BLATHER REVIEW

Mice On A Plane

If you fly on airplanes maybe you'd be interested in this story. An American Airlines plane was found to be infested with some critters.

The whistle blower said, "We had to take the chairs off and that's when everybody saw mice running around on the floor and one ran down one of the mechanic's arm."

[....]
The whistleblower explained, "There's feces all along this edge right here. It's throughout the whole aircraft."

The whistle blower said workers found nests in air vents and dead mice in emergency oxygen masks. When mice would get hungry, they ate insulation and chewed through wires.

"If they shorted themselves and caused a fire, it would go through that cabin so fast, we could have lost some lives," said the whistleblower.

There may have been up to 1,000 mice on board. A dead one was found in an emergency oxygen mask. Apparantly, there were several complaints about the infestation and AA did nothing about it.

_{Filed under: WTF?}

You wont believe this

A couple of weeks ago I left a comment at this post at Right Wing Nation. Here is my comment and the comments that followed:

All well and good and normal, right? Notice the last comment by "Suse". It's spam, obviously.

I just received an e-mail notification that a new comment has been posted to my blog, Right Wing Nation. Huh?

My immediate thought was that something was amiss in Munuvia. But...um... Right Wing Nation is not a MuNu blog. Why was I sent RWN's comment notification? WTF?!!!

When Cats Attack, pt 3

So, remember Lewis, the "Terror of Sunset Circle"?

Well, Lewis has got nothin' on Jack. Jack scares the bejeebus out of bears. Heh.

Short People Got No Reason To Live... In Jail?

Holy $#!%.

LINCOLN, Neb. — A judge's decision to sentence a 5-foot-1 man to probation instead of prison for sexually assaulting a child has angered crime victim advocates who say the punishment sends the wrong message.
.
But supporters of short people say it's about time someone recognizes the unique challenges they face.

Here's a unique challenge for ya: Stop breakin' the law, A$$hole!!!

Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava issued the sentence Tuesday. She told Richard W. Thompson that his crimes deserved a long prison sentence but that he was too small to survive in a state prison.
.
Though he could have been sentenced to 10 years behind bars, he ended up with 10 years of probation instead. On Thursday, the state's attorney general, Jon Bruning, promised to appeal within two weeks, calling the sentence far too lenient.

Gee, do ya think?!

But Joe Mangano, secretary of the National Organization of Short Statured Adults, agreed with the judge's assessment that Thompson would face dangers while in prison because of his height.
.
"I'm assuming a short inmate would have a much more difficult time than a large inmate," said Mangano, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall. "It's good to see somebody looking out for someone who is a short person."

And just how tall was that child that Little Dick Thompson was **ahem** "looking out for"?

Thompson, 50, had sexual contact over a couple of months last year with a 12-year-old girl, said Sidney Police Chief Larry Cox. He was sentenced on two felony sexual assault charges.
.
[....]
.
Thompson's attorney, Donald Miller, had no comment on the ruling.

Probably thwapped speechless that his client actually got off without so much as time enough to make a single license plate.

The judge's reasoning confounded Amy Miller, legal director for the Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
.
"I have never heard of anything like this before," she said.
.
No one has ever come to the ACLU to complain of height discrimination, she said. And using Thompson's height as a reason to avoid sending him to prison is surprising, because neither the U.S. nor state constitution provides protections based on physical stature, she said.

Since when has that ever stopped one of our self-appointed members of the Black-Robed Draconian Order™? Judge Cecava didn't need to consult the Law. She just needed a nice big swatch of whole cloth.

A spokesman for the prison system said Thompson's height would not put him at risk among the state's 4,400 inmates. There are protections available in prison to help inmates who feel threatened, prison spokesman Steve King said, but to his knowledge, no one has ever taken advantage of them based on fears related to their height.
.
"He's not the shortest guy we have in prison," King said. "We've got some short guys that are as tough as nails. We've got people from all ages, physical stature of all sizes, in general population."

Oh, come on now. You know that has nothing to do with Grampa Thompson's penchant for pre-adolescent girls. You're in Kristine Cecava's Court!

State Sen. Ernie Chambers, a longtime critic of judges, said he was baffled by the sentence.
.
"If shortness is an excuse and protection from going to prison, short people ought to rob banks and do everything else they would wind up going to prison for," Chambers said. "We're talking here about a crime committed against a child, and shortness is not a defense."

Seems most people's common sense isn't coming up short. And I've got just one final thing to say to the Letch of Lincoln. Come on, sing it with me! "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time...no. Don't do it..."

Ghost Story

Susie posts about a minor mystery at work, and she got my memory joggin'. I could tell you couple of firsthand "ghost stories" myself, but then you might think I'm weird(er). So, instead, I'll tell you a story that a friend of mine told me about 15 years ago.

Pat was sitting at his kitchen table in a small 1-bedroom condo that he owned in the same building where I had my condo. I forget what he said he was doing at the time. Writing, painting, something like that. He decided that he wanted to sit in a comfortable chair that he had in his bedroom, rather than the standard kitchen table chair that he was sitting in.

He got up, set the kitchen chair aside and started walking toward the bedroom, but stopped because he had to take whiz. He turned and went into the bathroom.

While in the bathroom, his cat Nelson let out a very strange meow. Pat came out of the bathroom and Nelson seemed fine, so he went on into the bedroom to get the chair.

The chair wasn't there.

In the dark about why the chair was missing -- perhaps his wife, Donna, had taken it somewhere -- Pat went back to the kitchen.

The comfy chair was sitting at the kitchen table, just where Pat was going to place it.

True story? I've never known Pat to be a B.S.er. Make of it what you will.

Now I'm Beyond Insulted

The scam spammers are actually posing as the IRS. With "copyrighted" messages no less!

There are no words.

Where's Matt Drudge?

Has anybody else noticed that the Drudge Report hasn't been updated since, like, Friday?

UPDATE (3/21): Nevermind.

One Fine Day At The Broad & John Bus Stop

So anyway, I was standing at a bus stop waiting for the northbound Park Avenue bus. I was standing to the left of the bench/shelter and there was a guy about my age, or maybe a little younger, sitting on the bench and eating something out of a plastic bowl -- the kind you get with a small side of macaroni or potato salad at the supermarket's deli counter.

As I stood there awaiting the arrival of the bus, he chucked the plastic container into the middle of John Street. That's right, just flung it out side-armed as non-challantly as if he were tossing bread bits to pigeons or seagulls in a park or a parking lot somewhere. It scraped acroos the pavement and settled under the rear driver's side tire of a truck in the far lane.

This was followed almost immediately by the fork or spoon or spork that he was using. It settled in the middle of the near lane. He rubbed his hands together with satisfaction, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, as he finished chewing the last of the side dish as he glanced up the street awaiting his bus. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that what he'd just done was supremely wanton, unlawful and thoroughly, enragingly obnoxious.

"Dude," I said with alot more restraint than I wanted to. "That's disgusting." He never even looked back me.

My bus arrived a few minutes later and, thankfully, he was waiting for a different bus than I was. I hope I never have to see that @#$%ing, @#$%ing @#$%er and his @#$%ing, @#$%ible sense of propriety again.

Some of you may believe that God regularly tests our faith in God. In my experience, God's a lot more busy testing our faith in humanity. I'm jus' sayin' is all.

Allen The Family

What an odd story: A former Bush Administration advisor making high six-figures in charged with attempting to scam Target Department Stores out of thousands of dollars in fake returns. How could such a "goody-two-shoes" like Claude Allen go so wrong?

Well, well, well. Late last evening, Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall dug up some interesting high school photos of Claude Allen and his ne'er-do-well twin brother Floyd.

They say that even their close friends often can't tell them apart.

Interestingly, Claude has not come right out and said, "No no no! It was my evil twin!". Then again, Claude has bailed out Floyd before in troubled times.

Floyd was the twin who "kept running into bad times," while Claude Allen intervened repeatedly to help him, [Mrs. Allen] said.

Oddly, the stranger it gets, the more sense it makes. You just can't make this stuff up.

Or, can you......?

Tip o'the tam to (and more links at) Michelle Malkin.

Is Google trying to scam us?

So anyway, I received a pretty run of the mill scam spam the other day. Apparently there's a problem with a Chase account that I have that doesn't, in reality, exist.

So, I did my usual thang of copy/pasting the provided "secure" Chase link into wordpad, just to see who really sent it. Lo! and behold! This is what the copy/paste revealed:

Clic The link below in order to regain access to
your Chase Cardmembers Account,simply:
https://www.chase.com/ [http://www.google.com/pagead/iclk?sa=l&ai=BS65WglgGRKqCIK_IiAK50NjDBpTzkQyonIydAuDoqgegjQYQARgBKAI4AEDKEUiZOVCujeiYBpgB2lGgAfTPgP4DyAEBlQIDgkIK&num=1&adurl=http://c-24-147-232-232.hsd1.ma.comcast.net:82/chase/index.php]

It runs through Google! WTF?!

I report. You be careful out there, y'heah?

UPDATE: I've contacted Google and requested that they "please investigate and respond". I wont hold my breath.

UPDATE 2: Just got a response!

Thank you for your note. Google doesn't send unsolicited email, and we
don't permit others to send unsolicited email through our mail servers. A
number of unscrupulous businesses have sent out mass mailings that appear
to be related to Google. We're actively pursuing all available legal means
to stop these miscreants from abusing our name and your inbox.

We understand your frustration with spam mail. We, too, receive many
"Google" spam emails every day. Here are a few examples of the ones we
see:

- Emails that contain Google.com URLs. These URLs commonly link to images,
webpages, or search results.

- Emails with a Google.com return address. Unfortunately, forging email
addresses, though obviously unethical, is relatively easy.

- Emails that claim you're a Google Lottery winner. While it may be
disappointing, there's no such thing as the Google Lottery.

- Emails that boast you'll get rich quick through Google. Or, emails from
companies that claim to be a partner of ours and "guarantee" high ranking
for your site - for a large fee. We're not affiliated with the companies
that send these emails, and we do not endorse their offers in any way. In
fact, we suggest that you reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited
emails as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills.

Thank you very much for your understanding, and please accept our
sympathies for any inconvenience this has caused.

Regards,
The Google Team

Scam alert!

This email was forwarded to me by my mother today:

IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT AREA CODE

We actually received a call last week from the 809 area code.
The woman said "Hey, this is Karen. Sorry I missed you--get back to us quickly.
Have something important to tell you." Then she repeated a phone number beginning with 809. "We didn't respond".

Then this week, we received the following e-mail:

Subject: DON'T EVER DIAL AREA CODE 809, 284 AND 876

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION PROVIDED TO US BY AT&T.
DON'T EVER DIAL AREA CODE 809

This one is being distributed all over the US. This is pretty scary,
especially given the way they try to get you to call.
Be sure you read this and pass it on to all your friends and family so they don't get scammed!
MAJOR SCAM:
Don't respond to Emails, phone calls, or web pages which tell you to call an "809" area Phone Number.

This is a very important issue of Scam Busters because it alerts you to a scam that is spreading *extremely* quickly, can easily cost you $2400 or more, and is difficult to avoid unless you are aware of it.

We'd like to thank Verizon for bringing this scam to our attention.
This scam has also been identified by the National Fraud Information Center and is costing victims a lots of money.

There are lots of different permutations of this scam.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

You will receive a message on your answering machine or your pager, which asks you to call a number beginning with area code 809. The reason you're asked to call varies. It can be to receive information about a family member who has been ill, to tell you someone has-been arrested, died, to let you know you have won a wonderful prize, etc In each case, you are told to call the 809 number right away. Since there are so many new area codes these days, people unknowingly return these calls.

If you call from the US, you will apparently be charged $2425 per-minute.
Or, you'll get a long recorded message. The point is, they will try to keep you on the phone as long as possible to increase the charges. Unfortunately, when you get your phone bill, you'll often be charged more than $24,100.00.

WHY IT WORKS:
The 809 area code is located in the British Virgin Islands (The Bahamas).
The 809 area code can be used as a "pay-per-call" number, similar to 900 numbers in the US. Since 809 is not in the US, it is not covered by U.S. regulations of 900 numbers, which require that you be notified and warned of charges and rates involved when you call a pay-per-call" number.

There is also no requirement that the company provide a time period during which you may terminate the call without being charged. Further, whereas many U.S. homes that have 900 number blocking to avoid these kinds of charges, do not work in preventing calls to the 809 area code.

We recommend that no matter how you get the message, if you are asked to call a number with an 809 area code that you don't recognize, just disregard the message.

Be wary of e-mail, or calls, asking you to call an 809 area code number. It's important to prevent becoming a victim of this scam, since trying to fight the charges afterwards can become a real nightmare. That's because you did actually make the call. If you complain, both your local phone company and your long distance carrier will not want to get involved and will most likely tell you that they are simply providing the billing for the foreign company. You'll end up dealing with a foreign company that argues they have done nothing wrong.

Please forward this entire message to your friends, family and colleagues to help them become aware of this scam

Sandi Van Handel
AT&T Field Service Manager
(920)687-904

Where's Matt Drudge?

Hmmm. The Drudge Report hasn't been updated since Friday and his radio show isn't being touted as it always is on Sundays. Perhaps somebody should go knock on his door.

Hey, Matt? Y'okay, man?

It Was So Cruel

They cried tears of joy!

They thought a miracle had happened.

I don't even want to think about it anymore. But I will. OSHA can bark, but it needs teeth.

@#$%

Halloween; It's What's For Dinner

Via the Boston Globe:

NEWTON -- When students at Underwood Elementary School walk to their classrooms on Monday, there will be no witches, SpongeBob SquarePants, or Johnny Damons there to greet them.

No skeleton paintings or Frankenstein tattoos, either.

The school's principal said yesterday he acceded to the complaints of a handful of parents who said that because the school's traditional Halloween celebrations offended their religious beliefs, they would not send their children to school if the revelry continued this year.

What in the world is happening to people? Few holidays can get a kid excited the way Halloween can. I mean, a few years ago my nephew had a Halloween party on his birthday -- May 1st -- because loves it so much and didn't feel like waiting another six months for it.

So, all those arts and crafts we did in school -- the huge murals on the door to each classroom; the cardboard skeletons; the dressing up, etc -- is banned from these kids' school. How can something so fun and harmlessly "scary" offend these few parents' religeous beliefs?! It's just ghosts and witches and goblins and pumkins and princesses and batmen and Jedi knights. Are we going to ban books like Harry Potter and MacBeth from the school library next? What is WRONG with people?! ANSWER ME!!!

''Not everyone is going to agree with the decision, and I really understand that," said principal David Castelline, , who last year grew a beard and dressed up as Johnny Damon. ''But I felt the goal was really important to make it a respectful and open and welcoming place for all members of our community."

By spitting on the ages-old tradition of making some of the school-time leading up to Halloween actually fun for the kids.

Castelline, who met yesterday with the Parent Teacher Organization to explain his decision, said three teachers told him they had children in their classes who were not going to come to school if the Halloween celebration was held.

Because their parents are party-poopin' Michael Newdow wannabes, no doubt. How raw does thin skin have to be to force your kid to play hookey over one of his or her favorite days of the year? Are these kids denied by their parents the thrill and fun of trick-or-treating?
Y'know what? I bet they're not.

The celebration, which has been going on for at least 14 years, involves teachers dressing up and lining the hallways and children making Halloween-related arts and crafts.
''When I hear that kids won't come to school because of what we're doing on Halloween, I have a problem with that," Castelline said.

And what do you do about it? Call a truant officer? Have the cops pay a visit to those parents to explain the seriousness of breaking the law over a perceived personal religious offense? No. You fold like an origami Renault R35 until you're all corners and screw the entire student body out of one of the few festive times of the school year all because three (3) students have obnoxious asshats for parents! Appalling!

Of nearly a dozen parents interviewed outside the school yesterday, none supported the decision to cancel the celebration. Several parents said they are considering staging a protest by donning costumes on Monday and standing in front of the school.

''If they can cancel Halloween, what about Columbus Day and Valentines Day? We get Jewish holidays and Christmas off, so what's next?" asked Andrea Newman, whose two sons attend the school. ''All it takes is one person to be offended, and our school will ban it."

Damm straight, Andrea. Show up dressed as Isis, Goddess of fertility. If they try to remove you from your child's school property, fertilize the lawn on your way out.

Nah, don't do that...

Castelline said the school instead planned to hold a ''celebration of fall" next Friday. Later in the year, he said, the school plans a costume celebration in which teachers and perhaps students will be encouraged to dress as their favorite literary characters.

Like the aforementioned Harry Potter? What do want, a class-action suit on yer hands?

No one in Massachusetts is tracking Halloween school celebrations, said a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, so it is difficult to track how many schools forgo the holiday.

Well, then, clearly there are no rules against Halloween celebrations in Massa', Choose It. At least, not until some local Nazi decides to be offended by something as stubbornly ever-present as religious themes. Up for banning April Fools Day, anyone? (Don't laugh. It's coming...)

Joel Packer, spokesman for the National Education Association, said the controversy is part of a contentious nationwide trend in which schools are trying to shorten or cancel holiday celebrations, either for religious reasons or to put more time into classroom work. Halloween is one of the few holidays that can fall when children are in school, he said, which puts school districts more on the spot.

Er... I thought this controversy was about an elementary school principle caving in to pressure to ban the free expression of happy funtime Halloween day acknowledgement. Dollars to doughnuts that this "contentious nationwide trend" was begun by a group of Russian immigrants in 1992...

A recent survey issued by a shopping mall management company found that 23 percent of Americans planned to take part in a school Halloween party this year.

Wilhelmina Ripple --author of several holiday books, including ''Halloween School Parties: What Do I Do?" --said school districts nationwide are changing the name of parties to make the celebrations more palatable for those who want to avoid having school-endorsed ghouls and goblins.

Then Dog forbid that a school "endorse" schoolyard bullying by acknowledging it's presence...

Parents interviewed yesterday said they didn't mind not being able to celebrate the holiday,.."

...all of whom are uneffected by this. It's the kids who'll not be allowed to celebrate....

"...but they complained that it was political correctness run amok, particularly at a school where one-fifth of the student body is nonwhite and the website is in both English and Chinese.

Wha' hap'n.....?

''The beauty of having diversity is to celebrate different cultures and holidays," said Renee Levin.

''It's not good," said her 7-year-old son, Jake, who is planning to dress up as a Ninja and go trick-or-treating after school. ''Last year we got a Halloween party and it was really fun."

Careful there, Jakey. If you show up at school dressed like a Ninja yer libel to offend two or three people's philosophy of diplomacy and conflict resolution. If you wanna cut something use this sickle. And then rebuild, here, using this hammer.

And stop tryin' to have so much fun, Kiddo. Yer in Amerika, now.