Wal-Mart worker dies in rush
NEW YORK - Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down.
Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday's video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman.
Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.
At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries. The store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.
Police said about 2,000 people were gathered outside the Wal-Mart doors before its 5 a.m. opening at a mall about 20 miles east of Manhattan. The impatient crowd knocked the employee, identified by police as Jdimytai Damour, to the ground as he opened the doors, leaving a metal portion of the frame crumpled like an accordion.
"This crowd was out of control," Fleming said. He described the scene as "utter chaos," and said the store didn't have enough security.
Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help Damour were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store.
Damour, 34, of Queens, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 6 a.m., police said. The exact cause of death has not been determined.'
A 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she and the baby were reported to be OK, said police Sgt. Anthony Repalone.
Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."
"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., called the incident a "tragic situation" and said the employee came from a temporary agency and was doing maintenance work at the store. It said it tried to prepare for the crowd by adding staffers and outside security workers, putting up barricades and consulting police.
"Despite all of our precautions, this unfortunate event occurred," senior Vice President Hank Mullany said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those impacted."
A woman reported being trampled by overeager customers at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in Farmingdale, about 15 miles east of Valley Stream, Suffolk County police said. She suffered minor injuries, but finished shopping before filling the report, police said.
Shoppers around the country line up early outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving in the annual bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday. It got that name because it has historically been the day when stores broke into profitability for the full year.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
And speaking of Rosie O'Donnell...
NBC's Rosie O’Donnell variety show disappoints
Rosie O'Donnell gave NBC a real turkey.
The network's attempt to revive the primetime variety show failed to draw an audience Wednesday night, tying for the evening's lowest-rated program.
A mere 5 million viewers tuned in for the 8 p.m. premiere of "Rosie Live," with the program earning a 1.2 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. The telecast matched ABC's recently canceled "Pushing Daisies" as the night's lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.
NBC had high hopes for the special and planned to expand the program into a series should viewers re-embrace the decades-old variety format. Other networks, too, were watching closely since several are developing variety shows of their own.
"There's a notion that the climate is right for the genre to make a comeback," emailed one executive at a rival network. "I guess we now know what not to do, thanks to Rosie."
Segments included Kathy Griffin impersonating Nancy Grace, Alec Baldwin hitting Conan O'Brian with a pie, O'Donnell singing "City Lights" with Liza Minnelli and Jane Krakowski doing a product-placement-themed striptease for White Castle burgers and Crest Whitestrips.
Critics were not kind. The NY Times described it as "hokey comedy with an enemies list." TV Guide called it a "ghastly ego trip." And the LA Times asked, "Rosie, what on earth were you thinking?"
Rosie O'Donnell gave NBC a real turkey.
The network's attempt to revive the primetime variety show failed to draw an audience Wednesday night, tying for the evening's lowest-rated program.
A mere 5 million viewers tuned in for the 8 p.m. premiere of "Rosie Live," with the program earning a 1.2 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. The telecast matched ABC's recently canceled "Pushing Daisies" as the night's lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.
NBC had high hopes for the special and planned to expand the program into a series should viewers re-embrace the decades-old variety format. Other networks, too, were watching closely since several are developing variety shows of their own.
"There's a notion that the climate is right for the genre to make a comeback," emailed one executive at a rival network. "I guess we now know what not to do, thanks to Rosie."
Segments included Kathy Griffin impersonating Nancy Grace, Alec Baldwin hitting Conan O'Brian with a pie, O'Donnell singing "City Lights" with Liza Minnelli and Jane Krakowski doing a product-placement-themed striptease for White Castle burgers and Crest Whitestrips.
Critics were not kind. The NY Times described it as "hokey comedy with an enemies list." TV Guide called it a "ghastly ego trip." And the LA Times asked, "Rosie, what on earth were you thinking?"
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Ann Coulter's jaw broken and will be wired shut
by Alley Hector, OregonLive.com
Tuesday November 25, 2008, 11:20 AM
It's too easy to make a pun about one of the biggest mouths in the conservative movement being silenced. So I'll leave the clever quips about Ann Coulter's broken jaw to the pop blogs.
But I do have to admit to some schadenfreude upon hearing that the woman who just can't keep her mouth shut will have to quite literally do so for several weeks, as her jaw is to be wired shut.
Reports have been sketchy as to the reason behind the broken jaw. I'm sure there have been visions of a fist fight with Rosie O'Donnell or just any liberal pundit taking a crack shot at that long face but it seems that it was only a nasty fall that Coulter took about a month back.
The timing is less than opportune, as Coulter is currently in the process of finishing the audio version of her upcoming book, The New Ann Coulter.
For more info on why Coulter is so good at causing ruckus and getting liberal panties in a bunch, you can check out a site dedicated to hating her, anticoulter.com.
Tuesday November 25, 2008, 11:20 AM
It's too easy to make a pun about one of the biggest mouths in the conservative movement being silenced. So I'll leave the clever quips about Ann Coulter's broken jaw to the pop blogs.
But I do have to admit to some schadenfreude upon hearing that the woman who just can't keep her mouth shut will have to quite literally do so for several weeks, as her jaw is to be wired shut.
Reports have been sketchy as to the reason behind the broken jaw. I'm sure there have been visions of a fist fight with Rosie O'Donnell or just any liberal pundit taking a crack shot at that long face but it seems that it was only a nasty fall that Coulter took about a month back.
The timing is less than opportune, as Coulter is currently in the process of finishing the audio version of her upcoming book, The New Ann Coulter.
For more info on why Coulter is so good at causing ruckus and getting liberal panties in a bunch, you can check out a site dedicated to hating her, anticoulter.com.
Author: The Beatles were a 'spiritual force'
(CNN) -- When John Lennon remarked in 1966 that the Beatles were then "more popular than Jesus" his comments prompted outrage in the U.S. But this weekend the Vatican's newspaper paid tribute to the band on the 40th anniversary of the release of the "White Album" in an article interpreted by some as a papal pardon for Lennon.
CNN's Alessio Vinci spoke to Steve Turner, author "The Gospel According To The Beatles," about the controversy that helped to end the Beatles' touring career.
Q: Was Lennon surprised by the storm his comment generated?
A: I think John Lennon was surprised because it had been said in a casual way to a journalist who was a personal friend of his and he had no idea it would cause that sort of controversy. When it did happen he was actually quite frightened because they were about to go off on tour and there were these threats to their lives and a clairvoyant made some predictions that their plane would crash. It was really quite frightening and they wanted to cancel the tour but they knew they couldn't. They were under obligation to the tour promoters. And when he made his apology in Chicago, (the band's) press officer told me that John was actually in tears before he went in to make the apology.
Q: Was his apology sincere?
A: His apology was very carefully worded. He never said "I didn't mean that;" he kind of said, "if it was taken that way, that's not what I meant," but he never actually retracted it. The reason it happened that way, in America particularly, is that people thought the Beatles were getting too big, too proud and it was a way of putting them down and I think people grabbed that opportunity.
Q: Did they care at all what the Vatican newspaper had to say at the time?
Don't Miss
A: I don't know that the Beatles had any particular concern about what the Vatican said. I know the Vatican did say something at the time. But by that time, everybody was pitching in with their opinion, and it just kind of gathered pace.
Q: If he were alive, what would he say about his "rehabilitation?"
A: It's very hard to say what John Lennon would say now if he knew that the pope had forgiven him or the Catholic Church had forgiven him because on the one hand he wrote to an American evangelist called Oral Roberts and said he had been very sorry. But in a book he said he was very glad that it had happened because it effectively ended the Beatles. Because that tour was so bad that it became the last tour the Beatles ever did. So he thought, "Thank you Jesus for causing this to happen -- because you gave me a solo career."
Q: How spiritual were the Beatles?
A: The Beatles started out as atheists and agnostics and I think as everybody knows they became more interested in spiritual things. They went out to India in 1968 and I think in a way the Beatles became a spiritual force themselves. And I think that John actually saw that. He saw Christianity and rock'n'roll as competitors. Only three years later, after 1966, you had the Woodstock festival and you get rock music almost performing a religious function. So I think in a way he was aware of what was happening. The Beatles were almost becoming a religion and exerting a spiritual force over people.
CNN's Alessio Vinci spoke to Steve Turner, author "The Gospel According To The Beatles," about the controversy that helped to end the Beatles' touring career.
Q: Was Lennon surprised by the storm his comment generated?
A: I think John Lennon was surprised because it had been said in a casual way to a journalist who was a personal friend of his and he had no idea it would cause that sort of controversy. When it did happen he was actually quite frightened because they were about to go off on tour and there were these threats to their lives and a clairvoyant made some predictions that their plane would crash. It was really quite frightening and they wanted to cancel the tour but they knew they couldn't. They were under obligation to the tour promoters. And when he made his apology in Chicago, (the band's) press officer told me that John was actually in tears before he went in to make the apology.
Q: Was his apology sincere?
A: His apology was very carefully worded. He never said "I didn't mean that;" he kind of said, "if it was taken that way, that's not what I meant," but he never actually retracted it. The reason it happened that way, in America particularly, is that people thought the Beatles were getting too big, too proud and it was a way of putting them down and I think people grabbed that opportunity.
Q: Did they care at all what the Vatican newspaper had to say at the time?
Don't Miss
A: I don't know that the Beatles had any particular concern about what the Vatican said. I know the Vatican did say something at the time. But by that time, everybody was pitching in with their opinion, and it just kind of gathered pace.
Q: If he were alive, what would he say about his "rehabilitation?"
A: It's very hard to say what John Lennon would say now if he knew that the pope had forgiven him or the Catholic Church had forgiven him because on the one hand he wrote to an American evangelist called Oral Roberts and said he had been very sorry. But in a book he said he was very glad that it had happened because it effectively ended the Beatles. Because that tour was so bad that it became the last tour the Beatles ever did. So he thought, "Thank you Jesus for causing this to happen -- because you gave me a solo career."
Q: How spiritual were the Beatles?
A: The Beatles started out as atheists and agnostics and I think as everybody knows they became more interested in spiritual things. They went out to India in 1968 and I think in a way the Beatles became a spiritual force themselves. And I think that John actually saw that. He saw Christianity and rock'n'roll as competitors. Only three years later, after 1966, you had the Woodstock festival and you get rock music almost performing a religious function. So I think in a way he was aware of what was happening. The Beatles were almost becoming a religion and exerting a spiritual force over people.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Vatican: Beatles music better than today's songs
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Vatican media are praising the Beatles' musical legacy and sounding philosophical about John Lennon's boast that the British band was more popular than Jesus.
Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano recalls that Lennon's comment outraged many when he made it in 1966.
But it says in its Saturday edition that the remark can be written off now as the bragging of a young man wrestling with unexpected success.
The newspaper as well as Vatican Radio last week noted the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "White Album."
It said the album demonstrated how creative the Beatles were, compared with what it called the "standardized, stereotypical" songs being produced today.
====================
Gee...42 years later. I wonder who they are trying to brown up. Seriously, this comes off as incredibly condescending. "Oh, we can forgive him... he was just some young man unable to cope with success! He couldn't possibly have meant it..."
Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano recalls that Lennon's comment outraged many when he made it in 1966.
But it says in its Saturday edition that the remark can be written off now as the bragging of a young man wrestling with unexpected success.
The newspaper as well as Vatican Radio last week noted the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "White Album."
It said the album demonstrated how creative the Beatles were, compared with what it called the "standardized, stereotypical" songs being produced today.
====================
Gee...42 years later. I wonder who they are trying to brown up. Seriously, this comes off as incredibly condescending. "Oh, we can forgive him... he was just some young man unable to cope with success! He couldn't possibly have meant it..."
Michael Buble
If you have an interest in "Big Band" types of music, I can recommend Michael Buble.
Michael Steven Bublé (Pronounced boo-BLAY) is a Canadian big band singer and actor. He has won several awards, including a Grammy and multiple Juno Awards. While his first album achieved modest chart success in the United States, it reached the top ten in Lebanon, the UK and his home country of Canada. However, he did find commercial success in the U.S. with his 2005 album It's Time. His 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible reached number one on the Billboard 200. Bublé has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide including 8 million in the USA alone.
Michael Steven Bublé (Pronounced boo-BLAY) is a Canadian big band singer and actor. He has won several awards, including a Grammy and multiple Juno Awards. While his first album achieved modest chart success in the United States, it reached the top ten in Lebanon, the UK and his home country of Canada. However, he did find commercial success in the U.S. with his 2005 album It's Time. His 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible reached number one on the Billboard 200. Bublé has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide including 8 million in the USA alone.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
How to get rid of Jehovah's Witnesses
This was posted by dimossi on the JREF forums: http://forums.randi.org/forumindex.php
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