Hampton Roads is the Least Stressful Metro area? I guess they didn’t ask the thousands of people that are using the PayDay Loans businesses to go from paycheck to paycheck. This just goes to show you that statistics can be manipulated to come up with the stupidest results.
The Hampton Roads area has been named the nation’s least stressful metropolitan area by the Web site bizjournals.com.
Detroit was ranked as the most stressful city.
Climate and environment, crime and unemployment, income and cost of living, traffic and the rate of circulatory deaths among residents were used to calculate the rankings.
You know why its so stress-free? There is nothing to do. There’s no where good to eat either, which explains the low circulatory figures.
After the nationally criticized stupidity of toying with the Wren Cross and then allowing Prostitutes to put on a Traveling Road Show, the board of Governors of William and Mary College in Williamsburg, VA told the idiot in charge, Gene Nichol, to GTFO and DLTDHYAOTWO.
Makes me very happy to tell the flaming liberal “Neener neener neener!”
Gene Nichol, president of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg who has come under fire from alumni and others in the past year, resigned today after being told his contract would not be renewed.
In a letter to William and Mary students and staff, he defended his decisions: removing a Christian cross from permanent display in a historic chapel also used by other faiths and for secular purposes, and for allowing a traveling show by and about sex workers arranged by students and paid for by student funds. For both, he said he was governed by Constitutional principles.
Nichol’s first three-year contract was to expire in June. The rector of the college’s governing Board of Visitors told him Sunday it wouldn’t be renewed.
Nichol was a pretentious fool who somehow thought his position insulated him against criticism or any responsibility to the state, the college, and to his bosses, the Board of Visitors. Just because you have the constitutional right to walk around with your ass hanging out doesn’t mean its a good idea.
And his boss had every right to fire his multi-culti agenda-pushing ass too. Did he think people would just stand by while he tried to turn a beautiful institution into the Berkeley of the East Coast?
Virginia Beach is one of the most progressive cities in Southern Virginia, but they also strictly enforce family values. You can’t curse in public. Seriously, there are street signs lining the sidewalks downtown, and if the cops hear you swearing, you get a fine.
You also can’t display provocative billboards in business where kids hang out. And the manager of the Abercrombie and Fitch store at Lynnhaven mall found that out the hard way.
Police, saying they were responding to citizen complaints, carted away two large promotional photographs from the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Lynnhaven Mall on Saturday and cited the manager on obscenity charges.
The seizure and the issuance of the summons came only after store management had not heeded warnings to remove the images.
The citation was issued under City Code Section 22.31 which makes it a crime to display “obscene materials in a business that is open to juveniles.”
One depicts three shirtless young men from the back, walking through a field. The man in the lead appears to be about to pull up his jeans, which have slipped down enough to reveal his upper buttocks.
The other image is of a woman who is topless and whose “breast is displayed with her hand covering just the nipple portion.”
The manager was not arrested but faces a fine of up to $2,000 and as much as a year in jail, if convicted.
In 2003, the company halted publication of its 7-year-old A&F Quarterly catalog because of complaints about sexually suggestive photographs by award-winning photographer Bruce Weber.
In 2002, Abercrombie & Fitch pulled a line of thongs from its shelves that were aimed at girls age 10 and under.
The Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is defined by community standards, so I don’t think there is a challenge here. When I told my wife about this she laughed and thought A&F had it coming. She hates the store because of its hype, the prices and the trollops that stand outside local stores wearing nothing but a stupid coat. And she thinks the stores are deliberately dark inside so no one can see the upskirt cameras hidden beneath the clothing racks and in the changing rooms.
Update! The VA Beach DA is going to drop the charges. As one person on FARK said:
I’m conflicted: on the one hand, the Virginia Beach police (and DA’s office?) were way out of line here. On the other hand, I hate those damned A&F ads for being so blatantly soft-core porn as opposed to advertising actual clothes.
You can’t accuse Virginia Lawmakers of being lazy. After hearing that yummy yummy Sangria was somehow still illegal in the state due to an obscure law dating back to the thirties, the Virginia House passed a law to legalize the drink with overwhelming approval.
The House of Delegates has approved legislation to make sangria legal in Virginia.
The House voted 89-10 Friday to pass the bill, which wipes out an obscure state law that prohibits restaurants from serving drinks that mix wine or beer with hard liquor. Sangria is a staple of Spanish tapas restaurants. It usually includes red wine, fruits, brandy and triple sec.
The ban on sangria dates to 1934. It came to light after an Alexandria restaurant, La Tasca, was cited for violating the law and was fined $2,000.
DAHLGREN, Va. — A futuristic weapon getting a trial run by the Navy demonstrated its destructive power at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren.
In the demonstration Thursday, engineers fired the electromagnetic railgun at what they said was a record power level: 10 megajoules. Railguns use electromagnetic energy to launch projectiles long distances — more than 200 nautical miles.
According to the Navy, the railgun, when fully developed, will be able to launch solid projectiles at Mach 5, or about 3,700 mph.
I used to build aircraft carriers. I know how awesomely powerful our ships are. Our navy has not been challenged in almost 70 years. With a friggin rail gun powered by a nuke plant, who’s to stop us at sea?
I do love me some good Sangria now and again. Its great on hot summer days or as the beverage of choice when nibbling tapas. In fact, La Tasca is a chain of Spanish tapas restaurants in the local DC/Nova area, and they specialize in making a few great flavors of Sangria. Imagine their surprise when they found out they were breaking the law by mixing wine with fruit and brandy!
If you’re served a pitcher of authentic sangria in a Virginia restaurant, someone’s breaking the law.
Since 1934, the state has prohibited mixing wine or beer with spirits. Frances McDonald, vice president of La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar and Restaurants, found that out the hard way when his Alexandria location was cited for violating the sangria ban in 2006 and fined $2,000 and was ordered to pour its sangria — about 40 liters — down the drain.
In the meantime, the restaurant has taken to modifying its sangria recipe. The brandy has been eliminated and the triple sec replaced with a nonalcoholic orange liqueur.
The restaurant is working to appeal the ban or get the law changed, and I have to agree with this one. Also, wouldn’t that make all of the restaurants and pubs that sell “car bombs” or “boilermakers” in violation of the same law? I don’t remember several nights when I’ve had multiple beers with shots of whiskey, rum, baileys, jaeger, etc dropped into a beer mug.
I stumbled onto a real gem of a collection of YouTube videos last night and just had to share. The videos are shot by Bill, aged 60, a retired Vietnam war veteran and former Army Ranger from Richmond, Virginia. Simply put, the man plays with toys.
But oh, what toys! He has converted his basement into his own playland, and he builds models, K’Nex toys, Lego Villages, miniature roller coasters, electronics whiz kits and toy robots. His previous creations surround him as he films his newest toys, freshly assembled and ready for the camera.
He’s prolific too. As of today, there are already 560 movies of Bill playing with his toys uploaded to YouTube since October of 2006.
Bill’s videos are made very well, and always features several unique qualities. First, he plays great music in the background. If he is playing with an action/adventure toy set, the music is either from the action genre or from the movie itself. For instance, with pirate toys, the music is from Pirates of the Caribbean. For the Raiders of the Lost Ark toys, he plays the Raiders themes.
His camera-work is excellent too. He gets close zooms of his handiwork and takes his time showing all of the details. He will turn his models over so you can see the bottoms, and will pop the hoods on cars and boats to show you the engine compartments. He takes time to demonstrate the working parts of the models too. If it has an engine, he will run it. If there is a pitfall trap built into a Lego playset, he will operate it. If the model has snakes to drop on the hero, by God, he drops the snakes.
Then halfway through the video comes his happy HA-HA-HA’s, his deep joyous voice booming his welcome, and his explanation of what he built, and his exclamation of “Isn’t that neat??!” He goes over the box, the model number, the number of pieces, how long it took to build, the difficulty level, and details of the instruction booklet.
His sign-offs are unique too. He shows his waving robot and then a googly-eyed monitor toy, and always says, “And guys! Get a critter!” He then flash pans to a little Lego man holding a smiling face sign and admonishes his viewers to “Think! Happy thoughts!” Then he pans to a pool of blinking diodes, softens the focus and says, “See ya later alligators!”
I spent two hours watching his videos of his amazing toys, thinking happy thoughts, and I think I know what I want to do with my future retirement days now.
FBI agents raided the DMV service center in the lower level of the Georgetown Park Mall and took several people into custody. A female DMV employee was arrested in connection with a scheme to sell D.C. driver’s licenses.
The scheme began about a year ago. An investigation began when DMV service integrity officer noticed some suspicious things in the books at the Georgetown service center.
After an August 2004 FBI raid at the same service center, a teller was charged with receiving a bribe in a fake driver’s license scheme.
Part of the Real ID act will require that the humorless slackers that run the nation’s DMV’s and issue identification materials will have a background check performed. CNET has more on the Real ID requirements and timeline here.
Think giving away drivers licenses to illegals and criminals is no problem? A DMV employee in Virginia sold the drivers licenses to the 9/11 hijackers.
Delegate Lionel Spruill of Chesapeake is going to ban giant rubber nuts that swing pendulously and ponderously from the bumpers of Virginians.
From the AP here:
Drive in Virginia with outsized rubber replica testicles dangling from your trailer hitch and face a fine under a bill before the General Assembly.
Taste and even decency notwithstanding, Del. Lionel Spruill introduced the bill Tuesday as a safety measure: male genitalia swaying from a car distracts other drivers.
His bill would make displaying the ornamentation a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $250.
The idea and motivation, however, came from a constituent upset that his young daughter had caught sight of the facsimile sex organs and asked what they were.
“I didn’t know what to tell her,” Spruill said, quoting the constituent, whom he refused to identify.
“I said, ‘Sir, I’m going to be a laughing stock, but I’m going to do it,’” he said.
You know what distracts other drivers? Watching dumbasses trying to text and talk on their cellphones while they are driving. What happened to that law, Mr. Spruill? Or those huge SUV’s playing Pixar movies on their LCD screens for their kids with so much ADD they can’t sit still in a car long enough to drive home from the grocery store.
And what to tell a child? Tell the precious snowflake to look at the south end of a northbound boy dog to see if she can figure out what it is.
I have had to call for a tow lots of times in my life when I have been stuck in the breakdown lanes or spun into a ditch due to inclement weather. The brave dudes who drive tow trucks I have encountered were always gruff, hard-working men, doing a tough job under harsh conditions.
But then again, there are those predatory tow truck drivers who haunt apartment complexes late at night towing anyone who doesn’t have a current parking pass, or the ones who circle the blocks downtown waiting for the parking meters to flash zero so they can nab a vehicle and hold it hostage for a couple of hundred bucks. Those guys are pretty scummy.
But I think worst of all are the repo-men. No, I don’t think that deadbeats who default on their car loans should get to keep their cars, but there is something really scummy about the repo-men who take pleasure in carjacking on behalf of the bank. And when one of them winds up in the news squished under the car they were trying to repo, I grin a little on the inside.
A Newport News man trying to repossess a car died Saturday when he became pinned under the vehicle.
Darrell Lee Jones, 36, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Jones was using a wrecker to repossess the car when it rolled off the back of the truck. When Jones tried to stop the car, it rolled into a ditch and dragged him beneath it.
Police found out what happened after reviewing videotape from the wrecker’s camera system.
The dolt tried to stop it with his hands. Epic Fail. Maybe I’ll get to see that video on MaxX one late night.
A Virginia kid goes to a party at some friend’s home in New Jersey, which is located next to a police station. He smokes pot and thinks its funny to do it right next to the copshop. The look on his face when they nabbed him was hilarious according to the police report.
One man was charged with marijuana possession after the odor of burned marijuana wafted through a chain-link fence separating the rear of a home with the rear parking lot of the police station.
About 2:20 a.m. Saturday, Sgt. Ronald Heinzman had just finished a shift and was walking to his personal car in the lot when the odor of burned marijuana carried through the crisp air, he said.
He went back into the police station and asked patrol officers Christopher Gibson and Matthew Kline to come outside.
The officers approached the rear yard of the home where police believed a small group had been smoking marijuana. The group had gone inside the basement of the house and were gathered there under a double-door hatch.
While the officers were standing outside the hatched door, they could hear conversations. The group was talking and laughing about the irony of smoking pot while next to the police station.
The officers knocked on the door, and the person who answered was surprised to see three uniformed police officers standing there. The officers were invited inside by the person renting the apartment and had answered the door.
Several people were at what appeared to be a small party.
Police said they had smelled burned marijuana, but the partygoers said they had no knowledge of such activity. One man, Benjamin Gordon, 18, of Farmville, Va., tried to leave the room by going upstairs. He was stopped, questioned by the officers and subsequently was determined to be in possession of marijuana. The others said they did not participate in smoking the pot, police said.
Gordon was issued a summons for possession of less than 50 grams of marijuana.
It had otherwise been a quiet night on patrol, Heinzman said. “But it was priceless to see the look on the face of the person who opened the hatch door to the basement to find three uniformed police officers standing there.”
Here’s a free tip. Just because they knock, it doesn’t mean you have to let them in. And Ben’s Myspace page is here, although he lies about his age on it.
Pat Robertson now forecasts the doom of mankind yearly on his 700 Club TV show in a New Year’s Holy Prognostication. Last year he predicted that a massive terrorist attack, involving nuclear weapons, would strike the United States. Who knew he was only seeing the next season of 24? Two years ago he said a tsunami would strike the US. This year? We get worldwide violence and recession, yippee!
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Wednesday that 2008 will be a year of violence worldwide and a recession in the United States, followed by a major stock-market crash by 2010.
Last year, Robertson predicted that a terrorist act, possibly involving a nuclear weapon, would result in mass killing in the United States. Noting that it hadn’t come to pass, Robertson said, “All I can think is that somehow the people of God prayed and God in his mercy spared us.”
The 700 club comes on TV at my house right after America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABCFamily. I know this because every time the show goes off the air, my wife plunges toward the TV remote control with a snarl so she won’t have to look at Pat Robertson.
But I have watched the 700 Club a few times. My favorite part of the show is when Pat Robertson prays and names specific illnesses his viewers have out there in TVLand, and he heals those illnesses. It is quite like ol’ Miss Sherri on Romper Room, with her magic mirror, saying, “Romper bomper stomper boo, tell me, tell me, tell me do, magic mirror tell me today, have all my diseases been cured today?”
Anyone old enough to remember watching Romper Room?
But you know, people believe this doom and gloom stuff. And they believe the VA Beach preacher can also leg press a ton. Silly right? Wrong.
Its no sillier than a goober from Tennessee who predicts doom and gloom in the form of floods, hurricanes, drought, famine and war based over global warming. Loads of people still believe Al Gore too.
Last year the terrorist nuke strike didn’t happen. And yesterday it snowed in Mexico City. And Daytona Beach, Florida. And record-setting snow in New Hampshire. And record snowfalls across the New England and the Canadian East.
So if you think Pat Robertson is nutso, like I do, then you must also believe the same thing about Al Gore. But if you believe Al Gore is right, then you ought to tune into the 700 club. Maybe ol’ Rev. Pat can cure what ails you.
This is an awesome wine chest that my wife’s family clubbed up together to buy for me. It’s a handmade wine chest that is as big as a Wurlitzer Juke Box. To go with it, my brother got me a six month membership in the Virginia Winery Wines of the Month Club, so great wineries from around the region will ship me bottles.
I think it looks totally cool and rustic- like it belongs below decks on a sailing ship.
I think the letter was pathetic and embarrassing. I would have had more respect if he had taken his punishment like a man. But writing the judge a note on notebook paper like he was passing loveletters to his junior high school sweetheart seems a little weak and unmanly to me.
He starts off by begging for pity because he didn’t know any better, having “growed up all black and everything” in Newport News. People fought dogs in Newport News, he claimed. Uh huh. I grew up there too. Dog fighting was not the popular sport on the block.
He also goes on to talk about all the good things he has done with his money like buying a church for his pastor, giving out turkeys on Thanksgiving and toys at Christmas and wants to work with PETA about animal cruelty. And how his three bastard children born out of wedlock are going to wonder where Pops is at this Christmas.
Acting like a thugged-out brutha’ from the hood, kickin’ it old style and “keepin’ it real” by dressing in gold chains and fighting pit bulls can be expensive if you are an NFL quarterback. How expensive? $142 Million and counting.
Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison Monday for his role in a dogfighting conspiracy that involved gambling and killing pit bulls.
The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback could have been sentenced up to five years by District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Vick was dressed in a black-and-white striped prison suit and apologized to the court and his family.
Vick pleaded guilty in August, admitting he bankrolled the “Bad Newz Kennels” dogfighting operation and helped kill six to eight dogs.
He will probably be out earlier on good behavior, unless he stays true to form and is busted smoking dope in his jail cell. He still faces Virginia State charges too.
We had a very light dusting of snow in the Northern Virginia area this morning. And it crippled the region for transportation. Yes, it was slippery and quite a few over-confident SUV owners found themselves into the rear bumpers of their fellow travellers. As a result, all of the major roadways were jammed for hours.
Luckily I was travelling against the flow of traffic this morning, and the snow’s effects were minimal.
And supposedly, leaders around the world are meeting to discuss Global Warming. This somehow involves flying private jets there.
Sean Taylor was so young. This is a senseless tragedy. The whole Northern Virginia region is somberly buzzing about the death of this very talented athlete.
Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died early Tuesday, a day after the Pro Bowl player was shot at home by what police say was an intruder. He was 24.
Taylor died at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he had been airlifted after the shooting early Monday.
Taylor, the fifth overall pick in the 2004 NFL draft following an All-American season at the University of Miami, was shot early Monday in the upper leg, damaging the key femoral artery and causing significant blood loss.
I don’t know if its likely that they will find his killer. NOVA’s collective heart goes out to the Taylor family at this time of their loss.
Now that the disgraced quarterback Mike Vick is in jail cooling his heels for fighting dogs, the Feds are presenting him with his bill for boarding his Pit Bulls. Vick owes One Million Dollars!
The bill for caring for Michael Vick’s former fighting dogs is nearly $1 million, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office wants to make sure Vick has the money to pay for it.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed a restraining order asking the court to prevent Vick from paying other creditors if he doesn’t have the money to pay for the pit bull dogs’ care.
The court documents, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, outline the dire financial condition facing Vick, a Newport News native and former Atlanta Falcons quarterback. An arbitrator ruled the Falcons could recoup about $19.97 million in bonuses from Vick’s 10-year, $130 million contract signed in 2004. And three banks filed suit for amounts ranging from about $1 million to $2.5 million.
With the almost $1 million for the dogs’ care, Vick is on the hook for about $26 million.
So far, the bill is about $928,073, the court papers said. District Court Judge Henry Hudson was asked to order Vick to save nearly $1 million for the dogs’ care before creditors can clean out his pockets.
The SPCA in Virginia Beach, VA have a dozen dogs ready for adoption. But these aren’t Pit Bulls. These are beagles and other animals rescued from the Bad News Kennels, and they were probably intended to be used as chew toys for the vicious fighting dogs.
A dozen dogs seized from Michael Vick’s Surry County property will be available for adoption at the Virginia Beach SPCA.
The nine beagles, two Rottweilers and a 100-plus pound dog believed to be a Cane Corso were seized from the property, along with more than 50 pit bulls, during a dogfighting investigation that started in April at property owned by Vick, a Newport News native and NFL quarterback.
The 12 dogs under the SPCA’s care show no signs of breeding or training as fighters and have no scars indicative of dogfighting. They’re undergoing behavioral and medical evaluations and then will be ready for adoption.
Of the more than 50 pit bulls that were seized, some died, including one that was euthanized because it was too aggressive. Now, 48 remain. Their lives are in the hands of a court-appointed guardian.
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