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Have a Merry Christmas!

Morons Care More About Cannon Than Student

I was surfing the net a little while ago, and I ran into something over at Attu Sees All that pissed me off so bad that I just had to say something about it. A cannon exploded at a high school football game in Snohomish, WA, almost blowing the leg off of the ROTC student who fired it. He almost had to have his leg amputated, and has to endure more than a year of physical rehabilitation with an uncertain outcome. And what does the community do? Instead of giving him sympathy and support, they give him threats that if he and his parents cooperate with the investigation which may lead to them not being able to use a damn cannon at football games, they'll hurt him worse! That's right, this bunch of ignorant, heartless cro-magnon morons care more about being able to fire off a big boom at their football games, than they do about the health and safety of students! I mean come on, this is stupidity at it's finest! I personally think that each and every one of these dumbasses who have sent him or his parents threats should be forced to stand out in the town square, and be shot through the head with a cannon! Ugh, I can't write anymore, I'm just way too fed up. Here's some of the highlights of the story from SeattlePI News:

Boy hurt by cannon blast feels twice wounded
By CAROL SMITH P-I REPORTER

SNOHOMISH -- The cannon shot that ripped into Brett Karch's leg, causing a gaping combat-style wound, has also torn a hole in his hometown community of Snohomish.

Karch, whose leg was nearly amputated and who faces more than a year of physical rehabilitation with an uncertain outcome, has been the target of physical threats because of fears his injury will jeopardize the community's tradition of firing the ceremonial cannon before each high school football game and after touchdowns.

...

Shooting off the cannon was the town's salute to the game that launched many notable football careers and entertained generations.

But the shot that nearly took off Brett Karch's leg now leaves the fate of that tradition in the air, and that has upset some in the community.

According to Karch's medical records, security guards notified police after Karch received disturbing phone calls and visits from parents and students, some of whom threatened to "break his other leg" or worse, if he didn't keep quiet about the accident. Hospital staff had to move him to a secure room where they monitored visitors.

Callers and visitors told Karch they would "make sure his other leg got blown off," and that "there would be retaliation" if the family cooperated in an investigation that could end the cannon tradition, said Mary Bissel, Karch's mother. "That's when I kind of got a little upset," Karch said.

The threats also included mention the family would be "banned from the town," Bissell said. She's been warned not to talk to a lawyer, or reporters.

...

The cannon was blown apart. Pieces of it landed 30 feet away, some even touching down in the end zone.

"My leg went flying, and I fell on my right side," said Karch. "Kids were staggering around. I looked at my leg and felt it burning."

"Did it blow my leg off, is my leg still attached?" he recalled asking the closest cadet to him. But the deafened student couldn't hear him.

Within seconds, medics and senior officers sprinted to his side. The team of emergency medical technicians standing by in the event of a football injury rushed Karch into a waiting ambulance.

The priority on the playing field, however, was the game, which didn't stop as Karch was carried off the sidelines to an ambulance, witnesses said.

...

"If this had happened to a football player, you can be sure he would have been airlifted to Harborview," said one parent of a ROTC member, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Brown, too, was shocked and later angered by the apparent lack of concern for the seriousness of Karch's injury.

Rumors circulated almost immediately among students that Karch must have packed the cannon incorrectly, and some of the cards and comments have suggested that he deserved what happened to him.

Karch said he didn't do anything different that night, a view shared by his ROTC leader Mack, the retired Marine Corps colonel, who said the team follows military protocols for loading and firing the cannon.

...

The reaction of some community members has taken the family and its supporters aback.

"Snohomish is usually a pretty tight community," Brown said. "Usually when something like this happens, groups come together. But that didn't happen this time."

Since his discharge from the hospital on Oct. 23, Karch has had only three visitors -- two of them Mack and Brown. And despite invitations to school friends, not a single person other than family attended his 16th birthday celebration in November, Bissell said.

Bissel suspects some of the reaction may be because she retained a lawyer to help her understand legal forms the school district asked her to sign after the accident. She has not filed any legal claims against the school or the district. According to Langer, the school district has been cooperative and has said it plans to establish a fund to pay for Karch's medical expenses.

What Bissel wants for her son, though, is the emotional support of the community they've lived in for a decade.

...

McVey has tried rallying support for Karch's family by raising money for dinners. Her initial attempts raised $200, nearly all of it coming from schools other than Karch's own.

The lack of response still puzzles her.

"You have a kid here who's lost part of his leg, who may always have a rod in it," she said. "Where's the compassion? How would these guys feel if it were their son? Would the cannon really matter?"

Link to the full story.

Weird Christmas Traditions

OK, now I thought I'd heard of some weird traditions before, but these take the cake. A shitting peasant in a nativity scene, and beating a hollow log while urging it to shit presents. I always thought that the creators of South Park may have been way off the wall with Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo, but it turns out they may have actually been onto something. Here's the story from Yahoo!News

Pooping peasant popular in Spain

BARCELONA, Spain - The Virgin Mary. The three kings. A few wayward sheep. These are the figures one expects to find in a traditional Christmas nativity scene. Not a smartly dressed peasant squatting behind a rock with his rear-end exposed.

Yet statuettes of "El Caganer," or the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be found in nativity scenes, and increasingly on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities.

During the holiday season, pastry shops around Catalonia sell sweets shaped like feces, and on Christmas Eve Catalan children beat a hollow log, called the tio, packed with holiday gifts, singing a song that urges it to defecate presents out the other end.

These traditions, in the case of the caganer dating back as far as the 17th century, come from an agricultural society where defecation was associated with fertility and health.

While the traditional caganer is a red-capped peasant, more modern renditions have gained popularity in recent years.

Now after reading this I still couldn't believe it. So I just had to have confirmation that this wasn't just a practical joke from Yahoo!News, so I headed over to Wikipedia to see what they had. And here is it:

Caganer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Caganer (IPA: [kə.γə.'ne]) is a little statue unique to Catalonia, and neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such as Andorra.

In Catalonia, as in most of Italy, South France and Spain, the traditional Christmas decoration is a large model of the city of Bethlehem, similar to American Nativity scenes that encompasses the entire city rather than just the typical manger scene. The Catalans have added an extra character that is not found in the manger scenes of any other culture. In addition to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Shepherds and company, Catalans have the character known as the Caganer. This extra little character is often tucked away in some corner of the model, typically nowhere near the manger scene, where he is not easily noticed. There is a good reason for his obscure position in the display, for "caganer" translates from Catalan to English as "defecator", and that is exactly what this little statue is doing — defecating.

Link to the full article.

"Demon Ducks of Doom"

Ok, I was sitting in the restroom the other day, catching up on a little light reading, and I happened to glance over at the counter and something caught my eye. My Axe devil duckie. A cute little black rubber duck with horns, sunglasses and a puka shell necklace and the word Axe written across his chest. He came packaged in a box with some Axe shower gel which I use (great stuff by the way). But anyway, this got me thinking, who's idea was it to take a worldwide childhood icon, the famous rubber duck, and give it horns and make it a devil duckie. Well, I decided it was time to do some research on the devil duckie. And here was where disappointment struck, for my two favorite research mediums, Google and Wikipedia, have let me down. I found a plentiful supply of stores that sell devil ducks, but absolutely nothing on their history. SO now I'm turning to you, the public. If you have any information of the transformation of the childs toy rubber duck into the pop icon that is the devil duckie, please post it here.


Oh, and if you're wondering, the post title is a quote from a previous post about some fossils of giant duck-like creatures found in Austrailia. See it here.

Happy B-Day to Me

Well, my birthday has come and gone. I'm now officially a quarter of a century, the big 25. Time to put away childish things and start acting like a responsible adult. YEAH RIGHT! Overall, it was a great birthday. Got a few new shirts, a couple of poker and casino video games that plug straight into the TV, a couple of great DVDs and some other great presents. I also had a HUGE chocolate fireman themed birthday cake (in case you're wondering, it wasn't just because I like fire trucks, I'm actually a volunteer fire fighter)which is picture below. I'd have to say it was a great birthday. I've grown another year older, and another year wiser. Well, I'm off to eat some more birthday cake before my pancreas goes into shock from all the icing.

World's Most Expensive Fast Food!

OK, I'm a fat boy, I love to eat. And hamburgers are one of my favorite meals. But I don't think there is any situation where I would pay $110 for a burger! Ah, who am I kidding. If I was financially secure enough to do it, and in a position to try it, I would, just so I could say I ate it. Here's the story from Reuters:

Jakarta hotel puts $110 hamburger on menu
Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:36am ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country.

The $110 hamburger offered by the Four Seasons is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean pears -- served with french fries, of course.

They're not exactly selling like hotcakes yet, but the hotel says it has sold 20 of the 1.0 million rupiah ($110.1) hamburgers since they were launched this month.

"One burger has 225 grams of Kobe beef. It is so expensive because the flavor is really different," said Erwan Ruswandi, the chief of the restaurant offering the gourmet burger.

"The calves in Kobe get special treatment ... they drink beer mixed with milk, vitamins and eat pesticide-free grass. We add foie gras and also some Korean pears. We import all the materials, and they are high quality so it is so expensive."

Link to the full story.

Happy Blog Birthday to Unicorn Dreams

I know, I know, it's late, but here's wishing a belated first blog birthday to the lovely girl over at Unicorn Dreams. Here's looking forward to another great year.

Goofing Off

I was just goofing off taking some quizzes, and I realized I hadn't posted any on here in a while, so I decided what the heck. Besides, I like the result of this one, Mountain Dew is one of my favorite sodas!

You Are Mountain Dew

Ultra hyper and full of energy, you're on a permanent sugar high. Some people complain about your taste, but the do appreciate your power. Your best soda match: Coke Stay away from: Root Beer

What Kind of Soda Are You?

Go Vegan, Get Sick!

OK, now I have nothing against vegans and vegetarians as long as they don't try to force their beliefs on me, I even had a best friend in high school who was vegan and we ate lunch together without any problems. But the truth of the matter is, I love meat. Broiled, fried, grilled, raw (sushi), I like it. I honestly believe that one of the greatest things in life is a grilled T-bone steak and a baked potato. But when I saw the story about the "Lettuce Ladies", two PETA animal rights campaigners who were protesting eating meat in Kazakhstan by dressing up in bikinis made from fake lettuce leaves and handing out flyers to passersby, I knew something had to be said. OK, now normally this wouldn't be a big deal, I'd laugh at it and move on, but this time is different. For one thing, I'm not a big fan of PETA's methods. I'm a huge animal lover, I promote and encourage conservation and preservation of animals the world over. But I don't always think that the ends will justify the means. And also, is now really a time we want to be promoting vegetarianism? It wasn't very long ago that people were afraid to buy spinach because of mass salmonella outbreaks, and now there are E. coli outbreaks suspected from the lettuce at Taco Bell. I don't know about you, but at this point in time I think I'd be more likely to give up vegetarianism than convert to it! But hey, that's just my opinion, and if these ladies want to spend their time out in the cold freezing their lettuce heads off trying to convert people to food-poison-ism, I mean vegetarianism, more power to them.

I'll Have a Blitzen Dog please.

A hot dog stand in Chicago is selling reindeer dogs as a December special. OK, I can understand the seasonal tie-in, but you know this has to be disturbing to little children everywhere. But hey, I'd try it, I've never had reindeer meat. Here's the story from MSNBC:

Rudolph roasting on an open fire?

GLENVIEW, Ill. - Just in time for Christmas, they’re selling reindeer hot dogs in suburban Chicago.

With grilled onions and mustard, it will cost you eight dollars at Fred Markoff’s hot dog stand in Glenview.

The reindeer dogs are made in Alaska and actually contain a bit of beef and pork because reindeer meat is so lean and dry.

Link to the full story.

Book Review: Slither by Edward Lee

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The trichinosis worm is one of nature’s most revolting parasites. Certain types of this tiny worm alter a host’s DNA by injecting a virus which mutates the reproductive system. This forces the host to bear the worm’s young. Typically these worms are never longer than a few millimeters. But guess what? Now there’s a subspecies that’s thirty feet long...

When Nora and her team arrive at the island, she expects a routine zoological excursion...but it doesn’t take her long to realize they’re not alone. Are her lurid sexual dreams making her paranoid...or is she being watched? The dead bodies they find are bad enough, but then her own team members begin to disappear, and when they return, they’ve...changed. Indeed, there are other people on the island...along with something else far worse.

Now for my review:
I was introduced to the writing of Edward Lee through his novel, City Infernal (great read by the way, highly recommended). So when I saw this at the book store, I had to get it. It was typical Ed Lee, full of twists, turns, horror, and believable and realistic characters. I thought it was a great read UP TO about the last few chapters. I loved the first part of the book, I couldn't stop reading it, but as it was winding down it started to drop off. First of all, I thought the real identities of the villains just seemed tacked on and kind of cheesy. I was just disappointed by it. Also there were a couple of continuity errors of a kind of glaring nature. I'd give it about 3 1/2 stars, a good read, but not a great read. If you want to read Lee at his best, I'd recommend you pick up City Infernal.

Link to this book from Amazon.

Kid Arrested for Opening Presents Early

I was surfing around the net and stumbled onto this and it just begged to be posted. A kid in South Carolina opened one of his presents when he was told not to, so his mom called the police and had him arrested. Talk about being naughty at Christmas. Here's what The Herald had to say:


Penalty for unwrapping gifts early: Arrest
By Monica Chen · The Herald

A mother convinced Rock Hill police to arrest her 12-year-old son after he unwrapped a Christmas present early.
The boy's great-grandmother had specifically told him not to open his Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which she had wrapped and placed beneath the Christmas tree, according to a police report.

But on Sunday morning, she found the box of the popular handheld game console unwrapped and opened. When the boy's 27-year-old mother heard about the opened gift, she called police.

"He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it," said the 63-year-old great-grandmother.

Both the great-grandmother and the mother asked the boy on Sunday where the present was. The boy replied he didn't know.

When the mother threatened to call the police, the boy went into his room and got the Game Boy, the report stated. She called the police anyway.

Two Rock Hill police officers responded to the home and charged the boy with petty larceny. He was charged as a juvenile and released the same day, said police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop, who added the boy was never held at the jail.

Link to the full story.

Bravery

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

OK, anyone who routinely stops by the blog may have noticed a couple of changes in the past couple of days. Well, that's because I've upgraded from regular Blogger to Blogger Beta. What does this mean for you, the loyal reader? Well, there are only two really big changes that will affect you. The first is that you may notice that the recent post section is gone from the side bar. However, this isn't really a problem, you can just go down to the bottom of the page where it says "older posts" and just go back until you find the post you're looking for. Or, and here's the second change, if you know what the post was about, you can use the new label ability. That's right, Blogger Beta allows me to tag each of my posts with a label (or two, or three...you get the picture). This allows you to click on that particular label and see other posts that have that same label tag and are therefor about the same topic. Hopefully this will help keep the randomness organized (I know, it's an oxymoron) and will make navigating my twisted little world a little easier.

I want this insurance company!

OK, first a little background. My cousin who lives next door drives a school bus for a living. Well, since today's Saturday, he has it parked out in the driveway. Well, my mother in law came up today to drop off a few things for my wife. While she was turning her car, she said she didn't see the bus and backed into it. It didn't do any damage to the bus, but it beat the hell out of her fender and busted out the tail light. Well, she has full coverage insurance, so she decided to call it in and see what she had to do. Well, when she dialed the number printed on her insurance card, it picked up and said, "Let our horny girls show you a good time." She hung it up, thinking that she may have dialed the wrong number, and tried again. And there it was again, the same voice and the same horny girls. That's right, the number on her insurance cards goes into a SEX HOT LINE!!! We made my wife put it on speakerphone and dial it again, because the rest of us didn't believe her, but sure enough, there's the voice advertising horny girls. Now I'm thinking I may have to switch insurance companies, all I ever get from my old insurance company is a hard time, not a hard on!

Shopping During a Fire!?!

Ok, I know the shopping frenzy reaches it's height this time of year, but these are some dedicated bargain hunters! I guess they thought that the smoke meant there were some hot deals. Here's the story from Yahoo!News:

Holiday shoppers keep buying during fire

MENTOR, Ohio - An electrical fire that filled a department store with thick smoke didn't deter holiday shoppers, and firefighters had to block the doors to keep customers from coming in, authorities said.

No one was injured in the fire at Dillards South at Great Lakes Mall on Wednesday, but some bargain hunters were inconvenienced.

"It was amazing," said Mentor fire Battalion Chief Joe Busher. "Even though there was heavy smoke in there, they all wanted to stay and shop. We even had to put people at the door to keep people from coming in."

Link to the full story.

Disgusted

Ok, I know that the tone here at FreekBoi's Random Thoughts is usually light with odd news stories, and funny pictures, and humorous events that have happened in my life. I do this on purpose, I figure more people like to laugh than be depressed, so why not try to give them a little humor in their life. But every so often, something comes along that just outrages or disgusts me so much that I just have to share it. I found this over at Attu Sees All, and it just royally pissed me off. Who the hell does this kid think he is? He and his friends beat a guy to death, just because they were frickin' bored! He got the lightest sentence of all the defendants, he's not even served a full year in prison yet, and he wants to go home because he says jail is to hard! WTF? It's not exactly supposed to be a vacation in the Caribbean there bucko! Sorry, I'll come down off my soapbox now. Here's the story from WFTV 9 News:

Teen Murderer Says Jail Is Too Hard, Appeals Sentence

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- One of the teenagers responsible for beating a Holly Hill homeless man to death asked a judge to reduce his 22-year prison sentence Monday. Warren Messner and three other teens pled guilty to killing the man because they were bored, but Messner said prison is too hard.

...

Messner got the lightest sentence of the four boys. Teens Jeffrey Spurgeon, Justin Stearns and Christopher Scamahorn got 27 to 35 years. They all cut plea deals to avoid life in prison.

The state attorney said that's as much leniency as they should get and the judge agreed.

"I can't think of some reason to change the sentence. I'm going to deny the motion," said the Hon. Joseph Will.

Messner's parents broke down at the denial. His mother said it's unfair, that her son fell in with a bad crowd and prison is killing him.

"He's not getting the mental health, the schooling. He's not getting anything, anything but locked in a cell all day long," Lori Messner said.

The judge and the state both argued that being deprived services and being locked away is precisely the point of prison. Warren Messner will spend the next 22 years in prison without the chance for parole.

Link to the full story.