SMILE, YOU'RE ON RED LIGHT CAMERA

The red light cameras are back on here in the nation's 4th largest city. Yes, despite VOTERS shooting red light cameras down in last November's election, the city has turned them back on because a federal judge has ruled that VOTE to be invalid. Never mind what rights are being violated by having the damn things in the 1st place.

Now, there are some out there that don't mind government taking just a little more control of our lives and are actually for these things. They'll play the safety card and go on and on about how they save lives. They'll tell you accidents are down such and such percent in intersections where these cameras are. And there might just be some truth to that. Or, the stats they use could just be unrelated altogether. There hasn't been an accident on the street I live on in 3 years. Last week there were 2 wrecks. Nothing has changed on the street from the previous 3 years, yet accidents are up 200%.

Find just one intersection where these cameras are that shows accidents are down and it's over. The pro-red lighters will use that argument to make you believe that the cameras are working - that they are keeping people from running red lights, which of course, causes all the accidents to begin with. I've got 2 words for these people.

HORSE PUCKEY!!!!!!!!!

In the 4 years that these cameras have been rolling, the City of Houston has collected $44 MILLION in fines!! That comes out to around 800,000 cars NOT stopping on red. And that's just what they've collected. There's reportedly another $20 million in fines, or 270,000 more tickets, that are outstanding. Over 1 million tickets have been issued from these cameras for running a red light. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like these things are making much of a difference at all, other than providing the city an $11 million per year revenue stream. And there lies what it's all about. Money. It always is.

Red light runners suck! No doubt about that. RED MEANS STOP, IDIOT!!!!! But government finding another way to separate you from your money sucks just as bad, if not worse. And then lie to your face about it telling you it's about safety, not money.

I know, I know, if you never run a red light you don't have to worry about it. Fine, soon we'll live in a world that has speeding cameras issuing fines, turn signal cameras, illegal lane changing cameras, people putting on makeup in the car detection cameras. You can't smoke here, you can't use your cellphone there, you can't eat this, you can't buy that, letting them take one little piece of our liberties away at a time until we wake up one day and find we have none left.

Don't believe it? The people VOTED and said NO to the red light cameras. Now voting doesn't even seem to matter.

MY SEEING EYE...TIGER?

A story that ran across the "proctologist" wire recently is about a craze in China where they feel the need to make their pets look like exotic animals. It's the latest trend for owners to take their dogs to grooming parlours where they are not only given a shampoo and trim, but a multi-coloured dye job to make Fido look like a wild animal.

Meet Simba....errr....uh....Rover. Not to be confused with;

And if making your dog look like a tiger or zebra isn't fun enough, how about making Cujo look like a Panda bear:

I guess that's cute and all, if you're Chinese, but doing what's in these next photos seems like it would be downright animal cruelty.

That's just mean right there.

OWNER: Come on, Sox, we're just going to the park.
SOX: Are you sure? You're not trying to trick me to get me to go to that stupid dog parlour are you?
OWNER: Sox, we're just going to the park. I would "never" do that to you. You can sit in the front seat and stick your head out the window.

SOX: Son of a.........!!!!

Let's not put this all on the Chinese though. The good 'ol USA can get it's pet dye on too.

I don't know. I thought putting cute little clothes and hats on your pets was a little much but this is definitely out there. Some pets are ugly enough on their own. They don't need humans making things worse. Then again, some pets might need a little something to keep you from thinking they're part of the laundry.


Shar-Pei



DYING FOR BASEBALL

The two images above are both baseballs. The one on the left is a generic brand, typical of what you played with as a kid in the neighborhood, or at Little League, or even at school. 10 for $1 in the bin at the local sporting goods store. The ball on the right is an official ball used by Major League Baseball. That's the ball the pros use - the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cubs, and yes, even the Astros. These balls are a little pricier at the ol sporting goods store - about $10 for one.

Here is an image of the same 2 balls (not necessarily in the same order as above) where the labels don't show. Looks pretty much the same, right? That's because they're BASEBALLS!!! That's what baseballs look like. ALL OF THEM! And they are something that about every single one of us has owned, if not dozens of them, in our lifetime. And yet people lose their freaking minds trying to get their hands on one of these balls.

I wrote a blog about a year ago "I Got It, I Got It" about a fan flipping over the railing of the 2nd deck at a Texas Rangers baseball game and landing on the people 30 feet below in the lower deck. Why? Because he was trying like hell to catch a foul ball. The fan could have died and taken someone with him for a $10 baseball. Fortunately then, no one died.

Here's a video of a woman ripping a baseball right out of a little girl's hands.....and is freaking proud of it - turning to her friends and high-fiving.

It's just unbelievable the mentality people have. IT'S A BASEBALL!!!!!!

In my blog last year, I mention how there is fan interference all the time. You pay good money for those front row seats right on the field, $40, $45 or more for one ticket. Bring a family of four and that's $160 to $180 easy just on tickets. And that's not including all the $9 beers, $6 sodas, $5 peanuts, $7 hotdogs, $5 cotton candy, that you bought. Then you interfere with a ball in play 'cause you just got to have that $10 baseball - A BASEBALL - and you get kicked out of the game. Even worse when you interfere and don't get the ball.

Well, last Thursday night at the same stadium where the man fell from the 2nd deck last year, Rangers Stadium in Arlington, the man you see in the picture above, flips over the railing trying to catch a baseball that was tossed to him by Rangers centerfielder Josh Hamilton. He continues falling head first, between the railing and the wall in front of him, about 20 feet, hitting his head on the concrete ground. He didn't die immediately, but did later. The little boy in red, behind the man's legs, is his son. It was just the man and son at the game.

Here's the video if you want to see it. VIDEO
It doesn't show much more than what you see in the picture above. They show it at about the 58 second mark.

Very, very, sad story. A little boy now gets to grow up without a father because of a $10 baseball. Sure, accidents happen, but come on man, it's a baseball! We don't have to risk our lives for these things. I've got about a dozen of them right now. If you need one that bad, just let me know.

CASEY & O.J. SITTIN' IN A TREE

Let me first admit that I have not been following the Casey Anthony murder trial. So I don't know if/how the prosecution botched things up like was done in a certain double murder trial some 16 years ago involving some 3rd rate actor from the Naked Gun series. But after learning the results of the Anthony trial today, and hearing the outrage from those who have followed it, I think I can safely come to conclusion that if you want to get away with murder, get your trial on TV.

So the bitch, err I mean, the mother takes the 2 year old child off for 31 days, that's almost a month to you and me. No one ever sees the child alive again, the bitch, I mean, the mother never says anything other than saying the child was with a nanny (that never met them), or at a theme park or the beach, for those 31 days, and then decides to CONFIRM to the 911 operator that the child had in fact been missing for those 31 days instead of all that other stuff she was saying.

The bitch, I mean, mother, also writes an entry into her diary 5 days after the child was missing. Here's what the cunt, I mean bitch...grrr, I mean MOTHER, wrote;

I have no regrets, just a bit worried. I just want for everything to work out OK. I completely trust my own judgment and know that I made the right decision. I just hope that the end justifies the means. I just want to know what the future will hold for me. I guess I will soon see – This is the happiest that I have been in a very long time. I hope that my happiness will continue to grow– I've made new friends that I really like. I've surrounded myself with good people – I am finally happy. Let's just hope that it doesn't change.

WTF does that mean? OK, like I said, I haven't followed any of this and that makes me want to puke.....and drive a jackhammer right through this evil bitch's heart. I'm sorry, I meant to say evil bitch's heart!!!!!

And what is up with these high profile TV jury's? Because it's on TV are they made up of actors? Do they have to do what the script says? Are the TV execs really the ones in charge here? "Ok look, a not guilty verdict will make the ratings go through the roof. Trust us, we've done this before....about 16 years ago."

So what happens now? Does she take up golf to try and find the "real" killer?

I DO DECLARE

"Gentlemen, Altho it is not possible to forsee the consequences of human actions, yet it is nevertheless a duty we owe ourselves and posterity in all our public councils to decide in the best manner we are able and to trust the event to That Being who governs both causes and events, so as to bring about his own determinations.

Impressed with this sentiment, and at the same time fully convinced that our affairs will take a more favorable turn, The Congress have judged it necessary to dissolve all connection between Great Britain and the American Colonies, and to declare them free and independent States as you will perceive by the enclosed Declaration, which I am directed to transmit to you."

That was the cover letter, written by John Hancock and attached to a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which was sent to British authorities announcing that it was time for America to be free.

More than a year after the Revolutionary War started, Congress finally got around to officially announcing the breakup of the Colonies and King George III. It was a breakup that TMZ would have had a field day with had it been around back then.

The actual date that independence was voted on by Congress and officially declared was July 2, 1776. In fact, John Adams, who would become our 2nd president, wrote a letter to his wife predicting that July 2nd would become a great American holiday. But because the announcement of the declaration wasn't made to the public until July 4th, that became the day we celebrate. Besides, asking someone what they are doing for the 2nd of July just doesn't sound right.

The original 235 year old document is currently on display at the National Archives in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington D.C. and has been there since 1952.

About 200 broadsides of the Declaration were printed on the night of July 4th, by John Dunlap. 26 copies of these are known to exist. The 26th copy was recently discovered in the National Archives in England in 2009.

And no.....there are no secret clues leading to a hidden treasure anywhere on the document.

And here is why we are celebrating today:

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In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, John Hancock

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin

John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith

George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Samuel Adams

John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington, William Williams

Oliver Wolcott, Matthew Thornton

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HAPPY 235th BIRTHDAY
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!



ASTROS VS. RAIN

The Houston Astros professional baseball team is quietly going about a milestone season this year, as the franchise that started in 1962, celebrates their 50th season. With a little over half of the 2011 season in the books, this year is turning out to be THE WORST of the 50. In the previous 49 seasons, the Astros have never hit the dreaded century mark in the loss column. The worst they have done, to this point, is 97 losses, which they've done 3 times (1965 - 1st year in the Astrodome, 1975, and 1991 - the 1st year a scrawny little kid name of Bagwell played for them). With 83 games played this year, and 79 still to be played (ugh!), the Astros (29-54, worst in the league) are on pace to lose 105 games this season.

The Astros, unfortunately, do not have exclusive rights to 2011 milestones here in the 4th largest city in America. Weather-wise, 2011 is going down as one of the driest on record in the Houston area, and much of Texas. The U.S. Drought Monitor has 5 classifications to indicate the severity of droughts, much like the Saffir-Simpson scale used to indicate the intensity of hurricanes. Southeast Texas, including the Greater Houston area, is currently in a D4 drought. That's right, it's the worst one on the scale.

In 2011, the official rain gauge at Bush Intercontinental Airport has registered 7.88 inches of rain. That's since January 1st! And 5.05 inches of that fell in the month of January. The "normal" amount of rainfall we can expect in this town by July 2nd is 24.39 inches.

How do I tie rain, or the lack of it, to the Astros? Glad you asked. The Astros season started on April 1st. In the 83 games they've played since, they have a league low 29 wins. In that same time span (since April 1st) Houston's official rain gauge has seen something wet in it on 23 days. So for the season, I guess you could say the Astros are leading rain 29-23. Granted, some of those rain days measured just a trace, but hey, in a D4 drought we'll take what we can get.

In the month of June there were 8 days the rain gauge had something in it. June also saw the Astros win just 8 games. With the immediate future of the Astros looking pretty bleak, and the drought showing no signs of letting up, I'm wondering if July may be rain's month to take it to the Astros since the weather can and usually does change, but the Astros, not so much.

QUESTION: Which will there be more of in the month of July?

                     (A) Astros wins

                     (B) days of rain

Sheesh!! When does football season start?

Oh, that's right. There may not be one.