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Thursday, August 19, 2004 |
Costco Tests Waters of Selling Caskets
This week, the giant wholesale store Costco began test-marketing caskets in two of its suburban Chicago stores. Six models, priced at $799.99, can be delivered within 48 hours. Funerals can cost thousands and Costco hopes the shopper looking for bargains in its many other aisles won't be offended by the caskets for sale. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports. [NPR News: Business]
But they only come in packages of 10!
5:44:21 PM Permalink
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This is an American Court?
A Milwaukee minister killed an eight-year old boy in a botched religious ceremony. Sentence: Two and a half years, $1,224.75 in restitution. And this: The sentence bars Ray Anthony Hemphill, 46, a former maintenance worker with no religious schooling who conducted services in a strip-mall sanctuary, from attempting any more exorcisms during the next 10 years without formal training in the practice. So he can do it with formal training in the practice. This is an American court. This is an American court. This is an American court. Via American Samizdat, who says more than I could have said about... [The Raving Atheist]
5:30:55 PM Permalink
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STORIES YOU MISSED BY NOT READING THE WEEKLY WORLD NEWS
NICK JEFFERIES, WEEKLY WORLD NEWS - Extremist Muslim scientists are developing a bomb that turns anyone within a 30-mile radius of its blast into a homosexual, say U.S. intelligence insiders. It's all a part of the Al Qaeda master plan to pull our country apart and kill the patriotism that makes us strong. "
They believe that making more Americans gay will start civil war between gays and ultra-conservatives," says one highly placed intelligence officer. "They also figure it will lead to a decrease in the U.S. population."
The Gay Bomb was already in the planning stages when Osama Bin Laden and close, intimate friend Muhammad Atef founded the international terrorist group Al Qaeda in 1989. "Atef and Bin Laden spent many late nights together during that time of revolution," reveals an ex-Al Qaeda member, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. "One morning, I entered their living quarters and they had worked so hard the night before they had fallen into bed together, suffering from exhaustion. That's when I saw the blueprints for the bomb. I asked about it, but Bin Laden said to leave it to the scientists. He and Atef had accidentally set one off the night before."
The explosive device is a foot long and shaped like a cigar with a pair of land mines at one end. Planes carrying the weapons will drop them on all major U.S. cities, except, of course, San Francisco, reveals the source. The Gay Bomb will detonate the instant a heterosexual male steps on one of the mines, releasing potent waves of the female hormone estrogen into the air. Within hours, heterosexual men will experience terrible urges like: "I'm dying to make out with my buddy in the next cubicle," and "I want a divorce from the witch I married," and "I wonder if I should redecorate the living room." By the end of the day, the nation will be thrown into chaos. Wives and husbands will square off, leaving a trail of broken families from Hollywood to New York City. Children will sob: "Why is Daddy moving the furniture and who is Judy Garland?"
[UNDERNEWS]
11:16:56 AM Permalink
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T-SHIRT TEST: BUSH STIFLES DISSENT MORE THAN KERRY
RELIABLE SOURCE, WASHINGTON POST - M The experiment: A college professor wears a Kerry-Edwards shirt to a rally for President Bush, then a Bush for President shirt to a John Kerry rally. Result: Bush people make the subject remove his shirt, then give him the boot. The Kerry people don't make a peep. . .
He had a ticket to an afternoon Bush rally July 31 in Cambridge, Ohio. At the first ring of security, Prather says he was told to turn his Kerry shirt inside out. He did. At the second ring, he was told to remove the shirt. He did, then donned a soccer T-shirt. "I was in for 10 or 15 minutes," he recalls, when security escorted him out. It was before the president arrived. "I was so far away I couldn't have even heckled him," Prather notes.
A few hours later, he entered the Kerry rally, in Wheeling, wearing his Bush shirt. "Nobody said anything to me. "
[UNDERNEWS]
11:14:29 AM Permalink
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Iran mulls adopting Bush Doctrine
"Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani warned today that Iran might launch a preemptive strike against US forces in the region to prevent an attack on its nuclear facilities. 'We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us. Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly,' Shamkhani told Al-Jazeera TV when asked if Iran would respond to an American... [Rational Review News Digest]
10:47:53 AM Permalink
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Bush Loses Adviser on Catholic Vote
Deal Hudson, the "architect of a Republican effort to court Catholic voters," is leaving the Bush campaign because of "a Catholic newspaper's investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct involving a female student at a college where he once taught," according to the New York Times. A spokesperson at Fordham University... [Taegan Goddard's Political Wire]
10:11:52 AM Permalink
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Bottling Day and also the Magic of Caamelization
Today Richard and I are going to bottle the 5 gallons of ale Hoss and I brewed two weeks ago. The stuff is sitting in there in the carboy, and has a deep reddish color. I'm already itching to brew up another batch. This morning I also need to scrounge up some bottles; I think I need a good 24 more.
In related matters, last night after grilling some sausages on my grill pan, I grabbed a couple of very ripe peaches I picked up the other day at the farmer's market. I pitted them & sliced them in half, sprayed them with a bit of canola oil, and grilled them up nicely. The grill left nice lines on the peaches, and the ample sugar in the peaches caramelized really nicely. What a rich, sweet taste. I put some ice cream on the peaches, and really ran a number on my blood sugar (up to 141 two hours alter, which I can live with (literallty)).
9:47:07 AM Permalink
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Bush Pushes Image as Military Leader
In a swing through Wisconsin and Minnesota that included a stop at a pre-season football camp, President Bush touts his commitment to traditional family values and his record in the war on terror. It's part of a campaign strategy to build Bush's image as a national leader, military commander and regular guy. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports. [NPR's Morning Edition]
Listening to this report this morning, I noted a couple of times that they said that the crowd was roaring its approval. But NPR didn't mention that the crowd was almost certainly hand-picked (no skeptics or Democrats allowed).
9:18:03 AM Permalink
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Los Lobos Celebrate a 30-Year 'Ride' in Rock
Regarded as one of California's premier rock bands, Los Lobos celebrates 30 years together with a new album called The Ride. Music Critic Jesse "Chuy" Varela talks to the wolves from East Los Angeles. [NPR's]
The Ride is a fantastic album; I've listened to it three or four times in the last three days.
9:12:51 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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