Saturday Night: A Little Bit of Good News

Posted: April 2, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Japan, just because, open thread | Tags: , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Japan Times:

SENDAI (Kyodo) The Japan Coast Guard managed to save a small brown dog Friday from a floating rooftop 1.8 km off Miyagi Prefecture, three weeks after a massive tsunami ravaged the northeast coast.

The team’s initial rescue attempt failed after the dog, perhaps scared by the hovering helicopter, jumped from the roof over to nearby driftwood.

A rescue boat with three guardsmen was then dispatched and succeeded in catching the pooch an hour later by using rescue stretchers.

The dog, which was wearing a black collar that had no indication of who its owner might be, was fed biscuits and sausages aboard the coast guard vessel and is behaving itself, the coast guard said.

How did he survive for three weeks surrounded by salt water? One suggestion: Perhaps with all the rain, perhaps the dog was able to drink rainwater that collected in spots on the house roof.

The dog was wearing a collar, so his rescuers will try to find his family.


This is an open thread, but I encourage you to share any heartwarming animal stories that you know about.

Libya: French Air Strikes on Tanks Near Benghazi

Posted: March 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Libya, Middle East, U.S. Military, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 49 Comments

Enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya has begun, with French military jets taking the lead. According to al Jazeera breaking news, “French warplanes have destroyed four Libyan tanks near the city of Benghazi.” You can follow the al Jazeera Libya live blog here.

The BBC also has a live blog on Libya that is frequently updated. The latest update is this tweet from a Libyan opposition group:

1758: Activist group Liberty4Libya tweets: “#Libya #Zintan, heavy shelling into the city of #Zintan, #Gaddafi troops’ tanks advancing under the fire cover.”

The BBC page is also running video reports.

Voice of America has this report: Allied Warplanes Patrol Libyan Skies. According to VOA Canadian planes are also on the way to launching point in Sicily.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy says allied warplanes are flying over Libya to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians in the city of Benghazi, where forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi have been bearing down on rebels trying to bring down his government.

U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed a short time later that the United States has joined a coalition with its European and Arab partners to take action in Libya.

Obama spoke to reporters during his visit to Brazil. He said the allied coalition’s “resolve is clear,” and that all members are “prepared to act with urgency.”

Gaddafi has already responded as follows:

Gadhafi sent urgent messages to world leaders Saturday, including U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In a letter read to reporters by a government spokesman in Tripoli, Gadhafi noted the rebels had seized control of Benghazi, and asked rhetorically how Obama would “behave” if there was a similar situation in the United States.

Addressing the U.N. secretary-general, Gadhafi said the Security Council’s resolution on Libya is “invalid,” and predicted that any Western action against Libya would be seen as “clear aggression.”

Here is a report on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement last night in response to Gaddafi’s supposed “cease-fire.”

The BBC also has video of Hillary’s remarks after the Paris Summit today. You can watch it here. You can read the full text of her statement below the fold. Read the rest of this entry »

Late Night Drifts

Posted: January 20, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: open thread | Tags: , , , | 24 Comments

Yesterday was a full moon.  That could possibly explain what I  want to call attention to as the most bizarre right wing meme I’ve read in a long time.   This is from a Talk Radio Station that features Rush Limbaugh prominently on its banner so be forewarned: Michelle Obama’s ‘Get Moving’ Program Linked to Pedestrian Deaths. I swear  it’s not The Onion.

The Governors Highway Safety Association says pedestrian deaths increased in the first half of 2010 and the First Lady’s program to get Americans to be more active could be partly responsible.Governors Highway Safety Administration spokesman Jonathan Adkins told 630 WMAL that Michelle Obama is “trying to get us to walk to work and exercise a little bit more.  While that’s good, it also increases our exposure to risk.”

After four straight years of steady declines, pedestrian deaths were up during the first six months of 2010, the latest figures available to be studied.

Other factors include distracted drivers, distracted pedestrians and what Adkins calls “aggressive pedestrians.”

“People who are not crossing where they are supposed to.  They’re running in front of cars.  We’ve even had examples of pedestrians getting out on the interstate,” said Adkins.

Alcohol is also factor in increased pedestrian deaths.

“We’ve done a good job of getting people, after a night out of partying, to leave their keys behind.  But just because you are walking does not mean you are not at risk,” said Adkins.

Pedestrians are also increasingly distracted by iPods and smart phones.  It is not uncommon to see people crossing streets while fiddling with an electronic device and not watching where they are walking.  Hospital emergency rooms have reported an upsurge of people injured in a fall because they were distracted by electronics.

So, my first reaction to this was WHICH governor of WHAT state?  Well, the station is in Virginia which makes it Governor  Bob McDonnell. I think I’d worry about who he is appointing there to head up departments if that’s the best explanation they can find when the evidence appears to be folks distracted by their Idiot-pads and their Idiot-phones. Sheesh!  And I thought my Governor Jindal had the market on fruitcake theories with his war on bath salts!!!  Kate Sheppard had a fun response up on MOJO called “Michelle Obama Doesn’t Kill People, Cars Do!’

TBD has a good post in which the GHSA’s executive director, Barbara Harsha, explaining that she never said that at all. The group isn’t sure exactly what caused the uptick in deaths—and they certainly can’t pin it on Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative.And as TBD’s Dave Jamieson aptly concludes, “If the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign is so effective that herds of inexperienced joggers are suddenly getting run over, then we need to put Mrs. Obama in charge of more nationwide initiatives, starting with the economic recovery.”

Oy. We women get blamed for everything these days!

Late Night Drift

Posted: January 17, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Festivities, just because, open thread | Tags: , , , , | 29 Comments

Doctor Daughter introduced me to Ricky Gervais for the joint celebration of youngest daughter’s birthday and another one of mine that I really tried to ignore back in November.  Both daughters were exhausted and spent the evening after sushi at Wasabi determining what was watchable On Demand.  The movie that won the  twenty something vote was called “The Invention of Lying”. Doctor Daughter told me that that the religious right was ticked off about it which immediately got me interested.  I actually sat, then watched for a change.  It was watchable.  That’s a big compliment coming from me.

Whenever some one is accused of crashing some big Hollywood self love celebration or  having a  prime time meltdown, my interest is completely piqued. It’s the same sorta thing that gets me up and about when some one pisses off the supremely ultra-religiously sanctimonious. Some of the snooty set were into Ricky’s muse and some took themselves completely TOO seriously.  It’s always fun to see the nerds and outkasts take revenge on the kool kids.  If it wasn’t for the big pay checks, the plastic surgery and the multiple retakes, they wouldn’t be so cool.  I know. I’ve sat in mix stations before and heard raw results.

The Daily Mail called him “saucy“.  Hugh Hefner faced his own mortality by tweeting “age is just a number”. (That isn’t what most of us thought when Ronald Reagan could push the detonator button on the ‘football’.)  I will say that the word self-destructive came to my mind as I read and watched the many snippy folks accessing his performance.  As long as he has a nice paid for cottage some where near Scotland, he should never worry.  The UK has national health, after all.

You can chant along with me … “you’ll never work in this town again …”

It’s an open thread.   Other blogs behave badly.  Here, we just embrace the snark.  Have fun!!

Oh, and in the word’s of The Bard:   “Well, God give them wisdom that have it, and those that are fools, let them use their talents.”

Open Thread: Post-Christmas White-Out

Posted: December 27, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: just because | Tags: , , , | 38 Comments

A couple of Sky Dancers have sent in snow pics! If you would like to add yours to this post, please send your photos to skydancingblog@gmail.com. I’ll update the post as I get more pics.

Joanelle sent these gorgeous shots from NJ:

The following photos were contributed by Delphyne, who also lives in NJ:

That's snow hanging off the roof!

Buried cars

This one is from Fran in Northern CA:

Timber Crater

A photo submitted by Minkoff Minx, from Georgia. Good Grief!

Big-ass icicle

We’ve got another photo from NJ. This one is from Branjor.

So, send in your photos if you have them. We could use some shots from CT, NY, and MA, (hint hint). Have fun in the snow everyone! It will melt quickly, because the temperatures are supposed to go up into the 40s in a lot of places by the end of the week.

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