediction was correct, but that those predictions tend not to take into account the practicality of usage of that technology within society.

The funniest comment within the article, however, was in Wilson's example of this:

"The jet pack is a perfect example of predicting the future, Wilson says. He says the jet pack first appeared in 1928 in an Amazing Stories comic book, which featured the hero Buck Rogers zooming though the sky in a jet pack.
The jet pack was actually developed by 1961, Wilson says. An inventor mounted a rocket onto a backpack and called it a rocket belt. A variation of the rocket belt even appeared in the 1965 James Bond movie, "Thunderball."
Today, the jet pack continues to grab inventors' imaginations.
A daredevil wearing a jet pack flew across a 1,500-foot-wide canyon in Colorado in November. A Swiss pilot, dubbed "Fusion Man," flew across the English Channel last year using a single jet-propelled wing. And a New Zealand inventor recently invented a jet pack, which weighs about 250 pounds, that reportedly can run for 30 minutes.
The jet pack, though, has never really taken off, Wilson says.
The problem is its practical application.
While a rocket belt could propel a screaming human to 60 mph in seconds, its fuel lasted for only about half a minute, "which led to more screaming," Wilson says.

Hee. An hysterical mental image, there....

Feeding the Monster

Standing room ticket on the Green Monster for a Labor Day weekend game: $35

Share of the hotel room: $43

An evening out with old friends: Priceless

The Red Sox losing to the Mets in the 9th, when your friend is a diehard Mets fan? Fucking Brutal.

Stupid City

OK, so here is a picture of the side street outside my place of work in the old "jewelry district" of downtown Providence. There are health care -related buildings and offices all around the area, not too mention parts of a college and other assorted businesses. This picture was taken on a week day, at about 1:30 PM.

And here's the deal. Up until about a year ago, there were no parking meters on the street. There were simply signs that said "2 Hour Parking". they also have (and had) a "Parking Control Officer" who patrolled the neighborhood and ticketed any cars that were there longer than the allotted time.

This side street had EVERY SPACE taken every single weekday all year long.

THEN, in it's brilliance, the city decided to put in new, expensive, digital, 2-hour parking meters. The idea, I presume, was to collect cash for all the time that people were parked there, AND from the tickets that were issued to people still parked there after the meter expired.

These meters must cost a TON. Then there's the cost of drilling the sidewalk holes and installing the meters. There is STILL the cost of the Parking Control Officer - that hasn't changed.

Actually, all that HAS changed is that NO ONE PARKS THERE AT ALL. Nor do the park anywhere ELSE in the neighborhood where the new meters were installed. Any street that has the meters is basically vacant all day long now. And has been for a year plus.

WAY. TO. GO.

Thanks for inconveniencing people AND losing the city money. Excellent planning.

go 'BIG PAPI' !!!

David Ortiz just hit his first home run of the season ... on MAY 20th!!!!

The sound from the crowd at Fenway was as if they'd just won the World Series....

After doing so many great things for the team these past 7 years, it's great to see the fans be so supportive.  

Hope it's just the beginning, Big Guy....   !!!!  

Run, Forest, Run...

To BEE or Not to BEE

Remember Bee Girl?

By DOUG IRVING - the Orange County Register

She was a little bit chubby and a whole lot dweeby, a freckled, bespectacled little girl who didn't seem to care what other people thought. She was, let's not forget, dressed in a bee suit.

It took her exactly 4 minutes and 7 seconds to become one of the defining images of mid-1990s pop culture. That's how long she was on screen, dancing her giddy, silly bee dance, in a music video for a lesser-known rock group called Blind Melon.

The Bee Girl, as she came to be known by just about everyone, rubbed elbows with Madonna and brought down the house at the MTV Video Music Awards. She traded jokes with Jay Leno, filmed interviews with Inside Edition, and quickly became far more popular than Blind Melon itself.

But that was a long time ago. These days, the Bee Girl goes by her real name, Heather DeLoach. She's 26 years old, a bartender and aspiring actress with dog named Hemi and a condo in Laguna Niguel. And, in recent years, she's come to understand something very important about her alter ego.

The world needed a Bee Girl.

•••

The Bee Girl wore dark-rimmed glasses, crooked antennae and a black-and-yellow tutu that didn't quite fit right. She tap-danced, she waved her arms, she spun around – and, in her first moments of fame, she got laughed offstage.

That's how the video to Blind Melon's sleepy hit, "No Rain," begins. The rest of the video follows the Bee Girl as she skips across the grimy streets of Los Angeles, doing her dance for the perplexed strangers she meets along the way.

It ends with her pushing open a gate and discovering a green field crowded with happy, dancing bee people just like her.

Heather DeLoach was 9 years old when she landed the gig, mostly because she looked like the drummer's nerdy sister. She didn't know much about dancing, so she just shimmied from side to side and let her arms go wild.

They filmed the video in 1992. Parts of Los Angeles were still smoldering from riots when Heather tap-danced her way through the city as the Bee Girl. Those perplexed strangers in the video? They were just normal people – a homeless man, some customers at a market – that the film crew talked into appearing in the video.

Heather went home exhausted after two days of filming, her underarms rubbed raw from the sequins on her too-tight bee costume. Her mother, Susan, thinks she made a few thousand dollars in her role as the Bee Girl. Soon enough, she was back at school in Lake Forest, just another 9-year-old kid.

And then the video hit MTV.

•••

"I think Jay's going to ask me how I got in the video and if I have any boyfriends and what I want to do with my life." That was Heather in 1993, shortly after the video came out – and just before her appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The life of the Bee Girl went from zero to crazy in the time it took that video to air. Suddenly, newspapers and television shows were calling for interviews. MTV made her one of the closing acts of its 1993 video-awards show; she remembers sharing a dressing room with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

She landed big-screen roles after that – in "A Little Princess" in 1995 and "The Beautician and the Beast" two years later. More recently, she made cameo appearances in "Balls of Fury" (2007) and in the television cops-spoof "Reno 911!"

But as she got older, she decided she didn't want to miss out on growing up. She began canceling auditions and interviews so she could spend time with her friends. She graduated from El Toro High School in Lake Forest, then got a degree in Communications from Cal State Fullerton.

Her current boyfriend didn't even know that she was, in fact, the Bee Girl until they had been dating for a few weeks.

She still has those thick glasses in a keepsake chest in her bedroom, along with those crooked bee antennae. The Bee Girl, she says, "is a part of me now. I am her… I love it."

She wrote on her MySpace page: "Some people call me 'Bummble Bee' (and) if you know me then you know why." And that's how she began to realize just what the Bee Girl had meant to so many people.

•••

The letters come from short people and fat people, people who have been laughed at and hurt – people who didn't fit in. They have seen Heather's name in a news story, and found her on MySpace… was she really the Bee Girl?

One man wrote about how badly he was teased growing up – and how he took comfort in the idea that even a little girl dressed like a bee could find a place to belong. It was the same for a woman who wrote about how other kids always made fun of her for being short; she, too, found inspiration in the Bee Girl.

Heather gets a few letters like those every week. "Have you ever felt like your heart is smiling?" she said. "It makes me feel like a good person." She does her best to answer them all.

The Bee Girl, she says now, "was somebody that had an inner spark. She seemed very introverted on the outside, but on the inside, she had kind of this inner light, to go out and be alive.

"I think she was full of hope. She had the feeling that she could go out and find acceptance, that there are people out there like her."

"It's a story that gets people through," she says. "When I go through tough times, the Bee Girl prevails."

 

TV Happiness for Nerds

They FINALLY renewed Chuck! 

At least they kept SOMETHING I watch... It's been a brutal year for actual TV shows.  The nerd in me rejoices!  Which is to say, I rejoice.  

 

 

The Trouble with the World Today: "ROWDY AMISH YUTES"

HaHa!!!  Love this!
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/buffaloarea_amish_youth_ticket.html

The best comments after:

•  “Guess he’ll be “OFF THE WAGON” for a while…”
  
• The thing is….the HORSE isn’t impaired – so WTH??”
  

Gaspee Run - 6:00AM

You're Gonna Make it After All...!!!

Two things about the developments in other parts of the world. This image is from Pakistan this past weekend.... and an obvious place of disruption and disarray right now.

There have been many comments about the US having it's first Black president, and what a groundbreaking accomplishment it has been here. But the truth is, you haven't really MADE it as a US president, with FULL acknowledgement of what you are...until you've been burned in effigy. At last, Mr. Obama can say he's made it ~ though t be perfectly honest, I don't really see ANY resemblance whatsoever.

=====

Additionally, over the past few days, I've seen the above-pictured "chest emblems" all over the news from that country. All I can say is that they TOTALLY need a new translator. Not that it's WRONG, but "Go America Go" doesn't REALLY have the negative connotations that they intend. Plus, I have to ask .... like, really? They're wearing BUMPER STICKERS??!!

Well, I guess - if you can't afford a car, this is the next best thing...but it's kinda weird if you ask me.

SIGH...

From Bill Simmons' ESPN.COM article on May 7, 2009 ... after Manny is banned for 50 games.

..... "We look at the 2004 banner again. I always thought that, for the rest of my life, I would look at that banner and think only good thoughts. Now, there's a mental asterisk that won't go away. I wish I could take a pill to shake it from my brain. I see 2004 and 2007, and think of Manny and Papi first and foremost. The modern-day Ruth and Gehrig. One of the great one-two punches in sports history. Were they cheating the whole time? Was Pedro cheating, too? That 2004 banner makes me think of these things now. I wish it didn't, but it does. This makes me sad. This makes me profoundly sad." .....

Commentary on Manny

Forget Manny, Don't Forgive Him
By Jayson Stark~ESPN.com. Thursday, May 7, 2009

We live in a land that loves to forgive, that wants to forgive. And I couldn't be more proud to live in a land like that.
But what are the odds that the citizens of this great land will have any interest in forgiving a scoundrel like Manny Ramirez?
And even if they do, why should they?
Why should they forgive a man who was willing to do something this stupid, and then tried to spin his crime away with a statement saying, essentially, that it was all his dopey doctor's fault?
Why should they forgive a man who just personally sabotaged the magical season of a team like the Dodgers, the only franchise on earth that was willing to overlook his potholed past, work with him to reshape his sullied image and even build its whole franchise around his sweet swing, his flowing locks and his endearing smile?
Why?
Why would the fans of any team, let alone this team, ever believe in Manny again?
We've learned over the years that it IS possible for drug-stained players to get a second chance. But Manny has already seriously endangered any shot he might have had that he could be one of those players. Let's explain why.
The players who found forgiveness weren't players who asked for forgiveness. They were players who earned that forgiveness.
They were guys like Andy Pettitte, whose prior reputations were pristine to begin with. Who then stepped forward and told their story in a way that people could relate to.
They told you what they did. They told you why they did it. They didn't toss out half-baked explanations that were shot down by the fact checkers 20 minutes later.
Most important, they took responsibility -- ALL the responsibility. They didn't try to drag their doctors or their teammates or their knucklehead cousins into the line of fire. They said, "I'M the one who did this. Blame me."
And when they were through telling their stories, they seemed genuine. Believable. Human. Those are the kinds of people we forgive in this country -- people who give us reason to forgive.
But now let's look at Manny, and how he compares with members of that group.
What word would we use to assess his prior reputation? Hmmm, "pristine" is probably out, right?
The non-New Englanders out there might describe that reputation as, um, checkered. Or complicated. Or confusing.
Red Sox fans, on the other hand, would clearly have some other words in mind. Words we shouldn't be using in casual family conversation. Words that certainly won't be uttered on any episodes of "Teletubbies."
But those words don't matter now. All that matters is that Manny had built up a dubious amount of trust and faith to begin with -- except with the segment of the population known as "Dodgers fans."
So there aren't many folks out there who were predisposed to give him the benefit of any sort of doubt here. That's the point. And why would they?
But now let's look at how Manny has chosen to explain away how he happened to get himself in this mess:
"Recently, I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately … "
All right, enough of that carefully crafted public statement. We get the picture.
Our first inclination, on first glance, is to feel a pang of sympathy here. After all, who among us hasn't had a personal health issue? Who among us hasn't seen a physician for that issue? Who among us hasn't been given a medication to treat that issue?
It sounds so innocent … so downright normal.
But hold on.
Turns out that this physician he saw wasn't the team doctor -- the physician that 99 percent of all players see when they have a "personal health issue" during spring training or the season.
Turns out that this physician wasn't even located in the state of Arizona, where the Dodgers happened to be holding spring training at the time this "personal health issue" cropped up. He was actually located 2,000 miles away, in Florida.
Oh. OK.
Also turns out that the "personal health issue" was, well, what exactly? It was an issue that caused this physician to prescribe a female fertility drug, obviously. And already, you can feel Manny's seemingly innocent story crumbling like ancient Rome.
It wasn't as if he had a toothache here, and he needed a prescription for a painkiller. It wasn't as if he had a sinus infection, and he needed a prescription for an antibiotic.
He was taking a -- what? -- a female fertility drug? Why? Maybe he just wanted to marry the octo-mom. Ya got me.
I've read through all the prescribed uses I could find online for human chorionic gonadotropin (similar to Clomid), which ESPN.com is reporting is the drug in question. And let me tell you -- I'm almost 100 percent certain that Manny wasn't suffering from an inability to ovulate. Or polycystic ovarian syndrome. And if he was, there's a lot more he hasn't been telling us than what really went on in those bizarre final days in Boston.
If you read more extensively about this drug, though, you'll learn that it IS occasionally used to address male infertility. Except if you read the small print, you'll also learn that, according to sharedjourney.com:
"The FDA has not approved the use of Clomid in men, nor has it been found to be especially effective."
Great. So why would a doctor be prescribing it for a guy like Manny, then?
Good question, huh?
A truly upstanding male-fertility doctor wouldn't be likely to do that, right? And a truly upstanding doctor treating a professional athlete would also be likely to know it could cause him to set off a major drug-testing alarm, right?
So where's the logical explanation here? That's a question all rational Americans should be asking right now.
We'd all love to believe that Manny's intent, in taking this drug, was pure and well-intentioned. We'd all love to believe that his "personal health issue" was serious enough to require unorthodox treatment that isn't even approved by the FDA.
But face it, friends, if all the reporting is accurate, that would take the sort of leap of faith only Robbie Knievel ought to attempt.
We also need to recognize something important about baseball's testing program: Its intent is not to catch innocent people who are using run-of-the-mill prescription medications because of pesky "personal health issues."
Basically, the list of substances that can get you flagged fall into three categories:
1. Stuff you'd use to cheat.
2. Stuff you'd use to push the envelope as far as possible in the hope of legally enhancing performance.
3. Stuff you'd use to treat a condition that falls under baseball's limited list of "Therapeutic Medical Exemptions," such as ADD.
But there are no indications that either Manny or his doctors ever contacted the union or MLB seeking any type of Therapeutic Medical Exemption. So there goes that potential for an innocent mistake. And if that's out, what does that leave?
He was using whatever he was using to enhance performance. That's what.
I'd honestly like to believe I'm wrong about that. Honestly. I admire great athletes, and I enjoy watching Manny hit. Honestly.
So I hope there's some more sensible explanation coming. Really. I hope there's a happy ending to this story. I mean it.
I don't like watching anyone's life free-fall to the bottom of the same canyon where, say, Roger Clemens has been booted over the past year and a half. I'm not sure anybody deserves that treatment just for allegedly taking the wrong substance at the wrong time.
As a friend of mine once said, no matter what these guys did, they don't deserve to get treated as if they're worse than O.J.
But after the sad events of this memorable Thursday in May, it's tough to like the odds of Manny Ramirez escaping that fate.
This time -- unlike those euphoric Manny-mania days of last summer -- it's going to take more than just his magic bat and those flowing dreadlocks to win over his no-longer-adoring public.

Arrogance Prevails

Manny Ramirez Suspended for Doping - Ex-Sox Slugger Accepts a 50-Game Penalty

Well, well, well... so your petulance was ON TOP of your basic dishonesty.

THIS from “MLBTradeRumors.com”:

12:39am: Tim Brown and Steve Henson of Yahoo say Manny tested positive for...drumroll...a sexual enhancer (not Viagra). Ramirez tested positive in Spring Training, and then again recently. Manny did not test positive for a steroid or human growth hormone.

Ahhhh!!! Funny, you say! So it was a “sexual enhancer” … and that would feed into the “MANNY BEING WEIRD” thing, which they (read: Scott Boras) want you to believe. THEN there's THIS later post:

1:30pm: ESPN's T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada say the drug was HCG - "a women's fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body's natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Bonds, Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO."

Now THAT’S more like what I was expecting to read….

I always disliked the "non-team" attitude that was Manny. I also, of course, loved when he hit. He was an asset to the Red Sox whenever he actually put in the effort. But over the years he seemed to cause more and more strife and exhibited an increasing amount of selfish-ness. He was always a great subject for discussion - in the bar or on sports radio.

Then, last year - it became unbearable for even the Team - and he was gone. He played them in order to get out of his contract - which was disreputable. HE insisted on the 2 year options when he signed the damn thing, so he could have the biggest contrack in sports (those 2 years put him over what Kevin Garnet in the NBA had just signed). And then, at the end, with Scott Boras as his manager, he refused to honor his committment, and was finally delt away for the betterment of the team. All so he could be a free agent and demand MORE money. NOly it didn;t work out. After miraculously performing the best he's EVER performed for the last 1/3 of the season with LA, the economy dumped, and other teams actually took his boorish, unprofessional behavior into account. He finally signed back with the Dodgers - for about what he would have gotten if he'd just played out his options with the Red Sox. I thought that was a pleasure to see. Screw him. I know baseball is a business, but I hated that he wouldn't even fill out his obligations like a stand-up human being.

And then.... THIS.

So let me get this straight. So while you were being an ass-hole, you were ALSO being a cheater? You who had some of the most natural hitting talent EVER?

You piece of shit.

Thanks for letting your arrogance and pure selfishness help to ruin the game, dill weed.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

You Narcissistic Loser...

I repeat ~ Go away. (http://brokensynapseblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/retirement-600-pm-12-off-merchandise.html)



Your yearly "retirement games" have become quite pathetic.

Even MORE sad is the fact that ESPN believes with all their heart that people care - so we are subjected ot the ongoing love affair with him all year. Spare me.






Source: Favre, Vikings to Meet

ESPN.COM: May 6, 2009, 2:13 PM ET

"Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress and quarterback Brett Favre plan to meet at an undisclosed location later this week to discuss the possibility of the former Packers and Jets quarterback renouncing his retirement from the NFL to play the 2009 season with the Vikings, according to a source with direct knowledge of discussions between the two parties...."

"Badges? We Don't Need No Steeenking Badges!"

I totally can't believe that RI hasn't initiated this kind of practice! It's SOOO much better than that stupis "casino" idea ~ and right up their alley, base dont he overall clinate of authoritative & legislative superiority and corruption....

"Operation Dollar Bill", anyone?

Texas Police Shake Down Drivers, Lawsuit Says

From Gary Tuchman and Katherine Wojtecki - CNN.COM

TENEHA, TEXAS (CNN) --Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.

The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.

But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.

The men who stopped him were the police.

Daniels was stopped on U.S. Highway 59 outside Tenaha, near the Louisiana state line. Police said he was driving 37 mph in a 35 mph zone. They hauled him off to jail and threatened him with money-laundering charges -- but offered to release him if he signed papers forfeiting his property.

"I actually thought this was a joke," Daniels told CNN.

But he signed.

"To be honest, I was five, six hundred miles from home," he said. "I was petrified."

Now Daniels and other motorists who have been stopped by Tenaha police are part of a lawsuit seeking to end what plaintiff's lawyer David Guillory calls a systematic fleecing of drivers passing through the town of about 1,000.

"I believe it is a shakedown. I believe it's a piracy operation," Guillory said.

George Bowers, Tenaha's longtime mayor, says his police follow the law. And through her lawyers, Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell denied any impropriety.

Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they believe are used in the commission of a crime. If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted, the property has to be returned. But Guillory's lawsuit states that Tenaha and surrounding Shelby County don't bother to return much of what they confiscate.

Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson said they agreed to forfeit their property after Russell threatened to have their children taken away.

Like Daniels, the couple says they were carrying a large amount of cash --- about $6,000 -- to buy a car. When they were stopped in Tenaha in 2007, Boatright said, Russell came to the Tenaha police station to berate her and threaten to separate the family.

"I said, 'If it's the money you want, you can take it, if that's what it takes to keep my children with me and not separate them from us. Take the money,' " she said.

The document Henderson signed, which bears Russell's signature, states that in exchange for forfeiting the cash, "no criminal charges shall be filed ... and our children shall not be turned over" to the state's child protective services agency.

Maryland resident Amanee Busbee said she also was threatened with losing custody of her child after being stopped in Tenaha with her fiancé and his business partner. They were headed to Houston with $50,000 to complete the purchase of a restaurant, she said.

"The police officer would say things to me like, 'Your son is going to child protective services because you are not saying what we need to hear,' " Busbee said.

Guillory, who practices in nearby Nacogdoches, Texas, estimates authorities in Tenaha seized $3 million between 2006 and 2008, and in about 150 cases -- virtually all of which involved African-American or Latino motorists -- the seizures were improper.

"They are disproportionately going after racial minorities," he said. "My take on the matter is that the police in Tenaha, Texas, were picking on and preying on people that were least likely to fight back."

Daniels told CNN that one of the officers who stopped him tried on some of his jewelry in front of him.

"They asked me, 'What you are doing with this ring on?' I said I had bought that ring. I paid good money for that ring," Daniels said. "He took the ring off my finger and put it on his finger and told me how did it look. He put on my jewelry."

Texas law states that the proceeds of any seizures can be used only for "official purposes" of district attorney offices and "for law-enforcement purposes" by police departments. According to public records obtained by CNN using open-records laws, an account funded by property forfeitures in Russell's office included $524 for a popcorn machine, $195 for candy for a poultry festival, and $400 for catering.

In addition, Russell donated money to the local chamber of commerce and a youth baseball league. A local Baptist church received two checks totaling $6,000.

And one check for $10,000 went to Barry Washington, a Tenaha police officer whose name has come up in several complaints by stopped motorists. The money was paid for "investigative costs," the records state.

Washington would not comment for this report but has denied all allegations in his answer to Guillory's lawsuit.

"This is under litigation. This is a lawsuit," he told CNN.

Russell refused requests for interviews at her office and at a fundraiser for a volunteer fire department in a nearby town, where she also sang. But in a written statement, her lawyers said she "has denied and continues to deny all substantive allegations set forth."

Russell "has used and continues to use prosecutorial discretion ... and is in compliance with Texas law, the Texas constitution, and the United States Constitution," the statement said.

Bowers, who has been Tenaha's mayor for 54 years, is also named in the lawsuit. But he said his employees "will follow the law."

"We try to hire the very best, best-trained, and we keep them up to date on the training," he said.

The attention paid to Tenaha has led to an effort by Texas lawmakers to tighten the state's forfeiture laws. A bill sponsored by state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, would bar authorities from using the kind of waivers Daniels, Henderson and Busbee were told to sign.

"To have law enforcement and the district attorney essentially be crooks, in my judgment, should infuriate and does infuriate everyone," Whitmire said. His bill has passed the Senate, where he is the longest-serving member, and is currently before the House of Representatives.

Busbee, Boatright and Henderson were able to reclaim their property after hiring lawyers. But Daniels is still out his $8,500.

"To this day, I don't understand why they took my belongings off me," he said.