SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget cuts could mean the closing of up to 220 state parks, among them the home of the world’s tallest tree and other attractions that draw millions of visitors. Schwarzenegger this week recommended eliminating $70 million in parks spending through June 30, 2010. An additional $143.4 million would be saved in the following fiscal year by keeping the parks closed.
Might as well close the Governor's Mansion--nothing productive is happening there.
“This is a worst-case scenario,” said Roy Sterns, a spokesman at the state parks department. “If we can do less than this, we will try. But under the present proposal, this is it.”
Among the parks that could be closed, the parks department said Thursday, are Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay, Will Rogers’ Southern California ranch and Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which boasts the world’s tallest tree, a giant that tops 370 feet. Even the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento is on the list.
The Legislature last year rejected the governor’s proposal to close 48 state parks. But lawmakers said that with California’s budget deficit now at $24.3 billion, the situation is so dire that it is likely some parks will close.
“Things that were previously dead on arrival are a lot more viable in a crisis like this,” said Democrat Jared Huffman, chairman of the Assembly’s parks and wildlife committee. “I think some cuts are coming to the parks, and they’ll be cuts I won’t like and the public won’t like.”
The state parks department said a $70 million cut would leave it with enough money to run just 59 of California’s 279 state parks. (Read more.)
B.S. Report–I’d like to take a look at that budget–I’m sure I can come up with a few things that deserve to be cut more than the state parks…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An openly gay teen has been voted prom queen at his Los Angeles high school in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and popularity.
Sergio Garcia said he felt “invincible” when he was crowned queen of the Fairfax High School dance at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Saturday.
Days before the dance, Garcia told fellow students that he was “not your typical prom queen candidate. There’s more to me than meets the eye.”
He also promised that he would be wearing a suit on prom night, but “don’t be fooled: Deep down, I am a queen.”
And he made good of that promise Saturday, wearing a gray tuxedo topped off with the prized tiara.
Garcia, 18, said he saw fliers advertising the prom and the election but they didn’t specify that the queen must be female. He thought the role would suit him better than prom king.
“I don’t wish to be a girl,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I just wish to be myself.”
Senior class president Vanessa Lo said she and other students were initially against the idea but became convinced he wasn’t just an attention-seeking clown.
“It just goes to show how open-minded our class is,” Lo said.
Unique Payne, 17, said she voted for Garcia because she supported the gay community.
Although many students were supportive of Garcia’s run, others were upset and didn’t understand why Garcia chose to run for prom queen.
“I’m not really happy about that,” said 17-year-old Juan Espinoza. “He should’ve run for prom king.”
B.S. Report–Part of me wants to say, “Who cares if a boy wants to run for Prom Queen–it’s most likely a teen lark anyway?” But, for some reason, I still like to pretend that schools are places that teach true life lessons and not falsehoods.
It is now a normal occurrence in U.S. high schools for gays to run for prom king or queen even though they are not a member of that gender. It’s so obviously silly and not worthy of mention except for the fact that young people need to be taught that there is far more to one’s gender than their sexual orientation.
A gay male is still a male regardless of the fact that he is attracted to men instead of women. Likewise, gay females are not males simply because they feel less feminine.
High school administrators should have the guts not to allow boys to enter contests for girls and vice versa. This only succeeds in blurring the very real differences between the sexes and confusing kids in the guise of making them feel more “comfortable” with their sexual identities.
This is the liberal brainwash that occurs in just about all of our public schools. But because it inculcates liberalism to the students, the damage caused to society goes with nary a mention by the mainstream media.
I see “pragmatists” everywhere I look in the Republican Party — those who say we must always be more concerned with not offending so-called moderates than with advancing our principles. The irony is that no one is less pragmatic, in the end, than these self-styled pragmatists because their prescriptions are a recipe for failure.
Most recently, of course, the Republican branch of the political correctness sect insists that we must not oppose Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination for the Supreme Court because her confirmation is inevitable and by opposing it, we’ll gratuitously alienate Hispanics and women — as if they haven’t already been conditioned by the liberal press to believe conservatives are ogres regardless.
What’s missing from this analysis is that one of the main reasons Republicans have lost favor of late, reflected in their trouncing in the 2006 congressional elections and in shrinking GOP party identification percentages, is their alienation of the conservative base. The best-kept secret is that with 60 percent of Americans still considering themselves conservatives, Republicans only need to be true to their conservative principles to win again.
While I’ve always considered it hyperbolic to suggest there is no difference between the parties, I find it increasingly difficult to defend this position. Beltway Republicans, with notable exceptions, spend half their time groveling to the forces of political correctness, conceding the ideological turf wars to liberal Democrats and agreeing to operate within the four corners of the liberal- and relativist-dominant media culture without a fight.
Take, for example, the Republicans’ approaches to Obama’s newly announced Draconian CAFE standards and his cap and trade proposal. In response to both, they virtually concede the cultish dogma that man-made global warming is destroying the Earth, rendering them powerless to battle to save capitalism. Likewise, how many of them fight for nuclear energy instead of knuckling under to the left’s destructive fear-mongering on this no-brainer alternative energy source?
Republicans lose elections when they surrender their conservatism; not when they speak out and defend it...
Similarly, on Obama’s obsession with consummating the already-started process of socializing American medicine, many Republican leaders are talking about massaging his plan at the margins rather than challenging its inevitability and opposing it head-on. The only thing inevitable about nationalized health care is that it would destroy the best medical system in the world. Yet where are the GOP Paul Reveres?
Another example is the Guantanamo Bay prison. When President Bush said he’d like to close the prison if and when feasible, he opened the door for President Obama to press forward with this insanity. Republicans have boxed themselves in on the issue and have less credibility to challenge the anti-war leftist propaganda that we grossly abused prisoners there, when the evidence shows the opposite. Instead of leading, Republicans are allowing themselves to be led, lest they be singled out for special ridicule by liberals for telling the politically incorrect truth.
Nor do many Republicans have the temerity to dispute the patently absurd leftist dogma that Gitmo is the terrorists’ greatest recruitment tool because otherwise-peaceful Muslims will be so outraged at mild mistreatment of war prisoners — in those exceptional cases in which mistreatment occurs — that they’ll join the beheading movement. (Read more.)
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO tours entertaining American military personnel.Throughout his career, he was honored for his humanitarian work.
Early years
Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. His father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer who later worked as a cleaning woman. The family lived in Weston-super-Mare, then Whitehall and St. George in Bristol, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of seventeen. In a 1942 legal document, Hope’s legal name is given as Lester Townes Hope; it is unknown if this reflects a legal name change.
From the age of 12, he worked at a variety of odd jobs at a local board walk. He would busk, doing dance and comedy patter to make extra money. He entered many dancing and amateur talent contests, and won prizes for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. He also boxed briefly and unsuccessfully under the name Packy East, once making it to the semifinals of the Ohio novice championship.
Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw one of his performances, and in 1925 got him steady work with Hurley’s Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters, conjoined twins who had a tap dancing routine. Hope and his partner George Byrne had an act as a pair of Siamese twins as well, and both danced and sang while wearing blackface, before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, by his own account, Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner (and future wife) Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for Pathé at Culver City, California.
Hope, like other stage performers, made his first films in New York. Educational Pictures employed him in 1934 for a short-subject comedy, Going Spanish. Unfortunately for Hope, he sealed his fate with Educational when a newspaper columnist asked him about the film. Hope cracked, “When they catch John Dillinger, they’re going to make him sit through it twice.” Educational fired him, but he was soon before the cameras at New York’s Vitaphone studio starring in 20-minute comedies and musicals.
Paramount Pictures signed Hope for the 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938. During a duet with Shirley Ross as accompanied by Shep Fields and his orchestra, Hope introduced the song later to become his trademark, “Thanks for the Memory”, which became a major hit and was praised by critics. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope’s writers (whom he is said to have depended upon heavily throughout his career) to later invent endless variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour.
Hope became one of Paramount’s biggest stars, and would remain with the studio through the 1950s. Hope’s regular appearances in Hollywood films and radio made him one of the best known entertainers in North America, and at the height of his career he was also making a large income from live concert performances.
As a movie star, he was best known for My Favorite Brunette and the highly successful “Road” movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. Hope had seen Lamour as a nightclub singer in New York, and invited her to work on his USO tours. Lamour is said to have arrived for filming prepared with her lines, only to be baffled by completely re-written scripts from Hope’s writers without studio permission. Hope and Lamour were lifelong friends, and she is the actress most associated with his film career. Other female co-stars included Paulette Goddard, Lucille Ball, Jane Russell, and Hedy Lamarr. (Read more.)
1790 – The smallest of the United States joined the first 12 states as number 13.
Flag of Rhode Island
1827 – The first nautical school opened in Nantucket, MA. Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin’s Lancastrian School was the name. Learning to set sail was the game…
Sir Isaac Coffin
1844 – The first dark horse candidate was born at the Democratic Convention in Baltimore, Maryland. With the political rush of support for James K. Polk, after just seven ballots, Mr. Polk’s name appeared to break the deadlock. Polk won the nomination on the ninth ballot and, eventually, the U.S. Presidency.
1848 – The land of lakes and large expanses of green gave name to Wisconsin, the 30th state to enter the United States of America. (Wisconsin, is thought to be the Chippewa Indian word for “grassy place”.)
Flag of Wisconsin
1910 – An airplane raced a train — and won! The race, from Albany, New York to New York City was worth a $10,000 prize for aviator Glenn Curtiss. It was sponsored by those promotion wizards at New York’s Worldnewspaper.
1912 – Fifteen women were dismissed from their jobs at the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, PA — for dancing the Turkey Trotwhile on the job!
1916 – The U.S. President’s flag was adopted by executive order.
1939 – When a Girl Marries was first heard on CBS. The serial continued for eighteen years on radio.
Cast member Ellen Fenwick
1942 – The biggest selling record of all time was recorded. A little out of season, perhaps, but White Christmas, the Irving Berlin classic, was recorded by Bing Crosby for Decca Records. The song was written for the film Holiday Inn. More than 30-million copies of Crosby’s most famous hit song have been sold and a total of nearly 70-million copies, including all versions of the standard, have been sold.
1943 – The Million Dollar Band was heard for the first time on NBC radio. Charlie Spivak was the first leader of the band that featured Barry Wood as vocalist. The unusual feature of the show was the awarding each week of five diamond rings!
1951 – Fanny Brice, singer and theater headliner of Ziegfeld Follies, died.
1951 – Baseball pitcher Billy Joe Davidson of Marion, NC signed with the Cleveland Indians for a record bonus that was said to be $120,000.
1953 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa guide, became the first humans to reach the top of Mount Everest.
1961 – Ricky Nelson reached the top spot on the Billboard singles chart with Travelin’ Man. It was was Nelson’s second chart-topping hit. Poor Little Fool made it to the top in August of 1958.
1962 – Buck (John) O’Neil became the first black coach in major-league baseball. He accepted the job with the Chicago Cubs. O’Neil had previously been a scout with the Cubs organization.
1965 – Ralph Boston set a world record in the broad jump at 27-feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, CA.
1970 – Mike Cuellar of Baltimore became one of just 11 major-league hurlers since 1900 to strike out four batters in one inning — because the catcher dropped the third strike of the third out.
1972 – The Osmonds received a gold record for the album, Phase III.
1978 – The 13-cent postage stamp became the 15-cent postage stamp when new U.S. rates to mail letters went into effect.
1979 – Silent movie star Mary Pickford dies in Los Angeles.
1985 – Death and hundreds of injuries resulted from a riot at a soccer match in Brussels, Belgium. The European Cup Final at Heysel stadium between Liverpool and Juventus of Turin was televised throughout Europe. Just before the match was to begin, soccer fans rioted killing 39 and injuring 400 or more. 26 British soccer fans identified from the video tapes were extradited to Belgium to stand trial. The riot prompted increased security at later British soccer games.
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
1630 – King Charles II
British monarch: King of England, Scotland, Ireland [1660-1685]; died Feb 6, 1685
1736 – Patrick Henry
American revolutionary patriot: “…give me liberty, or give me death!”; died June 6, 1799
1874 – Gilbert Keith Chesterton
author: created Father Brown crime-fiction series; The Man Who was Thursday, English Men of Letters; died June 14, 1936
1880 – Oswald Spengler
historical author: The Decline of the West; died May 8, 1936
1894 – Beatrice Lillie (Gladys Lillie)
actress: On Approval, Thoroughly Modern Millie; died Jan 20, 1989
1903 – Bob Hope (Leslie Townes Hope)
comedian, entertainer, actor; died July 27, 2003;
1914 – (Walter) Stacy Keach Sr.
actor: The Parallax View, High Velocity, Fighting Back, Armed and Dangerous, The Rockford Files, Bonanza, Longstreet, Maverick; father of actors Stacy and James Keach; died Feb 13, 2003
1917 – John Fitzgerald Kennedy
35th U.S. President [1961-1963]; married to Jaqueline Bouvier [two sons, one daughter]; nickname: JFK, Jack; youngest, first Roman Catholic, first to win Purple Heart, first to serve in U.S. Navy, first to win Pulitzer Prize [book: Profiles in Courage], fourth U.S. President to be assassinated, second buried at Arlington National Cemetery; assassinated Nov 22, 1963
1921 – Clifton James
actor: Lone Star, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, The Man with the Golden Gun, Live and Let Die, David and Lisa, Cool Hand Luke, Lewis & Clark, City of Angels
1922 – Joe Weatherly
NASCAR Hall of Famer: championship [1953]; Grand National Champion [1962, 63]; killed in crash at Riverside International Raceway Jan 19, 1964; The Joe Weatherly Museum at Darlington International Raceway is named for him
1923 – Eugene Wright
jazz musician: bass: led 16-piece band: Dukes of Swing; played w/Dave Brubeck, Gene Ammons, Count Basie, Arnett Cobb, Buddy DeFranco, Red Norvo
1932 – Richie Guerin
basketball: NY Knicks [in 8 years w/Knicks he scored 10,392 points and averaged 20.1 points; St. Louis Hawks; player/coach: St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks; lifetime stats: 14,676 points [17.3 ppg], 4,278 rebounds [5.1 rpg], 4,211 assists [5.0 apg] over 848 games [in 42 playoff contests he averaged 15.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists]; broadcaster: NY Knicks; Wall Street stockbroker
1932 – Paul Ehrlich
biologist, writer: The Population Bomb; helped form group: Zero Population Growth, advocating a limit of 2 children per family
1938 – Francis ‘Fay’ Vincent Jr.
baseball: commissioner
1939 – Al Unser Sr.
auto racer: Indy 500 winner [1970, 1971, 1978, 1987]) retired [1994]; younger brother of Bobby and father of Al Jr. [first father/son to race each other at Indy [1983]
1941 – Roy Crewsdon
musician: guitar: group: Freddie and The Dreamers: I’m Telling You Now, Do the Freddie
1942 – Kevin Conway
actor: Prince Brat and the Whipping Boy, The Quick and the Dead, Gettysburg, One Good Cop, Home Boy, Rage of Angels, Paradise Alley, Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye, Other People’s Money, Of Mice and Men, When You Comin’ Back – Red Ryder?
1944 – Helmut Berger
actor: The Damned, Dorian Gray, The Godfather, Part 3
1945 – Gary Brooker
musician: keyboards, singer: solo: Say It Ain’t So Joe, Switchboard Susan, LPs: No More Fear of Flying, Lead Me to the Water, Echoes in the Night; groups: Procol Harum: Whiter Shade of Pale; The Paramounts
1947 – Anthony Geary
actor: General Hospital, High Desert Kill, Scorchers, Night of the Warrior, Crack House, UHF
1950 – Rebbie (Maureen Reilette) Jackson
singer: LPs: Centipede [written by brother, Michael], Reactions; oldest member of the Jackson family
1952 – Fred (Fredrick William) Holdsworth
baseball: pitcher: Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, Montreal Expos, Milwaukee Brewers
1953 – Mike (Michael Dennis) Dupree
baseball: pitcher: SD Padres
1953 – Danny Elfman
singer: group: Oingo Boingo; composer: soundtracks: Batman, Beetlejuice, The Simpsons; film composer: Mission: Impossible, Mars Attacks!, Men in Black, Good Will Hunting, Scream 2
1956 – Larry Blackmon
musician: drums, singer: group: Cameo: Word Up!
1956 – LaToya (Yvonne) Jackson
singer: The Jacksons; solo: Playboy photo spread
1958 – Annette Bening
actress: Richard III, The American President, Love Affair, Bugsy, Postcards from the Edge, The Grifters, Valmont, The Great Outdoors, Mars Attacks!, American Beauty
1961 – Melissa Etheridge
Grammy Award-winning singer: Come to My Window [1994], Ain’t It Heavy [1992]
1963 – Lisa Whelchel
actress: The Facts of Life, Where the Red Fern Grows: Part 2, Twirl, The Double McGuffin
Another new Illness to watch out for… Anal Glaucoma
A woman calls her boss one morning and tells him that she is staying home because she is not feeling well.
“What’s the matter?” he asks.
“I have a case of anal glaucoma,” she says in a weak voice.
“What the hell is anal glaucoma?”
“I can’t see my ass coming into work today.”
In the end, the constant jokes were just too much to take for the long-suffering residents of Butt Hole Road.
Groups of youths used to visit the street and bare their backsides for photographs while many delivery firms simply refused to believe it existed.
And coachloads of amused American tourists frequently turned up to view the sign after it appeared in a US book.
And so despairing households in the suburban street in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, decided that the road’s name simply had to change.
The sign for ‘Butt Hole Road’ which has now changed to Archers Way after complaints from residents in Conisbrough near Doncaster
They spent £300 to change their address to the rather more palatable Archers Way.
Resident Peter Sutton said he originally thought the street’s name would be fun – but admits he soon got tired of the jokes.
Mr Sutton moved into the house vacated in 2003 by Paul and Lisa Allott, who were forced to move after becoming fed up with their street’s name.
Mr Allott said: ‘We’d heard every single gag there is and we’d had enough.
‘We’ve had people flashing their bottoms for photographs by the drive, we’ve had people ringing us up with hilarious jokes about the street name and then we’ve had those who just don’t believe us.
‘All the other street names around here are quite sensible.
‘I just can’t see why they didn’t call it Butt Hall Road, or something like that. I’ve no idea why it was named like this.’
The new sign for Archers Way, paid for by the residents
I’veElizabeth Brennan, 77, who uses the street for access to her home, said: ‘It was a bit tedious having the street laughed at all the time. The new name is much nicer.’
But an internet petition has already been started to change the road’s name back again. Butt Hole Road is believed to have been named after a communal water butt that was originally in the area. The road has been renamed Archers Way to refer to a medieval castle that is just half a mile away.
