I’m having an 80’s moment
1 comment December 31st, 2006
Archive for December, 2006
Top Pet Names of the Year
Bow Wow Meow’s list of most popular dog and cat names is listed below. This list is drawn from Bow Wow Meow’s pet identification tag business which has processed hundreds of thousands of orders.
2 comments December 31st, 2006
SADDAM’S HANGING — UNCUT
Here’s an article that describes the hanging with some details that wasn’t really reported. For instance, his last words are ‘Go to Hell.’
As they guide him towards the trap door and put the noose over his head, they start chanting religious slogans with the names of Moqtada al Sadr (the head of the Mahdi army, accused of organizing death squads against Sunnis) and Baqr al Sadr (the father-in-law of Moqtada). Saddam, a Sunni, is outraged at this last-minute provocation, and tells them to “go to hell.â€Â This is generally where the two TV stations cut the video, but on at least one occasion that we saw, Arabiya allowed the video to keep rolling: The cell phone camera is jerked down to the ground, as if the person holding it had to conceal the camera, then it is slowly raised up to Saddam again, and suddenly his body shoots down through the trapdoor.Â
Interested in the video of the actual hanging? You can watch it here. The quality is poor and shaky, probably taken via a cell phone. You see him drop and briefly hang with flashes from cameras. The sound of the drop is a little disturbing.
On another note, the execution seemed a bit unprofessional, if that makes sense. I would have expected the executioners to all be wearing some type of government/official/military uniform, or at least all of them to be dressed the same, and for their to be more lighting. Instead, it looks like a bunch of people from the streets dressed as everyday working class citizens performing the execution in a basement. But then again, maybe that was what they wanted.
1 comment December 31st, 2006
Lincoln Catafalque Talk
For some reason, I always thought that after Lincoln was laid to rest, the catafalque used to hold his coffin wasn’t used again until Kennedy died – but I was wrong!
As a matter of fact, President Ford will be the 12th president and 28th person overall to have laid in state on the catafalque.
Here’s a list of everyone that has been on the catafalque, and here’s a little more info on the Lincoln catafalque, a little dated from the Reagan funeral, but still valid.
Also, here’s two bits of information I found interesting about the Lincoln catafalque:
- Abraham Lincoln’s catafalque, hastily designed and built in 1865 by Commissioner of Public Buildings Benjamin Baker French, is a nailed-together platform of rough pine boards about 7 feet long, raised about 3 feet off the ground and covered with a black cloth drapery. After Lincoln’s funeral, the catafalque was permanently stored in Washington’s Tomb. This space, a tiny cell two floors below the Rotunda, had lain vacant since 1832, when plans to disinter the first president from his resting place in Mount Vernon fell through.
- It was used in the Supreme Court building to support the casket of former Justice Harry Blackmun—just before his ashes were driven to Arlington Cemetery in a Volkswagen Beetle.
Add comment December 30th, 2006
Find out the 7 Wonders of Your State
Turns out San Antonio has most of the ‘wonders’ in Texas.
Find out your state’s 7 wonders here.
Add comment December 29th, 2006
What American accent do you have?
Yup, I’m from Texas.
Find out your accent here.
7 comments December 29th, 2006
7 Days With God’s Army
Here is some great material for all the pastoral folks that read BON.
Mark Kelley is a reportor from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and a non-believer. On this assignment he spends seven days in the U.S. (mostly in the south) covering evangelical Christians. I’m sure his sarcastic tone will annoy you, and he may even offend you, but he gives a fresh and honest perspective from a non-believer. He has some great observations, some of them are dead on. He mentions that it seems like most of the time it’s just ’Christians talking to Christians’ and a lot of the material seems like propaganda.
Watch the video here, but make sure you set a little time aside, it’s just under 25 minutes long. I’ve watched it twice already.
2 comments December 28th, 2006
Prince Harry Off To Iraq?
Prince Harry is to be sent to Iraq next year as a troop commander and is likely to patrol the hazardous border with Iran, defence sources have disclosed.
The third in line to the throne will join the Army’s 1st Mechanised Brigade, which will be deployed to Basra in May 2007.
The prince has told colleagues that he is determined to go on operations and be treated as normally as possible – not kept out of the line of fire.
As a troop commander in the Blues and Royals, the prince will have the rank of cornet, equivalent to a second lieutenant, in charge of 11 men and four light tanks.
Although the mission will be hazardous, the prince is keen that his royal position will not disqualify him.
“There’s no way I’m going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country,” he has said.
Add comment December 28th, 2006
Woman Crushed By Leaping Dolphin
WELLINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters Life!) – A New Zealand woman is in critical condition in hospital after being crushed by a dolphin that leaped on to her boat, media reported on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old woman had been watching from the bow of the small boat cruising among the marine mammals off the North Island’s Coromandel Peninsula on Tuesday when the bottlenose dolphin landed on her, the New Zealand Herald said.
She suffered serious head injuries and was flown to hospital in Auckland.
The dolphin also smashed the boat’s windshield and bow rails before jumping back into the ocean, witnesses told the Herald.
Add comment December 28th, 2006
Cliché Finder
In case you are ever in need of a good cliche, click here.
Add comment December 27th, 2006
The Stinkymeat Project
What happens when you leave meat outside for 19 days?
Find out here.
1 comment December 27th, 2006
President Gerald Ford was really Leslie King
Ford was born Leslie Lynch King on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. When he was just 2 years old, his parents divorced, and his mother moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he grew up. His mother remarried, and he was adopted and renamed after his stepfather, Gerald Rudolph Ford.
Ford was a high school senior when he met his biological father, AP reported. He was working in a Greek restaurant, he recalled, when a man came in and stood watching.
“Finally, he walked over and said, ‘I’m your father,’ ” Ford said, according to AP. “Well, that was quite a shock.” But he wrote in his memoir that he broke down and cried that night and was left with the image of “a carefree, well-to-do man who didn’t really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son,” AP reported.
Add comment December 27th, 2006
Ronald Reagan’s Burial – A Behind The Scenes Diary
A little long, but very interesting read if you are the type that is curious about the behind the scenes stuff.
To save you a little time, just start reading from the ‘Thursday, June 10′ section.
Also, when performing a Google image search for “Reagan grave,” I actually came across pictures of some idiot dancing on Reagan’s grave and urinating on Nixon’s grave. Even if you dislike them or disagree with their policies, some things are just uncalled for.
Add comment December 27th, 2006
72 Things Every Man Should Know About Fatherhood
Some examples:
- Don’t worry, your dad didn’t know what he was doing, either.
- Your child, at birth, already has a deeply complicated relationship with his mother, and, for the first year, you are only a curiosity.
- The first time you change your son’s diaper and he pees all over you is not an accident. It’s foreshadowing.
- Beware your child’s uncles, who will teach your kid dirty words, introduce him to liquor, and give him gifts of drums, archery sets, and possibly matches.- They never really outgrow the claw.
7 comments December 27th, 2006
Britain pays 1945 war debt
The government will this week close a chapter in Britain’s wartime history by completing the repayment of a loan taken out with America more than 60 years ago, just after the second world war. Treasury officials said the repayment of the US war loan taken out under a 1945 agreement would be completed by December 31.
The loan dates back to September 1945. From 1941, Britain and other allied nations had received large quantities of equipment and supplies under Franklin Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease programme.
Britain received about $30 billion of goods — just over £7 billion at the prevailing exchange rate — during the war years, in effect gifts from America. But in September 1945 the US abruptly announced an end to the Lend-Lease programme, despite the need for large-scale reconstruction and with Britain on its knees economically.
Goods already in Britain or in transit were sold to the UK government at heavily discounted prices — one-tenth of their value — the amount paid being in the form of a loan.
The amount, together with a line of credit, was $4.34 billion with a 2% interest rate, originally intended to be paid back over 50 years beginning in 1950.
Add comment December 27th, 2006