Fox News reports:
A man died while trying to outdo a rival with an acrobatic move while "battle dancing," police said.
Robert Stitt, 48, and his rival were competing in a parking lot Monday night when he tried a forward flip and landed on his head.
"It was just two guys dancing. Everybody was laughing," Stitt's friend John Boxley said.
Boxley said James Brown was on the radio and Stitt wanted to outdo a rival dancer, who had flipped in the air.
Police said the victim went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead a short time later at a local hospital.
Police said several people were in the parking lot drinking and battle dancing -- a competition in which each dancer tries one-upmanship with unique moves.
This is just another instance of the process of natural selection at work.
In a column at FoxNews.com Mike Baker describes a recent airline flight that he took across the country. It seems that the whole process -- getting through security and the flight itself -- was a nightmare. He blames the other passengers as much or more than the airline and the TSA. He asks, "who in their right mind wants to run an airline anymore?" Well, perhaps I do.
I've come up with a way to make air travel less expensive, less irritating and safer. A bonus is that you will always be well rested when you get to your destination. But it will require some rather dramatic changes in our travel habits.
The key to my revolutionary scheme for air travel is that all passengers -- but not the crew -- will be put to sleep for the entire trip. Instead of going through security out in the concourse passengers will enter a private cubicle where they will relinquish all their carry-on items except their wallets and passports, strip down to their underwear, put on airline provided pajamas, and then climb into a casket-like padded capsule where they will be medicated to induce a coma-like sleep. The capsule will then be closed and placed on a conveyer belt that will transport it to the plane. The capsule will be ventilated and connected to the plane's oxygen supply system.
The capsules will be carried on the plane much like bombs are now carried on the big bombers. If there is an emergency and the pilot becomes convinced that he can't save the plane he will be able to release all the capsules and they will drift to earth using their own individual parachutes.
After the capsules are off-loaded and opened at the destination the passengers will be revived, reunited with their carry-on items and clothes and sent on their way well rested and in a good mood.
Money will be saved because (1) there will be no need for in-flight service and all the staff and equipment that it requires, (2) there will be no need for space for flight attendants and passengers to walk around the plane, (3) there will be no need for restrooms, and (4) there will be no need for in-flight entertainment. The weight of the capsules will be offset by the weight of the seats that are no longer needed. The size of the plane needed to carry X number of passengers will be reduced.
If one of my planes is hijacked it will have to be done by a member of the crew. No one in a coma has ever hijacked a plane. If a bomb is carried on- board it will have to be in the luggage or the collected carry-on items which can be thoroughly inspected before they are put on the plane. By definition there will be no profiling of passengers because everyone will be treated alike.
Perhaps the greatest benefit from my scheme though is that you will never again be bothered by another passenger.
Okay, there are a few details that I will have to work out before launching my new airline -- like turning a coma-like state on and off at will without killing a few passengers on each flight -- but you have to admit that it's a great idea. You could wake up on the other side of the country or ocean without even feeling like you were on an airline flight. But you might be a little hungry and thirsty.
As the title of this post suggests, I plan to call my airline Coma-Air. Think that will sell?
Not really. I made that up. But it is ironic that, in regard to two different strange tribes, "authorities" are saying in one case "leave these people alone" and in the other case "you will adhere to our standards." In the case of primitive tribes like the one recently discovered in the Amazon they prescribe exceptional measures to ensure that the tribes can continue to live their lives as they see fit without outside interference. In the case of the relatively modern and civilized FLDS sect in Texas they prescribe exceptional measures to force the members to live like the authorities want them to live.
In which tribe do you think the children are most abused? How many of the Amazon tribe's girls do you think make it to 18 before giving birth? How many do you think live to be 18?
Granted, I'm talking about two different sets of authorities, but this demonstrates how little confidence we should have in authorities. Authorities are consistent in only one way; they have laws, rules or procedures that allow them to do most anything they want to do. And they will want to do more and more unless we resist. Although they have eroded over the years we have checks and balances built into our method of government. But the greatest check against the oppressive power of government is the people.
Referring to the aerial photographing of the Amazon tribe, Fiona Watson of Survival International, said:
It is understood that when the plane first flew over the village, the people scattered into the forest. When it returned a few hours later they had painted themselves red and fired arrows into the sky.
They must have suffered some sort of trauma in the past and must know that contact is not a good thing.
Perhaps they've been talking to the FLDS sect in Texas.
It looks like some of the homes on Galveston Island beaches may not be rebuilt. The AP reports that a Texas law prohibits private buildings inside the average high-tide line. Beach erosion caused by Ike has moved a lot of private homes into that category. The law not only prohibits rebuilding of destroyed homes, but requires undamaged homes to be demolished with little or no compensation to the owners. It is ironic that the owners of insured destroyed homes will be compensated by their insurers, but the owners of undamaged homes will likely get nothing. Apparently they will all lose their rights to the property.
Here's what A.R. "Babe" Schwartz, the former state senator who wrote the law said about the affected homeowners:
"We're talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember and against every advice anyone has given."
I couldn't have said it better myself -- although I have tried.
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- anhinga on The Minimum Wage and Cotton Pickers
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- anhinga on Arizonans React to San Diego Boycott
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- Liquid Egg Product, 18 June 2010
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- Liquid Egg Product, 01 May 2010
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- Liquid Egg Product
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