Hah!

You know all those annoying people who talk into their cell phones as if you weren’t standing right next to them? It turns out that many of them aren’t really talking to anybody. The New York Times recently described research at Rutgers University as well as the Ethics and Public Policy Center that found that a great number of cell phone users are faking it.

…

The only way to deal with this is to fight faking with faking. When you’re waiting to get off a plane and the guy next to you makes that “We’re just pulling into the gate, and I’ll call you from the baggage” call, you can top it with “This is the last time I fly commercial. I’ll meet you at the helicopter.”

When that obnoxious businessman shouts into his phone, declaring he’s about to make a fortune because he was clever enough to buy Amalgamated Apple Sauce at 12, you can always talk into yours and say, “What’s that? Amalgamated Apple Sauce is down to 3½? Well, at least I sold in time.”

John McGivney had enough of his LeBaron and took his semi-automatic to it.

Wizbang has the quote:

“I think every guy in the universe has wanted to do it. It was worth every … minute in that jail.”

I would have chuckled and moved on, but what made this worthy of a post was the second and third comments on Kevin’s entry.

Another miscarriage of justice…

It was a Chrysler LeBaron for goodness sake… they should have pinned a medal on his chest.

Posted by: Paul at April 20, 2005 11:00 AM

Florida authorities would have given him a medal if he’d simply denied it gas and anti-freeze instead of shooting it.

Posted by: McGehee at April 20, 2005 11:06 AM

The seller of the time machine has discovered a shrinking machine!

Amazing but true. Bid early and often.

HT: Kevin

Lots of interesting news around the web today. Here are a few quick random samplings.

Satellites to track cars for charging tolls.

In this scheme - expected to be introduced in full in 2009 - 110 cars will be fitted with tags, allowing the cars to be detected by roadside beacons which will then deduct charges

Zarqawi nuclear threat.

Recurrent intelligence reports say al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi has obtained a nuclear device or is preparing a radiological explosive — or dirty bomb — for an attack, according to U.S. officials, who also say analysts are unable to gauge the reliability of the information’s sources

Mall won’t allow teens in without parents:

From 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, mall security guards now stand outside two entrances to make sure anyone under 16 has a parent or someone over 21 with them.

Mick Wright over at Fishkite has taken to spending his Tuesdays tracking down the veep. Click through to see why.

Say Uncle sums it up.

(Remember this? Stacey seems to finally be getting the hang of the blogging thing.)

Project 21 press release:

Members of the black leadership organization Project 21 are criticizing the NAACP for endorsing filibusters against Bush Administration judicial nominees, calling the NAACP endorsement contradictory to the group’s past position, when filibusters halted the progress of civil rights bills.

“For decades, the NAACP was vehemently against filibusters because they were employed to oppose and counter civil rights legislation. But the NAACP has now switched position,” notes Project 21 member Michael King. “NAACP head Julian Bond has aggressively made verbal attacks on the Bush Administration. Though Bond and the NAACP leadership vociferously deny charges of partisanship, Bond’s actions and the silence of the membership implies that partisanship is the order of the day. By virtue of its actions, the NAACP has forfeited any opportunity to provide a reasonable voice to this discussion.”

Via MH King, who notes:

I really wish the NAACP would come on out of the closet and finally admit that their agenda is a partisan one. But then again, to do that, they’d have to give up their tax exempt status.

Wizbang summarizes with a before and after.

“I feared the worst. I was wrong.”
- Andrew Sullivan

Captain Ed’s comments produced a chuckle this morning. He parses an article in the Washington Post. Check it out.

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The Post starts out by noting the final homily given by Benedict before his pontificate where he objected to moral relativism, but leaves out the exact phrase and leaves the point about an “adult faith” somewhat ambiguous. It then makes this statement.

It is not for us to comment upon matters of Catholic doctrine, or indeed upon the internal deliberations of any religious institution.

How long do you suppose it takes for them to disprove that statment? One imagines that the cursor barely had time to pause until, two paragraphs later, this appeared:

Certainly we hope that the pope’s admirable profession of “adult faith” does not mean that the church must continue to impede the distribution of condoms in Africa and in other developing countries, where greater use could inhibit the spread of AIDS and prevent thousands of premature deaths.

So the Post’s position on non-criticism of Catholic doctrine doesn’t extend to its position on contraception and pre-marital sex. It also doesn’t extend to killing embryos to harvest tissue for medical experiments, although the Post doesn’t have the guts to even admit that’s what they mean:

And we hope he’ll weigh the possible benefits of new medical technologies, and not dismiss them out of hand.

It’s a good thing that the Post claims it shouldn’t criticize Catholic beliefs. Lord knows what they would have written if they didn’t believe that.
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From the Washington Times:

Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who sits on the House ethics committee, took a 2001 trip to Puerto Rico that was paid for by a registered lobbyist firm — an apparent violation of the chamber’s ethics rules — according to documents that she filed with the House clerk.

In the interest of full discloser, she denies it. Read the full story for the details.

She is co-chairwoman of the DNC. The critics of Tom DeLay are about to jump all over this one too… maybe.

Via Michelle.

Also, this site lists here voting record, if you’re interested. (Check out the “Government Reform” section).

Here she is, compliments of Wikipedia.

And here is the list of top contributors and top industries to her recent campaign.
(Hint: “Lawyers/Law Firms” tops the list)

Woman Sends Husband In Iraq Letters On Vietnam Notes:

And Nutter, 56, is the oldest person serving in the battalion of about 1,200.

The letters he now receives are being written on the back of the love letters he sent from Vietnam so many years ago.

On one recent day, Francie Nutter, a 15-year breast cancer survivor, pulled a letter from the box and read the words her husband wrote on Aug. 29, 1968, from Vietnam.

“You know I love you so much, I wish I could get on top of the world and scream it out. All the Gold on earth couldn’t match my love for you.”

At the top of the list is “my bag has a bomb in it and it will explode if you touch it.”

Airport security officials said the Doha-bound Qatar Airways jetliner, an Airbus 320, had just taken off from the airport when a Lebanese passenger apparently joking with a hostess who attempted to put away his handbag told her it had a bomb that would explode if he touched it.

The hostess informed the captain who made the decision to return to the airport.

…

The man was arrested, they added.