Loved Elvis, but...

Elvis Presley
was
crazy










for guns and cars.








He shot this yellow Pantera during a temperamental outburst
when the car would not start.

Bad Pantera!

The car took several hits - one in the tire, one in the driver-side door and the last bullet went through the steering wheel.

The car started immediately on the second try.

When a buyer saw this car in the collection of the owner in
Riverside, California,
the bullet holes had been repaired
- only a wound in the steering wheel remained.


Elvis was also known to punish TV sets if either Robert Goulet or Mel Torme appeared on the screen.
Here's one such TV which he his uncle Earl Pritchard removed and later sold (!)



At the time of Elvis' death in 1977 he owned 37 guns,
rifles and one machine gun.

Good thing they were in such capable hands.

It's about time !

Please take action!

At the 10th year anniversary this month of the Columbine massacre in Colorado, the Brady Campaign urges Congress to require Brady criminal background checks on all gun sales, including at gun shows.

Congress should introduce legislation to close the gun show loophole immediately.

Allowing dangerous people such as convicted felons and domestic abusers to buy guns at gun shows from unlicensed sellers without a Brady criminal background check threatens the safety of our families and communities.

The Columbine killers used two shotguns, an assault rifle, and a TEC-9 assault pistol. All four guns went through sales at gun shows. A friend of the killers bought three of the guns for them from unlicensed sellers at a gun show. After the massacre, the friend stated that had she been required to undergo a Brady background check, she would not have purchased the guns.

Our national policy should be: no background check, no gun, no excuses

Pirates or Coast Guard??

BOTH SIDES please!!

Organic gardens make them SHUDDER !

Michelle Obama planted an organic garden to promote fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet, but some chemical companies are worried it may plant a seed of doubt in consumers' minds about conventionally grown crops.

"Fresh foods grown conventionally are wholesome and flavorful yet more economical," the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA)

wrote the first lady last month a few days after she and fifth-graders from a local elementary school planted the White House Kitchen Garden.

Read the whole story: The Hill

always intriguing

Now You're Talkin'

more from Dean Kamen.

A PUMA concept vehicle.

General Motors and Segway plan to take a two-wheel concept vehicle for a spin around New York City on Tuesday.

The prototype vehicle, called Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), is designed to ease congestion and pollution problems in cities. It is based on the Segway Personal Transporter but holds two people, instead of one, and lets them sit, instead of stand.

A PUMA runs on lithium ion batteries, can reach 35 miles per hour, and can travel up to 35 miles between charges.

It includes some high-tech touches, including GM's wireless OnStar communications technology that lets a passenger locate other drivers in a city.

The two-wheeler is meant to address the mounting problems of urban car transportation, according to the two companies that plan to unveil the vehicle at an auto show in New York.

GM is touting other features as well.

"Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them. Now, connect those vehicles in an Internet-like web and you can greatly enhance the ability of people to move through cities, find places to park and connect to their social and business networks," Larry Burns, GM's vice president of R&D and strategic planning, said in a statement.

GM is looking to drum up excitement for its vehicles as it undergoes a massive restructuring in an effort to become financially viable and more competitive with other automakers.

The Segway Personal Transporter, a two-wheel vehicle that allows people to stand and move around at slow speeds, was released with great fanfare several years ago, but it remains a niche form of transportation.

Music Is The Medicine!

It's Not a Flying Car —

It's a Driveable Airplane

By Dave Demerjian

A Boston startup is confounding naysayers with a plane that combines the ease of driving with the thrill of flying, and it could shake up the industry by ushering in a new wave of recreational aviation.

Terrafugia's unusual aircraft just made a 30-second test flight as historic as it was brief, proving that flying cars aren't as outlandish as you might think. But as much as people might want to call the Transition a flying car, Terrafugia insists it's actually an airplane you can drive.

"We're excited by the reality of what we're doing here, but this is not the start of the flying car," company CEO Carl Dietrich told Wired.com. "This is a light sport plane that can be driven home after a day of flying and parked in the garage. It's designed for pilots. That's our target market."

Inventors, engineers and crackpots have been promising promising flying cars since the 1920s. The Aerocar is perhaps the most famous and successful attempt, but it is hardly the only one. All of the Big Three automakers have considered them at one time or another. Boeing toyed with them. And everyone from the Naval Air Warfare Weapons Division to guys in their garages have pitched ideas for flying machines we can drive to the airport.

They've all been beaten to the punch by Terrafugia, which has already received 49 orders for a $194,000 plane it won't start delivering until 2011.

Think For Yourself!

Revisiting Ahmadinejad's Quote...again

Questions periodically arise about whether or not Iranian President Ahmadinejad's statement that he wants to see Israel "wiped off the map" really means, in the original Farsi, that he seeks the elimination of the Jewish state.

Jeffrey Goldberg provides a long list of the Islamist's statements on Israel. It's a good complement to this. Reading them all, it becomes quite clear to me that Ahmadinejad does indeed want Israel to cease to exist, but equally clear that he is not speaking of dropping a nuke on it. This one I hadn't read before:

December, 2006: "I want to tell [Western counties] that just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and does not exist anymore, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out and humanity will be free."

As we know, Russia now exists and the Soviet Union was not destroyed by nuclear arms. And if this is the process by which he hopes Israel will disappear, I see no reason to fear an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel (and on one of the most sacred sites in Islam).

And since that is Netanyahu's rationale for launching a war, it seems weaker to me now than it did before. It is also worth noting that one foreign minister in the Middle East has actually explicitly and unequivocally proposed bombing another country - Israel's.

Remember this?

"Iron Eyes" Cody,
impersonating a native american.
Did anyone care in the '70s?
Do we care any more now?

the NRA and animal cruelty legislation

By Michael Markarian
Humane Society Legislative Fund



It started late last year,
when Ohio state Sen. Gary Cates (R-West Chester) and state Rep. Shawn Webster (R-Millville), a veterinarian, made a final end-of-session push for their bill that would have increased dog-license fees and required county dog shelters to keep dogs with microchips for a longer period so the owner might be found. The NRA came in at the last minute and gunned down the legislation.

Sen. Cates told the Columbus Dispatch: “The NRA got brought in by the breeders and their lobbyists. I did not have my first conversation with the NRA until yesterday. At no time did they testify on the bill. But the well got poisoned, and I couldn’t get enough votes to pass it.” In the 2009 legislation session, the gun group has been going state to state setting its sights on public policies that would crack down on abusive puppy mills. They actively lobbied against an Arizona bill requiring that puppy mill producers are subject to inspections by county enforcement agents at any time during regular business hours. They are working hard in Indiana and Minnesota to derail bills that would limit the number of dogs confined in puppy mill cages and set basic standards of care for exercise, flooring, and veterinary treatment. The Arizona and Minnesota bills have been shelved, and an NRA-backed amendment would gut Indiana’s legislation.

It’s a mystery why the NRA cares so much about defending the status quo when it comes to puppy mills. It can’t be a core issue for gun owners. The NRA claims that the puppy mill bills would impact hunting dogs, but surely most sportsmen would want their dogs raised humanely by responsible breeders, not treated like a cash crop. A dog who lives in a filthy wire cage with no exercise, socialization, or human interaction might not end up being a very good hunting partner out in the field, after all. It may just be that the NRA has a knee-jerk opposition to any animal protection issue, no matter how modest or common-sense. Or the group may be fighting to be relevant again, as it fired blanks in the last election cycle.


One thing is for certain: The NRA’s extreme obduracy will weaken the organization in the minds of mainstream voters. Gun-owning Americans do not favor animal cruelty and other reckless behavior toward animals. When the group reflexively defends practices such as puppy mills, the use of toxic lead ammo, and the black market trade in bear parts, it is way out-of-step with middle America—and with its own gun-owning constituents. The NRA will shoot itself in the foot by chasing its supporters, lawmakers, and core voting blocs in the opposite direction. And that puts the NRA exactly where it deserves to be—lumbering backwards to the past.

Tight Shower ?!

When the white supremacist group VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK tried to host a hate rally in Knoxville, Tennessee, they were foiled by … clowns!

Unfortunately for [VNN] the 100th ARA (Anti Racist Action) clown block came and handed them their asses by making them appear like the asses they were.

Alex Linder the founder of VNN and the lead organizer of the rally kicked off events by rushing the clowns in a fit of rage, and was promptly arrested by 4 Knoxville police officers who dropped him to the ground when he resisted and dragged him off past the red shiny shoes of the clowns. http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/7704982.html

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more, “White flowers?” the clowns cheered and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message, “ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled “Tight Shower!” and held a solar shower in the air and all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.

At this point several of the Nazi’s and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have a heart attack. Their beady eyes bulged, and the veins in their tiny narrow foreheads beat in rage. One last time they screamed “White Power!”

The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh…” the women clowns said.

“Now we understand…”, “WIFE POWER!” they lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”