A Real Life Pink Panther Heist

Their timing was as impeccable as a Tourbillon, a luxury timepiece whose name means whirlwind.

As the second hand ticked, four men — three disguised as women with long blond tresses, sunglasses and winter scarves — stood in front of an intercom and demurely requested to enter the fabled Harry Winston jewelry store on Avenue Montaigne. It was just before closing time on a chilly evening along this golden triangle of boutiques that includes Dior, Chanel and Gucci, the ornate facades and trees resplendent with Christmas lights.....

This sounds like a movie plot that has come to life. The world is getting very interesting lately.  Jewel thieves and pirates etc.....it makes one wonder what might be next!

The Heist at Harry’s - NYTimes.com

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back on the Grassy Knoll...

It would seem that some highly suspect documents have surfaced from the Dallas DA's office that suggest JFK's assasination was ordered by the Mafia. The current DA has decided to reveal these documents to the public to maintain the appearance of transparency in his office....or he just wants some headlines and publicity.

The Raw Story Dallas DA: Jack Ruby docs 'too important to keep secret'

She Ripped His Nuts Off...Ouch!

A British woman who ripped off her ex-boyfriend's testicle with her bare hands and tried to swallow it has been jailed.
Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out.
A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: "That's yours."

Read more here:

Testicle-tearing ex jailed The Daily Telegraph

I'd say she puts Lorena Bobbit to shame....

There was also this link if this story isn't enough for you:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/gallery/0,22056,5022684-5010140-3,00.html

Marijuana decriminalization bill stirs up debate in Vermont

Montpelier --Supporters of a bill that would decriminalize the sale and possession of as much as four ounces of marijuana told a Vermont Senate committee yesterday evening that the measure would drive down prison costs and do no harm to minors who just want to experiment with the drug.

Read More From the Valley News
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Hey, it's about time people here in VT realized what a waste of time it is chasing people smoking pot. I agree with the harsher penalties for cocaine and heroin. These are far more harmful to society as a whole. You can also can the "gateway" argument. The real gateway drugs are alcohol and nicotine. Both are completely legal, and have been statistically proven to be the starting point for youth drug use. This would appear to be a no brainer....

Cheney/Bush Impeachers May Be On To Something...

In a story reminiscent of Watergate, a new report shows that emails are missing from the Vice-President's office. The emails in question relate to the Valerie Plame CIA outing case. In total there are 16 days where email correspondence from Cheney's office are "missing" despite an order from Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to preserve all materials that may relate to the Plame case. The first day of email missing is in fact the day after Cheney learned of the DOJ investigation.

The White House said in a court filing last week that backup tapes, which contained archived copies of the e-mails, were recycled as part of a policy the White House had in place until October 2003. Ironically, Cheney's office is missing emails from the very day President Bush told reporters he'd "take care of" whatever staff member had actually leaked the CIA agent's name.

"If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush said Sept. 30, 2003. "And if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of." As you may recall, Scooter Libby was convicted of obstruction charges and lying to investigators.

All in all, some 473 days of emails are missing from various Administration departments, according to a House Democrat who saw a White House presentation on the files.

Read More : The Raw Story Email missing from Cheney's office

Originally, I was eager to dismiss the folks in Brattleboro, VT who wanted to have Bush and Cheney arrested if they stood foot in their town as "wacko fringies". But, as this story takes on more Watergate-esque proportions, one has to take pause and consider whether or not this cover-up involves the entire senior White House staff including Cheney and Bush. I mean come on, the "oops I erased the tapes by accident" didn't work for Nixon. What makes the White House think were going to believe the same bullshit story some 35 years later? The severity of the Plame case's ramifications are questionable, but the extent of the cover-up seems to be growing more legs everyday.

If Clinton gets brought up on impeachment charges for getting a hummer in the White House, surely this cover-up warrants a much closer look and yes...perhaps impeachment.

Europe Embraces Decriminalizing File Sharing

The message put forward by the parties is pretty strong: “Whenever you rent a movie, the multinational media industry forces you to watch their propaganda. They claim that downloading movies is the same as snatching bags, stealing cars or shoplifting. That’s simply not true – making a copy is fundamentally different from stealing.”


European Politicians Launch Pro-Filesharing Campaign


I'm not sure that this movement is going to gain any traction in the US anytime soon. I like the fact that Europeans are open minded and recognize the flaws in the RIAA/MPAA approach to combating piracy. The "The Genie is Out of the Bottle" line of thinking makes a lot more sense than the "Let's Punish the End-User Approach". I've never seen an industry as a whole adopt an approach that believes alienating the consumer will improve the almighty bottom line. The closest analogy I can think of is the automobile industry. There was a time when, your car needed repair, you were required (By the Big 3) to bring it back to the dealership or void your warranty. This tactic was used to eliminate the little guy by forbidding the consumer to bring their vehicle to the repair shop of their choosing. You would hear these crazy stories of people who were denied legitimate warranty service because they had their tires or wipers changed elsewhere. When the imports became a serious challenge to the Big 3, they were forced to drop this ludicrous position.

Until the consumers revolt and some company comes along with a more reasonable policy, these chucleheads at the RIAA/MPAA will continue to alienate the very people to which they are trying to suck the entertainment dollar from....

Sony and RIAA ripe for a lawsuit

RIAA lawyer states in legal brief that copying songs from CDs to computer for personal use is just as illegal as posting them online.You, too, could be sued for thousands of dollars by the major record companies — even if you've never once illegally downloaded music.That's because at least one lawyer for the Recording Industry Association of America, the Big Four record companies' lobbying arm and primary legal weapon, considers the copying of songs from your own CDs to your own computer, for your own personal use, to be just as illegal as posting them online for all to share, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Arizona.

Here's my beef with this whole RIAA crap......If I buy a CD from the Sony/BMG Record Club and pop it into the Sony manufactured CD drive of my Sony Vaio laptop, I might even make a duplicate copy onto some Sony made CD-Rs for good measure, I can't see how the RIAA (representing Sony)could then sue me.....according to them and the courts, merely "enabling" copyright violation is in itself a violation. Why hasn't anyone caught on to this concept? I would like to see an artist sue Sony and the RIAA for "enabling" copyright violations and for not protecting them from said violations.I would go one step further and say that Sony was in fact tantamount in the consortium of companies that developed digital file standards and mp3's themselves. Thus Sony is one example of a copyright violation enabler...Stop and think of how many violations Sony alone has enabled through software and hardware as well as blank media. You could apply this theory backwards into the Eighties when mix tapes were the rage. Who made the best blank tapes and tape recorders....Sony! Can you say Walkman? If you apply the same amounts that Jammie Thomas was slapped with...you get the picture. Bye Bye Sony.....

Read more about what these pinheads had to say...

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Students at Vermont Law School should join this fight...

A small university legal clinic in Maine is about to cause a revolution in the P2P filesharing war launched by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

“In what’s probably a world’s first, not lawyers, but student attorneys at the University of Maine School of Law’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic have themselves taken up the fight on behalf of fellow students.

Maine law students vs the RIAA

This a great idea that may well thwart the draconian tactics of the RIAA folks. It would be great to see similar programs take root in other states as well. Like Vermont, many states have a multitude of programs with young, eager, net-savy law students looking to get their feet wet in real world cases. A program like this would tap into the youthful energy of a generation of kids who have grown up on the web. I would venture a bet that more kids have participated in file sharing than have smoked marijuana. This generation views the web as theirs, and they will be loathe to let outsiders ruin the free wheeling nature of the net as we now know it.

Of course in the end, the reality is that this rush to claim this fight as theirs, will end in a resolution somewhat short of what they might envision. But hey...that's all part of growing up.....

The Big Picture

The Lewiston Tribune newspaper in Lewiston, Idaho, ran two large photos on its front page several days before Christmas. One showed a sign painter putting the finishing touches on a store window. The other was a still image from a convenience store's security camera showing an "unknown man" reaching for a wallet which was sitting on the store's counter....


Read more about this amazing coincidence at Randy Cassingham's "This is True" website...

The Big Picture

I would also highly reccommend his newsletter if you like these kinds of true stories...The truth is indeed stranger than fiction...

Unhappy customer strikes back at Comcast

A NEW AMERICAN HERO

"Hammer time! That's what it was when 75 year old Mona Shaw returned to her local Comcast office a few days after she spent two hours waiting outside for a manager and then was told he had left for the day..."



I can feel this woman's pain. I was in a KeyBank in Barre, VT and needed to make change for two fifty dollar bills. The lady asked me if I had an account with them. When I told her I didn't, she informed me that she couldn't make change! It was then it dawned on me that the last time I had been here, they wanted to charge me $5 to cash a check that was drawn on their bank! I'm dumbfounded by the logic here. There is a Community Bank accross the street (that gladly made change for me) and a Northfield Savings Bank next door...it's a good thing I don't own a hammer!

Unhappy customer strikes back at Comcast

High Tech Hooker Shoes!

These high tech shoes are GPS enabled and have a personal alarm system as well. The last line of the story was the part that got me chuckling. You know it will happen. Some enterprising young lad.....

Wired Blogs: Gadget Lab

Pea-brained teen is sought in S.I. fowl play

A wild peacock wandering Staten Island was brutally stomped by a deranged teenager and had to be euthanized, authorities said yesterday.
"I'm killing a vampire!" the suspect bragged maniacally as witnesses tried to stop him from attacking the beautiful bird .....

This is just a reminder for us all what a wonderful world we live in....

Pea-brained teen is sought in S.I. fowl play