Chamblee54

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.He acquired his size from too much pi. 2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian. 3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still. 4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption. 5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery. 6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering. 7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart. 8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie. 9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it. 10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. 11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. 12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head. ’13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me. 14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’ 15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large. 16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran. 17. A backward poet writes inverse. 18. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes. 19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion. 20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine. 21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.’ 22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says ‘Dam!’ 23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too. 24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’ The other says ‘Are you sure?’ The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’ 25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication. 26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did. 27. Pictures for this entertainment are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost..

Long Island Congressman Peter King is in the news these days. He was on the Laura Ingraham radio show recently, and made a few comments about the Occupy Wall Street movement. “They have no sense of purpose other than a basically anti-American tone and anti-capitalist. It’s a ragtag mob basically,’ … ‘We have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy … I’m taking this seriously in that I’m old enough to remember what happened in the 1960’s when the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can’t allow that to happen.’
Wikipedia has a few stories about Mr. King. He joined the National Guard in 1968, when he finished law school, and he could not claim a student deferment any longer. 1968 was also the year of the Tet offensive. While a military victory for the United States, the Tet offensive was a psychological victory for the Viet Cong. It convinced many in the United States that the war in Vietnam could not be won. It was a turning point. The anti war protests in the United States had little to do with this.
PG is also curious as to what Mr. King meant when he said “it ended up shaping policy”. In the 1968 elections, Richard Nixon won. He persued a policy of “Vietnamization”, or withdrawing the United States combat forces. It was not until 1973 that the Paris accords were signed. These called for the withdrawal of the final American forces, and the release of POWs. (Rumors of POWs kept by North Vietnam continue to this day.) During the Nixon years of the Vietnam war, 20,000 American troops died, as did untold Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. There was an invasion of Cambodia. The conflict spread into Cambodia, with a horrendous loss of life. It is tough to see how American policy was affected by the domestic war protests.
Peter King is the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and seems to be a piece of work. At one time, he was considered to be a friend of the Muslim community. Mr. King was a friend of the Irish Republican Army. “In 1982, speaking at a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County, New York, King said: “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

We, the people of Mortville reject global capitalism and the consumer-based identities it imposes upon the populace. We acknowledge that race, class, gender, and sexual orientation have been systematically transformed into marketing schemes to sell us our identities at the expense of the global poor and the human spirit. Mortville shall exist indefinitely as a laboratory in which we create recombinant personas from the detritus of corrupt corporate constructs. We shall embarrass capitalism by exposing its lies and subverting its strategy of spectacle. In the shadow of Urban Outfitters, we will illuminate the plight of those who toil in sweatshops to line the pockets of republican scum. We strive to alternately parody the excesses of consumer culture and set an example of living free of them. We declare the self-definition of glamor to be a human right and not a privilege of the 1%. Constantly reinventing ourselves as a hybrid of identities, we will look how we feel, say what we wish, fuck who we want, act as we should(n’t), vogue like a queen, and walk like an Egyptian. The first action of the un-government of Mortville shall be to impose economic sanctions upon the tyrannical regime of the status quo and it’s allies. Sanctions shall be lifted when the wealth is redistributed, the military industrial complex dismantled, the police disempowered, and the public sector fulfilling its obligations to the people. We demand education, housing, public transportation, dignified employment, energy that neither spoils our planet nor supports oppressive theocracies, abortions, human rights, arts programming, a secular and transparent democracy, free health care (including sex change operations), and legal residency for all! Until our demands are met, we shall cast our glittery high-heeled sabots into the mechanism of complacency and laugh as the gears shatter! HT to Mattilda. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Posting  this document does not constitute an endorsement.

Just shook hands with the bud light truck driver, thanked him for his service to our country /// I mean really it’s like when you’re super hungry and you can’t decide what to eat, you just know you want food. This is that situation, but for my vagina /// I legit just said “vaginal access denied” then told him his password hint was “tequila shots” /// I still love him regardless of his misguided forays into heterosexuality ///1. If you’re too open minded, your brains will fall out. 2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity. 3. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic. 4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. 5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before. 6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance. 7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious. 8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. ///And nobody even seems to be considering that it could just be a publicity stunt for the new iPhone. /// In the eyes and ears of many people, including the writer of this opinion, a juke box confined to ‘jazz’ records may be a nuisance. It robs the air of sweet silence, it substitutes for the gentle concord of stillness the wailings of the so-called ‘blues singer,’ the whinings of foggy saxophones, the screeching of untuned fiddles, the blasts of head-splitting horns, and the battering of earshattering drums. It makes a mockery of music, it replaces harmony with cacophony, tonality with discord, and peace with annoyance. /// In 1937, Judge Leon R. Yankwich of Los Angeles Federal Court heard a case involving nearly identical patent claims submitted by Luther Wright and Herman Rongg. His decision: “Wright is wrong and Rongg is right.” /// 9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program. 10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip. 11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks. 12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good. 13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway. 14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it. 15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes. 16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand. /// All that can be thought can be written. /// First we eat, then we beget; first we read, then we write. /// It happens to us once or twice in a lifetime to be drunk with some book which probably has some extraordinary relative power to intoxicate us and none other; and having exhausted that cup of enchantment we go groping in libraries all our years afterwards in the hope of being in Paradise again. /// Avoid adjectives. Let the noun do the work. /// The blind man doth eat many a fly. /// Man: I hope Santa come down your chimney! Woman: I don’t want him to come down a chimney. I want him to walk through the front door so I can get some fuckin head! –McDonald’s, The Village /// I do like those fuck-me pumps, but they’re terrible for my feet. /// 17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places. 18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming. 19. Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it. 20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on. 21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. 22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends. 23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator. 24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world. 25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. /// Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. /// This Alzheimer’s Test is a MUST take if you are 40 or older. How fast can you guess these words and fill-in the blanks? 1. _ _NDOM, 2. F_ _K, 3. P_N_S, 4 PU_S_ , 5. S_X , 6. BOO_S Answers: 1. RANDOM 2. FORK 3. PANTS 4. PULSE 5. SIX 6. BOOKS You got all 6 wrong….d idn’t you? You do NOT have Alzheimer’ s YOU ARE A PERVERT!!!!!!! /// I probably shouldn’t confess this but when I was 14 and fighting for my life I never thought of suicide; I became obsessed with revenge. /// LETHOLOGICA is the word for the feeling you get when you cannot remember a word. /// We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. /// “Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter.”–Nietzsche /// three apples changed the world, the one eaten by eve, the one that hit newton, and the one created by steve jobs /// Quick question. What’s the protocol on going back to a bar after going home with one of their bartenders? Go back and try to find another to go home with. /// since when did our medecine drawer and our sex drawer become the same drawer? we now have lube covered cough drops. /// How many Apple employees does it take to change a light bulb? Three. One to come up with a design for a brand new type of lighting source that requires its own unique proprietary electrical connection to your home, one to create a method to buy proprietary accessories and design elements to improve the bulb’s functions, and one to come up with a name like iGlow that will convince people to spend $399 on a really cool looking light source. /// “If you start to take Vienna, take Vienna.” — Napoleon /// Minus forty Celsius is the same temperature as minus forty Fahrenheit /// No, but its not like diarrhea. i swear its like my intestines had a secret bank account and i just punched in the right pin. /// Had “I should be in prison or dead” storytime at the bar. Found out James has done blow off a dead guy. Overwhelmed and speechless. /// I was afraid that she would smell her boyfriend’s penis on my breath while we were talking. /// Wow. This hand sanitizer smells awesome. It’s like I just gave a handjob to a fruit basket. /// Skyscrapers don’t end till they run out of stories—like tedious people. /// Aphorisms are the echoes of our silences. /// The first rule of writing is not to omit the thing you meant to say. /// Four-year-old girl: Look daddy, I’m going to make a sand castle! Inexplicably angry father: You know that’s not going to work! The sand has to be wet. I thought we went over this already, but you never listen, do you? /// It was fun meeting your parents in my underwear. /// logomach n. one who fights over words /// Dude: I flirted with her really hard, and she was totally into it. Girl, flirtatious: Oh, yeah? Dude: Yeah. Her boyfriend wasn’t too happy though. Girl: Ha! Yeah? Dude: Yeah. And he’s a vampire, but it’s cool. Cause I’m a werewolf. /// Woman in fur coat #1: I’m thinking about downsizing: just one bedroom and one closet, that’s all I need. Woman in fur coat #2: Me too. But the ski clothes, and the golf clubs… they take up so much space! /// It’s taking 3 penises to fill the hole he left in my heart. /// Apparently you need a permit for a flamethrower. /// The Kardashian’s once again show they are right on trend, and this is on (sic) Mommy’s are all going to want to follow.( Spell check suggestion for Kardashian’s: Guardianship’s)/// This communication is for use by the intended recipient and contains information that may be privileged, confidential or copyrighted under law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby formally notified that any use, copying or distribution of this e-Mail, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. Please notify the sender by return e-Mail and delete this e-Mail from your system. Unless explicitly and conspicuously stated in the subject matter of the above e-Mail, this e-Mail does not constitute a contract offer, a contract amendment, or an acceptance of a contract offer. This e-Mail does not constitute consent to the use of sender’s contact information for direct marketing purposes or for transfers of data to third parties. /// selah

This is a repost. It was originally posted four years ago. At the time, BHO was not doing well. The smart people said that Rudy Giuliani would run against Hillary Clinton to be the next POTUS. BHO was called out by the fashion police for not wearing a little flag on his lapel.
As we all know, things change very quickly. The yuck factor did in Hillary. BHO was elected POTUS. At some point in his journey, BHO began to wear flag jewelry. When he went on TV to announce the murder of Osama Bin Ladin, the camera saw a little flag.
BHO has changed his game in a few other ways. He is winding down the war in Babylon. The bad news is, the undeclared war against the Muslim world has been expanded. Thousands of women and children have been killed by American forces. How many women and children were killed in the drone strike(s) that killed Anwar al-Awlaki?

Barack Obama keeps saying things that appeal to me, and keeps falling further and further behind. This is the latest, courtesy of a local news service. Iowa City – Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is trying to change political fashion. He gave a speech in Iowa City Wednesday and he wasn’t wearing an American flag pin. Those pins have become synonymous with politicians since 9-11.
Obama says he doesn’t like how the pin has come to represent patriotism in America. “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest, instead I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great. Hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
The candidate, owner of the most prominent ears since Lyndon Johnson, is not doing well in the polls. Hillary is kicking his mixed race butt. Jesse Jackson accuses him of acting white.
It’s really a shame. Mr. O was opposed to the war in Babylon while the others were posturing over wmds. He is a good speaker, and is younger than yours truly. Part of the problem could be the shade of his exterior. He is expected to say things that appeal to black voters.(Hence the comment from Mr. Jackson) The only problem is that what appeals to African Americans frequently scares Whitefolk. He is in a tough spot. The irony is, his mother was white, his father is from Kenya, and he was born in Hawaii. He is not the descendant of slaves.
This latest flap is one more thing that I like. I get tired of the flag used as jewelry, and exploited for commercial and political gain. A while back, a real estate lady in my area put a flag in everyone’s front yard, with her business card attached. I wonder how many of those flags wound up in a landfill, which is not a place of respect.
A co worker once had a sticker on her van, “try burning this one”. After leaving the van in direct sunlight for a while, the pink, lavender, and beige were still there.
I have one flag on display. It is in my tool shed. I found it in a box of garbage once, while I was riding my bike. I rescued it. But I don’t use the flag as an item of jewelry. I applaud Mr. Obama for his not doing so.

The electoral college method of electing the President is broken, and needs to be fixed. This problem has been around since the constitution was written. It hurt America badly in 2000, when the man who won the popular vote was denied the Presidency on a technicality.
There have been few calls for electoral reform since the 2000 election, even from the Democrats who were robbed. It is almost as if the two parties don’t really compete, but pretend to fight each other, knowing that soon it will be the other guys turn to rule. The thieves who run our political system are used to playing the electoral college game, and would have to have an honest election if the race was decided by popular vote.
In Georgia, it is known that the Republicans will get the states votes. If you vote for a democrat, your vote in Georgia won’t make a difference in Ohio. The electoral college system takes the Presidential vote away from Georgia citizens.
The reform of this system does not have to be complicated. The constitution calls for the voters to select electors, who will vote on the President. The winner-take-all plan is a perversion of the original plan. The customs can be changed just as easily, probably without a constitutional amendment.
Here is a plan. Elect one elector for each congressional district. Give each state two electors based on the statewide vote. There will be districts where one party always wins, and that is regretable. There will probably be fewer people disenfranchised this way that under the present system of state by state, winner takes all.
Pictures tonight are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”

We had a post here a few days ago inspired by a list of dumb liberal quotes. In the spirit of fairness, it is time to take a look at the Top 50 Dumbest Conservative Quotes. The credit/blame for introducing chamblee54 to these pages goes to Morgan K Freeberg. This is a repost.
We are going to look at three quotes today. Many of the top 50 are from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell, and should not be taken seriously. The three today are from actors in leading roles.
Number 1 on the list is from Richard Nixon. “When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.” This was said during a TV interview with David Frost, after he was out of office. A bit of digging found a bit of back story.
“Interviewer David Frost has a difficult time with his subject, former President Richard Nixon, in the day’s early questioning (see April 6, 1977). Frost attempts to recoup with a line of questioning suggested by his adviser James Reston, Jr., one used in the trial of former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman (see January 1, 1975). Were there no limits to what a president can do, even if the president wants to do something plainly illegal? he asks. Could he do anything despite the law? Burglary? Forgery? Even murder? “If the president does it, that means it’s not illegal,” Nixon retorts. … Frost asks if the dividing line between, for example, a police burglary and the murder of an antiwar protester is only the president’s judgment? Nixon agrees, and adds: “There’s nothing specific that the Constitution contemplates in that respect. I haven’t read every word, every jot and every tittle, but I do know this: That it has been, however, argued that as far as a president is concerned, that in war time, a president does have certain extraordinary powers which would make acts that would otherwise be unlawful, lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the nation and the Constitution, which is essential for the rights we’re all talking about.”
The current POTUS is involved in a controversy about whether or not to kill Americans abroad. Perhaps BHO could study the thoughts of his predecessor…If he is the President, then it is legal.
The next quote is from the fun loving Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia. “I even accept for the sake of argument that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.” In contrast to the other two quotes, the backup on this came up quickly on Google.
In 2004, Mr. Scalia gave a speech at Harvard University . If you get a chance to read the article, you will see that he made a few other choice comments that night.
Mr. Scalia has shown himself to be quotable before. In an opinion in the Troy Davis case, he said “This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent.”
The last quote is from another POTUS who is no longer with us, Ronald Reagan. “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” Mr. Reagan was a professional actor, and he knew the value of a good script.
This slogan is another one that Mr. Obama may find handy. It should be noted that it was a big deal when the national debt (the grand total of the deficits) went over a trillion dollars. This was during the first term of Mr. Reagan. Today, under Mr. Obama, the annual deficit is over a trillion dollars. Sooner or later, you are talking about real money.
PG suffered brain damage trying to find out more about the quote from Mr. Reagan. He went through six pages of google. There must be 25 sites which have lists of quotes from Mr. Reagan, and all of them feature this quote.
What was the context? When did he first say it? One site says it was “(during the latter years of his administration)”. Another site says it was “Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989”. Maybe this is an urban legend.

It has been a big week for capital punishment. Troy Davis lost his battle in Georgia. Rick Perry put another notch on his belt. Alabama is planning to off someone tonight. To top it all off, Texas announced that it will no longer serve a last meal to inmates about to die. They will have to eat regular prison food, which might kill them anyway. Total punishment is a big deal in Texas. They have a web site for Death Row Information. They have ten ladies on death row, who are photo featured in this story. They have a chart with information about the 475 executions performed since 1982. This chart is the source of the final statements quoted below. The rest of this story is final statements made by executed persons in Texas. One is from 1998, one from 2004, and the rest are from 2011. The pictures are from The Library of Congress . The men are part of the conspiracy to kill Abraham Lincoln. The screen shot is from the internet. The death row ladies are from Death Row Information. No, I have no final statement. Lawrence Russell Brewer /// You’re not about to witness an execution, you are about to witness a murder. I am strapped down for something Marcus Rhodes did. I never killed nobody, never. I love you, Mom. I love you, Tali. This is wrong. This whole thing is wrong. I can’t believe you are going to let Marcus Rhodes walk around free. Justice has let me down. Somebody completely screwed this up. I love you too, Mom. Well Warden, if you are going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull the trigger. It’s coming. I can feel it coming. Goodbye. Steven Woods /// I love you Israel. Martin Robles /// Even though I lay on this gurney, seconds away from my death, I am at total peace. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with me. I am at peace. Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain. Even though I lay here I am still at peace. I am still a proud American, Texas loud, Texas proud. God bless America, God bless everyone. Let’s do this damn thing. Director Hazelwood, thank you very much. Thank you everyone. Spark, I love you, all of you. L love you Conna. It’s all good, it’s been a great honor. I feel it; I am going to sleep now. Goodnight, 1,2 there it goes. Mark Stroman /// I am sorry for everything that I have done. I’ve hurt a lot of people. For years I have never thought that I deserved any type of forgiveness. Lord Jesus Christ in my life, I know He has forgiven me, I have accepted His forgiveness. I have accepted everything. Let this be final and be done. I take the full blame for this. I am sorry and forgive me. I am truly sorry. I ask for forgiveness. Life goes on and it surely does. I am sorry for the victim’s family for what I had did. May they forgive me. I don’t know if you believe me, life goes on. I am sure it does. To the man to the right of me, I ask for forgiveness for you. Life goes on, it surely does. I ask for forgiveness. I am truly sorry. That is all. Let’s get this show on the road. One more thing, Viva Mexico, Viva Mexico. Humberto Leal /// Yes, sir. I just want to say to all my supporters, family and friends; I love ya’ll and appreciate ya’ll. To the ones representing me today, thank you for everything. The system has failed me. This is a miscarriage of justice. There are people on death row that need help. I love my family. I love you too, Mom. I am alright. I asked the Lord to have mercy on me and I hope He has mercy on these people carrying out this mass slaughter. They have no respect for humanity. To Melanie, I never meant to hurt you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am not asking for your forgiveness. All I have to worry about is God forgiving me. I hope you get better and for the doctors to continue to take care of you. Take care of my mother for me. To everybody, know that I love you and I am ok. Lord, have mercy on my soul. Lord, have mercy on my soul. Lord, have mercy on these peoples’ soul. Life is not supposed to end this way. No more pain and frustration. When I knock at the gates, they will open up and let me in. To my mom and everybody, I love you. I can feel it right now. My life, my life. Milton Mathis /// Yes, sir. Jennifer, I love you. Mom, I love you. Rick, take care of you. For all of you people, I defended myself when I killed your family member. Prison is a bad place. There was eight against me. I didn’t set out to kill him. I am sorry that I killed him, but he would not have been in prison if he was a saint. I hope ya’ll understand that. I love you, baby. I hope people understand the grave injustice by the state. There are 300 people on death row, and everyone is not a monster. Texas is carrying out a very inhumane and injustice. It’s not right to kill anybody just because I killed your people. Everyone changes, right? Life is about experience and people change. I love you, Jennifer. Mom, I love you and all my friends that I have known over the years that have always been there for me. I am ready to teleport. I love you, baby. I hope you don’t find satisfaction in this, watching a human being die. Lee Taylor /// Noel, I love you man. You have been there for me through thick and thin, you and Brigitta. Be there for each other. I am at peace, we have no worries, just as I have no more worries. To the victim’s family, may you be at peace also. Gayland Bradford /// Yes, Tell my sister Tracey, I love you. Nicole, thank you and I love you. Wanda and all of my friends, I love you and thank you for your support. To the State of Texas, I am an innocent man. Never trust a court-appointed attorney. I am ready Warden. Thank you, Brad, I’m sorry. Check that DNA, check Scott. Here we go. Lord Jesus, Jesus. Cary D. Kerr /// No last statement given. Timothy Wayne Adams /// First of all I would like to give my sincere apology to Amy’s family. We caused a lot of heartache, grief, pain and suffering, and I am sorry. I know it won’t bring her back. I would like to sing, I would like to sing for that person’s dead. The old is gone. I am not the same person that I used to be, that person is dead. It’s up to you if you would find it in your heart to forgive. As for my family, I am sorry I let you down. I caused a lot of heartache, and I ask for your forgiveness. I am not crying for myself, I am crying for the lost and those that are dying for their sins, those that are committing suicide, those that don’t know God and have never been set free. I’ve been locked up 13 years. I am not locked up inside, all of these years I have been free. Christ has changed me. Even though I have to die for my mistake, he paid for mine by wages I could never pay. Here I am a big strong youngster, crying like a baby. I am man enough to show my emotions and I am sorry. I am sorry for everything. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. Michael Wayne Hall /// Yes sir, I would like to say to all of you – the Thornton family and Jerry Dean’s family that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this. Baby, I love you. Ron, give Peggy a hug for me. Everybody has been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. Warden Baggett, thank all of you so much. You have been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I will see you all when you get there. I will wait for you. Karla Faye Tucker /// Yeah. The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man – convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return – so the earth shall become my throne. I gotta go, road dog. I love you Gabby. [Remaining portion of statement omitted due to profanity.] Cameron Todd Willingham.

“The Chinese government has banned a traditional carnival in the east of the country in which dogs are eaten after being chopped up alive in the street following a public uproar that the festival was cruel, state media reported on Wednesday. The tradition in Qianxi in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang dates back 600 years to celebrate a local military victory and is normally held every October, the official Xinhua news agency said. “The ancient fair was replaced by a modern commodity fair in the 1980s, but dog-eating has been kept as a tradition,” it reported. “However, vendors began to butcher dogs in public a few years ago to show their dog meat is fresh and safe, as a way to ease buyers’ worry that the meat may be refrigerator-preserved or even contaminated.”
HT to World Class Stupid for this story. If you look to Mr. Google for more information, you will see the original Reuters story repeated. When you view the original, you will see links to stories “you might also like”. Some of these stories: “France stakes future of EU on fate of euro currency”, “PETA to launch porn site in name of animal rights”, “Axe-wielding man kills four in China”.
A related story is Koreans beat the heat by eating dog soup. “The reason why I eat dog soup is because it boosts my energy, even when I’m most tired,” remarked 56-year-old Shin Gwan-sup who was interviewed yesterday by Reuters reporter Tae-Yi Kim .”Compared to other meats, it has more protein and less fat. I think it is healthy and clean, a more suitable meat for us.”

PG tuned into the Repub debate during while Rick Santorum was talking about DADT. If PG had tuned in a minute earlier, he could have hear the crowd boo an American soldier on combat deployment in Iraq. (To be fair to the crowd, it was just a few scattered people that shouted boo. It was not as enthusiastic as the cheers for Rick Perry wasting 234 235 prisoners.)
Before the debate, PG listened to a conversation with Christopher Dickey. He is the son of James Dickey, and an accomplished journalist. Mr. Dickey got a job as a stand in when the film “Deliverance” was made. He was standing in for Ned Beatty when they filmed the most famous scene in the movie. (PG hears the bs detector beeping as he writes this.) Later in the interview, Mr. Dickey discusses his mother.
Mr. DICKEY: She died in a hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. LAMB: Of what?Mr. DICKEY: She died of a complication from cirrhosis of the liver, or from hardening of the liver, where you get varicose veins in your esophagus and then they rupture and you bleed to death through your mouth. LAMB: And was she a drinker all her life? Mr. DICKEY: She drank all her life, but she was a heavy drinker the last 10 years of her life, a really heavy drinker, co–a co–a constant drinker. Anybody who was at our house in the ’70s remembers the tinkling of ice cubes at about 6 in the morning when she would get up and start making breakfast for everybody and make herself a Cutty Sark and soda.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

Democracy Now had a six hour live broadcast outside the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, GA. (Amy Goodman called it the Death Row Prison.) Inside the big house, Troy Davis was put to death. He passed away at 11:08 pm.
The night was full of drama. At the original execution time of 7:00 pm, a cheer went up in the crowd. Word was that a reprieve had been granted. The United States Supreme Court was going to be consulted on the case. At roughly 10:30, word got back that SCOTUS was not interested in the case. The execution followed soon after.  The fishwrapper had a reporter on the scene. This is part of their report:
Then he asked Davis if he has any final words. Yes, the condemned man said and he raised his head so he could look at Mark MacPhail Jr., who was an infant when his father was murdered, and William MacPhail, the dead officer’s brother. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Davis said. Mark MacPhail, who was leaning forward, and his uncle did not move. They stared at the man who killed their loved one.
“I did not personally kill your son, father and brother,” Davis said. “I am innocent. “ He asked his family and friends to continue to search for the truth. And to the prison officials he said “may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls.” He then lowered his head. He turned down an offer for a prayer.”
One part of the Democracy Now broadcast caught PG’s attention. Amy Goodman was talking to Kathryn Hamoudah, who is connected to Georgians for alternatives to the death penalty. (PG suspects that Ms. Hamoudah was one of the people who was rude to him in July, when PG attended an execution.) Ms. Hamoudah mentioned a company called Rainbow Medical Associates. RMA has a contract with the state to provide Doctors that supervise executions. (A prison employee sticks the needle in.) For these services, RMA gets $18,000 per execution.
Chamblee54 has written about Troy Davis five times. ( one, two , three , four , five ) Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

On this day in 2005, the Chamblee54 blog posted a story. In 2006 and 2007 blogspot hosted Chamblee54. In early 2008, mysterious technical issues forced a move to WordPress. The story continued in 2009 and 2010. Writing for a potential audience of one billion people is addictive. It has been a learning experience. Thank you for stopping by.