I'm 'cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs' samurai swinging man tells cops

A shirtless man swinging a 35-inch samurai sword while marching along an Indiana interstate was arrested last Sunday. The man, who appeared to be in his 40s but refused to give police his name, told officers he was “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

He apparently abandoned his car in a middle lane of Interstate 65 and was seen waving the sword around 2:30 p.m., police said. “The man was marching like a drum major, holding the sword, moving it up and down in rhythm with his marching cadence,” state police said in a statement.

(image) The man defensively swung the sword at an approaching state trooper but then dropped it in compliance with the trooper's command. He then tried to force himself into an SUV that swerved and stopped on the inner shoulder to avoid hitting a police vehicle responding to the incident, police said. He was charged with attempted carjacking, resisting law enforcement and possession of marijuana.

Americans get ‘cool’ international rating, United States of Europe? and nearly 40% of Europeans suffer mental illness

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Good to see you. Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a seat, and let’s take an international tour of headlines. The good news is American’s are considered “cool abroad.” That’s not what I’ve been hearing in the news for years. I’ve heard more “Ugly American” stories than I care to remember. This news comes as a surprise to me.

The world still thinks Americans are "coolest" – poll

They may be witnessing their global superpower influence decline in the face of challenges from other emerging players on the world stage, but Americans have been voted the world's "coolest nationality" in an international poll. Social networking site Badoo.com (www.badoo.com) asked 30,000 people across 15 countries to name the coolest nationality and also found that the Spanish were considered the coolest Europeans, Brazilians the coolest Latin Americans and Belgians the globe's least cool nationality.

Former German leader calls for "United States of Europe

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Sunday called for the creation of a "United States of Europe," saying the bloc needed a common government to avoid future economic crises. Schroeder, a Social Democrat who ran the country from 1998 to 2005, said in an interview with Der Spiegel that European Union leaders were wrong to expect the euro to drive the bloc on its own.

"The current crisis makes it relentlessly clear that we cannot have a common currency zone without a common fiscal, economic and social policy," Schroeder said. He added: "We will have to give up national sovereignty."

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness

Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study. With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down. "Mental disorders have become Europe's largest health challenge of the 21st century," the study's authors said.

Time to walk on down the road..

Photo Break: Portraits of Dogs as They Shake Off Water

For her series “Shake“, pet photographer Carli Davidson photographed curious portraits of dogs shaking off water.

Use a fast shutter speed and you can capture all kinds of strange expressions on your dog’s face.

You can find the rest of the photographs in the series here. Shake (via Photojojo)

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Postal Service faces shut down, cheating on state tests, and campaign fund fraud lands Democratic campaign treasurer in jail

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Here we are at the start of another week. Pull up a chair and have a cup of coffee with me. Today’s trio of headlines offers a look at what’s currently happening in our country.

Postal Service on verge of going broke, shutting down

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. “Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”

Cheating on state tests found at two Los Angeles schools

The state has thrown out the test scores of a top-performing Los Angeles school and of the highest-scoring campus in the nationally known Green Dot charter group after cheating was uncovered involving several teachers.
Short Avenue Elementary in Del Rey and Animo Leadership Charter High School in Inglewood were barred from receiving academic rankings released last week by the California Department of Education. That action deprived the schools of the state rating that has become the key figure used by parents and officials to judge campuses in California.

Elected officials notified of possible campaign fund fraud

Several clients of Kinde Durkee (pictured left), a prominent Democratic campaign treasurer who was arrested Friday on a federal fraud charge, have reported that they were contacted by the FBI or U.S. attorney’s office about the criminal investigation.

Durkee was arrested from the office of her business, Durkee & Associates, in Burbank on one charge of mail fraud and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Los Angeles. She had served as campaign treasurers on hundreds of political campaigns over the years, working for federal, state and local candidates. Officials have so far said only that the charge relates to Durkee’s work for a California Assembly member but have not disclosed which member or when.

Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana) said Sunday that the FBI notified him Friday that Durkee might have embezzled from his campaign. He declined to comment further on the details pending Durkee’s arraignment.

Time to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: Dying for dollars: reality shows and suicides

                                                

                                      By Dave Stancliff/For The Times Standard

What makes people display the most intimate parts of their lives before millions of strangers in reality shows? Is it the money? Is it the fame? Either we find them entertaining or we find them so shocking we are simply unable to turn away.
I’m not sure there’s a definitive answer, but I do know people are killing themselves as a direct result of being reality stars or sidekicks.
The most recent case is Russell Armstrong - the estranged husband of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Taylor Armstrong. He wasn’t a reality star, but he did appear frequently with his wife on the Bravo TV show.
 Looking back at an interview of Armstrong in People magazine published weeks before his death, is revealing in more ways than one. He admitted the show caused him angst in his actual reality. “It got really overwhelming,” he told the magazine. 
“When you get a TV show involved, and all the pressure — it just takes it to a whole new level. ... We were pushed to extremes,” he said.
Extreme is the name of the game these days. Each new reality show breaks new boundaries of bad taste, which by the way, is what TV producers say their audience wants. That may be true, but I suspect the main reason we see so many is because reality shows are much cheaper to produce than the traditional fare we grew up with.

With our struggling economy as a backdrop, reality shows are a way to hit the big time while doing everything from losing weight to fighting for survival in exotic parts of the world.
Common people turn into characters who suddenly find themselves on magazine covers, getting endorsement deals, and becoming famous and wealthy overnight. To some, this must be a heady way to achieve lifelong dreams, but when things get ugly, they find themselves living in personal hells.
According to TheWrap.com, which investigated reality show suicides, 11 contestants or would-be contestants from reality TV shows around the world have taken their lives.
Reality shows where partying, sex and obscene behavior are glorified, set bad examples for today’s youth. Watching people treat each other ruthlessly to avoid being voted off the show, hardly sets a good example for anyone.   
For some viewers, it is a form of Schadenfreude, a German word used to describes people's delight and entertainment at the failings and problems of others. There’s no doubt people do suffer on some reality TV shows.

Actually there is less reality - unscripted and unplanned situations and reactions - and more staging of situations than the producers want you to know. One of the ethical problems of reality television is the fact that it isn't nearly as "real" as it pretends to be.
When you watch a dramatic show you understand what you see on the screen doesn't necessarily reflect the reality of the actors' lives. The same can’t be said for heavily edited and contrived scenes in reality shows. The producers define entertainment as conflict, and go out of their way to create it on the sets.
Situations are heavily contrived. People's ability and willingness to take pleasure in viewing such things may stem from their increasing separation from others. The result is they become distant  from each other. Some people objectify the characters and have no sympathy or empathy for them.

I don’t see any redeeming qualities to reality TV. What I see is humiliation and anger. The effects of reality TV can destroy lives. We all know this. We see the headlines. When people kill themselves after being treated like trash, or kicked off these reality shows, you have to know something is very wrong.
I know one thing for sure, as long as people watch reality TV programs, producers will make them and the stakes will get higher. Think about the Roman arenas where the ultimate reality shows kept fans entertained.  Can death sports be far away?

As It Stands, when we reach the point where we watch people kill each other in real time, the end times for this country will be upon us.

Websites carrying this column:

#1 Hot Topic Source (9/4) #2 MoneySin.com (9/4) 

Creative Cusine Corner: Motorcycle Lobsters Will Travel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taiwanese chef Huang Mingbo shows off a motorcycle which made from five lobster shells in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

Picture: Feature China / Barcroft Media

61 year-old Vietnam veteran to play football for Faulkner University

As one 61 year-old Vietnam veteran to another: Right on bro! Wish I was in the shape you are. Make sure to show those kids a few things…

At an age when many start thinking about retirement, Alan Moore (pictured right) is restarting his football career. Moore, a 61 year-old Vietnam veteran, will kick this fall for Faulkner University, a small Christian school in Montgomery, Ala., 43 years after his initial college career was cut short by Vietnam. When he takes the field against Ave Maria on Sept. 10, Moore will be the oldest player ever to take the field for a four-year university.

From Los That Sports Blog:

Moore was only able to play his freshman year at Jones County (Miss.) Junior College before heading off to Vietnam for 11 months [in 1968]. Watching a football game in 2009 inspired him to purchase footballs, build goal posts in his daughter's back yard, and practice kicking.

Last year Moore was turned away in an attempt to try out for Jones' team but did end up making the team at Holmes (Miss.) Community College after being referred by the head coach's aunt. Ironically, he made an appearance for Holmes against Jones County.

Moore is the first sexagenarian football player on record at any level. George Blanda was 48 when he retired from the NFL after his career as a quarterback and kicker. In 2004, 39-year-old Tim Frisby successfully walked on at South Carolina as a wide receiver. "Pops" Frisby was also a veteran, spending time as a U.S. Army Ranger in the first Gulf War. Even on television, Gerald "Major Dad" McRaney was only in his 40s when he guest-starred as a veteran giving college football one last shot in the old sitcom "Coach."

However, Moore still has 13 years to go to top Ken Mink, who was 73 when he played for the Roane State (Tenn.) basketball team in 2008 in the Tennessee Junior Community College Athletic Association. Has there ever been an official verdict on social security as an "improper benefit"?

End of an era, no Jerry on Labor Day, Russian rowers embrace nude statute banned by Stalin, Gadhafi & CIA have been pals for years

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Thanks for stopping by this Labor Day weekend. Grab a cup of Joe, get comfortable, and we’ll check out three stories from the headlines:

Jerry Lewis: MIA this Labor Day

Labor Day this year promises to be bland by comparison, with the 85-year-old Lewis now banished from the annual rite he built from scratch and molded in his image.

As if deflated by the absence of its larger-than-life host, "The 46th Annual MDA Labor Day Telethon" will fill just six hours (Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight in each time zone; check local listings for station), rather than the grueling 21½-hour endurance contest that Lewis used to churn through with his viewers in tow.

On Aug. 3, with no elaboration, MDA announced that Lewis had "completed his run" as national chairman, and that he would not be appearing on the telethon, as promised earlier.

Lewis has provided no insight into the matter. But it's hard to imagine how wronged he must feel after bonding with the telethon for so long. As Levy writes in "King of Comedy," Lewis "had conflated America's charitable instincts with love for himself as a public figure and even as one more lonely child."

Too sexy for Stalin: Russian rowers embrace oar girl statue

The artist may have been a favorite of Stalin, but Ivan Shadr's statue "Girl With an Oar" proved too sexy for the Soviet dictator.

The 23-foot nude statue, sculpted in 1934, was banished from pride of place in Moscow's Gorky Park to Ukraine in 1936 and replaced with a less sensual version, The Wall Street Journal reported.

However, a copy of the original was due to be unveiled Saturday on the bank of the Moskva River in the park at the finish line of an international regatta course, the paper said.

The model for the statue, Vera Voloshina, was captured and killed by German forces, the WSJ reported.

 

Documents reveal close CIA ties to Gadhafi spy unit

Documents found at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spymaster appear to provide new details of the close relations the Central Intelligence Agency shared with the Libyan intelligence service — most notably suggesting that the Americans sent terrorism suspects at least eight times for questioning in Libya despite that country’s reputation for torture.

Photo: CIA agent Edwin P. Wilson recruited Gadaffi in 1977, and the CIA shipped Libya over 2000 pounds of explosives," says former CIA agent Lester Coleman.

Time to walk on down the road…

How did 9000 pot plants avoid biggest fire in New Mexico history?

Fireproof pot? A new fire-resistant strain developed by locals? How did those 9000 plants survive the fiery holocaust? Even more interesting is how did they come up with a street value of $10 million for outdoor? So many questions.

This summer's Las Conchas fire in New Mexico scorched tribal lands, threatened one of the nation's premier nuclear facilities and pushed bears into nearby cities. But it somehow spared more than 9,000 marijuana plants in a remote area of Bandelier National Monument.

Did a higher power save those plants? Too bad the divine protection didn’t extend to cops in fatigues. They were all over that crop like stink on shit. It was a first big pot bust in the Bandelier National Monument. Or so the feds say. They claim they are going to destroy all but a little bit for evidence. Yeah right…I’ll bet some people are getting high tonight!    photo

Guest Opinion: How To Honor the True Spirit of 9/11: First, Ignore Limbaugh

By Joe Conason

If volunteerism is suddenly unpatriotic and even "socialist," that will come as a nasty surprise to many of the Republicans and conservatives who always have supported such efforts, notably including both presidents named Bush.

And if stepping up to help our neighbors and community on 9/11 would somehow dishonor the Americans killed in those infamous attacks — as feverish critics of President Barack Obama now scream — then what do they think actually happened on that day 10 years ago?

The latest outbreak of phony outrage began when the president, following a tradition established by George W. Bush, announced that he and the first lady will mark the upcoming anniversary as a "National Day of Service and Remembrance" and urged Americans to "come together, in their communities and neighborhoods, to honor the victims of 9/11 and to reaffirm the strength of our nation with acts of service and charity."

To Rush Limbaugh and assorted lesser cogs in the right-wing noise machine, that was a deeply controversial statement and an attempt to "politicize" the event — as if the White House had ordered everybody to put on blue caps, join a local Obama for America chapter and then build a solar house for the poor.

Yes, according to the furious wingers, Obama's attempt to inspire volunteerism was in fact a barely disguised appeal to "serve the state," as well as an un-American distraction from what should be, in their minds, a more militaristic commemoration.

But leaving aside their usual bizarre theories about the president and his motives, this pseudo-controversy shows how little these so-called conservatives understand what really happened on 9/11, in New York and then across the country.

On that day and the days that followed, we saw a demonstration of the highest American values, which are apparently no longer comprehensible to the denizens of the right-wing swamp. Read More Here

7.1 Quake off Alaska, college professor accused of leading motorcycle gang, and federal agency set to sue U.S. banks

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Good to see you this Friday morning. Pull up a seat and have a cup of coffee with me and we’ll look at what’s happening in the world around us.

7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off Alaska

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Friday in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, prompting a brief tsunami warning for a portion of Alaska's coast. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck in the waters at about 6:55 a.m. ET. There were no reports of injuries or damage, according to Alaska's KTUU.com.

 

Professor allegedly led motorcycle gang and drug ring

A university professor suspected of leading a motorcycle gang and methamphetamine drug ring is wanted for arrest in California, authorities say. Steve Kinzey, 43, believed to be the president of the local chapter of the Devils Disciples motorcycle club, has been the target of a 6-month narcotics and weapons trafficking investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said.

Authorities said the probe stemmed from a federal undercover operation of another biker gang, the Mongols, in which Kinzey was identified as being involved in criminal activity.

US set to sue big banks over bad mortgages

The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

Time to walk on down the road…