Opinion Polls October 31, 2008
Posted by Michael in News.comments closed
I’ve had enough.
I’m sick to death of hearing about opinion polls. If I read another analysis of the poll “internals” I’m going to hurl. I just don’t care anymore about the built-in biases against McCain, cell phone users, Hispanics, new voters, the elderly, and on and on. This year I have slammed the phone down on every pollster who has called. Personally, I think that only an idiot would participate in an opinion poll or pay any attention to them.
But that’s just me. What do you think?¹
Moses The Bull wishes you all a “Happy Halloween”. October 30, 2008
Posted by wintersetruss in Heroes.Tags: Baby Crimefighters
comments closed
Picture taken in the middle of September, just in case the costume didn’t fit by this week – which it darn near doesn’t.
A good friend of mine works at the liquor store down the street from our office. I took him over to see her wearing his costume this afternoon, so now he’ll be able to say that his first foray into trick or treating was a trip to Rodgers’ Spirits & More.
Texas Leads the Nation . . . October 30, 2008
Posted by Michael in Crime, News, Personal Experiences, Politics.comments closed
. . . .at getting killed by deer. The Cheeseheads are right behind us.
WASHINGTON — Fatalities from vehicle crashes with deer and other animals have more than doubled over the last 15 years, according to a new study by an auto insurance-funded highway safety group that cites urban sprawl overlapping into deer habitat.
The report by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that 223 people died in animal-vehicle crashes last year, up from 150 in 2000 and 101 in 1993.
Since 1993, Texas had the most deaths from such crashes, with 227, followed by Wisconsin with 123 and Pennsylvania with 112.
via Dallas Morning News | Breaking News
I hit one myself a few years ago in San Antonio. Nobody was hurt, but the car needed a lot of body work.
Collisions with deer are all too common today. We’ve all seen this:
When I was a kid, it was a rare treat to see a deer, but in the decades since the deer population has exploded. It is estimated that the herd has grown from half a million at the turn of the century to 30 million today, and they continue to increase their presence in populated areas where they have no predators and abundant food. In the process, they have become dangerous to humans and destructive to crops and landscaping.
It’s time to fight back.
I, for one, want to know what Barack Obama is going to do about this threat to our economy and national security. Surely he has some kind of plan for the government to solve this problem.
In the picture below, we see the result of eight years of failed Republican deer management policies.
It’s time for a change.
So, Who Would You Allow Into The Bunker With You? October 30, 2008
Posted by Edward von Bear in Ducks, Economics, Family, Food, Gardening, History, Law, Literature, Lurkers, Man Laws, Movies, News, Politics, Sex, Sports.Tags: Gimme A Sockfull Of Marbles And I'm Happy, What if we all have bad gas?, WP must be allowed in
comments closed
Given recent comments about the looming Zombie/Russkie invasion, and where to hide , some thinking has gone on in my feeble brain regarding not only where we should hide, but with whom we should share the bunker.
Excluding the usuals (family, IBers, Hostages, Ace, and Jack M), my choices are as follows:
Officers described Daly as extremely intoxicated and uncooperative. He repeated he didn’t want to go to the hospital. Hooters employees asked Daly to leave. But Daly did not have transportation. Officers say he was part of a group traveling on a tour bus. The group left Daly behind at the Hooters because they didn’t want him to continue traveling with them.
Marshall Cartwright, 33, was sitting on the ground drinking from the partially full keg when officers went to the Bethany Greenbelt Park, near Delaware Avenue and Bethany Curve, around 11:45 a.m. Monday, police said.
Someone had called 911 after reportedly seeing Cartwright drinking beer from a Mason jar and urinating in the bushes, according to police Capt. Steve Clark. He had a second Mason jar he used to sell the beer, which he had purchased along with a tap at a Pacific Avenue liquor store.
Cartwright got hostile when officers tried to interview him and told them he was a military operative, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public.
Police said they searched his belongings and found about 20 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and a Camelbak bladder with more beer in it. He also had a harmonica and a wetsuit with him, both of which police suspect were stolen.
These wallabies, since they appear to be real badasses.
Residents at Carlyle Gardens in Townsville are said to be too afraid to leave their homes when the 100-strong mob runs amok in the early mornings and late afternoons.
The wallabies are crashing into cars, scooters and even elderly residents, the Townsville Bulletin reports.
Large male wallabies, over a metre tall and weighing up to 30kg, are fighting, falling against the side of homes and damaging walls.
An operation is now under way to relocate the animals.
Carlyle Gardens resort manager Leigh Bradley said the upmarket village wasn’t the place for wallabies.
“Some of the residents were very worried because now they find themselves confined to their homes because they are afraid of being knocked over,” she said.
“Faeces are left on patios and residents open their back doors and step in it.
Oh, and one more (warning: it’s below the fold for a reason, though it is SFW):
(more…)
Homeowner Stabbed and Shot With Own Gun During Robbery October 29, 2008
Posted by Michael in Crime.comments closed
Further evidence that you should never threaten anyone with a gun if you are not ready to actually use deadly force. Guns are designed to kill, not to intimidate.
A Watauga [Texas] homeowner was stabbed several times and shot once with his own gun during a robbery early this morning, police said.
How the heck does a robber with a knife decide to attack a man with a shotgun, and succeed? Something went very wrong here.
The incident occurred in the 6000 block of Sundown Drive in Watauga about 10 miles northeast of Fort Worth.
According to Watauga police, a man heard someone trying to break into a trailer parked in his driveway around 3:30 a.m.
Armed with a shotgun, the man confronted the intruder who stabbed him several times. The gun went off during the scuffle, and the homeowner was shot in the arm.
A neighbor who came to the help the homeowner was also stabbed multiple times, police said.
There’s an old saying — don’t show up for a gunfight with a knife. Even more important — don’t show up for a knife fight with a gun you’re not prepared to use.
Try 911.
via Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth
Another Reason to Avoid Australia October 28, 2008
Posted by Michael in News.comments closed
Aside from the world’s worst concentration of venomous snakes, you have to deal with this:
No more hope and change for you, little bird.
The pictures show the spider with its long black legs wrapped around the body of a dead bird suspended in its web.
Giant spider eating a bird caught on camera
The startling images were reportedly taken in Atheron, close to Queensland’s tropical north.
Despite their unlikely subject matter, the pictures appear to be real.
Joel Shakespeare, head spider keeper at the Australian Reptile Park, said the spider was a Golden Orb Weaver.
Marine Runs Marathon On One Leg October 28, 2008
Posted by Edward von Bear in Heroes.Tags: And Yet I Complain With A Hangnail
comments closed
I can add nothing to the valor that this fine young man has already demonstrated.
Before Cpl. Dan Lasko lost his left leg from the knee down as a result of a 2004 bomb blast in Afghanistan, he didn’t consider himself a runner. He didn’t spent much time distance running, and preferred team sports to the open road.
That all changed after Lasko, 25, joined Team Semper Fi, a group of injured Marines who raise money for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.
Sunday, Lasko completed the Marine Corps Marathon on his prosthetic leg, finishing in 5 hours, 30 minutes, 43 seconds. He can add it to a post-blast resume that includes several triathlons, the Army Ten-Miler and the Bataan Memorial Death March, a marathon-length march through White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
“My friends think I’m nuts,” said Lasko, who was medically retired by the Corps in 2005. “Before I got injured, I was never a runner.”
Godspeed, Marine. Godspeed.
Position Announcement October 27, 2008
Posted by skinbad in Music, Technology.comments closed
Innocent Bystanders is a semi-popular hangout blog with an emphasis on mildly tipsy vulgarity rather than outright drunken profanity. We are seeking an outstanding individual for an exciting opportunity to work as an administrative assistant to the blog.
Qualifications, Knowledge and Abilities:
- An earned associates degree is preferred;
- A working knowledge of Word and WordPress (or similar software) is preferred;
- General office skills required;
- The successful candidate will have back seat rhythm and not be thunderstruck in stressful situations;
- Proficiency in Excel is also required.
Technology Made Me Miss Mass October 27, 2008
Posted by Retired Geezer in Man Laws, Science.Tags: Spudders can be educated
comments closed
Ok, it wasn’t ‘Mass’, it was just plain-old non-Lutheran church, but that title doesn’t have quite the alliteration that the present title does.
On to the story.
We have one of those fancy high-tech clock radios that has 2 separate alarms for 2 different radio stations, even weekday and weekend alarms. The best feature is, it automatically changes the time when Daylight Savings Time rolls around so I don’t have to. It used to work just dandy. That is, until the morons in Congress changed the start and end days for DST.
In 2005, Reps. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Fred Upton of Michigan drafted legislation that would extend daylight-saving time nationwide. Congress approved the amendment, which called for clocks to be sprung forward three weeks earlier in the spring and one week later in the fall. The change went into effect in 2007.
Apparently the microchip in my clock hasn’t gotten the memo because it keeps setting the time back, one week early in the fall and 3 weeks later in the spring.
When 2am Sunday morning rolled around, my clock backed up the time to 1am. Later when the alarm went off at 7am, it was really 8am in the Spud State. Fortunately we realized it before we drove 20 miles to church. Since we missed the first service, we casually got ready and went to the later service.
I looked on the Intertube to see if there was a way I could reeducate my clock in the error of its ways. No Joy.
My clock was built before anyone had even thought of changing the duration of DST, therefore, there is no way to reeducate it. I could buy a new clock that’s programmable for that feature but the old one works fine and I don’t want to spend an extra $100 until I see who wins the election. I might need that money for bibles or ammo or something.
Yes, it’s a pain in the patootie to remember to change it 4 times a year… “Four times a year, Geezer?”
- Advance it one hour in the fall when it erroneously retards it a week early.
- Retard it one hour when it forgets to do it at the proper time.
- Advance it one hour in the spring when it fails to advance it on its own.
- Retard it one hour when it advances it on the ‘regular’ date.
Oh and by the way, DST doesn’t save any energy, in fact it cost the residents of one state an extra 8.6 million dollars due to such reasons as “heaters being on earlier in the morning and air conditioning units being on longer in the afternoon”.
Here’s an interesting site that has all sorts of anecdotes about Daylight Savings Time:
Did you know that DST confusion caused 3 terrorists to blow themselves up instead of their intended targets, two busloads of people?
Did you know that some guy used DST to get out of the Draft?
Did you know that there are riots at some bars by followers of the AoS ™ Lifestyle, during the DST switch?
Well, that’s all I got.
All together class; Spring Forward – Fall Back!
Fall Vacation October 27, 2008
Posted by skinbad in Ducks, Entertainment, Family, Personal Experiences, Travel.comments closed
The kids have a “Fall Break” so all the public education teachers in the state can enjoy two days of screwing off like the rest of us attend important workshops to strengthen their teaching skills and knowledge. We spent three days hiking around Arches National Park with three other families from the neighborhood. The weather cooperated in a spectacular fashion. I know you’re all dying for the travel pictures. Here are a few:
Batbear Takes a Hi-Tech Shower October 26, 2008
Posted by batbear in Personal Experiences.comments closed
Hi there, my name is Batbear and I am a crimefighter.
Crimefighters work hard and get sweaty. We need to make sure we stay clean. So, I’m going to take a shower at Michael’s house.
I like to hang out with Michael because he and Casey are also crimefighters, so I feel at home.
Is that a shower or a frickin' time travel machine?
Dodging an OSU Bullet UPDATED UPDATE TO THE UPDATE!!11! October 25, 2008
Posted by daveintexas in Crime, Ducks, Music, Personal Experiences.comments closed
Texas pulled that one out! Awesomeness!
I feel bad for Michigan. But I’m glad Michael’s alma mater whupped em up good. Congrats Michael!!
Life is good.
ALSO I get to rock a little tomorrow morning. Might play with a pick!
Might be video action. You don’t know! You’re on the edge of your seat though.
UPDATE: The MusiciansFriend catalog showed up today!!11!
needful things
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: uhhnnnnggggaaaagghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Innocent Bystanders 
