Sidney Crosby is too fragile for the NHL - drop him to the minors

GLENDALE, Ariz. - By the third period, an apparent injury to Sidney Crosby had him sitting on the bench.

The rest of the Penguins defence might just as well have been sitting next to him. Shane Doan scored twice and added an assist, and the Phoenix Coyotes beat Pittsburgh 4-1 on Thursday night. Olli Jokinen also scored, Steven Reinprecht and Zbynek Michalek each had two assists and Ilya Bryzgalov made 27 saves for Phoenix.

"I had some discomfort," said Crosby, who left the game with less than five minutes left in the second period. "I decided that in the third period, it didn't seem like I could do much."

What happened to Crosby is unclear. Television replays showed Crosby skate to the Penguins bench, sit down with a grimace and try to collect himself.

Per team policy, the Penguins did not disclose details of Crosby's injury. Neither did Crosby.
"Honestly, I don't even know what happened," Crosby said. "I have to look at the tape. I haven't seen anything yet."

Phoenix's 4-4 start is its best since opening the 2003-04 season at 3-3-2.

"The more we get guys scoring the better off we are," Doan said.

Miroslav Satan scored his team-leading fifth goal for the Penguins, but sat out the final 10 minutes after picking up a misconduct penalty after arguing a hooking call.
The Penguins have lost two straight.

"The system's only 50 per cent of the game," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "After that, the players have to play hard. It's an excuse."

Doan broke a 1-1 tie with 2:01 left in the second period when he took a pass from Reinprecht and scored into the open left side of the net.

"I wanted to help the team win," said Reinprecht, who had been a healthy scratch the past two games for the first time in his career. "I wanted to help the team win and we were able to put together a pretty solid 60 minutes."

Kevin Porter made it 3-1 with 5:01 remaining on his first NHL goal, taking a pass from Reinprecht and slipping the puck past Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's blocker.

"He did all the work and I just tapped it in," Porter said. "It couldn't be easier for a first goal."

After a scoreless first period, Jokinen gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 7:53 of the second period when he scored off a backhand feed from Doan.

Satan tied the game at 8:30 of the period when Evgeni Malkin's shot from the point ricocheted off the glass behind the Coyotes goal and landed in front of Bryzgalov for the tap-in power-play goal.

The goal came just 11 seconds into a power play and was the Penguins' first road goal with the man-advantage in 15 tries this season.

Doan added an empty-net goal with 58.2 seconds left.

"He played so hard," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said of Doan. "He was competing at a feverish pitch. When he got the goal, it was a big pick-me-up for him."

Notes: Jokinen has 31 points in 37 career games against Pittsburgh. ... The Penguins had won three straight against the Coyotes. ... Pittsburgh went more than 15 minutes before recording its first shot on goal and finished the first period with two.

The Hockey News: Headlines: Sidney Crosby hurt as Phoenix Coyotes beat Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1

Gmail - Fw: A little gun history - puckhead9@gmail.com

A LITTLE GUN HISTORY

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
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China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated
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Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
---- ------------- -------------

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated' people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
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It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own Government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:

List of 7 items:

Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent

Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent

Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!

In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.

There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.

You won't see this datum on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.

Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!

The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.

With guns, we are 'citizens'. Without them, we are 'subjects'.

During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

If you value your freedom, Please spread this anti-gun control message to all of your friends.



The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

As John Steinbeck once said:

1. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.

4. W hen seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.'

6. An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.

7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?' 'No Ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.'

8. Beware the man who only has one gun. HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!

But wait, there's more!

I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said 'Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!' To which I said, 'Of course it is loaded, can't work without bullets!' She then asked, 'Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?' My reply was, 'No, not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too.' To which I'll add, having a gun in the house that isn't loaded is like having a car in the garage without gas in the tank.

I'm a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment! If you are too, please forward to all you know!!!!

Spicy pork sausage found in 'soiled diapers'

Spicy pork sausage found in 'soiled diapers'

Mon Oct 27, 9:05 pm ET

McALLEN, Texas – Customs inspectors scored the makings of a barbecue when a 21-year-old South Texas woman declared several soiled baby diapers at a U.S.-Mexico border crossing.

Suspicious of the chunky diapers, inspectors with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the international bridge in Hidalgo found several links of spicy pork sausage, or chorizo, inside. The diapers had been folded to look soiled, according to a customs agency statement.

The Mission resident, who was not identified after the Friday night incident, was fined $300 and her chorizo was seized.

William Shatner lashes out at George Takei - Yahoo! News

William Shatner lashes out at George Takei

LOS ANGELES – William Shatner is setting his phaser to stun against his old "Star Trek" co-star George Takei.

In a video posted on Shatner's Web site Wednesday, he lashed out at Takei for not inviting him to his wedding last month. The 77-year-old Shatner said Takei, who played Enterprise helmsman Sulu, apparently harbors a grudge against him that kept him from being invited to Takei's nuptials.

"The whole thing makes me feel badly," Shatner said in the video. "Poor man. There is such a sickness there. It's so patently obvious that there is a psychosis there. I don't know what his original thing about me was. I have no idea."

Takei and Brad Altman tied the knot Sept. 14. "Star Trek" alums Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig — who played Uhura and Chekhov, respectively — were among the attendees at the multicultural ceremony at the Japanese American National Museum. Takei and Altman had previously stated that Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk, was invited to their wedding, but he never RSVPed.

"It is unfortunate that Bill was unable to join us for our wedding as he indeed was invited to attend,"

Takei responded. "It is our hope that at this point he joins us in voting no on Proposition 8, which seeks to eliminate the fundamental right for same-sex couples to marry in California."

Shatner said he felt he never knew Takei when they worked together on the original TV series and later in the "Star Trek" films.

The "Boston Legal" co-star also attacked Takei's decision to come out of the closet later in life, saying, "Who cares? Be gay. Don't be gay. That's up to you, George."

Tape measure: X-rays detected from Scotch tape - Yahoo! News

Tape measure: X-rays detected from Scotch tape

NEW YORK – Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape.

It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.

Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says.

"We were very surprised," said Juan Escobar. "The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous."

Escobar, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports the work with UCLA colleagues in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

He suggests that with some refinements, the process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines for paramedics or for places where electricity is expensive or hard to get. After all, you could peel tape or do something similar in such machines with just human power, like cranking.

The researchers and UCLA have applied for a patent covering such devices.

In the new work, a machine peeled ordinary Scotch tape off a roll in a vacuum chamber at about 1.2 inches per second. Rapid pulses of X-rays, each about a billionth of a second long, emerged from very close to where the tape was coming off the roll.

That's where electrons jumped from the roll to the sticky underside of the tape that was being pulled away, a journey of about two-thousandths of an inch, Escobar said. When those electrons struck the sticky side they slowed down, and that slowing made them emit X-rays.

So is this a health hazard for unsuspecting tape-peelers?

Escobar noted that no X-rays are produced in the presence of air. You need to work in a vacuum — not exactly an everyday situation.

"If you're going to peel tape in a vacuum, you should be extra careful," he said. But "I will continue to use Scotch tape during my daily life, and I think it's safe to do it in your office. No guarantees."

James Hevezi, who chairs the American College of Radiology's Commission on Medical Physics, said the notion of developing an X-ray machine from the new finding was "a very interesting idea, and I think it should be carried further in research."

The neighbor kids need to be flogged!!!!!

Octogenarian Flagged For Holding

Octogenarian Flagged For Holding

Ohio woman, 88, arrested for petty theft of neighbor's football

OCTOBER 20--An 88-year-old Ohio grandmother was arrested last week when she refused to return a neighborhood boy's football that had landed in her front yard. A frustrated Edna Jester took the football last Thursday evening after it landed, once again, in the yard of her Blue Ash home, where she has lived since April 1949. When Jester refused to return the football, neighbor Paul Tanis, 40, called the cops. Though police warned that she would be arrested unless she returned the football, Jester refused, according to the below Blue Ash Police Department report. In a TSG interview, an emotional Jester said that she had repeatedly warned her teenage neighbors that she did not want to retrieve their football since, "I'm not a ball chaser." Jester, pictured at right, added that she frequently told the young football enthusiasts that she did not want them on her property and did not want to be bothered while she was reading the Bible or eating dinner. Jester, who lives alone, still has the football. The petty theft bust was the first arrest for Jester, who has been widowed for about ten years. One of Jester's three children has predeceased her, while a second, a 70-year-old daughter, is living in a nursing home. She is scheduled to appear November 12 in Mayor's Court on the theft rap.

Booed by a Boy Scout

Booed by a Boy Scout
Janyth Dison
Article Launched: 10/15/2008 10:28:25 AM PDT

This Saturday morning as I was leaving my church's parking lot, I was booed by a Boy Scout because I had an Obama sticker on my car.

I can't believe that a Boy Scout would be so disrespectful. I spoke to him, but I really don't think it mattered to him.

The McCain campaign is spewing disrepectful rhetoric. Is this really what Sen. McCain wants? A Boy Scout booing a 65-year-old lady because she has an Obama sticker on her car?

Janyth Dison
Redlands"

Sounds like Bill Clinton - A scumbag is a scum bag no matter what party they belong to

What's a gift? Sen. Stevens testifies on freebies

What's a gift? Sen. Stevens testifies on freebies

By MATT APUZZO and JESSE J. HOLLAND – 43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A dour Sen. Ted Stevens sparred curtly with prosecutors over his definition of gifts as the senator concluded his third day of testimony at his corruption trial Monday.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican, Stevens is charged with lying on Senate financial disclosure forms about $250,000 in renovations and other gifts he received from oil services contractor VECO Corp.

Stevens has said he never sought gifts and wouldn't even accept a free lunch, much less expensive remodeling services. But prosecutors say he had a history of accepting gifts — including an expensive massage chair from a friend — and omitting them from the financial disclosure forms.

He said he considered that chair a loan.

"And the chair is still at your house?" prosecutor Brenda Morris asked.

"Yes," Stevens said.

"How is that not a gift?"

"He bought that chair as a gift, but I refused it as a gift," Stevens said. "He put it there and said it was my chair. I told him I would not accept it as a gift. We have lots of things in our house that don't belong to us."

Playing to the jury, Morris appeared confused.

"So, if you say it's not a gift, it's not a gift?" she said.

"I refused it as a gift," Stevens replied. "I let him put it in our basement at his request."

With Stevens' testimony complete, defense attorneys rested their case. Closing arguments were scheduled for Tuesday. Jurors were set to begin deliberating Wednesday.

The massage chair isn't even among the charges against Stevens, but prosecutors hammered away at the story line to portray Stevens as a crafty politician who concocted ways to avoid disclosing favors and freebies.

Morris also seemed eager to bring out the senator's famous temper.

"You are more than willing to be treated just like anyone else? Is that correct?" the prosecutor asked.

"What?" Stevens snapped back.

"Withdrawn," Morris said, changing the subject.

Though gruff, Stevens kept his temper in check. He was the last witness to be called in his own defense and prosecutors have said they will call no rebuttal witnesses. That means Stevens' testimony will be the lasting impression for jurors before closing arguments.

Though Stevens appeared testy, Morris seemed unfocused at times, raising topics and then drifting away from them without forcing Stevens into an answer. If jurors read that as evasiveness, it will help prosecutors. If it adds ambiguity or confuses the case in jurors' mind, Stevens will benefit.

The government's star witness, VECO founder Bill Allen, testified early at the trial that his workers spent countless hours transforming Stevens' small A-frame cabin into a large, modern home with a sauna, wine cellar and wraparound porches.

Stevens says he relied on Allen to oversee the project but expected his friend to send him all the bills. Stevens says his wife, Catherine, paid every bill she received — $160,000 in all. Any freebies, Stevens said, were added on without their knowledge.

Morris pressed Stevens to acknowledge that he knew the foreman and other workers were VECO employees. But Stevens said that's not how he viewed it.

"He did work for VECO, yes, but when working at my house, he's working for me," Stevens said. "VECO was not involved in renovating my house."

Once an untouchable political force, Stevens faces a tough re-election fight and he's hoping for an acquittal before Election Day.

Bye-Bye Peca - Wouldn't wanna be 'ya!!

The Hockey News: Headlines: Columbus Blue Jackets forward Michael Peca given five-game suspension

NEW YORK - Columbus Blue Jackets forward Michael Peca was given a five-game suspension by the National Hockey League on Friday.
The suspension was finalized after an appeal hearing and review of the Oct. 10 incident by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Peca was assessed a game misconduct penalty at 5:21 of the second period of the Blue Jackets' 5-4 victory over Dallas. He was automatically suspended per rule 41, physical abuse of officials, category two.

Peca, who confronted referee Greg Kimmerly and grabbed him by the arm while voicing his displeasure after a Dallas goal, claimed he grabbed the referee solely for the purpose of getting his attention, the NHL said in a release.

Application of the rule calls for an automatic suspension of three, 10 or 20 games, based on three categories of offences. Peca's offence initially was assessed as a category two, which requires an automatic 10-game suspension.

After a review, the league determined that the application of category three, which requires a minimum three-game ban, was more appropriately applied because Peca's actions were more properly categorized as "physically demeaning" conduct.

However, due to the serious nature of the conduct involved and pursuant to his authority under rule 41, Bettman increased the three-game suspension to five games.

"Michael Peca crossed the line by making physical contact with referee Kimmerly," Bettman said in a release. "His conduct - regardless of the type or nature of precipitating events - was inexcusable and showed a lack of respect for our on-ice officials, and for the game itself.

"The National Hockey League remains committed to ensuring that officials are not subjected to any physical contact or abuse by NHL players."

Peca has already served two games of the suspension.

He will be eligible to return on Oct. 24 for the Blue Jackets' game against the New York Rangers. He will forfeit US$35,349.46 in salary.

Teen changes her name to CutoutDissection.com - Yahoo! News

Does anyone really give a rats ass what she names herself. - Loser - And quite the ugly kid too.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - A 19-year-old Asheville teenager said she legally changed her name to CutoutDissection.com to protest animal dissections in schools.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that Asheville High graduate Jennifer Thornburg now wants to be called Cutout. Her new legal name is the Web address for an anti-dissection page of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' site.

The teenager said she began opposing dissections in middle school, after a class assignment to dissect a chicken wing made her uncomfortable. She helped create a policy at her high school that allows students who object to dissections to complete an alternative assignment.

She is now an intern for PETA. She said most of her family members still call her Jennifer.

Change is what is wrong with this country

Not long ago I read a joke ... It said all the politicians running for president are promising change to the American people. We send them billions and billions of tax dollars and they send us the change.

Funny?

Not really; there is too much truth in it to be funny.

That got me to thinking ... They all promise change. How about if they run on a promise of restoration rather than change. A restoration that would take us back in time to a place where things ran better, smoother and life was more enjoyable. Change? That, in truth, is what they have been giving us all along.

We used to have a strong dollar ... Politicians changed that.

Life used to be sacred ... Politicians changed that.

Marriage used to be sacred ... Politicians are changing that.

We used to be respected around the world ... Politicians changed that.

We used to have a strong manufacturing economy ... Politicians changed that.

We used to have lower tax structures ... Politicians changed that.

We used to enjoy more freedoms ... Politicians changed that.

We used to be a large exporter of American made goods ... Politicians changed that.

We used to be an openly Christian nation ... Politicians changed that.

We used to teach patriotism in schools ... Politicians changed that.

We used to educate children in schools ... Politicians changed that.

We used to enjoy freedom of speech ... Politicians changed that.

We used to enforce LEGAL citizenship ... Politicians changed that.

We used to have affordable food & gas prices ... Politicians changed that, too. ... and one could go on and
on with this list.

What hasn't been changed, politicians are promising to change that as well if you will elect them.

When, oh when, is America going to sit back with open eyes and look at what we once were and where we have come and say, enough is enough?

The trouble is, America's youthful voters today don't know of the great America that existed forty and fifty years ago. They see the world as if it has always existed, as it is now.

When will we wake up? Tomorrow may be too late. When will America realize .. Politicians are what is wrong with America?

The Hockey News: Headlines: Sabres centre Connolly misses season opener with fractured vertebra

Connolly is too fragile for the NHL. He has way too many missed games since he started due to injuries. Maybe they need to look in another direction and bite the bullet with this guy.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Oft-injured Buffalo Sabres centre Tim Connolly will miss at least the first week of the season after tests revealed he has a hairline fracture of a vertebra.

Coach Lindy Ruff characterized the break as minor, and said Connolly could be cleared to play within a week after the play-making centre missed the Sabres season-opening 2-1 shootout win over Montreal on Friday. Connolly has been out since appearing in Buffalo's second pre-season game, a 3-2 loss to Montreal on Sept. 23.

He missed several practices complaining of back pain, but had resumed skating with the team this week.

Ruff said the fracture didn't show up in X-rays, but was discovered after Connolly had a recent MRI test.

The injury is another setback for a player who missed 34 games last season, including the final 12, after having surgery to remove bone chips from his hip. An eight-year NHL veteran, Connolly has appeared in only 50 games over the past two seasons as a result of injuries, and missed the entire 2003-04 campaign with post-concussion symptoms.

The Canadiens, who opened their 100th season, were minus forwards Christopher Higgins (groin) and Georges Laraque (groin) and defenceman Francis Bouillon (knee).

This is just way too sad!

NEW YORK - In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.

The National Debt Clock is shown near Times Square in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008. The clock has run out of digits to record the growing figure. As a temporary fix, the dollar sign has been switched to a figure--the '1' in $10 trillion. The clock is marking the current national debt at about $10.2 trillion. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the '1' in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion.

The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars.

The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt."

Get up just a little earlier ... and walk to school

Nuff said!!

Get up just a little earlier ... and walk to school

Illegal immigrant kills 4 children

Cottonwood Van Driver Charged With Identity Theft

The driver of the van that hit the Lakeview school bus last week now faces federal charges. Olga Franco del Cid was charged Friday with two counts of identity theft and two counts of false representation of a social security number. She's accused of using stolen social security numbers to get jobs.

Not only does Olga Marina Franco del Cid face federal identity theft charges, but the man she was living with, and who owned the van she was driving when she hit the Lakeview school bus, faces similar charges. 29 year old Francisco Sangabriel Mendoza lived at the same home as Franco del Cid and also faces identity theft and false representation charges, but unlike Franco del Cid authorities are still looking for Sangabriel-Mendoza.

The four victims of the Cottonwood, Minnesota bus crash have all been laid to rest, but the case against the woman who was driving the van that authorities say hit the school bus bus continues to build.

Friday Olga Marina Franco del Cid was charged with federal identity theft and social security charges. In a release from the United States Attorney's office in Minnesota, Franco del Cid told investigators shortly after the crash she was Alianiss Morales, but when federal agents tracked down the real Morales, she told authorities her purse and identification documents were stolen six months ago while she was living in Puerto Rico. The U.S. Attorney's office says Franco del Cid allegedly used those documents to apply for jobs in Minnesota and also used Morales's social security card to get a Minnesota state I.D. card.

When authorities searched Franco del Cid's home in Minneota last Friday they found her real identity and Guatemalan birth certificate. During the same search the U.S. Attorney's office says investigators discovered documents for Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, the man who owned the van Franco del Cid was driving. Authorities say Sangabriel-Mendoza also used stolen social security numbers to apply for jobs in Minnesota.

And now both Franco del Cid and Sangabriel-Mendoza face federal charges following the deadly Cottonwood crash.

Authorities say Sangabriel-Mendoza is an illegal immigrant. Federal agents do not have him in custody, and say if anyone knows where he is they can call Immigration and Custom Enforcement's 24 hour hotline at 1-866-347-2423.

Syracuse Crunch honours Newman by retiring late actor's "Slap Shot" jersey

"SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The No. 7 that Paul Newman wore as Reg Dunlop in the cult hockey comedy 'Slap Shot' is going to the rafters of the Syracuse War Memorial.

The Syracuse Crunch announced Tuesday that the team will pay tribute to the late actor by raising a banner before Saturday's American Hockey League game against the Rochester Americans. The banner will stay there for the entire season.

Crunch president Howard Dolgon says it's appropriate Newman's legacy should be recognized and honoured in the arena where parts of the legendary movie were filmed in 1977.

Newman died last month at age 83 after a battle with cancer.

A video tribute to Newman's role in 'Slap Shot' will be shown during the ceremony."

Explanation

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.

The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.

The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.

While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.'

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere.

Now you have a general understanding of how the government bailout works.

Blonde sues over brown dye; judge brushes off suit - Yahoo! News

Blonde sues over brown dye; judge brushes off suit

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - A Connecticut judge has given the brush-off to a blonde woman's lawsuit claiming L'Oreal Inc. ruined her social life when she accidentally dyed her hair brunette with one of its products.

Charlotte Feeney of Stratford says she can never return to her natural blonde hue, a shock that left her so traumatized she needed anti-depressants.

She says she suffered headaches and anxiety, missed the attention that blondes receive and had to stay home and wear hats most of the time.

A Superior Court judge dismissed Feeney's 2005 lawsuit Monday, saying she never proved her allegation that L'Oreal put brown hair dye in a box labeled as blonde. The company also had disputed the claim.

Feeney referred questions on Wednesday to her attorney, David Laudano, who has declined to comment.

Did it really take a survey to figure this one out???

Many workers do not respect their bosses

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost half of U.S. workers do not respect their boss and only half believe they are competent, according to an online survey released on Friday.

The study by Randstad USA, a unit of the world's number two staffing company Randstad NV, found that the growing financial crisis has seen companies focusing more on their bottom line at the expense of relations with employees.

"Employees' professional development and morale should always be a priority for employers and especially in an economic slowdown when employees may feel additional burdens," said Randstad director Eric Buntin.

The Internet survey of 2,337 people also found only 43 percent think their boss is open to new ideas and only 47 percent were willing to work overtime to impress their boss and create more job security for themselves.

Less than 30 percent believed their bosses were fulfilling their roles as motivators, role models or mentors.

"When it comes to impressing the boss to create more job security during hard times of economic
uncertainty, the survey indicates women are willing to work harder," Buntin said. "A healthy employee-employer relationship greatly contributes to an overall positive workplace attitude."

The survey was carried out by Harris Interactive. Data was weighted to be representative of the total U.S. population based on region, age within gender, education, household, income, and race.

Executives get paid - Taxpayers will foot the bill - "AGAIN!"

Congress opens hearings on financial meltdown

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, Congress was told Monday.

As well, executives who feared for their bonuses in the company's last months were told not to worry, according to documents cited at a congressional hearing. One executive said he was embarrassed when employees suggested that Lehman executives forgo bonuses, and cracked: "I'm not sure what's in the water."

The first hearing into what caused the nation's financial markets to collapse last month, precipitating a $700 billion bailout, opened with finger-pointing and glimpses into internal company documents from Lehman's chaotic last hours.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the giant investment bank was "a company in which there was no accountability for failure." Lehman's collapse set off a panic that within days had President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asking Congress to pass the rescue plan for the financial sector.

Richard S. Fuld Jr., chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers, declared to the committee "I take full responsibility for the decisions that I made and for the actions that I took." He defended his actions as "prudent and appropriate" based on information he had at the time.

"I feel horrible about what happened," he said.

Waxman questioned Fuld on whether it was true he took home some $480 million in compensation since 2000, and asked: "Is that fair?"

Fuld took off his glasses, held them, and looked uncomfortable. He said his compensation was not quite that much.

"We had a compensation committee that spent a tremendous amount of time making sure that the interests of the executives and the employees were aligned with shareholders," he said. Fuld said he took home over $300 million in those years — some $60 million in cash compensation.

Waxman read excerpts from Lehman documents in which a recommendation that top management should forgo bonuses was apparently brushed aside. He also cited a Sept. 11 request to Lehman's compensation board that three executives leaving the company be given $20 million in "special payments."

"In other words, even as Mr. Fuld was pleading with Secretary Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation," Waxman said before Fuld appeared as a witness.

The government let Lehman go under Sept. 15, only to bail out insurance giant American International Group the next day, in a cascading series of financial shocks and failures that put Washington on track for the multibillion-dollar rescue starting the end of that week.

Waxman described that plan as a life-support measure. "It may keep our economy from collapsing but it won't make it healthy again," he said.

That sentiment echoed on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrials sank below 10,000 on Monday for the first time in four years. Investors fear the crisis will weigh down the global economy and the bailout won't work quickly to loosen credit markets.

The rescue plan, now law, was so rushed that the usual congressional scrutiny is only coming now, after the fact.

"Although it comes too late to help Lehman Brothers, the so-called bailout program will have to make wrenching choices, picking winners and losers from a shattered and fragile economic landscape," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee's senior Republican.

Waxman said that in January, Fuld and his board were warned the company's "liquidity can disappear quite fast."

Despite that warning, he said, "Mr. Fuld depleted Lehman's capital reserves by over $10 billion through year-end bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividend payments."

Waxman quoted Fuld as saying in one document, "Don't worry" to the suggestion that executives go without bonuses.

That suggestion came from Lehman's money management subsidiary, Neuberger Berman. Waxman quoted George H. Walker, President Bush's cousin and a Lehman executive who oversaw some Neuberger Berman employees, as responding with a dismissive tone to the idea of going without bonuses.

"Sorry team," he wrote to the executive committee, according to Waxman. "I'm not sure what's in the water at 605 Third Avenue today.... I'm embarrassed and I apologize."

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said: "I wonder how he sleeps at night."

Fuld said in his statement that the company did everything it could to limits its risks and save itself.
"In the end, despite all our efforts, we were overwhelmed, others were overwhelmed, and still other institutions would have been overwhelmed had the government not stepped in to save them," he said.

Dow plunges 800 points amid global sell-off - Yahoo! News

Dow plunges 800 points amid global sell-off

By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer 21 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Wall Street suffered through another traumatic session Monday, with the Dow Jones industrials plunging as much as 800 points and setting a new record for a one-day point drop as investors despaired that the credit crisis would take a heavy toll around the world. The Dow also fell below 10,000 for the first time since 2004, and all the major indexes fell more than 7 percent.

The catalyst for the selling was the growing realization that the Bush administration's $700 billion rescue plan and steps taken by other governments won't work quickly to unfreeze the credit markets. Global banks, hobbled by wrong-way bets on mortgage securities, remain starved for cash as credit has dried up.

That sent stocks spiraling downward in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and drove investors to sink money into the relative safety of U.S. government debt. Fears about a global recession also caused oil to drop below $90 a barrel; and the benchmark index that gauges fear in the market jumped to the highest level in its 18-year history.

"The fact is people are scared and the only thing they're doing is selling," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "Investors are cleaning out portfolios and getting rid of everything because nothing seems to be working."

The selling was so extreme that only 67 stocks rose on the NYSE — and 3,155 dropped. That's a telling sign considering the stock market is considered a leading economic indicator, with investors tending to buy and sell based on where they believe the economy will be in six to nine months.

Monday's steep decline on Wall Street indicates that investors are becoming more convinced that the country is leading a prolonged economic crisis that is spreading to other nations. Over the weekend, governments across Europe rushed to prop up failing banks, while the governments of Germany, Ireland and Greece also said they would guarantee bank deposits.

As the U.S. tries to repair its battered banking system, the German government and financial industry agreed on a $68 billion bailout for commercial-property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. And France's BNP Paribas agreed to acquire a 75 percent stake in Fortis's Belgium bank after a government rescue failed.

The Fed also took fresh steps to help ease credit markets. The central bank said Monday it will begin paying interest on commercial banks' reserves and will expand its loan program to squeezed banks.

Joseph V. Battipaglia, chief investment officer at Ryan Beck & Co., said government intervention certainly might help. However, he believes investors are sensing that what's happening in the economy is a shift in the extent to which consumers and businesses take on debt, a change that will take years to play out.

"This is a global deleveraging of many economies," he said. "It might appear that you're going into the abyss where the economy grinds to a halt and the financial system goes into complete disarray. But, what the market is really reading here is that this is a global phenomenon, and when you delever like this, it is a process that takes a very long period of time measured in years, not quarters."

That, he said, is being reflected in major stock indexes being repriced significantly lower. In late afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 800 points, then recovered slightly in erratic trading to a loss of 764.38, or 7.40 percent, to 9,561.00, dropping below 10,000 for the first time since Oct. 29, 2004. The Dow surpassed its previous record for a one-day point decline — 778, which the blue chips suffered a week ago when investors feared the bailout package might not pass Congress.

TO ALL MY FRIENDS....LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE...FYI only.

"George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.

A little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;

2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;

3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.

4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +

5) American's were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!...

But American's wanted 'CHANGE'! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yes--we got 'CHANGE' all right. In the PAST YEAR:

1) Consumer confidence has plummeted ;

2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;

3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);

4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION DOLLARS and prices still dropping;

5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low~~

$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!

YES, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE...AND WE SURE GOT IT! ....

REMEMBER THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER ANY OF THESE ISSUES, ONLY CONGRESS.

AND WHAT HAS CONGRESS DONE IN THE LAST TWO"

NOW THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT CLAIMS HE IS GOING TO REALLY GIVE US CHANGE ALONG WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS!!!!

JUST HOW MUCH MORE 'CHANGE' DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND?

--
Lee Morrison
Head Off-Ice Official
Ontario Reign Professional Hockey

Illegals Costing US Taxpayers More Than Iraq War

Illegals Costing US Taxpayers
More Than Iraq War
2-4-8

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77 2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cisorg/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html 3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cisorg/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html 4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html 5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html 6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html 7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html 8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and Social Services by the American taxpayers. http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html 9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. http://transcripts..cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html 10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two-and-a-half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html 11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report. http://tinyurl.com/t9sht 12 The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period."http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf 13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm 14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml Total cost is a whooping... $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!!! If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message, but on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, then forward it. Snopes is provided for doubters: http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

You have got to be kidding? A school shooting video game????

Kindergarten shooting game pulled

HELSINKI (Reuters) - An Internet game in which players roam a school and kill kindergarten students with a shotgun has been pulled from a Finnish children's gaming site one week after the country's worst school shooting.

'We have removed pages from our site that are not necessarily appropriate for younger family members,' lastenpelit.fi said in a statement on its Web site.

The game, 'Kindergarten Killer,' can be found widely on the Web.

Matti Saari, 22, last week killed 10 people at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, Finland, in the country's second school shooting in less than a year. Saari prefaced his rampage with boastful video clips on Web sites such as YouTube.

Finnish student Pekka-Eric Auvinen did the same before shooting six fellow students, the school nurse and the principal to death at Jokela high school last November.

Both Saari and Auvinen shot themselves following their rampages and died later from their injuries."

This is what this country has become!!

Ohio woman, 90, attempts suicide after foreclosure

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Ohio woman, facing eviction from the home she has lived in for 38 years, shot and wounded herself this week, becoming a grim symbol of the U.S. home mortgage crisis.

Addie Polk was found lying on the floor of her home with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her shoulder when police came to the home on Wednesday to serve an eviction notice, Akron police spokesman Lt. Rick Edwards said on Friday.

Polk survived the shooting and is being treated in a hospital.

It was the latest attempt by sheriff's deputies to evict Polk from her modest single-family home because she could not keep up with her mortgage.

'It appears they're evicting her over her mortgage. She's lived in the house, the neighbors said, something like 38 years and in the last couple of years fell prey to some predatory lending company or financial institution,' Edwards said.

Local news reports said deputies had tried to serve Polk's eviction notice more than 30 times before Wednesday's shooting."

Home foreclosure rates are at record highs in the United States, in many cases because buyers with adjustable interest rates could not keep up with sharp increases in monthly payments. The foreclosure crisis has sparked a wider housing market downturn and is at the heart of the U.S. financial crisis.

Illegal immigration dropping, study says

Illegal immigration dropping, study says

Do they think we are assholes? If they are illegal they are not taking census polls now are they?

Dicks!!

On the ball: Introducing the world's first testicle cookbook

On the ball: Introducing the world's first testicle cookbook

'Nuff said!!!

Parents Give Up Youths Under Law Meant for Babies - NYTimes.com

Parents Give Up Youths Under Law Meant for Babies

By ERIK ECKHOLM

OMAHA — The abandonments began on Sept. 1, when a mother left her 14-year-old son in a police station here.

By Sept. 23, two more boys and one girl, ages 11 to 14, had been abandoned in hospitals in Omaha and Lincoln. Then a 15-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl were left.

The biggest shock to public officials came last week, when a single father walked into an Omaha hospital and surrendered nine of his 10 children, ages 1 to 17, saying that his wife had died and he could no longer cope with the burden of raising them.

In total last month, 15 older children in Nebraska were dropped off by a beleaguered parent or custodial aunt or grandmother who said the children were unmanageable.

Officials have called the abandonments a misuse of a new law that was mainly intended to prevent so-called Dumpster babies — the abandonment of newborns by young, terrified mothers — but instead has been used to hand off out-of-control teenagers or, in the case of the father of 10, to escape financial and personal despair.

The spate of abandonments has prompted an outcry about parental irresponsibility and pledges to change the state law. But it has also cast a spotlight on the hidden extent of family turmoil around the country and what many experts say is a shortage of respite care, counseling and especially psychiatric services to help parents in dire need.

Some who work with troubled children add that economic conditions, like stagnant low-end wages and the epidemic of foreclosures, may make the situation worse, adding layers of worry and conflict.

“I have no doubt that there are additional stresses today on families who were already on the margin,” said Gary Stangler, director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative in St. Louis, which aids foster children entering adulthood.

Mark Courtney, an expert on child welfare at the University of Washington, said that what happened in Nebraska “would happen in any state.”

“These days there’s a huge void in services for helping distressed families,” Mr. Courtney said.

When children are abused or neglected, they can be taken by the child-welfare system, and possibly enter foster care. When they commit crimes, they enter the juvenile justice system. In both cases, children and parents are supposed to receive counseling and other aid.

But when troubled children do not fit those categories, they often fall through the cracks, Mr. Courtney said. Even middle-income families with health insurance often have only paltry coverage for psychiatric services and cannot afford intensive or residential treatment programs. The poorest, on Medicaid, often have trouble finding therapists who will take the low rates.

And some parents are reluctant to seek whatever help does exist.

Jim Jenkins, a computer network manager in Lincoln, suffered through years with his teenage son, whom he described as “out of control.”

“I can see some parents getting overwhelmed and deciding that giving up the child is the best thing,” Mr. Jenkins said.

The boy’s mother died when he was 8, and at age 13 he seemed to become a different person, Mr. Jenkins said, constantly in trouble at school, making threats that led to visits by the police.

“It was just a living hell for years,” Mr. Jenkins said. “I didn’t know where to turn, and I took it on myself that it was my fault.”

Finally, the police made him put his son in a hospital for troubled youth for several days, then told him about a respite program at Cedars Home for Children, which took the boy for a week, giving Mr. Jenkins, his daughter and his new wife a break and starting therapy for the boy.

“After a while, you realize this is not going to end today, there is no 30-minute solution,” Mr. Jenkins said.
But after years of therapy, his son turned a corner, has a diploma and plans to go to college.

“I was lucky,” Mr. Jenkins said, adding that a parent with more children, a less flexible employer and little money may just throw his hands up.

In July, Nebraska became the last of the states to enact a so-called safe-haven law. Such laws permit mothers to leave an infant at a facility with no fear of prosecution. Nationwide, more than 2,000 babies have been turned over since Texas enacted the first such law in 1999, according to the National Safe Haven Alliance in Virginia.

But Nebraska’s version was far broader than all others, protecting not just infants but also children up to age 19.

State Senator Arnie Stuthman, sponsor of the Nebraska bill, said some legislators had said they wanted to protect all children from harm.

“The law in my opinion is being abused now,” said Mr. Stuthman, who said he would push for a revision. “There are family services out there, but some people may lack the resources to take advantage of them, and we’ve got to take a hard look at what more we can provide.”

Todd A. Landry, the state director of children and family services, denied that the involved families had not had access to aid — most of the children, for example, were in the state Medicaid program and some had received psychiatric care — and he noted that well-publicized hot lines could direct families to help.

“Some parents had accessed our services but weren’t getting the results they wanted,” Mr. Landry said.

“The appropriate response is to reach out to family, friends and community resources,” he said. “What is not appropriate is just to say I’m tired of dealing with this and drop the child off at a hospital.”

Mr. Landry said parents and guardians were mistaken if they thought they could walk away from their responsibilities. For now, such children will be placed in foster care or with relatives, but the courts could require parents to attend counseling and might even order them to pay child support.

He said economic distress was a major issue in only one case, that of Gary Staton, 34, the father of 10 whose wife had died.

Mr. Staton, who gave up all but his oldest child, an 18-year-old girl, remains something of a mystery. His wife died in February 2007 after giving birth to the 10th child. Both parents had sporadic employment.

For nine months, in 2004, the children were taken by child welfare officials because their home was filthy and disordered, and the gas and water had been turned off. The family has since received public aid with rent and utility bills while Mr. Staton, for unclear reasons, recently quit a factory job.

Their rented yellow wooden house in a low-income area of north Omaha was vacant last weekend and showed signs of disrepair, with part of the roof crumbling and a broken window covered with a blanket.
In a telephone interview, with KETV in Omaha, Mr. Staton mentioned the loss of his wife of 17 years.

“We raised them together,” he said. “I didn’t think I could do it alone. I fell apart. I couldn’t take care of them.”

“I was able to get the kids to a safe place before they were homeless,” he said. “I hope they know I love them. I hope their future is better without me around them.”

Stunned relatives offered last week to take in the children, and officials said they would probably go to two family homes as soon as background checks were complete.

Joanne Manzner, the stepmother of the deceased wife, said relatives had frequent contact with Mr. Staton’s family, sometimes taking children for a weekend to give him a rest, and were puzzled that he had not asked for help before taking such drastic action.

Officials and some private agencies differed this week about the adequacy of the state’s family programs.

“In Nebraska, as in a lot of states, we don’t have sufficient funding to provide a really strong mental health system for kids,” said Judy Kay, chief operating officer for the Child Saving Institute in Omaha, which helps families in crisis. “But we do have resources that many parents are not aware of or are not using,” including psychiatric counseling with fees tied to family income.

Some who abandoned children last month were aunts, uncles or grandmothers who had taken custody when the parents were incapable of providing care. Several families had prior contact with social workers and psychologists, but the children remained violent and unmanageable.

Judy Lopez, 48, and her husband took charge of her grandsons here more than three years ago . Both boys had been neglected and physically abused; now, ages 7 and 9, they have severe behavioral problems involving fighting, stealing and lying.

“Some days I just want to pull my hair out,” Ms. Lopez said, adding that like many other families, they were slow to seek aid.

The school suggested a free program managed by the schools and the Child Saving Institute, a local nonprofit organization, that combined counseling for parents and for the children. The boys see a therapist, Ms. Lopez said, and the problems have eased somewhat.

“Help is out there,” she said, “but people have to know how to find it.”