Used News → Crime Beat

Thursday February 23, 2017

Dancing in public is now legal throughout Henryetta, Oklahoma. City leaders voted Tuesday to abolish an ordinance on dancing. The dance ordinance, with a penalty of $25, prohibited dance halls within 500 feet of a church or public school.

In February, resident Joni Insabella decided to host a dance above her store, which is within 500 feet of a church. The city's Chamber of Commerce posted about the event and called Insabella a rule breaker on Facebook and accused her of getting special treatment, because of her husband, who's the city's attorney.

"We wanted just a good, clean, fun event. As I said, we know we're in the Bible Belt. We weren't having alcohol or anything. We just wanted it to be fun for the community," Insabella ...

Humorous Quips

• At the end of a flight: "Our flight attendants are now walking through the aisles with trash receptacles for any garbage you might have or anything else that you might wanna give us!"
  

Filed Under: → Aviation

• In the defense of our nation, a president must be a clear-eyed realist. There are limits to the smiles and scowls of diplomacy. Armies and missiles are not stopped by stiff notes of condemnation. They are held in check by strength and purpose and the promise of swift punishment.
  

  - George W. Bush 43rd President of the United States

Filed Under: → Politics

Used News → Old News

An Indian who was officially dead for 18 years and the scientists who invented Murphy's law were among the winners of the IgNobel Awards.

The awards are a spoof on the Nobel Prizes, celebrated annually in Boston to honor achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced." They are presented by science humor magazine 'Annals of Improbable Research' and several groups at Harvard and Radcliffe universities.

This year's peace laureate is Lal Bihari, a shopkeeper from Uttar Pradesh in India. Government documents list Bihari, who lives in Azamgarh, 130 miles southeast of Lucknow, as being dead since 1976. The IgNobel committee awarded him the prize "for a triple accomplishment: First, for leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead; second, for ...

Jokes → Wildlife

This elderly lady, recently widowed, decides to see if a pet will ease her loneliness and goes to the pet store. She decides against puppies, kitties, etc., and is about to leave the store when she hears a voice saying, "My, do you look lovely this afternoon, madam." She turns around quickly to see who has spoken, but there is no one. All she sees is a big green parrot, resting on his perch in his cage. "Did you say that?" she asks."Why, yes, I did!" he replies. "And may I add that dress is a very nice color for you."

The lady suddenly realizes how nice it would be to not only have a talking parrot, but one that paid such nice compliments. So she ...

Used News → Crime Beat

Sunday September 21, 2003

India's version of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, the zero tolerance Bombay policeman who dispenses justice from the barrel of a gun, has killed 105 suspects and shows no signs of stopping. While Inspector Pradeep Sharma's methods are questioned by human rights groups, he remains unrepentant. In fact he insists in language that might have come straight out of a Clint Eastwood movie that he acts in self-defense. "These criminals are filth. My mission is to cleanse the city of this filth and it's working," he said. "If they're armed and resist arrest, then I have to shoot in self-defense. "Why this concern for them? If they're walking about with AK-47's, you can be sure they're not going to the temple or going shopping."

Sharma's campaign began 13 years ago after he joined Bombay's newly formed Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU). Now at 41, he is officially credited as the policeman with the most "kills" in India. He is known to journalists as "the terminator." He receives letters of support every day that far outnumber the complaints about the so-called "encounters" in which the suspects die. "I'm just a God-fearing man doing my job, which is eliminating crime in this city, not terminating ...

Used News → Old News

Thursday March 6, 2008

Doctors delivered a stark ultimatum to a 39-year-old Englishman, who grew to a colossal 60 stone (840 lbs). Colin Corfield's battle for survival was the subject of a poignant and moving ITV television documentary.

The Runcorn pub landlord in Cheshire was warned two years ago that his own body fat could suffocate him. So he decided to take drastic action and have risky gastric surgery. It has proved such a success that he has now shrunk to 16 stone! In the TV program screened in December 2007 he said life was "fantastic" and he was looking forward to his first real Christmas in decades. "I won't be stuck in a corner watching everyone else, feeling like I'm putting people out. It's my first Christmas as the new me."

While Colin has a new appetite for life and can walk everywhere, work properly, socialize and feels good about myself, it wasn't always that way. As a teenager he found it hard to deal with a drinking domineering father and he turned to food for comfort. He was obese by the time he reached 30 and when he began running his own pub, his weight spiraled out of control. "I was a big fella ...