Recently in Weird News Category

It's being reported that a child was left in a local McDonalds restaurant restroom this morning here in Charlotte.  Go read the article first and then come back.

Finished?  Here's my problem with the story.  In North Carolina, it's legal for the mother to hand over her newborn  child, up to 7 days old to any complete stranger who's responsible and walk away.

Any complete stranger.

Think about that for just a second.  Now I don't mind having this law and to some extent think it's a good idea.  Wouldn't it be a better idea though for them to hand the kid over to, or, oh I don't know, maybe a hospital or a police officer or maybe even walk over to the local fire station and hand the child off there?  How about a church?  Or a school?  Or heck how about a bank branch since we're here in Charlotte?

Nope, not here in North Carolina.  It's legal to drop the kid off at a pool hall with the bartender or the stripper working the table dances.  Or the homeless guy sleeping on the bench?  Or how about the parking attendant working the booth?  Or the McDonalds store manager who's trying to get folks through the drive thru first thing in the morning?  Or how about the bus driver? (Actually that's legal here in North Carolina as well.) The baggage clerk at the Greyhound station?  Heck, Bush is a responsible adult under North Carolina law.

Look, I'm glad the child's being taken care of or hopefully will be but I have a problem with a wide open loophole like that.  Sure, there are a lot of responsible people out there who would do anything for that kid or any other child dropped into their lap.  But let's make sure about it, OK?  I would think that would be a better idea.

Image from Calm Your Screaming Baby.

So here you are, the president of a university's alumni association and you've got to raise some bucks for your school.  Of course with money being tight and everybody worried about their own situation, you've got to do it in such a way that will get noticed and folks will respond in a positive way. (ie Send you the money.)

What do you do?  You send out a letter with the word "blah" in there 137 times.

Not the letter 137 times of course.  The word "Blah."  As in "With the recent economic downturn and loan crisis, it has become even more important for Framingham State College to receive your support. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,"

The school has stated that the September 5th letter was an attempt to inject a little 20-something humor into the effort to raise money for its Legacy Fund.  Of course the college's advancement office quickly apologized when the MetroWest Daily News brought it to their attention, saying the letter's attempt at humor was misguided. (Don't they always.)

But hey, guess what?  It worked.  The school collected about $2,000 from nearly 40 alumni who had never donated to the school before.  In exchange though, some alumni said they found the letter insulting, unprofessional and ridiculous.

Was it worth it?  Gotta admit 2 grand isn't that much.

Picture from here.

The stick has been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame recently along with the Baby Doll and the skateboard.  It was chosen for "its all-purpose, all-natural, no-cost qualities and its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed by imaginations into something else."

Of course you can always find a stick up someone's ass if you need one.

Hattip: Sheldon which I posted about recently.

I'm sure you've read it elsewhere, but they're still counting votes for the senate race up in Minnesota with the race between Al Franken and current Senator Norm Coleman.  The current totals, which are going up and down with the tally, rests at about 220 votes between the two of them.

Think about that for just a second.  There were nearly three million votes cast for the seat and we have a difference of just 220 votes.  That's less than one one-hundredth of a percentage point.  Or, to put it another way, a penny compared to a hundred dollar bill.

It was a bit larger but they found 100 votes in one county cast for Mr. Franken that were missed due to a typo.  And the state is having problems with the voting machines.  Note the 870 comments on that one.  The absentee ballots are giving them trouble as well.

I have to admit that I didn't hold out much hope for Mr. Franken when I first heard he was running. (Hmmm, I thought I had something bookmarked on that.  Oh well.  I'll find it later.) But then again it is Minnesota.

Well, I guess Barney's upset that the Republicians pretty much lost the election.  He took out his anger on Jon Dekker, a member of the White House Press Corp from Reuters.

Maybe, as First Lady Laure Bush put it, "he was done with the paparazzi."

He's probably lucky Dick Cheney didn't shoot him. :)

As an aside, what Barney was probably concerned about what all that stuff in the reporter's left hand.

Reuters is reporting that Russia has taken the lead in dog tracking technology.  Russians can now use the military GLONASS satellite global positioning system to monitor the movements of their faithful companions as they save the word from the evils of American capitalism.  No news from the American military on when or how they plan to catch up with our pesky Commie friends.

So beware that lovable stray that you throw scraps to.  He may be helping to planing routes for the next Soviet invasion.

:D

Buried in this article is a mention that UPS has now eliminated left turns from its routes because they waste fuel. 

The first thought that comes to mind though is all those left hand turns that occur every weekend with the typical NASCAR race.  Maybe they'll reverse the direction drivers race to save gasoline.

I'm sure that Luke over at Thunderlounge will be one of the first to pick up on this.

(Yes, I know the the gas wasting is because you usally have to wait for traffic before you can make a left hand turn.  Please kindly note the "Joke" and "Funny Stuff" categories on this post.)

Discussion about the "No left hand turn" policy: here (Where numbers are given to show that the policy is working), here (OK, so it appears it's not a new policy), and here (With a lot of negativity in the comments although the NASCAR mention gets a +1 from me).