Here in North Carolina, even the vegetables serve as saturated fat delivery systems.
On the buffet menu today were deep fried green beans. They accompanied the deep fried chicken, and were topped off with deep fried pastry desserts with fillings, which I was told are called “Frahed Pah”.
I’m going to need a plunger to unclog my arteries.

Try this.
I shall assume you’re sitting on a chair at your monitor. Pick up a pen and scrap of paper.
Now, lift your right foot in the air, and make a few circles in a clockwise direction . Now, write the number 6.
What just happened to your foot?
Via Murray Wood Show

Just the gift for my brothers next Christmas – a chance to stroll into the High House carrying a purse.

Guys are grasping the benefits of carrying, go ahead and say it, a purse
It takes a big man to carry a lady-like bag.
Wallets, cell phones, keys, PDAs, laptop computers – even the deepest of pockets can’t hold everything the average guy is hauling around these days. While no-frills nylon gym totes or ho-hum pleather business cases would suffice, men are increasingly open to carrying a bag with a bit of style … something more refined.
Enter the murse – a masculine version of the purse.
“I use one as a necessity,” says Michael Gargiulo, 43, of Manhattan. Gloves, papers, scarf, cigarettes – it all gets tucked into a trendy leather, denim or canvas over-the-shoulder bag as he runs errands or commutes to work in the Bronx. “Why should [only] women get to have one? I need one.”
Sure, it might feel a little strange at first.
“It’s not like you’re carrying a teacup poodle,” says “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” fashion guru Carson Kressley. “Get over it.”
“It’s a matter of practicality and fashion,” says Cargo magazine’s style director Bruce Pask, who personally favors Lambertson Truex’s collection of sumptuous leather and canvas bags. But since the market is brimming with offerings of sleek designer satchels from the likes of Gucci or Bottega Venetta and simple structured carryalls from Jack Spade and Manhattan Portage, men in the market for a murse or manbag can be choosy.
Or not.
Constantine Karonis, 25, who lives in Manhattan, estimates he owns about 15 bags. “I’ve been carrying one since high school,” he says.
His favorite is a slim, checkerboard-print Louis Vuitton shoulder bag that retails for about $1,200. “Men are willing to make a bit of an investment,” Pask says. A high-end designer suit may be too expensive, but a classy, well-made manbag from the same line is probably going to be more attainable, and a man will use it far more often.
For the uninitiated, a tailored messenger bag is a good start. “Leather always looks great,” Kressley says, and there are masculine nylon styles as well.
Though Kressley will break out a Louis Vuitton clutch or short-handled satchel when traveling or running from show to show during Fashion Week, his daily murse is often a simple suede messenger bag.
“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great one,” Kressley says.
Bold designer handbags and smaller purse-like totes are great accessories for fashion-forward men, but Kressley and Pask acknowledge the average Joe needs a healthy dose of self-confidence to carry them.
“They can look a little too girly for most guys,” Kressley says. “That’s a look reserved for the true meterosexual.”

Have you decided what to order, yet?

Q. Why do the lawyers want to legalize pot?
A. To ensure that their children have someone to sue.*

Sean has the top ten reasons that porn actor Ron Jeremy should be Canada’s next prime minister.

Because I’d pay good money to see Warren Kinsella working as ‘special assistant’ to the Right Honorable Ron Jeremy.”

They’re hard to argue with.

Les Sayer took a challenge from his students, after tossing off a casual remark about the documentary “Supersize Me”. He said he could probably lose weight on a McDonald’s diet. After 29 days, he has. He’s lost 17 pounds and his blood pressure has dropped significantly. He ate from the full menu (sans fish), and nothing else – but decided to conduct the experiment on the basis of sensible eating – no “supersizing” , and he kept up a regular exercise routine.

Les Sayer hasn’t cheated on his McDonald’s-only diet. Not an apple, an orange, a cantaloupe or grapes in 17 days. Sayer, a teacher at NorQuest College and Metro Continuing Education, wanted to drive home the point to students that Morgan Spurlock’s documentary, Supersize Me, was an opinion piece. He said he could eat McDonald’s food for a month and lose weight, not gain it.
“The main reason for doing this is because my students thought (Supersize Me) was an objective piece,” the 39-year-old Sayer said yesterday.

Les’s website is here.
Via John Gormley Live. No *ahem* link.

I had something interesting happen today. I tried to use my VISA card to pay for lunch, and it was refused – twice, with instructions to “call for authorization”. There wasn’t time for that, so I just I paid with a different card, but later I asked a different merchant try it, with the same result.
It made no sense – for once in my life, I actually had the thing paid off and was light years from my credit limit. When I got home, I called to find out what was going on. It seems that dog show entries I’d submitted online on Thursday were responsible – instead of totalling the 7 days entries, they charged the card seven times for $27.50, in rapid succession. Because it had taken place online, the activity was enough to trigger a security alert, and VISA suspended the account. Nice. I guess I should be relieved that they were paying attention, but I wonder why they didn’t do a little bit more investigation on their own – that show superintendant would have submitted thousands of credit card transactions for $27.50 US that day.
Oh well. Just something to keep in the back of your mind if you do a lot of buying online.

To better reflect the work done by their missions around the world, The United Nations has undergone an image makeover.

Greg Weston, in the Ottawa Sun reminds us over the past ten years, $9.1 billion has been shovelled by the Federal Government into “independant foundations” which are out of the reach of both the Access to Information Act, and unbelievably – the Auditor General. Weston reassures;

“But not to worry — our money is in the good hands of foundation boards packed with qualified Liberal appointees. “

Auditor General Sheila Fraser is expected to raise this issue again next week – just as she does every year, where it registers barely a blip (if that) in media coverage.
My advice? Print your report on golfballs, Sheila, so that the idiots behind the cameras and microphones know it’s important.

The website of The Hon.�Reg�Alcock,�Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South has moved from www.regalcock.ca to www.reg-alcock.ca .
Please update your jokes accordingly.

When travelling by automobile in the winter, be sure to include in your emergency kit the following useful items: candles & matches, high-calorie food items (like chocolate), snow shovel, emergency flares, extra blankets, and 30 litres of beer.

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. ,20016 Dear Concerned Citizen: Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Our administration takes these matters seriously, and your opinion was heard loud and clear in Washington.You’ll be pleased to learn that thanks to concerned citizens like you, we are creating a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program, to be called the “Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers” program, or LARK for short. In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to place one terrorist under your personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence next Monday. Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of admonishment. It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers. We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter… ….Pg.2

Take seven brainy nerds and seven dim beauties, add Ashton Kutcher as a matchmaker and what do you get?

I dunno. Another reason to list the TV on Ebay?

The goal of “Beauty and the Geek” is to couple seemingly mismatched pairs and see which can work best together, said David Janollari, the network’s entertainment president, on Saturday. “It’s really looking at stereotypes of people and how we look at beautiful women and not-so-beautiful men,” he said.

Except for the “It’s really looking at stereotypes of people and how” and “not-so-beautiful men” part, my tendancy is to think this is on the up-and-up.

They will go through a series of competitions: combining wits on a camping trip, learning how to dance and working at a deli (the guys help the girls figure out how to make change).

Oh, have some real fun – make the boys teach them Java code.

“Beauty and the Geek” joins NBC’s “Tommy Lee Goes to College” as the two most colorful reality series planned by the networks this summer. The NBC series follows the rock star as he enrolls in college in Nebraska.

“Tommy Lee College Sex Video Downloads”
Don’t mind me. Just getting out ahead of the coming Googlelanche.

Music!
Celebrity!
History!
Aunt Jemima!

Kevin Steel is offering helpful employment advice to disaffected Americans in the arts community.

Regina Police have announced that they have cracked a longstanding case of serial arson — in the past several months, over 150 fires (most in garbage bins) have been set in north central Regina. (via local radio – I’ll provide a link if one becomes available)
Except – the case wasn’t exactly “cracked” . The police… uh…. knew all along who was responsible. They just couldn’t do anything about it until the suspects outgrew their judicial immunity under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. In other words, authorities could do little more than run around putting out fires, until the arsonists turned 12.
Typical of our Trudeapian justice system, check out this chart from a government of Canada website.

The figures produce a total of 74%. There are no statistics provided on violent crime.

The recent rush of world leaders to India is remarkable. Starting from Russian President Putin to major Senators from America have visited or are planning to visit India. [inc. Paul Martin – ed]. European Union is in deep discussion with India on cooperation. All sanctions against India’s nuclear programs and Indian Space Research Organization are in the process of being lifted. India is cooperating with Europeans and the Americans in space explorations and technology research program. India is also part of World Trade Organization. India is receiving major outsourcing contracts in IT and call-center service work from America and Europe. India’s Forex reserve is at a level never imagined before because of international direct investments from Western nations, Japan, Korea and others. Interestingly, China the arc rival of India changed its posture in the last few years to make India’s friendship and trade a priority. India is slowly getting to the point when it is accepted as a permanent member of the Security Council. All the five Security Council members China, America, Russia, France and UK support India’s inclusion.

All that and an obsolete nuclear program!
Hat tip – James Bow