Yeah, Right, Whatever

Sorry this is so late, but... it's been one of those days...

* Let's start with a little weirdness... in South Korea, a guy died after playing computer games 50 hours straight.

South Korean newspapers reported that Lee had recently been fired from his job because he spent too much time playing computer games. When he failed to return home by Friday, however, his mother asked his former colleagues to find him.

When they reached the cafe, Lee told his friends that he would finish the game and go home. He died a few minutes later.

That is just plain... scary...

* uh... message to the guys out there... if you marry three women (without bothering with the pesky divorce decrees)... get a social secretary to keep them apart.

British police confirmed that after Melvyn Reed woke from his triple bypass heart operation earlier this year, his complicated marital affairs took a turn for a worse. All three of his spouses had turned up at the same time, despite his efforts to stagger their visits.

Media reports say that, upon realizing that something was amiss, the wives held a meeting in the parking lot, and learned that they were all married to the same man.

What surprises me about this is that any of the women would choose to stay with this moron.

* Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer admits that they don't always get it right.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer says not all rulings from America's highest court are correct, admitting judges don't have "some great special insight," and he defends the practice of studying courts in foreign countries to help decide cases in the United States.

Um... well, except that whole violating the oath he took to protect and defend the Constitution, he's got at least part of it right.

* A third juror has expressed doubts about Michael Jackson's innocence.

A third juror from the Michael Jackson trial has expressed doubt about the defendant's innocence, saying she believes the entertainer is a child molester but she had reasonable doubt about the charges against him.

Unfortunately, I see her point. She's fairly sure that he's a freak who preys on children. Because of the poor prosecution and iffy testimony, she can't be sure that he did this particular act of vileness. So... blame her or blame the prosecution?

* Steven Vincent might have been shot last week because of his reporting... or because of his upcoming wedding.

An American journalist who was shot dead in Basra last week was executed by Shiite extremists who knew he was intending to marry his Muslim interpreter, it has emerged.

Steven Vincent was shot a week before the planned wedding to Nouriya Itais and had already delivered a $2,500 dowry to her family.

Granted, we don't know this for sure yet. But... either way... is that a reason to gun down someone?

* The 9th Circus Court of Appeals actually did something right when it refused a request to block implementation of a voter-approved law in Arizona.

A federal appeals court refused Tuesday to block part of an Arizona law that denies some public benefits to illegal immigrants, saying the plaintiffs had no right to sue.

The voter-approved law appeared on Arizona's November election ballot. The portion at issue bars illegal immigrants from getting certain public benefits and makes it a crime for public employees to fail to report undocumented immigrants who seek the benefits.

Oops... the plaintiffs had no right to sue because it didn't effect them. I guess that's because they're citizens of the great state of Arizona, legally here participating in society. So... I guess those who are effected need to sue... oh, but wait... they can't because THEY'RE HERE ILLEGALLY AND HAVE NO RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. Oh, well...

* An Oklahoma man was arrested for trying to take an IED onto a plane at the OKC airport.

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr., 24, was detained on Wednesday morning after a security screener using an X-ray machine saw the device in his luggage as he tried to board a flight to Philadelphia at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.

uh... wow... not the sharpest knife in the drawer, eh???

* Texas has become the 4th "majority-minority" state.

Texas has become the fourth state to have a non-white majority population, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday, a trend driven by a surging number of Hispanics moving to the state.

According to the population estimates based on the 2000 Census, about 50.2 percent of Texans are now minorities. In the 2000 Census, minorities made up about 47 percent of the population in the second-largest state.

You know... I don't have a problem with that. The problem that I have is that the culture that is completely unique to the United States is being lost to "multi-culti" mumbo-jumbo. For generations, people came to this country and transformed themselves into Americans- speaking the language, adopting the customs. Now, immigrants are encouraged to not learn English and to not try to assimilate. We're losing that which makes us the UNITED States, and that's what bothers me.

* The Oxford Dictionary has come out with its latest edition, with a bunch of new words. And some people are evidently not too happy about it.

People appalled by the uglification of English have fresh meat to chew on today with the publication of a new Oxford dictionary.


The language of Shakespeare, Milton and Keats has officially taken delivery of a host of new words following their inclusion in the latest single-volume Oxford Dictionary of English. Needless to say, each one is more hideous than the last.

These people are obviously word-snobs who haven't noticed how the language of Shakespeare, Milton and Keats was changed by people such as Shakespeare, Milton and Keats. Languages are one of two things... "Dead" or, well... "alive." Languages that haven't gone the way of the dinosaur have grown and changed over the centuries (dare I say "evolved"?) and, in some cases, hardly resemble their former selves. I mean, really... have you ever tried to read Old English? It's not happening without a Ph. D.

*The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks tonight (well, tomorrow morning at 3am).

For as long as records exist, the Perseid meteor showers have always been strong. This summer's Perseid shower will be exceptional. The moon is mostly out of the way later in the night, and higher-than-normal activity rates are expected over the United States.... For now, a nice outburst is projected for Aug. 12, 2005, at 08:18h UT (= 04:18 EDT and 01:18 PDT), when Earth will encounter the dust ejected in the return of 1479. Rates can go up four fold to about 240 per hour on top of the 80 per hour annual activity, for a brief period of time (approximately 1.2 hours).

What? Do you really think that I would do something as silly as set my alarm clock for 3am, wake up my kids, and drag them outside to see a bunch of shooting stars? hmmm... where is that alarm clock anyway????

I guess I should take a nap now, eh?