First Door on the Left

If you are fortunate enough to be with friends and family on this holiday, what are you doing holed up in your room reading this? Get out there and enjoy those people!

Robber kills teller, flees bank saying ‘Merry Christmas’

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) — A bank teller was shot and killed on Saturday during a bank robbery in Little Rock. Police are searching for a suspect.

The robbery occurred at about 11 a.m. at a Metropolitan National Bank branch.

Police said the robber entered the bank and shot 25-year-old James R. Garrison in the chest, fatally wounding him.

The robber then approached another teller and said, “Give me all of it,” and the teller gave him an undisclosed amount of money, according to police. The robber said, “Merry Christmas,” and fled.

Garrison was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The suspect is described as a male, 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue sweatshirt with the number 77 on the front.

One wonders if Dan Riehl is 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds and owns a blue sweatshirt with the number 77 on the front.

We knew this was coming, but still it is not news we enjoy reading…

Marines Charged in Iraqi Civilian Deaths

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) – Eight Marines were charged Thursday in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians last year during a bloody, door-to-door sweep in the town of Haditha that came after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb.

In the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to come out of the Iraq war, four of the Marines – all enlisted men – were charged with unpremeditated murder.

The other four were officers who were not there during the killings but were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths.

The most serious charges were brought against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, a 26-year-old squad leader accused of murdering 12 civilians and ordering the murders of six more inside a house cleared by his squad. He was accused of telling his men to “shoot first and ask questions later,” according to court papers released by his attorney.

The highest-ranking defendant was Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, 42. He was accused of failing to obey an order or regulation, encompassing dereliction of duty.

The story: The Donald and Rosie Escalate Their Feud.

Video:

Classic definition of a cat fight.

N.J. Governor Signs Civil Unions Law

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Thursday signed a civil unions law giving gay couples all the rights and responsibilities – but not the title – of marriage.

The law makes New Jersey the third in the nation to institute civil unions and the fifth to offer same-sex couples some version of marriage. Connecticut and Vermont allow civil unions for gay couples. Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry; California has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights.

“We must recognize that many gay and lesbian couples in New Jersey are in committed relationships and deserve the same benefits and rights as every other family in this state,” Corzine said. About 150 people attended the bill signing.

The New Jersey law takes effect Feb. 19. Same-sex couples seeking civil unions will have to wait for three days for a ceremony to take place after registering their plans with local officials. That is the same waiting period for couples seeking marriage licenses.

Once joined in civil union, gay couples will enjoy adoption, inheritance, hospital visitation, medical decision-making and alimony rights and the right not to testify against a partner in court.

“I believe very fundamentally in equal protection under the law and this legislation is about meeting that basic responsibility and honoring the commitments that individuals have made to each other,” said Corzine, a Democrat.

Of course, every party needs a bigot pooper…

Social conservative groups and some lawmakers opposed the measure, reasoning it brings gay relationships too close to marriage, but it easily passed the Legislature.

“It’s same-sex marriage without the title,” said John Tomicki, president of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage. “It uproots the cardinal values of our culture.”

He said opponents would push for a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex unions in New Jersey, no matter what they’re called.

This is hilarious…

  

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

There must be something in the water in Virginia. First there was Senator George Allen. Now there is Congressman Virgil Goode.

Dear Mr. Cruickshank:

Thank you for your recent communication. When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

The Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, “As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office.” Thank you again for your email and thoughts.

Sincerely yours,
Virgil H. Goode, Jr.

The KKK is alive and well in the state of Virginia.

P.S. Had Representative Goode done his homework, he would know that Keith Ellison, the “Muslim Representative from Minnesota” of whom he writes, was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. What his election to the House of Representatives has to do with immigration is anybody’s guess.

So Virgil Goode is a bigot and an idiot.

Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex

NEW YORK (AP) — More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.

“This is reality-check research,” said the study’s author, Lawrence Finer. “Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades.”

Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.

The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer’s analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.

Even Republicans?

“The Bush administration does not believe the government should be regulating or stigmatizing the behavior of adults.”

Ha ha funny.

I’ll say it again… Sam Brownback is an idiot.

Senator questions judge’s role in lesbian wedding

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Sam Brownback, who wants to champion social conservatives in the presidential race, said Tuesday he wants a Senate panel to re-question a judicial nominee who attended a same-sex union ceremony.

Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said he wants Michigan state judge Janet Neff to testify about her role in the 2002 Massachusetts ceremony, her legal views on same-sex unions and her ability to be impartial if called upon to rule on such cases.

Neff’s nomination to a federal district court is among a dozen or so now stalled in the Senate, a logjam in part due to Brownback’s questions about Neff’s attendance at a lesbian commitment ceremony. The Senate Judiciary Committee has already approved her nomination.

Neff was traveling outside the country and could not immediately be reached for comment, said Chris Bockheim, her judicial assistant.

Earlier this month, Brownback, a prominent opponent of gay marriage who is exploring a presidential run in 2008, said he would lift the hold he put on Neff’s nomination if the judge agreed to withdraw from ruling on any court case involving the legality of same sex unions.

In Iowa on Tuesday to meet with GOP activists, Brownback said he wants only a chance to question Neff about her role in the 2002 ceremony. Brownback also wants a recorded vote in the Senate.

“I am not opposed to her getting a vote,” Brownback said before a lunch with potential donors and supporters in Davenport. “I would like her to come back through committee so she can testify what took place, factually … her legal views on same-sex marriage and her ability and willingness to be impartial.”

Neff has said she attended the commitment ceremony as a friend of one of the two women, a longtime neighbor.

I am definitely not defending Terrell Owens. I think he is an overrated, overpaid and immature brat (much like our president). However, I do have one question for DeAngelo Hall:

Where did your face have to be in order for T. O. to spit in it and what was it doing there?

Update: Owens was fined $35,000. Pocket change.