The Daily Gut
Saddam Hussein had been gone just a few weeks, and U.S. forces in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, were already being called unwelcome invaders. One of the first big anti-American protests of the war escalated into shootouts that left 18 Iraqis dead and 78 wounded.

It would be a familiar scene in Iraq’s next few years: Crowds gather, insurgents mingle with civilians. Troops open fire, and innocents die.

All the while, according to internal military correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, U.S. commanders were telling Washington that many civilian casualties could be avoided by using a new non-lethal weapon developed over the past decade.

Military leaders repeatedly and urgently requested-and were denied-the device, which uses energy beams instead of bullets and lets soldiers break up unruly crowds without firing a shot.

It’s a ray gun that neither kills nor maims, but the Pentagon has refused to deploy it out of concern that the weapon itself might be seen as a torture device.

Perched on a Humvee or a flatbed truck, the Active Denial System gives people hit by the invisible beam the sense that their skin is on fire. They move out of the way quickly and without injury.

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Get this in the field now.  If anything this will be scary to the insurgents because they can’t use their ‘hide in crowd and shoot back’ technique.

Chewed up Vick cards sell for $7,400 - Yahoo! News
By BRIAN CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 29, 6:04 PM ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - They were the Michael Vick cards many animal lovers just had to get their paws on.

The eBay auction for 22 Vick football cards, chewed up and slobbered on by two Missouri dogs, ended Wednesday as the winning bidder dished out $7,400 — with the money expected to be donated to the Humane Society.

The success of that auction, with 31 different bidders, created a craze of more than 25 other postings this week offering torn up cards featuring the disgraced NFL superstar.

But so far, the original post from Rochelle Steffen, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., has been the only auction to attract droves of bidders.

Steffen gave Monte, her 6-year-old Weimaraner, and Roxie, her Great Dane puppy, every Vick card she owned to destroy. The cards worth $1 to $10 were crumpled, crimped, chewed, torn and generally in a sorry state. Some even had corners missing.

“When I started this I only expected to get $100 for a local shelter,” Steffen told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But it’s received so much attention. It’s for such a good cause that jumps every boundary.”

Steffen, 31, said she has been overwhelmed with positive responses, including from people who say her auction inspired them to donate money to animal shelters.

The Humane Society of the United States has seen a large spike in donations since Vick was indicted on federal dogfighting charges last month, said Ann Chynoweth, director of the society’s Animal Cruelty and Fighting Campaign.

“Americans love football, but they love dogs even more,” she said.

The backlash against Vick seemed to grow this week as he apologized after entering a guilty plea to a federal dogfighting charge in Richmond, Va. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10.

The gnawed cards were by far the most expensive Vick items on eBay, with well-preserved rookie cards, autographed jerseys and other collectibles selling for far less.

“The thought of these cards selling for $7,000 underscores how much this situation with Michael Vick has really captivated Americans,” said Tracy Hackler, associated publisher of Beckett Media, the Dallas-based publisher of several card collecting magazines.

Other ads on eBay offered cards chomped on by a pit bull puppy from Indianapolis named Diesel and a Cadillac, Mich., dog named Freak, among others. Another ad offered a jersey torn up by a yellow lab named Trixie from Harker Heights, Texas.

Another posting offered the services of a Destin, Fla., dog named Peggy Sue, saying she will damage mint-condition Vick cards. The ad said proceeds would go to the Canine Rescue and Rehabilitation. The high bid was $188.27 Wednesday afternoon.

While Vick was once considered by collectors as having some of the most-sought after memorabilia, the value of his autographs, cards and other collectibles have dramatically dipped, Hackler said. Even his 2001 SP Authentic rookie card, once valued at more than $1,000, is now being traded at $285 to $400, he said.

The Atlanta Humane Society says some former Vick fans have sent jerseys, often accompanied by financial contributions. Other branches of the Humane Society have said they will take donated Vick items to resell on eBay.

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I wonder if Vick killed 8 people if this would had gone better for him…gee wiz.

Bad Thai Cops to Endure Kitty Shame - Oddities - RedOrbit
BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring “Hello Kitty,” the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving late - among other misdemeanors - will be forced to stay in the division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat Chayaphan. The officers won’t wear the armband in public.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

“Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor,” said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

“(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps,” Pongpat said.

He said police caught breaking the law will be subject the same fines and penalties as any other members of the public.

“We want to make sure that we do not condone small offenses,” Pongpat said, adding that the CSD believed that getting tough on petty misdemeanors would lead to fewer cases of more serious offenses including abuse of power and mistreatment of the public by police officers.

Hello Kitty, invented by Sanrio Co. in 1974, has been popular for years with children and young women. The celebrity cat adorns everything from diamond-studded jewelry, Fender guitars and digital cameras to lunch boxes, T-shirts and stationery.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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I’m sure the Gay cops will wear the badge in ‘pride’.

Armless man gets 5 years for driving - Yahoo! News
Fri Aug 3, 5:06 PM ET

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - A man with no arms and one leg who wouldn’t stop driving despite a long list of traffic violations was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony driving and drug charges.

Michael Francis Wiley, 40, also was sentenced to 15 years of drug offender probation. He pleaded no contest in June to the charges.

“I’d just like to say I know what I did was wrong,” Wiley said in court Friday. “I am truly sorry your honor. I am.”

Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license, kicking a state trooper and other charges.

He once had a valid license, but it has been suspended several times since 1985, according to his attorney. He starts the car with his toes, shifts with his knee and steers with the stump of his left arm. He turns on the lights with his teeth.

In his most recent brush with the law last May, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, officials said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, police said.

Defense attorney John Hooker pleaded for leniency and a minimum sentence of 2 1/2 years. He cited his client’s need for treatment for his many physical and mental health problems, including anxiety, panic attacks, depression and a pain disorder related to his amputations.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Wiley said he’s done driving.

“I’m beat. The white flag is up,” he said. “You can only bang your head against the wall so long before it hurts.”

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I love that…he ‘kicked a cop’!!!

Panda poop to be recycled into souvenirs - Yahoo! News
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 30, 6:05 AM ET

BEIJING - Nothing says “I love you” like a photo frame made from panda poop.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base has come up with a dung-for-profit scheme that turns droppings from the endangered species into odor-free souvenirs ranging from bookmarks to Olympic-themed statues of the animals, state media and base officials said Monday.

The facility in the southwestern province of Sichuan houses about 40 bamboo-fed pandas who produce less than a ton of excrement a day.

“We used to spend at least 6,000 yuan ($770) a month to get rid of the droppings but now they can be lucrative,” Jing Shimin, assistant to the base director, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The products will be made at a local handicraft company mostly from undigested bamboo culled from the panda waste through a special process, Xinhua said.

An official who answered the phone at the Chengdu facility said the dung is “carefully selected, smashed, dried and sterilized at 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit).” He refused to give his name but said the products will be of all colors because they will be dyed.

“They don’t smell too bad because 70 percent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest,” Jing said.

While no price has been set, he said the most expensive souvenirs will contain a panda hair — collected from the wild — in each package.

The 2008 Olympic statues will feature “athletic pandas performing various Olympic sports,” Xinhua said.

In March, base officials said they were looking into making high-quality paper from the fiber-rich panda excrement, inspired by a trip to Thailand, where they found paper made from elephant dung.

The Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand already sells multicolored paper made from waste produced by its two resident pandas. Making paper there involves a daylong process of cleaning the feces, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine and drying it under the sun.

The panda is one of the world’s rarest and most beloved animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.

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Those weird Chinese.  I wonder what’s next.

Prankster dentist wins in court - Yahoo! News
By DAVID AMMONS, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 27, 10:50 AM ET

OLYMPIA, Wash. - An oral surgeon who temporarily implanted fake boar tusks in his assistant’s mouth as a practical joke and got sued for it has ended up with the last laugh.

Dr. Robert Woo of Auburn had put the phony tusks in while the woman was under anesthesia for a different procedure. He took them out before she awoke, but first he shot photos that eventually made it around the office.

The employee, Tina Alberts, felt so humiliated when she saw the pictures that she quit and sued her boss.

Woo’s insurance company, Fireman’s Fund, refused to cover the claim, saying the practical joke was intentional and not a normal business activity his insurance policy covered, so Woo settled out of court. He agreed to pay Alberts $250,000, then sued his insurers.

A King County Superior Court jury sided with Woo, ordering Fireman’s Fund to pay him $750,000, plus the out-of-court settlement. The insurance company won the next round, with the state Court of Appeals saying the prank had nothing to do with Woo’s practice of dentistry. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court restored Woo’s award.

In a sprightly 5-4 decision, Supreme Court Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote that Woo’s practical joke was an integral, if odd, part of the assistant’s dental surgery and “conceivably” should trigger the professional liability coverage of his policy.

Dissenting Justice James Johnson said the prank wasn’t a dental procedure at all and only “rewards Dr. Woo’s obnoxious behavior and allows him to profit handsomely.”

The backstory, the court wrote, is that Alberts’ family raises potbellied pigs and that she frequently talked about them at the office where she worked for five years.

Woo said his jests about the pigs were part of “a friendly working environment” that he tried to foster.

The oral surgery on Alberts was intended to replace two of her teeth with implants, which Woo did. First, though, he installed temporary bridges that he had shaped to look like boar tusks, and while Alberts was still under anesthesia, he took photos, some with her eyes propped open. Before she woke up, he removed the “tusks” and put in the proper replacement teeth.

Woo says he didn’t personally show her the pictures but staffers gave her copies at a birthday party.

Woo’s lawyer, Richard Kilpatrick, described the surgeon as a kindhearted, fun-loving man who was chagrined that an office prank turned out so badly. He was delighted with the high court’s decision, Kilpatrick said.

Attorneys for the insurance company did not immediately return calls for comment about the ruling.

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Man…the guy has gall to sue and win like that.

Dog ice cream targets Austrian canines - Yahoo! News
By NOURA MAAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 20, 6:31 PM ET

VIENNA, Austria - It’s fat-free, comes in three flavors, and it’s for … dogs.

Introducing “Dogissimo” — an ice cream created specifically for canines that has gone on sale at a local ice cream parlor.

With temperatures in Vienna topping 95 degrees for almost a week, the treat — available in rice, vanilla-rice and soy flavors — has the potential to become a hit during the dog days of summer.

Simona Leonardini, who concocted the doggie delight, said she hopes it will help man’s best friend deal with the sizzling heat.

“I own three dogs myself and if it’s hot, they desperately need to cool down,” she said.

Leonardini, who declined to divulge the recipe, used her Golden Retrievers as testers to get the taste just right.

She also consulted with veterinarians and stressed that the dessert doesn’t contain additives or artificial coloring.

The Viennese, like the Parisians, are generally dog-loving and often take their four-legged friends along when they run errands or go about their daily lives. It’s not uncommon to spot dogs snoozing in cafes, waiting outside groceries or riding the city’s trams and buses.

“Dogissimo” is just one in a series of dog fads that have surfaced in Austria in recent weeks. An open-air movie theater opened Thursday night that encourages dog owners to bring their pets.

Sue to Make an A an A+? Only in Memphis… - Oddities - RedOrbit

source: Associated Press Strange News

MEMPHIS, Mich. - A high school senior says he earned an A , not an A, and has sued to get the grade changed to bolster his chance at becoming valedictorian.

Brian Delekta, who finished 11th grade in 2002 ranked at the top of his class, says he should have received an A for a St. Clair County intermediate school district work-experience class in which he worked as a paralegal in his mother’s law office.

Memphis schools award grades on a 12-point scale, with an A being a 12. The highest grade awarded by the intermediate school district is an A. Memphis High School gave Delekta credit for an A.

Diane Delekta said her son, who filed the suit Friday, fulfilled the district’s work program requirements and performed professionally at work.

“It was what he would do if he were a paralegal in a law office,” she said. “He prepared documents, met with clients.”

The Memphis school board considered altering its grade policy to allow percentage grades from the countywide district to be factored into its system. The board rejected that option Jan. 29.

“I heard ahead of time (that the threat of a lawsuit) was out there, but to worry about that would be wrong,” board President Harold Burns said.

The suit names the school principal, superintendent and all seven school board members as defendants. It asks to have the grade changed and to have class rankings, due out Monday, blocked until the case is settled.

A judge is to consider a restraining order request Monday.

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I remember these kind of kinds when I was in Highschool. They would have GPAs of 4.66 or something like that. I guess when your mom is a lawyer that suing for grades is something you would expect. A+ for effort?

The Price Is Right Television show - The Price Is Right TV Show - Yahoo! TV

Bob Barker endorsed his friend Rosie O’Donnell as a possible successor on “The Price Is Right,” although the newly retired host isn’t sure CBS wants a woman to take over the game show.

“I believe they’re going to have a meeting with Rosie,” Barker said backstage Friday night at the Daytime Emmy Awards, where he won his 19th trophy.

“She knows the show,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind she could do the show. Now, whether they want a lady host, I don’t know. I’ve never heard that discussed. As far as I know, they’ve only auditioned men.”
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Barker said his friendship with O’Donnell goes back several years, when she had him as a guest on her old daytime talk show.

“She told me she loved `The Price Is Right’ and wanted to host it one day,” he recalled.

Among those mentioned as possible replacement hosts have been Todd Newton of the E! network, Mark Steines of “Entertainment Tonight,” George Hamilton and John O’Hurley.

Barker retired last week at age 83 after 35 years of giving away vacations and cars on the hit CBS game show. But he said he may be back with some specials featuring vintage clips and guests.

“If it works out, I’d like to do that,” he said.

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OMG…not Rosie!!!!

Vt. secession movement gains traction - Yahoo! News
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 4, 2:39 PM ET

MONTPELIER, Vt. - At Riverwalk Records, the all-vinyl music store just down the street from the state Capitol, the black “US Out of Vt.!” T-shirts are among the hottest sellers.
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But to some people in Vermont, the idea is bigger than a $20 novelty. They want Vermont to secede from the United States — peacefully, of course.

Disillusioned by what they call an empire about to fall, a small cadre of writers and academics hopes to put the question before citizens in March. Eventually, they want to persuade state lawmakers to declare independence, returning Vermont to the status it held from 1777 to 1791.

Neither the state nor the U.S. Constitution explicitly forbids secession, but few people think it is politically viable.

“I always thought the Civil War settled that,” said Russell Wheeler, a constitutional law expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. If Vermont fought and won a war with the federal government, “then you could say Vermont proved the point. But that’s not going to happen.”

Still, the idea has found plenty of sympathetic ears in Vermont, a left-leaning state that said yes to civil unions, no to slavery (before any other) and last year elected a socialist to the U.S. Senate.

Supporters have published a “Green Mountain Manifesto” subtitled “Why and How Tiny Vermont Might Help Save America From Itself by Seceding from the Union.”

In 2005, about 300 people turned out for a secession convention in the Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this year by the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies found that 13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year before.

“The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable — it’s too big, it’s too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens,” said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

“We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war,” Williams said. “If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what’s left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire.”

Vermont, which was historically conservative, has evolved into one of the nation’s most liberal states since the latter part of the 20th century, a tie-dyed bastion of countercultural dissent and New England self-reliance where folks wear their hearts — and their anti-war stickers — on their Subaru station wagon bumpers.

Secession movements have a long history. Key West, Fla., staged a mock secession from America in the 1980s. In Vermont, the town of Killington tried to break away and join New Hampshire in 2004, and Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Texas all have some form of secession organizations today.

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