Ready for the Gay adaptation of a Christmas Classic? - “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus” -
XIAM007 - Generation X I am
Monday, 12 December 2011
'Selling Access', two-minute video by Ron Paul 2012 aimed at Newt Gingrich, calling him a corrupt Washington insider -
'Selling Access', two-minute video by Ron Paul 2012 aimed at Newt Gingrich, calling him a corrupt Washington insider -
School hands out belts to students with droopy drawers... - Like a library, only for belts -
School hands out belts to students with droopy drawers... - Like a library, only for belts -
A school in South Carolina is taking on saggy pants by lending belts to students who show up with droopy drawers.
Students at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill used to face a disciplinary write-up for the dress code violation. But now Principal James Blake is hoping the new approach will get students to think about how they dress and also cut down on the number of students referred for discipline.
"We see kids with their britches hanging down all the time," assistant football coach and administrative assistant William Cureton told The Herald of Rock Hill. "We want to change the culture."
Students nabbed for saggy pants will have the option to "check out" a belt for the day.
"We're willing to try anything in order to give the kids an opportunity to do the right thing," Blake said.
Junior Joe Johnson told The Herald students should be allowed to dress the way they want. He said giving out belts misses the point.
"They'll just have one extra belt," he said.
Read more -
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/Pants-on-the-Ground-School-Hands-Out-Belts-to-Stop-Sag-135439178.html
A school in South Carolina is taking on saggy pants by lending belts to students who show up with droopy drawers.
Students at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill used to face a disciplinary write-up for the dress code violation. But now Principal James Blake is hoping the new approach will get students to think about how they dress and also cut down on the number of students referred for discipline.
"We see kids with their britches hanging down all the time," assistant football coach and administrative assistant William Cureton told The Herald of Rock Hill. "We want to change the culture."
Students nabbed for saggy pants will have the option to "check out" a belt for the day.
"We're willing to try anything in order to give the kids an opportunity to do the right thing," Blake said.
Junior Joe Johnson told The Herald students should be allowed to dress the way they want. He said giving out belts misses the point.
"They'll just have one extra belt," he said.
Read more -
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/weird/Pants-on-the-Ground-School-Hands-Out-Belts-to-Stop-Sag-135439178.html
Rev. Al Sharpton deep in the red - his nonprofit paid him nearly $242,000 — even as it carried $1.6 million in debt -
Rev. Al Sharpton deep in the red - his nonprofit paid him nearly $242,000 — even as it carried $1.6 million in debt -
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s nonprofit paid him nearly $242,000 — even as it carried $1.6 million in debt, according to documents obtained by The Post.
In all, the controversial activist and his empire, including the National Action Network and two for-profit companies, were $5.3 million in the red, public records show.
Most of NAN’s money woes stemmed from more than $880,000 in unpaid federal payroll taxes, interest and penalties. It also paid more than $100,000 to settle two lawsuits, byproducts of the unpaid bills.
And it still owed $206,252 in loans to Sharpton’s for-profit Bo-Spanky Consulting Inc. and Sharpton Media LLC, the records show.
Sharpton drew a $241,732 salary and perks that included first-class or charter air travel, tax filings show. He owes the IRS $2.6 million in income tax, and nearly $900,000 in state tax.
The defunct Rev-Al Communications Inc. owes the state almost $176,000, and Bo-Spanky is $3,500 behind on state-tax liens.
Sharpton has said he is on a repayment plan with state and federal-tax authorities.
NAN last year took in more than $3 million in donations, which allowed it to chip away at its tax burden. This year, its board of directors voted to resolve the tax issues and paid all back state taxes, said Executive Director Tamika Mallory.
The civil-rights group is also addressing the $883,503 it owes in federal payroll taxes, she added.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/rev_al_deep_in_the_red_FFFX2IRlXVlP0sh79dWyxL
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s nonprofit paid him nearly $242,000 — even as it carried $1.6 million in debt, according to documents obtained by The Post.
In all, the controversial activist and his empire, including the National Action Network and two for-profit companies, were $5.3 million in the red, public records show.
Most of NAN’s money woes stemmed from more than $880,000 in unpaid federal payroll taxes, interest and penalties. It also paid more than $100,000 to settle two lawsuits, byproducts of the unpaid bills.
And it still owed $206,252 in loans to Sharpton’s for-profit Bo-Spanky Consulting Inc. and Sharpton Media LLC, the records show.
Sharpton drew a $241,732 salary and perks that included first-class or charter air travel, tax filings show. He owes the IRS $2.6 million in income tax, and nearly $900,000 in state tax.
The defunct Rev-Al Communications Inc. owes the state almost $176,000, and Bo-Spanky is $3,500 behind on state-tax liens.
Sharpton has said he is on a repayment plan with state and federal-tax authorities.
NAN last year took in more than $3 million in donations, which allowed it to chip away at its tax burden. This year, its board of directors voted to resolve the tax issues and paid all back state taxes, said Executive Director Tamika Mallory.
The civil-rights group is also addressing the $883,503 it owes in federal payroll taxes, she added.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/rev_al_deep_in_the_red_FFFX2IRlXVlP0sh79dWyxL
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Top 10 Everything of 2011 - TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad of the past 12 months -
Top 10 Everything of 2011 - TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad of the past 12 months -
more:http://www.time.com/time/specials/bestworst/0,32232,2101344_2101364,00.html#ixzz1gEqC793J
Lists by Category
Arts & Entertainment
- Top 10 Fake TIME Magazine Covers
- The Seven Essential Holiday Programs
- Top 10 Grumpiest Andy Rooney Segments
- View all »
Business
Crime
Energy & Environment
Education
- Top 10 Bad Teachers
- The 20 Best- and Worst-Paid College Majors
- School of Thought: 11 Education Activists for 2011
- View all »
Health & Medicine
- What You Need to Know About Bullying
- Back to School: Best Lunchboxes for Kids (and Their Parents!)
- Health Special: Cancer
- View all »
Internet
Lifestyle
- TIME's Gift Guides: A Luxe Lineup of Lavish Presents
- Top 10 Things TIME Is Thankful for This Year
- The 9 Most Christmassy Towns in America
- View all »
Personal Finance
more:http://www.time.com/time/specials/bestworst/0,32232,2101344_2101364,00.html#ixzz1gEqC793J
Islamic cleric ban's women from touching bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any 'sexual thoughts' -
Islamic cleric ban's women from touching bananas or cucumbers, in order
to avoid any 'sexual thoughts' -
An Islamic cleric living in Europe has said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any 'sexual thoughts'.
The unnamed sheikh was quoted by el-Sawsana news saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male relative, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.
The cleric said that these fruits and vegetables 'resemble the male penis' and could arouse women or 'make them think of sex,' in a story reported on Egyptian news website Bikya Masr.
He also added carrots and courgette to the list of forbidden foods for women.
The sheikh was asked how to 'control' women when they are out shopping for groceries and if holding these items at the market would be bad for them.
The carrot should also join the forbidden list of foods for women to touch
The cleric answered saying this matter is between them and God.
Answering another question about what to do if women in the family like these foods, the sheikh advised the interviewer to take the food and cut it for them in a hidden place so they cannot see it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072488/Muslim-cleric-warns-cucumbers-sexy-women-bans-penis-shaped-foods.html
The Globe magazine is reporting that Michelle Obama is having a "steamy secret affair" with a Secret Service Agent -
The Globe magazine is reporting that Michelle Obama is having a "steamy secret affair" with a Secret Service Agent -
The Globe magazine just released a bombshell and is reporting that Michelle Obama is having a "steamy secret affair" with a Secret Service Agent. According to The Globe, rumors started to circulate that Obama may be having an affair after her recent admission to NBC's Al Roker that she frequently "sneaks out" of the White House; and the ever increasing time she is spending away from the White House may be a cover to hide "a sizzling affair she's carrying on with a Secret Service agent."
According to The Globe's anonymous source: "The rumors are that she's getting it on with a Secret Service agent who is not part of her detail. ... Her frequent outings away from the White House give her and him an opportunity to get together." The source adds: "Something has been going on for a couple of months and there's no question Barack is embarrassed about her increasingly frequent excursions away from him at the White House."
The Globe magazine just released a bombshell and is reporting that Michelle Obama is having a "steamy secret affair" with a Secret Service Agent. According to The Globe, rumors started to circulate that Obama may be having an affair after her recent admission to NBC's Al Roker that she frequently "sneaks out" of the White House; and the ever increasing time she is spending away from the White House may be a cover to hide "a sizzling affair she's carrying on with a Secret Service agent."
According to The Globe's anonymous source: "The rumors are that she's getting it on with a Secret Service agent who is not part of her detail. ... Her frequent outings away from the White House give her and him an opportunity to get together." The source adds: "Something has been going on for a couple of months and there's no question Barack is embarrassed about her increasingly frequent excursions away from him at the White House."
Read more -
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Junk Food-Powered Car Sets New Record - from Diet Coke and Mentos candies -
Junk Food-Powered Car Sets New Record - from Diet Coke and Mentos candies -
The Maine guys known for creating colorful geysers from Diet Coke and Mentos candies say they’ve set a distance record for a vehicle with soda-and-candy-powered propulsion.
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz created a single-seat rocket car powered by 54 bottles of Coke Zero and 324 Mentos. They say the Mark II traveled 239 feet, improving upon last year’s 220 feet with only half the fuel.
Voltz said Thursday they incorporated a simple piston-and-cylinder mechanism to get the vehicle moving. He says it’s powerful enough that people shouldn’t try the experiment at home.
The Buckfield-based entertainers shot to fame five years ago when they wore lab coats and goggles during their online videos demonstrating elaborate geysers set to music.
Read more -
http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2011/12/09/junkfood-powered-car-sets-new-record/
The Maine guys known for creating colorful geysers from Diet Coke and Mentos candies say they’ve set a distance record for a vehicle with soda-and-candy-powered propulsion.
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz created a single-seat rocket car powered by 54 bottles of Coke Zero and 324 Mentos. They say the Mark II traveled 239 feet, improving upon last year’s 220 feet with only half the fuel.
Voltz said Thursday they incorporated a simple piston-and-cylinder mechanism to get the vehicle moving. He says it’s powerful enough that people shouldn’t try the experiment at home.
The Buckfield-based entertainers shot to fame five years ago when they wore lab coats and goggles during their online videos demonstrating elaborate geysers set to music.
Read more -
http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2011/12/09/junkfood-powered-car-sets-new-record/
The King of All Vegas Real Estate Scams - how homeowners were bilked by those they least suspected: their neighbors -
The King of All Vegas Real Estate Scams - how homeowners were bilked by those they least suspected: their neighbors -
Before the market crashed and home prices tumbled, before federal investigators showed up and hauled away the community records, before her property managers pled guilty for conspiring to rig neighborhood elections, and before her real estate lawyer allegedly tried to commit suicide by overdosing on drugs and setting fire to her home, Wanda Murray thought that buying a condominium in Las Vegas was a pretty good idea.
At first glance, Murray doesn’t look much like the type of person who would arrive in Las Vegas only to get tangled up in and eventually help unravel a complex criminal conspiracy. At 65, she stares out at the world through thick glasses. She is legally blind. Her eyes never quite seem to focus on any one thing. On a recent Friday morning, she sits at her dining room table wearing a zip-up leopard-print sweatshirt and recounts how she helped to foil a group of lawyers and contractors running amok in Sin City. “They didn’t think there would be four old ladies who wouldn’t put up with their stuff,” says Murray. “They really pissed me off.”
Before moving to Las Vegas, Murray and her husband ran a children’s dance studio in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Every so often, they would travel to Las Vegas on vacation. They loved the warm, dry weather. A poolside condo, far away from the Minnesota winters and a short drive from the Bellagio fountains, seemed like the perfect place to retire.
In 2002 they bought a two-bedroom condo for $105,250 in a new gated community, the Vistana, on the southwest outskirts of the city. The development’s architecture consisted of vaguely Spanish-style stuccoed buildings with ruddy tiled roofs. All told, there were 732 units in the subdivision, hundreds of imported palm trees, three swimming pools, and one cloudless Nevada sky.
Condominium complexes such as the Vistana were springing up across the city. Fueled by low interest rates and feverish demand, there were 32,964 closings on new condominiums and apartment conversions in Las Vegas from 2002 to 2007, according to Restrepo Consulting Group. At the same time, the building boom was creating a growing market for the contractors who fixed the construction problems, such as leaky roofs or faulty electrical outlets, that emerged at the hastily built developments.
In Las Vegas these large-scale repair jobs often involved lawsuits. There were a handful of lawyers in town who specialized in such suits, which pitted the collective owners of a gated community—in the form of nonprofit neighborhood corporations known as homeowner associations—against their developers.
As Las Vegas’s housing supply exploded, so did the competition among lawyers and contractors to represent new homeowner associations in so-called construction-defect lawsuits. It was in this environment, according to plea agreements recently unsealed in an ongoing FBI investigation, that a shadowy outfit cooked up a brazen scheme.
When a new development was nearing completion, the group would buy a couple of units in the community and then transfer partial ownership of the condos to individuals secretly on its payroll, according to court documents. While pretending to be residents of the communities, these “straw buyers” would run for leadership positions on boards of the new homeowner associations. By paying off community managers, hiring private investigators to find dirt on legitimate candidates, and rigging elections, the documents allege, the straw buyers were able to infiltrate boards at several new developments in Las Vegas from 2003 to 2008. Once in control of the boards, the straw buyers would then use their governing positions to steer millions of dollars in construction and legal fees back to their co-conspirators. Targets included the Chateau Nouveau, Chateau Versailles, Park Avenue, Palmilla Townhomes, Jasmine, Pebble Creek, Mission Ridge, Mission Pointe, Horizons at Seven Hills, Sunset Cliffs, and the Vistana.
Read more -
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-king-of-all-vegas-real-estate-scams-12082011_page_2.html
Before the market crashed and home prices tumbled, before federal investigators showed up and hauled away the community records, before her property managers pled guilty for conspiring to rig neighborhood elections, and before her real estate lawyer allegedly tried to commit suicide by overdosing on drugs and setting fire to her home, Wanda Murray thought that buying a condominium in Las Vegas was a pretty good idea.
At first glance, Murray doesn’t look much like the type of person who would arrive in Las Vegas only to get tangled up in and eventually help unravel a complex criminal conspiracy. At 65, she stares out at the world through thick glasses. She is legally blind. Her eyes never quite seem to focus on any one thing. On a recent Friday morning, she sits at her dining room table wearing a zip-up leopard-print sweatshirt and recounts how she helped to foil a group of lawyers and contractors running amok in Sin City. “They didn’t think there would be four old ladies who wouldn’t put up with their stuff,” says Murray. “They really pissed me off.”
Before moving to Las Vegas, Murray and her husband ran a children’s dance studio in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Every so often, they would travel to Las Vegas on vacation. They loved the warm, dry weather. A poolside condo, far away from the Minnesota winters and a short drive from the Bellagio fountains, seemed like the perfect place to retire.
In 2002 they bought a two-bedroom condo for $105,250 in a new gated community, the Vistana, on the southwest outskirts of the city. The development’s architecture consisted of vaguely Spanish-style stuccoed buildings with ruddy tiled roofs. All told, there were 732 units in the subdivision, hundreds of imported palm trees, three swimming pools, and one cloudless Nevada sky.
Condominium complexes such as the Vistana were springing up across the city. Fueled by low interest rates and feverish demand, there were 32,964 closings on new condominiums and apartment conversions in Las Vegas from 2002 to 2007, according to Restrepo Consulting Group. At the same time, the building boom was creating a growing market for the contractors who fixed the construction problems, such as leaky roofs or faulty electrical outlets, that emerged at the hastily built developments.
In Las Vegas these large-scale repair jobs often involved lawsuits. There were a handful of lawyers in town who specialized in such suits, which pitted the collective owners of a gated community—in the form of nonprofit neighborhood corporations known as homeowner associations—against their developers.
As Las Vegas’s housing supply exploded, so did the competition among lawyers and contractors to represent new homeowner associations in so-called construction-defect lawsuits. It was in this environment, according to plea agreements recently unsealed in an ongoing FBI investigation, that a shadowy outfit cooked up a brazen scheme.
When a new development was nearing completion, the group would buy a couple of units in the community and then transfer partial ownership of the condos to individuals secretly on its payroll, according to court documents. While pretending to be residents of the communities, these “straw buyers” would run for leadership positions on boards of the new homeowner associations. By paying off community managers, hiring private investigators to find dirt on legitimate candidates, and rigging elections, the documents allege, the straw buyers were able to infiltrate boards at several new developments in Las Vegas from 2003 to 2008. Once in control of the boards, the straw buyers would then use their governing positions to steer millions of dollars in construction and legal fees back to their co-conspirators. Targets included the Chateau Nouveau, Chateau Versailles, Park Avenue, Palmilla Townhomes, Jasmine, Pebble Creek, Mission Ridge, Mission Pointe, Horizons at Seven Hills, Sunset Cliffs, and the Vistana.
Read more -
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-king-of-all-vegas-real-estate-scams-12082011_page_2.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)