cliche, stereotypical blog.

i've decided i'm going to make this blog a commentary about all the crap i've seen in the news lately. k?

• NY Giants reciever Plaxico Burress is made of idiot. And so is anyone else who has managed to shoot themselves in the leg with their own weapon. These are the people that (pardon my extreamist opinions) deserve to die from an accidental wound to any part of their person. If you are stupid enough to make it so your gun can go off without you purposely pulling the triggor, Darwin's theory of natural selection would say that you should have died. Which, i firmly believe to be a viable argument. To me, this is a message from SOMEWHERE that Burress does not deserve to be a functioning human being. Thankyou. anyone agree?
• TERRORISTS ATTACKING REPLICAS! What has this world come to? I hear this on the radio the other morning and i though it was a genious idea. Since these terrorists in India decided to take down the Taj Mahal HOTEL, and not the REAL Taj, one of my favorite radio DJ's threw up the idea of creating replicas of all of our coveted monuments. This way, since the terrorists seem to be getting stupider, they will mistakenly bomb, destroy, and or raze, the decoy building. (which will be filled with nothing!) This could save millions of lives. I actually think it's a reasonable idea. except now i feel bad for talking about terrorists. It's not their fault g-d chose them to destroy things...
• On friday i was at my boyfriend's house. He, and his family, are pretty into college football. WHICH I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. k? Alright so i have no problem with pro sports appreciation, that's natural. Also, i have no problem with school spirit for your alma mater, BUTTTTT, when you're rooting for a college team that NO ONE in your family went to, it makes no sense. What is the basis for being loyal to this team? My boyfriend LOVES LSU. He doesn't want to attend college there, nor has anyone in his family, yet he still loves them. His brother claims that he started liking them when the beat Notre Dame a few seasons ago. Which brings me to my next question; his mom LOVES Notre Dame. She has never gone there, nor has anyone in her family. But they're Irish. ridiculously Irish. So i guess this means they have an excuse for enjoying a good game of the Fighting Irish, of whom probably aren't even all Irish.
• I never thought about the historical moment i found myself in on November 4th. But last night, i was out to dinner with my mom, aunts and uncle. (all over the age of 45) They had just gone to see the movie Milk, about the gay govenor of California. My mom proceded to say how she remembers the day he died and all of the junk that came along with it. This totally flicked a switch in my brain that was all "HEY DANI!!! WAKE UP!! IN THIRTY YEARS YOU'LL BE WATCHING MOVIES ABOUT OBAMA, THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT!!! YOU LIVED THROUGH THAT!" And then i kind of felt apart of something. All these adults can remember everything with Harvey Milk, just like i will remember where i was, what i was doing and who i was with the moment Obama was elected the next President of the United States. This is big guys. And it took something like a homosexual govenor being shot, then a movie made about him, to make me realise this. I feel small.

The Naked Brothers Band: Dressed for kid-rock success

By JONATHAN TAKIFFPhiladelphia Daily News
takiffj@phillynews.com 215-854-5960
Nat and Alex Wolff may be young - verging on 14 and just-turned-11, respectively. But, oh, do they have a sense of pop history. And style.
If you're a cable- or satellite-TV viewer in their target demographic - primary school kids (ages 6 and up) and 'tweens (ages 9-14) - you probably know this versatile acting, singing, playing and composing duo already. And maybe you're panting at the prospect of seeing them live in concert at TLA on Sunday afternoon at "Fully Clothed and On Tour."
Since its February 2007 debut, Nat and Alex have been stars of the Nickelodeon series "The Naked Brothers Band." As you might surmise, it's a sometimes silly, sometimes sensitive sit-com/mockumentary with songs, evolving around a very, very young rock band and their pals.
It's a fantasy that Alex characterizes as " 'Spinal Tap' meets 'The Little Rascals.' "
Now at the outset of its third season, the show is among the highest-rated on Nick, has translated well to foreign markets and has spun off successful Naked Brothers CDs, DVDs and, now, video games, too.
It's very much a family affair: Nat and Alex's mom, Polly Draper (best known as Ellyn Warren on the TV show "thirtysomething"), writes the scripts. Dad Michael Wolff, a noted jazz pianist and composer, plays their goofy on-screen dad and helps out (strictly behind the scenes) with the band's chipper, pop-rocking arrangements.
But any suggestion that the senior Wolff might be ghost-writing catchy Naked Brothers songs like "I Don't Want to Go to School," "Eventually" or "Blueberry Cotton" was quickly and strongly denied by the cubs, in our recent after-school chat.
Q: So how has the show evolved, and how is it playing out on tour for real?
Nat: Each season, we're doing a big project on the show. The first year, we were making an album. Last year, we were on the road. This season, we're making a feature film - and in fact, we've changed the emphasis of the shows from half-hour episodes to more hour-long specials, because the audience seems to like them better.
So far, the real tour is going great. We sing and play - Alex on drums, me on piano and guitar - with a different band than you see on the show with us. They're older, in their early twenties. They've all done this touring thing before, but tell us this is "the coolest." They're like our mentors on the road, showing us the ropes.
Alex: We're just going out on weekends so we don't miss school. [The family lives in New York City, where the show is filmed.] The first night of the tour was at the Stone Pony, in Asbury Park [how Springsteen-tracking is that?], and the girls in the audience were screaming like crazy. I was wishing I'd worn more serious earplugs. But we like it that they're excited.
Q: From watching the TV show, I get a sense you've probably seen the Beatles movies "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help" at least a couple of times. I really liked the episode last season where you went to New Orleans to help out flood victims and were lambasted by the press after they misheard you saying you're "bigger than Santa." Very John Lennon. And this season, you've got your first, very fanciful animated special coming up. How "Yellow Submarine" is that?
Nat: I've probably watched "A Hard Day's Night" 30 times and "Help" 40 times. I'm not kidding. You feel you get to know the Beatles a bit from watching those movies. I think a lot of our show has that same kind of feel. Yeah, we're a kid rock group, but almost completely normal people in a completely abnormal situation. The music is written by kids - me and my brother - from a kid's point of view. And all the kids in the show are our real friends. So everything is relatable.
Alex: I learned to play the drums from watching Ringo in "A Hard Day's Night." I was into the drums before then, but that's where I learned stuff like Ringo's cross-stick move. Hope he doesn't sue me for copying it!
And did you know that the Beatles didn't really supply the voices for "Yellow Submarine"? They just had two other guys voicing the four parts, which is why Ringo sounds just like John. But in our first animated special ["The Supetastic 6," debuting Nov. 26] we did our own voices.
Q: So is it true that your parents were dead set against you guys having a performing career so young, that you pushed all this on them?
Nat: It was kind of the reverse of the stage-mother thing. They were very reluctant to let me act, but I was obsessive about it. I did some plays, I studied older movies with people like Dustin Hoffman and James Dean. In music, you don't need to be asked, you can play music any time. But you don't get to act until someone picks you. That's why I had to be so pushy.
Eventually, my mom came up with the concept for the Naked Brothers Band from watching us grow up in music.
Alex: I actually came up with the name when we were taking a bath together and singing in the tub. I was one and a half but already talking a lot. In fact, I'd already written my autobiography, "My Life Till Now."
Q: Nat, all your female fans want to know - are you and your on-screen love interest, Rosalina, played by Allie DiMeco, really an item?
Nat: Not really. We're just friends. She's even older in real life than on the show - in eleventh grade. But the message there, that I could possibly attract her, is awesome. There's hope for the younger guy.
Q: What do you think of "The Naked Brothers - the Video Game," now out on PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii and DS? Did you have much input there?
Alex: It's awesome. We got to play it on the set. It's like "Rock Band." It has all our songs, and we got to see and approve how the characters look.
Nat: Alex and I look like we're 25. That's so cool! *

TLA, 334 South St., 4:30 p.m. Sunday, $20 and $15 (in four-pack purchase), 215-336-2000, www.livenation.com. The next Naked Brothers Band TV special, "Operation Mojo" debuts at 9 p.m. Nov. 22 and their first animated special, "The Supetastic 6," debuts at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 26, both on Nickelodeon.

A Case of Religious Discrimination

(can i change the headline for this to 'The Ten Commandments; holier than thou' just for funzies.)

Displays of the Ten Commandments have long been a lightning rod in constitutional law, and so they are again today. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a challenge to a city’s decision to allow the Ten Commandments to be placed in a public park, while refusing to allow a different religion’s display. The court should rule that that city’s decision violates the First Amendment prohibition on the establishment of religion.

Pleasant Grove City, Utah, has a city park, known as Pioneer Park, that includes various unattended displays. These include historical artifacts from the town, a Sept. 11 memorial, and a Ten Commandments monument that was given to the city by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a national civic group.
A religious organization called Summum, which was founded in 1975 and is based in Salt Lake City, applied to install its own monument in the park. The monument it proposed would include the group’s Seven Principles of Creation (also called the Seven Aphorisms), which it believes were inscribed on tablets handed down from God to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Pleasant Grove City rejected Summum’s application. It told the group that it had a decades-old practice of only accepting displays that directly related to the city’s history, or that were donated by groups with longstanding ties to the community. But this was not a firm policy at the time. It was only later that the city adopted a written policy enshrining these criteria.
Summum sued, arguing that the rejection of its monument violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver agreed. In allowing monuments in its park, the court ruled, Pleasant Grove City had no right to discriminate on the basis of the content of those monuments. The city was free to ban all unattended displays if it wanted to. But once it decided to allow such displays, the court ruled, it had no right to permit the Ten Commandments but bar the Seven Principles of Creation.
The federal appeals court reached the right result, but regrettably, it ducked the issue at the heart of the case, which turns on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The real problem is that Pleasant Grove City elevated one religion, traditional Christianity, over another, Summum. The founders regarded this sort of religious preference as so odious that they included a specific provision in the First Amendment prohibiting it. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has a bad record on Establishment Clause cases, which made it easier for all of the parties to treat the case as a simple speech case.
But as the American Jewish Committee, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other groups argue in a friend-of-the-court brief, the Supreme Court should not make this mistake. It should squarely confront the religious discrimination underlying Pleasant Grove City’s rejection of Summum’s monument and make clear that the city violated the Establishment Clause.
There is no shortage of churches, synagogues and private parcels of land where the Ten Commandments could be displayed without the need to include the credos of alternative faiths. Public property like Pioneer Park must be open to all religions on an equal basis — or open to none at all.

Gothic-chic, Halloween-inspired wedding ideas

By Tia Albright
WeddingChannel.com
With Halloween just around the corner, you might be thinking of crossing over to the dark side with a gothic-inspired wedding. If you loved reading about Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz's "Alice in Wonderland" nuptials last May, here are some tips and tricks to ensure that your wedding is hallo-chic.

LOCATION: GOTH MANSIONLocation, location, location - it's all about the setting! Why not go above and beyond by hosting your celebration in a historic, gothic mansion or castle? From the tall ceilings to the gargoyles overlooking the entrance, this venue will be the perfect place to set the stage. Not only is this a fantastic space, you'll also have a head start on decorating because there's already a built-in backdrop!DECOR: DARK DESIGNSThere's nothing more clean and classic than a simple black palette. Use rich, black linens in heavy velvet or pintucked fabrics on tables surrounded by black chiavari chairs padded with black seat cushions. Create cool place settings by using large silver chargers or black-and-white swirl patterned dishes with ornate silver goblets. Place black feather wreaths throughout the venue, which can complement large, elegant centerpieces of dark blooms and feathers in urns or simple black candelabras with black candles.

FLOWERS: BOLD BLOOMSAsk your florist to create overflowing vases of black magic roses (mix them with deep red calla lilies for extra texture) or have the blooms strung into pomander balls hanging from chandeliers. Spice up your bouquet by adding a few black feathers. Or be bold and create bouquets of orange roses and tulips to add a punch of Halloween's staple color.

COCKTAILS: GREEN HAZEWho needs beer and wine when you've got magic potion? Ask your caterer to create a specialty cocktail with a green hue. Serve it from a large pot-like punch bowl into large glass goblets with ornately decorated stems. You'll love how the bright green hue contrasts with the all-black decor. Plus, guests will enjoy trying to decipher the ingredients in the "special" punch.

CAKE: COOL AND CREATIVE:Imagine a blood-red velvet cake covered with white fondant and a black swirl pattern. You can even top it off with a feather bouquet. For a more unique design, have your baker make a one-of-a-kind gothic mansion iced in gray with mini gargoyles and stained-glass windows. Or consider a topsy-turvy cake with layers going in every direction. It can serve as the centerpiece of your reception decor.

• I've always wanted a halloween wedding. and i plan on getting married either on Halloween or mistchife night. assuming i spelled that right.
• I think it would be the coolest thing ever. and so romantic.
• Either that, or wedding in the snow. It's so cute.
• curse my romantisism.

Gourds of gigantic proportions

(that's a really big pumpkin.)

Pampered pumpkin picked as plumpest of them all
The Associated Press
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. - Thad Starr's giant pumpkin really began putting on weight in August , a lot of weight.
The pumpkin gained about 30 pounds a day on its way to victory Monday at the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off in Half Moon Bay.
Starr's pumpkin finished at a record 1,528 pounds. Starr won last year with a pumpkin that that was four pounds lighter and also set a record.
Starr, of Pleasant Hill, Ore., bought a trailer to transport the pumpkin. It has a circumference of 15 feet.
He says his secret to growing big pumpkins is good soil: "We really pamper them."

• whyyy do people feel the need to inject gourds with steroids? let alone PEOPLE.
• what possible use could a pumpkin that large be?

i cried my eyes out last night.

Empty feeling for Flyers after second home loss
By ED MORANPhiladelphia Daily News
morane@phillynews.com
THERE WERE A TON of empty seats in the Wachovia Center last night.
It's a good bet the fannies that normally would be in those seats were somewhere watching the Phillies. Which, of course, makes sense, with the Phils playing for a World Series berth and the Flyers just getting their season going.
Maybe the Flyers can return the favor next spring.
But they will have to get their first win in this 82-game campaign if they want to to do that. Two games in and they're 10 points out of the division lead after losing to Montreal, 5-3.
The 10-point deficit is more a factor of the schedule and the fact that the first-place Rangers have played five games and won them all. But it's also a factor of a scary reoccurrence of a bad trend from last season - not playing a full game.
"It's obviously not something we're happy about," said Mike Richards, who scored his second goal of the season on a power play to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead in the second period, a lead they blew by allowing four final-period Montreal goals.
"We played pretty good for 40 minutes. In the third period they capitalized on their opportunities and we didn't. It's something we're concerned about. At home, with a goal up, we have to be careful about the situation and tonight we weren't."
So instead of the strong start they were looking for, something like the 6-1 jolt to start last season, the Flyers have gone 0-2 at home with a three-game road trip starting tonight in Pittsburgh.
"Our quick start last year was huge come April," winger Mike Knuble said. "We don't even get in the playoffs if we don't start 6-1 last year. Come October, you won't put yourself out of the playoffs, but if we have a tough October, we could have a very tough time making the playoffs. You have to have a solid October to make the playoffs."
The Flyers got goals from Richards, Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne, but Marty Biron let in four for his second loss in two starts. He didn't have a lot of help from the defense. The Canadiens' go-ahead goal was scored inadvertently by Scottie Upshall, who tried to knock down a puck in front and put it behind Biron instead.
"We did a lot of good things for the first 40 minutes and got ourselves in the position we wanted to be in," said coach John Stevens. "It's just not paying attention to the details on the defensive side of the puck that gives them momentum.
"That goal they scored to tie it up, we looked at that goal three times in the prescout. [Roman] Hamrlik scored a goal just like that against Toronto the other night.
"The other one was not a smart play, either, trying to knock a puck down in the slot. Marty has no chance on that."
After a scoreless first period, Montreal scored 54 seconds into the second after Andrei Kostitsyn ran into Richards coming out of the zone with the puck and forced a turnover.
The puck went up the wall to Andrei Markov and found its way back to Kostitsyn as he cruised toward the net. He fired a shot that beat Biron short side under his glove, giving Montreal the 1-0 lead.
Carter evened the score when he blasted a drop pass from Upshall that appeared to tick off the stick of defenseman Michael Komisarek and got behind goalie Carey Price.
Richards gave the Flyers the 2-1 lead on the power play when he drifted in from the blue line and one-timed a pass from Daniel Briere 4 minutes, 15 seconds into the period.
Montreal took the lead at the start of the third on two quick goals, the second the fluke tip by Upshall into his own net.
Hamrlik tied the game on a quick redirect from Kostitsyn at 1:18. Then, at 2:02, Komisarek took the shot that Upshall tipped past Biron, putting Montreal up, 3-2.
"I was just trying to come in and get in position and the puck came up on my stick and my first reaction was to maybe just to knock it down, and unfortunately I made the perfect tip for a goal," Upshall said. "I told Marty, 'Sorry, buddy, that was my fault.' That was a big goal."
When Robert Lang scored at 13:40, it put the Canadiens up, 4-2 . Biron had allowed a rebound to come back out to Sergei Kostitsyn, who found Lang out front and open.
Gagne pulled the Flyers back to within one when he collared a Knuble rebound and put it around Price, but Steve Begin added an empty-netter to end the scoring at 5-3.
"It's tough starting the season 0-2, especially at home," Gagne said. "We need to go on the road and think about winning one game at a time. It's still early in the season. A lot of things can happen in the season, but for us right now, we have to focus on the next game in front of us." *

• So i totally know none of you read that whole thing. But the Flyers have lost two home games in a row.
• It's awful. we did so well last year and now we're in a funk.
• HOPEFULLY this means we'll win the next eight-hundred games. *knock on wood*
• I've also noticed lately that most hockey players have crazy names. except for mike richards. But that's still crazy because his last name is multiple guys with the first name Richard.

Did a mountain lion attack Pa. farmer?

(how awful!!)

By Peter Mucha
Inquirer Staff Writer


The Pennsylvania Game Commission is investigating an attack on a southern Lancaster County farmer who believes the culprit was a mountain lion.
The last confirmed case of a mountain lion running wild in the state was in the 1960s, after one escaped from a circus or a menagerie, said Joe Kosack, commission spokesman.
Samuel Fisher was attacked near his home around 6 p.m. yesterday, and was taken to a hospital, Kosack said.
The commission had been getting eyewitness reports of three big cats. "A black one, a brown one and a tan one may have been roaming the area together," Kosack said.
Fisher reported seeing two big cats, shooting at one and wounding it. "While he was trailing it, he claims one of the animals attacked," Kosack said.
The Sadsbury Township farmer said it was a mountain lion that leaped from a tree onto his back, a neighbor told the Intelligencer Journal. When the animals began to claw his chest, he stabbed the cat with a knife and it ran off, the newspaper reported.
As of early this afternoon, however, commission officers have been unable to find any evidence of mountain lions in the area.
After smoothing out some ground, the officers left the carcass of a deer killed on a road, hoping to at least detect pawprints.
"They're down there trying to sort out what happened," Kosack said. "... We're not saying these people aren't seeing something. But we don't know what they are seeing."
Wild bobcats live in Pennsylvania, but even big ones weigh only about 30 pounds, and they're generally found in mountainous areas, not Lancaster County.
If the animals are mountain lions - also known as cougars, panthers, pumas or catamounts - perhaps they had been exotic pets.
"It's possible that somebody had an escape, or got tired of taking care of something that big," Kosack said.
Wild mountain lions haven't roamed Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, he said. "That's when they became extinct."
Or at least that's the Game Commission's belief.
Some people disagree, Kosack said.

• I think the neighboor attacked him. dressed up as a mountain lion.
• orrr, it could have been my pet mountain lion.
• Or clay akien.

Weird California

Man arrested for stuffing dead animals in lockers
The Associated Press

DUBLIN, Calif. - Police have arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of stealing dead animals from a veterinary hospital morgue and stuffing them into empty lockers at a Bay Area high school.
Police say the man admitted that he took the bodies of two cats and a 25-pound dog from an unlocked freezer behind the VetCare Hospital in Dublin. He said he then put the dead animals in lockers at Dublin High School before classes started Aug. 25.
The man told police he thought it was a practical joke.
The man was arrested at his Pleasanton home Friday afternoon arrested on suspicion of grand theft, tampering with school property and improper disposal of animals.
,,,
Information from: Contra Costa Times

I posted this article because I think it's just plain weird. It's creepy, messed up, and down right wrong. Sometimes it amazes me that there are people in this world that would actually move a dead animal from a freezer to a high school locker. That's messed up.

Journalism 2

rocksss my socks off =]