AFTERBURNER

Passing for News

WHDH-TV -
It's Controversial ... to No One except this Reporter HANSON, Mass. (WHDH) -- Two signs outside of a small business in Hanson that show the business owner’s feelings toward the president are causing controversy.

The political signs in front of the business along Route 27 in Hanson are stopping traffic and getting some people fired up.
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Friday Babe

Esti Ginzburg

Mass City Rejects Pub with Scantily Clad Staff

QUINCY, Mass. (AP) -- Quincy has denied a license to a national Scottish-themed sports bar chain whose wait staff wear skimpy tartan skirts and tops following objections from members of the city's religious community. The city licensing board on Tuesday denied a license to Tilted Kilt, reversing the approval given to the Tempe, Ariz.-based chain in July. Two board members reversed their earlier decision and voted to deny the license after hearing from Deacon Paul Lewis of St. John The Baptist Church, who called the restaurant "a slap in the face." The Rev. John Culp, pastor of Fort Square Presbyterian Church, also objected. A Tilted Kilt lawyer tells The Patriot Ledger the decision was disappointing. The company can appeal to the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission or file a legal appeal in court.

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We Welcome Readers from The Feral Irishman

Paul Ryan's Convention Speech

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dishonorable Disclosures

And a review of the OPSEC Documentary you won't see in the media

A Moment with Joe Biden

Biden: "I'd rather be with you Asian people than with the finest people on earth."

Move Along Nothing to See Here

Samuel L. Jackson Upset that Hurricane Isaac Didn't Hit Republican Convention

Really? ... He's not race baiting at all ... It's me misunderstanding the black perpetual victims experiance in America.

Mitt Romney Interview with Raymond Arroyo

via Adrienne Who asks us to help this go Viral

At the Corner of Hope and Change

via The Feral Irishman
The Voters ~ Blame it on Bush
Kinda Catchy

Good on You Gunny

via IOTW
Gunny Ermey has been fired from Geico Insurance for unflatering remarks he's made about the current Presidential Administration.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman:Do you think I'm cute, Private Gecko? Do you think I'm funny? Private Gecko: Sir, no, sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Then wipe that disgusting grin off your face.
Private Gecko: Sir, yes, sir.
[tries to stop smiling] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Well, any F@#%ing time, sweetheart!
Private Gecko: Sir, I'm trying, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Private Gecko I'm gonna give you three seconds; exactly three-F@#%ing-seconds to wipe that stupid looking grin off your face or I will gouge out your eyeballs and skull-fuck you! ONE! TWO! THREE!
Private Gecko: Sir, I can't help it, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Bull$&*t! Get on your knees scumbag!
[Gecko drops down to his knees] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Now choke yourself.
[Gecko wraps his own hands around his throat] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Goddamn it, with MY hand, numb-nuts!
[Gecko reaches for Hartman's hand] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Don't pull my F@#%ing hand over there! I said choke yourself; now lean forward and choke yourself!
[Gecko does so] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Are you through grinning?
Private Gecko: [gagging] Sir, yes, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Bull$&*t, I can't hear you!
Private Gecko: [louder] Sir, yes, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Bull$&*t, I STILL can't hear you! Sound off like you've got a pair!
Private Gecko: SIR, YES, SIR!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: That's enough! Get on your feet. Private Gecko you had best square your a$$ away and start $&*tting me Tiffany cufflinks or I will definitely f@#$ you up!
Private Gecko: Sir, yes, sir.

Bear Season Opens In Maine

TODAY ...

Happy 'Aly Raisman Day'

WHDH-TV -
Oh And ... She's just signed her first endorsement deal with Poland Spring in Conneticut.

Southern New England Vets

Career fair set for military veterans in Niantic

Winter is Coming

The Newest Edition of The Farmers Almanac is out today.

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - The weather world is full of high-profile meteorologists like NBC's Al Roker and the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore. But the guy making the forecasts for the Farmers' Almanac is more like the man behind the curtain.

He's cloaked in mystery.

The publisher of the 196-year-old almanac, which goes on sale this week, takes great pains to protect the identity of its reclusive weather soothsayer, who operates under the pseudonym Caleb Weatherbee. Caleb's real name and hometown are a secret. And so is his age-old formula used for making long-term weather forecasts.

The mystery man's forecast for the coming winter suggests that people from the Great Lakes to northern New England should get out their long johns and dust off their snow shovels because it's going to be cold and snowy. It's also supposed to be wet and chilly in the Southeast, and milder for much of the rest of the nation.

Even just to speak to the forecaster, the almanac would agree only to an unrecorded phone call with the man from an undisclosed location.

"It's part of the mystique, the almanac, the history," said Editor Peter Geiger of the current prognosticator, the almanac's seventh, who has been underground since starting the job in the 1980s.

The weather formula created by almanac founder David Young in 1818 was based on planetary positions, sunspots and lunar cycles. Since then, historical patterns, weather data and a computer have been added to the mix.

In an election season, the almanac dubbed its forecast "a nation divided" because there's a dividing line where winter returns for much of the east, with milder weather west of the Great Lakes.

Scientists generally don't think too much of almanac's formula.

Ed O'Lenic, operations chief for NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, declined to knock the almanac's methodology but said sun spots and moon phases aren't used by modern-day meteorologists.

"I'm sure these people have good intentions but I would say that the current state of the science is light years beyond what it was 200 years ago," O'Lenic said from Maryland.

In this year's edition, the almanac's editors are contrite about failing to forecast record warmth last winter but they suggested readers should go easy on the publication - and on Caleb - because nobody forecast 80-degree weather in March that brought the ski season a rapid end in northern New England.

"Let's face it - the weather was so wacky last year. It was so bizarre," said Sandi Duncan, managing editor, pointing out that NOAA and Accuweather also missed the mark.

Indeed, NOAA and Accuweather didn't project the extent of the warm winter.

"We missed it too, to put it bluntly," said Tom Kines, a meteorologist at Accuweather in State College, Pa. "It was a weird winter last year."

The Maine-based Farmers' Almanac is not to be confused with the New Hampshire-based Old Farmer's Almanac. Both issue annual forecasts, with the Old Farmer's Almanac scheduled for next month.

Geiger, who keeps a copy of Weatherbee's secret weather formula in a secure location, is quick to point out that there's more to the almanac than just weather forecasts. Hearkening to its old traditions, the folksy almanac features recipes, gardening tips, jokes, facts and trivia, and a guide to a simpler life.

For example, who knew that you could clean your toilet by pouring in Coca-Cola instead of harsh chemicals, or that putting a spoonful of vinegar in a pet's water dish keeps fleas at bay?

As for the weather, almanac readers say it's all good, clean fun.

"It's a fun publication to get and to read, to watch and see how accurate it is," said Wanda Monthey of Alexandria, Va. "It's a lot like a game."

Friday Babe

Genevieve Morton

Sword and Gun Fight

Some Assembly Required

A masked man who attempted to rob a Las Vegas Dairy Queen with a 3-foot-long samurai sword was shot in the chest and killed by a restaurant clerk, KLAS reports.
The incident reportedly occurred at around 12:19 p.m. on Sunday. The clerk fired a total of two rounds from a handgun at the would-be robber, according to police.
The suspect, whose identity has not been released yet, was transported to Sunrise Hospital where he was pronounced dead, KLAS reports.

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I'm Pretty Sure it Went Down Something like this.

Teh MOTUS ... She's Angry

via Castle ARGGHHH

I said ... BRING ME MY FEEDIN SHOVEL!

Run Joe Run

Friday Babe

Jessica Alba

Vt. man crushes police cars with family tractor

LINK

Friday Babe

Candice Boucher

PA Announcer Ejected

On Wednesday night, minor league umpire Mario Seneca decided to throw out – get this – the Daytona Cubs' public address announcer for playing Three Blind Mice after a questionable call.

Per the Daytona Cubs' Facebook page: "We've just entered the twilight zone at Jackie Robinson Ballpark. Our music man, Derek Dye, has been EJECTED from tonight's game. The umpire, Mario Seneca, was apparently not happy when Derek played Three Blind Mice after a questionable call. With no music system, a fan has stepped up to call out player introductions from the stands."

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The Flake

Obviously They Didn't Get the Memo

Equality Illinois is urging gay and lesbian couples to go to their local Chick-Fil-A restaurants for a “kiss-in” campaign, which the group is promoting along with other gay rights organizations nationwide.

At the “kiss-in,” Equality Illinois says, “LGBT supporters will show their disdain for Chick-Fil-A’s policies with public displays of affection in front of their restaurants.”

Queue the Benny Hill Theme Music Maestro

By Jo-Anne MacKenzie
The Eagle Tribune Wed Aug 01, 2012, 12:09 AM EDT
SALEM — It wasn’t a chase, rather more of a follow by Salem police.

A Lawrence man driving what may be a stolen moped led police around the area of Cluff Crossing Road and Route 28 at midday Monday before police shot him with a Taser and took him into custody.

Rafael Tejada, 26, faces seven charges as a result of the incident, which started innocently enough.

A police officer spotted Tejada on Cluff Crossing Road just past 11:30 a.m. and noticed he wasn’t wearing protective eyewear, according to Deputy police Chief Shawn Patten.

“His only thought was he needs to wear some eye protection,” Patten said of the officer, “His original purpose was just to tell him that.”

But Tejada wasn’t inclined to stop and get that message, so what might have been a brief encounter turned into a series of darts and follows, and led to Tejada’s arrest.

When Tejada spotted the officer, he sped up, crossed a solid double yellow line into oncoming traffic and entered the Shaw’s plaza through the exit lane.

The cruiser followed, not tough to do at a top speed of about 25 mph to 30 mph, according to Patten. The officer ordered Tejada to stop.

Still apparently not interested in a conversation with police, Tejada kept going. He next jumped a curb and left the parking lot along an old railroad bed, heading out toward Interstate 93 — on the wrong side of the road.

The cruiser couldn’t follow, but another officer spotted Tejada puttering along on the moped, now heading south on Route 28. He headed back to Cluff Crossing Road with two cruisers in what can only be described as slow pursuit, according to Patten.

The small caravan then turned into the parking lot at Brook Village west Apartments. Tejada left the pavement and the officers thought he might finally be stopping.

Instead, Tejada darted in front of the lead cruiser, causing the officer to slam on his brakes to avoid striking him. The cruiser didn’t hit Tejada, but the second cruiser in line slammed into the back of the first one.

Finally, Tejada drove the moped into some brush and crashed. Even then, Patten said, he remained uncooperative and resisted being taken into custody. He was shot with a Taser and taken into custody with no further problems. Police later discovered “a good sized bag of marijuana” in Tejada’s pocket, Patten said.

Tejada was charged with disobeying a police officer, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana, reckless operation, misuse of plates for not having any license plates, driving after suspension and violating motorcycle rules by not wearing eye and ear protection.

He was later released on $2,000 personal recognizance, pending his arraignment in 10th Circuit Court in Salem.

Damage to one of the cruisers was minor, Patten said, but a little more substantial to the second. Any time a cruiser is involved in an accident, the vehicle is removed from the fleet until police are sure it’s safe to operate, he said. Both cruisers should be back in service soon, he said.

The incident is still under investigation, Patten said, and there is a possibility the moped was stolen from Epping.

On the Way to the Office

This morning I came upon a motorcycle accident just after it happened. I pulled off the road and went to the downed motorcyclist to check him out. Bleeding, Breathing and Broken Bones. He was alert when I asked his name. Told me he thought his ankle was busted and he had a huge gash the length of his right shin. For some reason it wasn't bleeding.
He had been on the way to work when some clown pulled out in front of him on Aiken Ave. The clown in question was already on the phone with emergency services. The bike was in the street. The rider was crossways in the middle of the road over the yellow line. Traffic was starting to backup over the bridge. I sat in the street with this guy until EMS arrived. Sitting in the middle of the street with a broken ankle and traffic backing up is kind of lonely dontchaknow. To be honest, I didn't want this guy to lose it before EMS arrived.
We spoke briefly about the weather and he asked me to help him with his helmet. He pointed at the office just behind us and asked if I would let his boss know what happened. After EMS arrived I walked over and reported the accident asked to see if someone there could help with the bike. I was late getting in this morning. Not a thing really. Couple things I want to mention. Be Careful, This kind of thing can't be undone. Patience is a virtue, work can wait.