Accordion Players

Is the demand for accordion players really greater than the demand for strippers?

I mean twice as great as the demand for strippers?

At least he wasn't a bassoonist.


Stripper Wins Damages After Tiger Attack
--
Fri Jan 28, 3:13 PM ET
Oddly Enough - Reuters

TORONTO (Reuters) - A stripper mauled by a tiger in an Ontario safari park has won C$800,000 ($650,000) in damages because her scars meant she could no longer work, Canadian media said on Friday.

Jennifer-Anne Cowles was driving through the park nearly nine years ago with her then boyfriend when a tiger jumped into their car and tried to drag them away. The two insisted their windows had been shut when the tiger charged, although the park had challenged that.

The judge accepted the couple's testimony that the power windows had been inadvertently lowered when one of the big cats bumped against the car, frightening them.

In a ruling delivered on Thursday and reported in a number of Canadian newspapers, Justice Jean MacFarland said she could only imagine the "stark terror experienced by these young people during this horrendous event."

She awarded Cowles over C$800,000 in damages, almost half of it to compensate for income she would have made as a stripper.

Her musician boyfriend, David Balac, won C$1.7 million, because his injuries left him unable to work as an accordion player.

African Lion Safari, near Hamilton, Ontario, west of Toronto, said it is reviewing the ruling, but it insisted the park was safe.

"Hundreds of millions of people drive through safari style parks worldwide every decade and there are very few incidents causing injury," it said in a statement. "It is one of the safest activities you can do with your family."

Things Could Always Be Worse

You could be living in an occupied nation:

http://abutamam.blogspot.com/

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

No water and no food if you don't vote. That sounds like freedom and liberty to me. Scorched earth liberation?

Wow. I wish I could be there.

By the way, the tone of the article on Fallujah and the Resistance's victory through retreat proves to me once again that these people are fucking nuts, and there is no cure. Bring our boys home today.

Do not, repeat do not spend 80 billion more dollars trying to stabilize Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and wherever else W is trying to send money. Please bring my Army home. We'll need them to defend us sooner than later at this rate.

Four More Years

I watched the election happen, understood that Bush had inexplicably won again, and even come to grips with the fact that roughly half of Americans really did vote for him, but somehow the fact that he is being sworn in instead of impeached at this point still comes as a great shock to me. War crimes, torture, out of control debt and spending, invading sovereign nations, taking money from criminal organizations, no bid contracts to rebuild the nation you destroyed.

Isn't this the kind of record that incites revolution?

I guess that was once upon a time. Who do you know that voted for Bush?

There have to be some people. Can they explain why?

The Holy See

Now they did it. They have The Holy See looking at them. That is nearly as bad as the Great Eye.


Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release
By Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella

MOSUL/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday and the Vatican (news - web sites) demanded his quick release and deplored what it branded an act of terrorism.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq (news - web sites), where churches have been the target of a bombing campaign that has rattled the tiny Christian minority.

"We have received news of the kidnapping of the ... Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters.

"The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry."

Casmoussa was kidnapped by gunmen in two cars in the northern al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiya district of Iraq's third largest city soon after 5 p.m. (0900 EST), a local Christian official said.

The archbishop was on his way to visit some families from his congregation when the attack took place, he added, but was not clear whether the motive was political, sectarian or financial, in a country where kidnapping for ransom is common.

Most of Iraq's Christians, who make up some three percent of the 25 million population, belong to the early Assyrian and Chaldean churches.

While Christians had little political power under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), they were free to worship and did not feel threatened by sectarian violence.

But Iraq's 650,000 or so Christians have been trickling out of their ancient homeland since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as insurgents step up attacks against both Muslim and Christian holy places in an apparent bid to inflame sectarian tension.

On Aug. 1 five churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul were bombed in coordinated attacks that killed 12 people. Five Baghdad churches were bombed on the Oct. 16 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Eight were killed in two church bombings on Nov. 8.

Midnight Mass was canceled last Christmas, as several cities were under curfew and Iraq's Christian religious leaders feared renewed attacks.

Last month the Vatican's foreign minister warned that anti-Christian feeling was spreading in Iraq and other Muslim countries because of the war on terrorism.

Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.

Washington justified invading Iraq by saying Saddam had developed weapons of mass destruction and claiming there were links between Baghdad and al Qaeda. No such weapons have been found nor hard evidence of pre-war al Qaeda links.

Pope John Paul (news - web sites) strongly opposed the invasion.

Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic church.

There are two Syrian Catholic dioceses in Iraq -- one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul.

According to the Vatican yearbook, Casmoussa was born in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh.

Great Knobs

I want one of these USB knobs for my computer from Griffin Technology. They look cool and seem like they would make life really simple if you programmed them right.

Must Read

The Hedonism Handbook by Michael Flocker

Muffed Punts

Please spare me the argument that OU lost because their punt returner muffed a punt and they couldn't recover. Cal muffed a punt inside their 20 against USC as well, and it led to. . .a field goal. That's what good, let alone great, defenses do. Oklahoma is not a great football team. Period. End of discussion.

Oklahoma would be a mid-level bowl team in a conference where people complete forward passes and the bad teams average 20 points a game. On the bright side, they probably still would have beat Purdue in the Sun Bowl.