The Drinking Never Stopped

I think this story explains the NOLA mentality best: the bar that never closed.

9 then 12 then 8

I love all this debate about how many planets are actually planets.

But this guy from the hyperlinked article makes the best point:

Nickname: mouss
Review: No, bad choice. The explanation: "A planet must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit," they say. And Pluto's orbit intersects with Neptune's orbit, so Pluto is out. Well, why is Neptune still a planet, then? After all, its orbit intersects with Pluto's, so Neptune also failed to clear the neighborhood around its orbit. To add insult to injury, Pluto stops being a planet to become--a dwarf planet. So a dwarf planet is not a planet. How interesting. :/
Date reviewed: Aug 25, 2006 11:05 AM

So why IS Neptune still a planet then, eh?

Chinese Stripper Funerals

You have to love these quaint Oriental traditions. Who would have known that strippers are an integral part of rural east China funerals: Police crack down on striptease funerals... These are said to take place in a region called Donghai. Is Reuters News making this stuff up?

I Wonder What's on the Menu

Somehow the owners didn't realize this would be offensive. What is even odder is that there are 5,000 Jews in Mumbai (I believe this is Old Bombay). I did hear one complaint by a local that after eating there he had this overwhelming urge to invade Poland.

Hitler-themed restaurant in India draws ire from Jewish group

NYT Article on Dookie Chase

I had heard that Dookie Chase wasn't going to be rebuilt. But it looks like Mrs Chase isn't throwing in the towel: In New Orleans, Knives, Forks and Hammers

The Bodyguard & Osama both hot for Whitney

I really can't add anything to this weirdness.

Thurston

New Orleans West (continued)

Dey ain't goin' home and Houston's gettin' pissed.

Public Health Enemy #1 Tom & Jerry

Britain has banned Tom and Jerry cartoon scenes that portray them smoking. This makes perfect sense because many people surely started smoking because Tom and/or Jerry looked so cool when they smoked in cartoons. "Hey man, smoking is smelly and nasty, but when I saw Jerry Mouse and Tom Cat light up, I decided right then and there that I wanted to be a part of that scene".

Of course, the scenes with them dropping anvils on each other's heads or clubbing each other with short pieces of lead pipe or ramming lit sticks of dynamite down each other's pie holes will still be allowed. No harm in any of those behaviors.

John Mark Karr

Ok boys. I think this guy John Mark Karr is a total whack job and not the culprit. Opinions?

And why do all these killers (alleged in this case) end up with 3 names? David Mark Chapman. John Wayne Gacy. Jack the Ripper (3 words, at least). Osama bin Laden.

Funny that George Walker Bush has 3 names, don't you think?

Coincidental? I think not.

Why can’t we all just get along?

It seems that everybody is out taking shots at Jews these days. Now it’s civil rights activist Andrew Young. Don’t these guys listen to themselves? Andy, we’re not supposed to categorize people by religion or ethnicity. Here’s what I think is funny. By implication, Young is saying that if blacks ran the local stores the prices would be low, the bread fresh and the vegetables crisp. Hmmm, sounds like a place I’d shop. Wonder why it didn’t work? And if you know you’re getting overcharged for low quality stuff, why do you keep going back? Doesn’t say much for the patrons of these stores.

2nd and 4th Amendments…never heard of ‘em..

I guess it’s easier to take guns away from law-abiding citizens, including old people, than it is from criminals, but wait…..oops! It’s illegal! And does anyone really think that these people were the ones running around shooting at the police? Come on, Ray. You may want to be the mayor of Chocolate-town, but fortunately for the rest of us New Orleans is still part of Louisiana and the United States. And in those two places, you can’t knock down grandma’s door and take her gun.

Genetic Mutant Escape!

Genetically engineered grass has somehow escaped from the labs and taken root (literally) in the wild: Engineered grass found growing in wild But scientists are trying to calm the public:

"This is not a killer tomato, this is not the asparagus that ate Cleveland," said Norman Ellstrand, a geneticist and plant expert at the University of California, Riverside, referring to science fiction satire about mutant plants.

But how long before the Killer Tomatos and Cleveland-eating Asparagus are rising up from our supermarkets, huh Norman? Could you perhaps get me some early samples or seeds?

US tries to counter Hizbollah rebuilding efforts

This reads like something from The Onion, but it is a real news story.

US tries to counter Hizbollah rebuilding efforts

Afghan Opium Cultivation Hits a Record

It's in all the papers today: Afghan Opium Cultivation Hits a Record I guess this is what you get when the US War on Drugs and the US War on Terror get together. And this isn't smugglers with all their tricks hiding the ball. These are big open fields of plants, which don't move and can't be hidden. I don't think sheer incompetence can explain this level of failure.

…3 Passengers set sail that day,

for a three hour, no wait, make that 9 MONTH tour! I came across this story of some Mexican fishermen rescued after drifting at sea for what they claim was 9 months. Are you kidding me? There’s an interesting paragraph that says relatives report they’ve only been gone 3 months. Either way, it’s a long time. But come on, how can you not know which it is?

Holocaust Illustrated

This is gonna be rich!!!! Iran is sponsoring a "Holocaust Cartoon Contest" as a reprisal for last year's Danish drawings of Mohammed that many Muslims used as an excuse to bust up windows and burn automobiles.

Crime wave continues in New Orleans West

I know, I know. I've been MIA. New job has me hopping. Fun, but way more busy than I used to be. I guess I picked a bad month to stop sniffing glue.

Interesting article on misbehaving New Orleanians still in Houston. My favorite quote is this little dig at the lenient penal system in NOLA : "New Orleans allowed a lot of these guys to stay on the street for whatever reason or be picked up and released after 60 days," said Capt. Dale Brown, who oversees Houston's homicide division. "Texas law, I don't want to say it's tougher, but we take these offenses very seriously."

Thurston

Titans mascot runs cart into Saints QB

What is it with the Saints??? These things never seem to happen to other NFL tems. (BTW, are they back in Da 'Dome?)

Titans mascot runs cart into Saints QB

Stranger than Fiction

The press reported that Persident Bush was reading Albert Camus' classic existential novel "The Stranger" on his vacation in Texas this week (Bush reads Camus's 'The Stranger' on ranch vacation). I confess to missing this one in high school English class, but I do recall the 1980s synth-pop song by The Cure based on this book. The song was titled "Killing an Arab" and caused a bit of controversy at the time. Indeed, a quick Google shows that this book is about a remorseless, dislikable fellow who murders 'an arab' (and the victim is always described this way, for some reason) in cold blood and with little provocation. The Stranger is caught, tried and executed. Quite an odd choice of literature all around for Mr. Bush, I would think.

Code Red

Well, as I'm about to take an international flight, this one gets personal. The US raised its security level to Code Red for the first time ever. Due to some possible plot in the UK to try to blow up airliners. I can't help but think that so many things are wrong with this picture. Mostly, why is the press called in so early and given so much information? (I basically learned more than I would ever want to know about how to bomb an aircraft this morning on ABC News). In the old days, wouldn't we count on CIA, NSA, FBI and all the other TLAs ("Three Letter Acronyms") to take care of these things, usually quietly? Empires always meet this sort of resistance, and it should be dealt with appropriately.
The terrorist is a person with who tries to get his way through the use of fear, because his ideas usually fail to convince. He is even powerless to use real violence, so fear of violence is all he has. I am against this person, no matter what banner he fights under. Whether he is IRA, Al Queda or RNC. Where is Winston Churchill when you need him?

Begniets in Kyoto

Went to the Cafe Du Monde in the train station in Kyoto, Japan last weekend. The coffee was CDM and the begniets were authentic, with two small differences. First, they were smaller. maybe one-third the size of a standard New Orleans begniet. And then (inexplicably) they came in these Chineese food take-out boxes. I can just imagine some Yat negotiating with the Japanese saying "Yeah you rite! An' we can put them in those little Takee Outee boxes!". And of course, the Japanese would be too polite to tell him that this is for Chinese food, not Japanese. (Here are some more photos of CDM Kyoto).

Rest Easy Chicken Little

At the end of last year’s hurricane season there were dire predictions about the severity of this year’s crop of hurricanes. This year was supposed to be even worse than last year and it seemed like N.O.’s days were numbered. Well, just like the new ice age that was supposed to be coming but never quite made it (remember that in the mid to late ‘70’s), and the global warming hysteria going on now, (another joke) it seems like this year’s crop of hurricanes isn’t going to be as bad as the chicken littles told us it would be. Here’s the story. Let’s face the truth, making accurate long term predictions about climate and the weather just isn’t something we can do well yet.