This basically sums it up. Still a lot of racism south of the 49th.
The Onion
CHARLESTON, WV—According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. president Barack Obama. “I like him better,” said West Virginia resident Dale Swiderski, who, along with 77 percent of rural Caucasian voters, confirmed he would much rather go to a baseball game or have a beer with Ahmadinejad, a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed, than spend time with Obama. “He takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.” According to the same Gallup poll, 60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s Muslim.
Posted December 31, 2012 by markosun in Uncategorized
Gerry Anderson, the creator of hit TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Joe 90, has died at the age of 83.
He also created Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and his puppet superheroes fired the imaginations of millions of young viewers in the 1960s and ’70s.
Thunderbirds, a science-fiction fantasy about a daring rescue squad, ran from 1965 and was his most famous show.
Anderson had suffered from Alzheimer’s since 2010 and the disease had worsened in recent months, his son Jamie said.
Jamie Anderson announced the news on his website, saying his father died peacefully in his sleep at noon on Wednesday.
“Gerry was diagnosed with mixed dementia two years ago and his condition worsened quite dramatically over the past six months,” he wrote.
Voice actor David Graham, who voiced the reformed safecracker, as well as fan-favourite Brains, said it was “a very sad day”.
“I owed him a lot professionally and he was a good friend as well,” he told the BBC. “I think he was a genius.”
He revealed the inspiration for the voice came when Anderson “took me to an old pub in Cookham where there was an old guy who was a waiter and he said, ‘I’m going to call him over, just listen to him’.”
Actor Brian Blessed, who worked with Anderson on shows including The Day After Tomorrow and Space 1999, told BBC News: “I think a light has gone out in the universe.
“He had a great sense of humour. He wasn’t childish but child-like and he had a tremendous love of the universe and astronomy and scientists.
“He got their latest theories, which he would expand on. He was always galvanised and full of energy.”
Posted December 28, 2012 by markosun in Uncategorized
Canadian artist Heather Benning has turned an abandoned farm house she found in 2005 in Manitoba, Canada, into a life-sized dollhouse.
Miss Benning, 32, discovered the tumble-down home in 2005 during an artist in residence program for the community of Redvers, Saskatchewan. While driving to the nearest city of Brandon, Manitoba, to get art supplies she spotted the crumbling former home and pulled over to get a closer look. She immediately knew what she wanted to do.
She contacted the landowners of the property and found out the house had been abandoned since the late 1960s and was suffering from substantial water damage. After a meeting, the owners agreed to donate the house to Heather so that she could make her dream of producing a real-life dollhouse.
Miss Benning knocked down the exterior wall and replaced it with plexi glass. “I chose to close the house in with plexi glass because I wanted it to be inaccessible, and tomb-like – inaccessible in that one cannot enter a real dollhouse because of the scale, and tomb-like because it encapsulates a time and a lifestyle that no longer exists, and will never exist again”, she said.
She then furnished the interior with items collected locally from garage sales, auctions, and thrift stores and some of the furniture was donated by community members.
Working on and off for 18 months, she completed the project with the help of her friends and spent around $15,000 on materials before unveiling the work to the public in 2007.
Posted December 26, 2012 by markosun in Uncategorized
US Webster gunman William Spengler left ‘killing note’
BBC
A man alleged to have lured two US volunteer firefighters to their deaths in Webster, New York left a long note outlining his plans, police say.
No motive was given but the note left by William Spengler, identified as the gunman said he was planning to “do what I like doing best – killing people.”
Police searching Spengler’s burnt-out house say they have found human remains – believed to be those of his sister.
The firefighters were shot dead as they arrived to tackle a fire on Monday.
At a news conference on Tuesday, police said Spengler, 62, had three guns and aimed to burn down his neighbourhood.
Seven homes on a narrow stretch of land beside Lake Ontario were destroyed by the fire. Another two firemen and an off-duty police officer were wounded in the attack.
Police Chief Gerald Pickering told reporters that Spengler, who apparently shot himself in the head, had used a .38 calibre revolver, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Bushmaster .223 calibre rifle with flash suppression.
The same make and calibre rifle had been used in the murder of 26 teachers and children at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut on 14 December, he said.
William Spengler spent 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother
The police chief told reporters in Webster that a two- to three-page note from the gunman had been found in which he said: “I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighbourhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best – killing people.”
At a later briefing, Mr Pickering said human remains were found in the house Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl.
Police believe the remains are hers.
Spengler and his sister lived with their mother until her death in October.
‘Clear ambush’
Spengler had served 17 years in jail for killing his grandmother with a hammer but had done nothing to attract the authorities’ attention since being granted parole in 1998.
As a convicted criminal, he was not allowed to own weapons.
Police said he appeared to have set “a trap” by setting fire to his home. His older sister, Cheryl, whom he reportedly hated, is missing.
Two of the firefighters who responded to the call, Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, and Mike Chiapperini, aged 43, were shot dead in what was described as a “clear ambush” on emergency services.
Their two wounded colleagues are said to be in a stable condition with gunshot wounds.
A police officer who came to their aid was praised by the police chief for saving people’s lives.
Gerald Pickering cited “mental health issues” as a possible factor for the attack, which came months after the death of Spengler’s mother.
The Newtown killer, Adam Lanza, killed his mother with her own guns before launching his attack on Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.
His murders of 20 children aged six and seven have prompted a national debate on gun ownership and mental health.
“It’s sad to see that that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation,” Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn told AP news agency after the attack in New York state.
Posted December 26, 2012 by markosun in Uncategorized
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