STS-134 mission poster

Thanks for finding this, Wally. (Not-so-huge PDF.)

Da damn thang is leanin'

South Padre Island's leaning tower, since demolished. (h/t Noodles)

Jim the Realtor never made a video like this.

There are a couple of towers like this one built on Galveston's beaches. I hope they were engineered better.

Typhoid Carrey

Jim Carrey is a laff riot.

Jim Carrey, famous world over for his hilarious performances in movies such as The Mask and Ace Ventura, is now an active campaigner against vaccinations.

I think that the leaders of the anti-vaccination cult should be held responsible for the fear they cause and the resulting spread of disease. In Schenck v. United States,

The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent.

Surely the needless spreading of lethal diseases that were once wiped out represents a clear and present danger.

In May, The New England Journal of Medicine laid the blame for clusters of disease outbreaks throughout the US squarely at the feet of declining vaccination rates, while nonprofit health care provider Kaiser Permanente reported that unvaccinated children were 23 times more likely to get pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes violent coughing and is potentially lethal to infants. In the June issue of the journal Pediatrics, Jason Glanz, an epidemiologist at Kaiser’s Institute for Health Research, revealed that the number of reported pertussis cases jumped from 1,000 in 1976 to 26,000 in 2004. A disease that vaccines made rare, in other words, is making a comeback. “This study helps dispel one of the commonly held beliefs among vaccine-refusing parents: that their children are not at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” Glanz says.

Update via Telescope Mercenary: Jenny McCarthy Body Count.

Kiss your sweetie in Dubai and get tossed into the pokey

Honeymoon in Dubai. The offended busybody:

...told police that she had seen the couple kissing each other on the lips and touching each other – a violation of laws against public indecency.

But in her statement to the prosecution, she only said that her children had seen the offence.

Maybe some bankrupt European real estate investors can clue me in: What is it about Dubai that makes you want to live there, own property and spend your holidays?

Got allergies?

After living in Katy for 15 years I forgot how bad the pine tree pollen in northwest Houston is. It feels like I have millions of tiny razor blades glued to my eyeballs and one sneeze prompts another.

I used the blower to clean the driveway off this afternoon. Actually, I tried that for less than 5 seconds as I was enveloped in a thick cloud of yellow pollen. So I went the low-tech route and used a broom.

No Halal

Some French people are protesting halal only foods at a large European fast food chain. ("Quick! Get me a bucket." - Bill Bryson)

I want the US to always be welcoming to immigrants. I just don't want immigrants insisting upon bringing their baggage to our shores. What's the point of immigrating if you want to recreate the lousy conditions back home?

Goodluck, Jonathan

I didn't know until today that the President of the largest country in Africa is Goodluck Jonathan.

Felix Ortiz is quite a busybody

New York State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) is trying to ram through a ban on chefs adding salt to food. Assemblyman Ortiz is quite a busybody. Other bills that he is sponsoring, as listed on his website:

• Prohibits restaurants from the sale of food items containing trans fats.
• Requires schools to implement a method to measure, report, and analyze the body mass index of its students.
• Requires certain restaurants and food service establishments to post the caloric value of food items; provides exemptions.
• Requires skiers to wear protective helmets.
• Requires a risk analysis for diabetes and if necessary a test for diabetes for all children admitted to public schools and periodically, thereafter.
• Directs the department of health to develop information, methods and protocols for the voluntary reduction or elimination of the use of trans fat in restaurants, schools, hospitals, adult homes and child day care centers; establishes reporting requirements.

You get the idea. A complete list is here. Interestingly, none of his proposals address New York State's crippling $60 billion deficit.

Become a Federal Employee and Get Rich

Our economy is badly out of whack when 6 of the 10 richest counties in United States are populated by federal employees. The financial-media-military-government complex needs to be reset. It may already be too late.

Man sues airline for not looking at his scrotum

That's the headline.

MONTREAL - A Westmount resident's lawsuit against Air Transat, for failure to provide him with appropriated medical attention during a flight, was dismissed in small claims court this past Tuesday.

His illness? Sudden and mysterious bleeding in the area between his legs.

The curious incident occurred February 15, 2008 during a flight from Montreal to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Marcel Cote was comfortably seated in business class an hour after takeoff when, for some unknown reason, he felt enough discomfort to make an emergency visit to the washroom, where he discovered spots of blood on his body.

In a panic, Cote asked for the help of a flight attendant, who quickly came to his side. When the passenger noticed that the agent was female, he asked to be assisted by a male attendant because the bleeding seemed to be coming from his genital area.

When the male attendant came to him, Cote then asked to be closely examined so that the exact nature of the problem can be determined. The employee declined, giving him absorbent paper instead.

Solve the Mystery

Walmart, a mammoth chain of low-wage discount stores that sells cheap crap made in China, is a symbol of pure evil that oppresses workers, destroys local businesses, and the people who shop there are good for a laugh. Target and Ikea, mammoth chains of low-wage discount stores that sell cheap crap made in China and destroy local businesses, are the opposite.