Arizona Set To Pass Law Allowing Guns In Bars And Restaurants…How Do You Like That, Paardner?

PHOENIX (AP) — There was a time in the Wild West that cowboys had to check their guns before they could pull up a bar stool for a drink – rules that protected against the saloon gunfights that came to define the frontier era in places like Arizona.

But a bill moving through the Arizona Legislature has some bar owners fearful that the state is turning back the clock to the Old West. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow anyone with a concealed-weapons permit to bring a handgun into bars and restaurants serving alcohol.

The bill gives bars discretion to keep gun-toting patrons out, and anyone with a weapon would not be allowed to drink. But the bill has angered bar owners who believe booze and guns are a recipe for disaster.

“This might be one of the stupidest things that I have heard of,” said Mike Nelson, who owns Pomeroy’s bar in Phoenix and plans to post a sign on his front door outlawing guns in his bar as soon as possible. “Can you think of a single reason guns and alcohol should be intertwined?”

The bill is part of a nationwide push by the National Rifle Association. Georgia passed a similar law in 2008, as did Tennessee earlier this year in becoming the 40th state to allow bar or restaurant patrons to carry guns.

B.S.–These guys didn’t need any guns…

“These laws are common sense,” said NRA spokeswoman Rachel Parsons. “Restaurants are not immune to criminal activity. Law-abiding people – regardless of whether they’re in restaurants, cars or homes – they should be able to protect themselves against criminal attack.”

One of the bill’s sponsors, Republican Rep. John Kavanagh, said it’s about time Arizona passes such a law, and that the most important thing is that people carrying guns into bars aren’t allowed to drink.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–On the surface it sounds kind of nutty but if you have a permit for a weapon doesn’t it demand that you behave yourself and act responsibly regardless of where you are?

The bill also forbids the holder of the permit from drinking if he has his firearm with him.  It is, afterall, possible to be attacked at a restaurant or a bar, isn’t it?  It may not be a bad idea as long as there are strict penalties for those individuals who abuse their permit.

Studies show that crime increases in those areas where criminals are certain that people are unarmed. That’s why gun-free zones like schools are typically the most dangerous places for mass killings.

We need to be able to settle our disputes like gentleman…we’ll let the Duke show us how it’s done…

Michael Jackson: ‘I’m better off dead, I’m done’…Jackson’s words one week before he died

From the UK Daily Mail

By Ian Halperin

Whatever  the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Had he not been driven – by a cabal of bankers, agents, doctors and advisers – to commit to the grueling 50 concerts in London’s O2 Arena, I believe he would still be alive today.

Jackson had grown increasingly frail, unable to sing or dance, possibly anorexic, and reportedly wearing a mask because of a serious lung condition

During the last weeks and months of his life, Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the concert series scheduled for next month – a series that would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but which he could never have completed, not mentally, and not physically.

Michael knew it and his advisers knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. For Michael Jackson, it was fatal.

I had more than a glimpse of the real Michael; as an award-winning freelance journalist and film-maker, I spent more than five years inside his ‘camp’.

Many in his entourage spoke frankly to me – and that made it possible for me to write authoritatively last December that Michael had six months to live, a claim that, at the time, his official spokesman, Dr Tohme Tohme, called a ‘complete fabrication’. The singer, he told the world, was in ‘fine health’. Six months and one day later, Jackson was dead.

Some liked to snigger at his public image, and it is true that flamboyant clothes and bizarre make-up made for a comic grotesque; yet without them, his appearance was distressing; with skin blemishes, thinning hair and discolored fingernails.

I had established beyond doubt, for example, that Jackson relied on an extensive collection of wigs to hide his graying hair. Shorn of their luxuriance, the Peter Pan of Neverland cut a skeletal figure.

It was clear that he was in no condition to do a single concert, let alone 50. He could no longer sing, for a start. On some days he could barely talk. He could no longer dance. Disaster was looming in London and, in the opinion of his closest confidantes, he was feeling suicidal.

To understand why a singer of Jackson’s fragility would even think about traveling to London, we need to go back to June 13, 2005, when my involvement in his story began.

As a breaking news alert flashed on CNN announcing that the jury had reached a verdict in Jackson’s trial for allegedly molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch in California, I knew that history had been made but that Michael Jackson had been broken – irrevocably so, as it proved.

Nor was it the first time that Michael had been accused of impropriety with young boys. Little more than a decade earlier, another 13-year-old, Jordan Chandler, made similar accusations in a case that was eventually settled before trial – but not before the damage had been done to Jackson’s reputation.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–It sounds like Jackson was becoming ever more tortured and wanted to die.  In recent years, with the stress of his trial and financial woes, “insiders” say he’s always been on the verge of a crack-up.  There’s no doubt that he would never have made it through a 50-concert tour; in fact, he may not have lasted more than a show.

He was often surrounded by people that may not have had his best interests at heart–but whose fault is that?  There comes a time when you are responsible for your own life.  He was supposedly competent and able to make his own decisions.  He was a talented, tortured, and ultimately tragic figure.

His death at this point in his life probably spared him a lot of pain.  Imagine him hanging on for another 20 years, unable to speak, and growing ever more weird by the day.

An interesting sidelight was the now customary impromptu gathering of  fans laying flowers and pictures on his Hollywood Walk-Of-Fame Star.  Just one thing though…it wasn’t his star.  The fans were mistakenly saluting a different Michael Jackson, the retired Los Angeles-based talk-radio host who broadcasted on KABC for decades.  Oh well, close enough.

Boehner: “Climate Bill A Pile Of S–t!”

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday.

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, “Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of s–t.”

Using his privilege as leader to speak for an unlimited time on the House floor, Boehner spent an hour reading from the 1200-plus page bill that was amended 20 hours before the lower chamber voted 219-212 to approve it.

Eight Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the bill; 44 House Democrats voted against it. Pelosi’s office declined to comment on Boehner’s jab. But one Democratic aide quipped, “What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?”

Even though Sen. Majorty Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) holds the bill’s fate in his hands, House Republicans intend to hammer Speaker Pelosi’s signature climate-change measure over recess.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–Voting for a bill as damaging and irresponsible as the “climate-change” bill proves that many (if not most) politicians are interested in increasing their own power and not the welfare of the country.

This bill will further hamstring the country’s economy at the worst possible time–right in the midst of a recession.  The American people don’t want this country irreversibly transformed and we especially don’t deserve to be hit with the biggest tax hike in our nation’s history.

Above all, the Congress of the United States at present is loaded down with the most corrupt, the most inept, and least intelligent office-holders since our nation’s founding.  There is a fifth column in this country–and many of its members reside in our hallowed halls and vote on legislation specifically designed to destroy the country.

Today’s Birthday’s: June 28th

From Those Were The Days (In Part)

1491 – Henry VIII
King of England [1509-1547]; Henry’s six wives: Catherine of Aragon [divorced], Anne Boleyn [beheaded], Jane Seymour [died], Anne of Cleaves [divorced], Catherine Howard [beheaded], Catherine Parr [survived]; plagued by illness brought on by overeating, Henry died Jan 28, 1547

1577 – Sir Peter Rubens
artist: Elevation of the Cross, Coronation of Marie de Medicis; died May 30 1640

1703 – John Wesley
religious leader: founder of ‘Methodism’ [forerunner of Methodist church]; writer: A Plain Account of Christian Perfection; died Mar 2, 1791

1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French philosopher; died July 2, 1778

1902 – Richard Rodgers
Academy Award-winning composer: It Might as Well be Spring [1945]; half of Rodgers and (Lorenz) Hart and Rodgers and (Oscar) Hammerstein: The Sound of Music, Love Me Tonight, My Funny Valentine, The Lady is a Tramp, Oklahoma!, State Fair, The King and I, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Carousel, Getting to Know You, Some Enchanted Evening; died Dec 30, 1979

1905 – Ashley Montague
author, anthropologist: “Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.”; died in 1999

1906 – Maria Goeppert Mayer
Nobel Prize-winning physicist [w/J. Hans Jensen & Eugene Wigner – 1963]: nuclear shell theory; 1st American woman to win Nobel Prize; died Feb 20, 1972

1909 – Eric Ambler
writer: The Dark Frontier, Journey into Fear; died Oct 22, 1998

1914 – Lester Flatt
country music entertainer: guitar: group: Flatt and Scruggs: Foggy Mountain Breakdown, The Ballad of Jed Clampett, Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, Old Salty Dog Blues; died May 11, 1979

1923 – Pete (Walter) Candoli
musician: trumpet: Superman with a Horn

1924 – George Morgan
singer: Candy Kisses, Rainbow in My Heart, Room Full of Roses, Crybaby Heart, I’m in Love Again; DJ: WSM, Nashville; died in 1975; died July 7, 1975

1926 – Mel Brooks (Kaminsky)
director, actor: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, The Producers; comedy writer: Your Show of Shows, Get Smart; Broadway producer: The Producers

1932 – Pat (Noriyuki) Morita
actor: Happy Days, Karate Kid, Babes in Toyland, Thoroughly Modern Millie; died Nov 24, 2005

1936 – Cathy Carr
singer: Ivory Tower

1941 – Al (Alphonso Erwin) Downing
baseball: pitcher: NY Yankees [World Series: 1963, 1964/all-star:1967], Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland Athletics, LA Dodgers [World Series: 1974]; served up Hank Aaron’s 715th home run.

1945 – David Knights
musician: bass player: group: Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade of Pale

1946 – Gilda Radner
Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Saturday Night Live [1977-78]; Haunted Honeymoon [w/husband Gene Wilder]; died May 20, 1989

1948 – Kathy Bates
Academy Award-winning actress: Misery [1990]; Fried Green Tomatoes, Home of Our Own, Prelude to a Kiss

1949 – Don Baylor
baseball: manager: Colorado Rockies; California Angels MVP [1979]

1949 – Don Nottingham
football: Miami Dolphins running back: Super Bowl VIII

1949 – Clarence Davis
football: Oakland Raiders running back: Super Bowl XI

1950 – Chris (Edward) Speier
baseball: SF Giants [all-star: 1972, 1973, 1974], Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins, SL Cardinals, Chicago Cubs

1954 – Alice Krige
actress: Star Trek: First Contact, Joseph, Sharpe’s Honour, Sleepwalkers, Barfly, Chariots of Fire, A Tale of Two Cities, In the Company of Spies

1960 – John Elway
football: Denver Broncos quarterback: Super Bowl XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXXII, XXXIII: MVP; car dealership tycoon

1964 – Mark (Eugene) Grace
baseball: San Diego State Univ, Chicago Cugs, Arizona Diamondbacks

1966 – John Cusack
actor: Money for Nothing, The Player, True Colors, Bullets over Broadway, The Grifters, Say Anything

1966 – Mary Stuart Masterson
actress: Kate Brasher, Heaven’s Prisoners, Radioland Murders, Funny About Love, Benny & Joon, Fried Green Tomatoes, Heaven Help Us

1971 – Tichina Arnold
actress: Little Shop of Horrors, Martin, Big Momma’s House

1972 – Alessandro Nivola
actor: Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, Timecode

Britain’s Big New Hope To Win Wimbledon: Andy Murray

Andy Murray just might be the one to end Britain's 72-year drought at Wimbledon--but 5-time champ Roger Federer will very likely have other ideas...

B.S. Report–No British man has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936 but many Brits are thinking that this just might be the year.  Tim Henman was the last British man to muster a serious threat reaching the semifinal round four times but never advancing to the final.

Edited From Wikipedia

Andrew “Andy” Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a Scottish professional tennis player who is currently the highest-ranked British player. Murray achieved a top 10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on 16 April 2007. In 2008, Murray finished runner-up to Roger Federer at the 2008 US Open, and he reached a career-high ranking of World No. 3 in May 2009.

In 2005, Murray won the BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year Award and the sport section of the Top Scot awards. Murray is most proficient on a fast surface (such as hard courts), although he has worked hard since 2008 on improving his clay court game. Murray works with a team of fitness experts, and Miles Maclagan is his main coach. He was previously coached by American Brad Gilbert, who used to coach former World No. 1 players Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick.  (Read more.)

Today’s Update…

The No. 3 seeded Andy Murray defeated No. 30 Victor Troicki 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

Oops, Man Steals Lawn Mower But Is Busted Trying To Sell It To Man He Stole It From

BERLIN (Reuters) – A thief in Germany was arrested after he tried to sell a garden mower online to the man he had stolen it from, police said Wednesday.

“The owner went to inspect the goods and recognized the mower as his own,” said a spokesman for police in the southern town of Tuebingen. “Then he left and told police.”

Officers confronted the 46-year-old suspect, who confessed to stealing the mower from a shed in February. He later put it for sale on internet auction site eBay, the spokesman said.

B.S. Report– “Small world, eh buddy?”

"Nice lawn mower, I used to have one just like it...hey wait a minute!"

Unauthorized New York Van Service Give 5 French Tourists Wild Ride Trying To Evade Police

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Operators of an unauthorized New York airport van service that took five French tourists on a high speed chase in an attempt to evade police were charged Wednesday with unlawful imprisonment.

Tuesday, the operators of the van service — Khaalif Preacher, 27, and Ian L. McFarlane, 57 — were approached by police for “hustling” travelers outside the Air France terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, prosecutors said.

Preacher, the van’s driver, and McFarlane drove off, ignoring pleas by the tourists to be let out, prosecutors said. Police followed the van “in a marked vehicle with their lights flashing and sirens blaring,” prosecutors said.

The van swerved through traffic, sped though stop signs and red lights, and traveled at speeds of 60 miles per hour on crowded residential streets, prosecutors said.

The men were also charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and resisting arrest. If convicted, they face up to seven years in prison.

Lawyers for the men could not immediately be reached for comment.

“As tourism, one of New York’s most revenue-producing industries, continues to grow, the need to provide a safe and welcoming environment requires stronger penalties for those who engage in unlawful solicitation of ground transportation,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

B.S. Report–Here’s a “classic” So. Cal. chase…

Anyone Want To Go On A Honeymoon? Couple Ends Marriage On Same Day

BERLIN (Reuters) – A Polish couple living in Germany fell out after tying the knot and decided to end their marriage on the same day.

“He said he never wanted to see her again and wanted an immediate annulment, and she said the same thing,” a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hanover said Thursday.

Right after the civil ceremony Wednesday, the 50-year-old man began arguing with his bride and tried to cut her hair with a kitchen knife, police said.

The 34-year-old woman called police, who issued the man with a restraining order, which he readily accepted, police said.

Two attempts at a rapprochement later that evening by telephone ended in more shouted exchanges before the man went to spend his wedding night in a local shelter for homeless people.

B.S. Report–At least they gave the marriage a chance…

Michael Jackson’s Death Sparks Bus Brawl

MIAMI (Reuters) – A fight broke out on a Florida bus when news of Michael Jackson’s death sparked debate over whether he should be remembered as a great musical talent, and one passenger was charged with assault, police said on Friday.

The bus was moving through the city of North Lauderdale on Thursday when passenger James Kiernan received a text message about Jackson’s death on his cell phone, and he read it aloud on the bus, the Broward County Sheriff’s Department said.

The unidentified bus driver opined that “Michael Jackson should have been in jail long ago,” prompting Kiernan, 60, to retort that “the world just lost a great musical talent,” the police report said.

It said the last remark enraged another passenger, Henry Wideman, who started a swearing match with Kiernan, then pulled out a knife and chased Kiernan down the aisle with it.

The driver called his dispatcher and pulled over near a convenience store to wait for sheriff’s deputies, who arrested Wideman, 54. He remained in jail on Friday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

B.S. Report–See, this is a case for compromise. They should have been able to agree that the world lost a great musical talent and a child molester that should have been in jail long ago.

“Triumph” For Democrats Means Economic Destruction For You And Me

WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation’s first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.

B.S.–Destroying the country is a “triumph” for the Democratic Party

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.

The House’s action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s vow to clear major energy legislation before July 4, and sent the measure to a highly uncertain fate in the Senate.

Obama lobbied recalcitrant Democrats by phone from the White House as the debate unfolded across several hours, and Al Gore posted a statement on his Web site saying the measure represents “an essential first step towards solving the “climate crisis. The former vice president won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work drawing attention to the destructive potential of global warming.

On the House floor, Democrats hailed the legislation as historic, while Republicans said it would damage the economy without solving the nation’s energy woes.

It is “the most important energy and environmental legislation in the history of our country,” said Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. “It sets a new course for our country, one that steers us away from foreign oil and towards a path of clean American energy.”

But Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, used an extraordinary one-hour speech shortly before the final vote to warn of unintended consequences in what he said was a “defining bill.” He called it a “bureaucratic nightmare” that would cost jobs, depress real estate prices and put the government into parts of the economy where it now has no role.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–It’s odd to me that destroying the United States is a victory for President Obama.  This legislation is a job-killer that not only will force people out of work here at home but will send jobs to India and China.  Once again the House is passing a bill that not one single Representative has read in its entirety–and the American people were not even given a chance to see what they’re voting on.

There is no such thing as personal freedom without economic freedom and in just 6 months Barack Obama has begun a transformation that will fundamentally destroy the basic pillars that led to American “exceptionalism.”