I thought this was a joke, but it looks like they're serious. This just might be the dumbest idea on the internet.

Stephen Baldwin of the famous "Baldwin Brothers" Hollywood clan is a veteran actor who has starred in over 60 films and TV shows. He is no stranger to the Hollywood life of glitz, glamour and the public eye.

In 2002, he had an experience that changed his life forever. He became a Born Again Christian, giving his life to Jesus Christ. Over the next few years, he became very vocal about his faith, using his spotlight to boldly preach the gospel. However, because of his convictions it has caused him the loss of many jobs and the most recently, a highly publicized bankruptcy.

He has been publicly ridiculed and insulted by people who think that he has been abandoned by God. A simple search through the internet will reveal that people not only mock Stephen, but mock God.

In response to this (with the permission of Stephen's ministry President Daniel Southern) we have established RestoreStephenBaldwin.org. A privately funded and managed website. Our vision is to see Stephen Baldwin publicly restored in front of millions. Stephen's platform will increase allowing him to reach even more people with the Gospel and God will get all of the glory. Publicly.

...

Everyone knows that God restored Job, but do they understand the mechanism of his restoration? Job was restored by the people. By "All Who Knew Him". This website was created to see a rebirth of that mechanism. If the people of God come together and each give a small "Token Gift" we can see a massive restoration of a Christian public figure and all the glory will go to God. Its simple, will you take part in the second ever All Who Know Him event?

Uh. No.

If you feel inspired to give money for a good purpose, but propping up a B-list celebrity has-been isn't your idea of charity, the Pacific Garden Mission could probably put your money to better use.

Update: Oh wow. As of May 9th, they took the site down. Possibly because of this video. Pussies. 

Well, sort of.

Microsoft founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates released a glass full of mosquitoes at an elite technology conference to make a point about the deadly disease malaria.

(Hat tip: Radley Balko)

This is hard to watch, as there's stupidity all around, but I do think it's instructive.

I'm not a big fan of open carry, mind you, but I know that some folks are.  While, on balance, I prefer to be discreet, as I think there's real disadvantages to open carry, most times, most places, there are some arguments in favor of it.

1.  Bad people -- well, bad people without badges -- tend to avoid hassling people with guns visible.  When was the last time you heard about a cop with a gun visible on his hip getting mugged or being picked out for a carjacking?

2.  A right not seen to be exercised tends to go away, whether it's protesting at city hall or keeping and bearing arms.  In MN and PA -- and many, many other states -- we don't have a concealment requirement. 

3.  It's a good thing, on balance, for folks who aren't into the whole carrying guns in public thing to see, say, an African American educator, like the woman at right, or a web designer in his mid-thirties out grocery shopping with his cute little kids while carrying; helps to dispel the notion that it's just soft, middle-aged lonely guys who get carry permits.

Not my thing, mind you, but there are folks who are into it.  Like, say, Meleanie Hain.

She's a thirtyish Soccer Mom in Lebanon PA who, at her young kid's soccer games -- and everywhere she goes -- she openly carries a Glock in a good security holster on her hip.

Other folks freak. But there's nothing much they can -- or, for that matter, should -- do about it, as she has a carry permit, which in PA allows her to carry either openly or concealed; without it, she'd have to carry openly.

The sheriff, deciding that her carrying openly shows that she's dangerous, yanks her carry permit, which prohibits her from carrying discreetly, which she doesn't want to, anyway; she can carry openly without the permit. 
 
Yup.  To punish her for carrying her gun openly, he took away the permit that allows her to carry it discreetly, forcing her to carry openly, if she chooses to carry. 

I don't make this stuff up, you know. 

She heads to court; judge gives her the permit back, along with a lecture about how what she's doing is legal, it's also wrong, wrong, wrong; she can now carry openly, or concealed.

Much hysteria continues to ensue.

Hence the show, where a whole variety of people with strong opinions and little information on the issues around this assemble to argue about them. I'm glad it locks up with nine minutes to go; I don't think I could have taken any more.

Largely, it's folks arguing about hypotheticals.  In terms of what's actually happened, well, not much; there's not all that much to discuss.  She hasn't taken the gun out in public, because, well, she hasn't had to; she also hasn't rested her hand on the butt of the gun while asking a ref to reconsider a call, or the coach to put her kid in more, or anything like that, either, which isn't surprising. Some local soccer moms apparently feel that they'll be safe if they insist she stand across the field from them; they think she'll shoot them, but don't know that bullets can easily travel a couple of dozen feet.

But the best stupid hypothetical is put forward by one Sean Burke, a Massachusetts cop, Steve Rogers, a New Jersey cop.  (Yes, there's a correction there; I copied the name from the web page, not the video.  I'm very sad; I was always a great admirer of Captain America...)

Now, since Massachusetts has one of the most restrictive carry permit laws in the country -- only IL and WI are worse; NJ and NY are just about as bad -- naturally, Burke Rogers knows everything to know there is about how things work in states, like PA, which have modern, mainstream, commonsense shall issue carry permit laws.

Not because he has any experience with it, or has thought much or read anything about it, but because, well, he's got a badge and good hair.

He explains the problem: in a situation where, say, she'd taken her gun out to stop from being murdered or something, she runs a great danger of being shot by twelve -- he's sure it's twelve -- well-armed SWAT cops, who won't know who the bad guy is, but will blast away at the soccer Mom.

Yup.  Let's explore that.  It's not likely that she'll need to take her handgun out at her kid's soccer game, of course; it it was likely, she'd just not take the kid to the soccer game. 

But let's create a hypothetical, and think it through:  some machete-wielding ax murderer shows up, and after quickly chopping up another soccer mom and kid or two, starts to move toward her.  He's running faster than she can, so out comes the Glock, and instead of her having to shoot him -- honest; I'm stacking the cards against her; trust me -- he puts the machete down and lies down at the ground, where she covers him with her Glock while waiting for the local SWAT team to arrive.

Now, I don't know much about the Lebanon PA SWAT team, but let's make them a hell-for-leather bunch, who manage to get there in ten, fifteen minutes. And when they see the vaguely chubby soccer mom holding a gun on the guy lying on the ground near the machete -- perhaps fairly close to the chopped up parts of his previous victims -- they'll shoot her.

That's Officer Burke's worry.  I don't make this stuff up, you know.  Yes, that's his objection.  In a situation where she's used her gun to prevent being killed, she might get shot by a bunch of cops. 

He's just looking out for her.

And somehow that's national news.

Sometimes reality gets ahead of the Onion: Rock-Paper-Scissors.

I complain a lot about abusive cops, so it's only fair then that I link to this video of a bunch of cops handling some outrageously abusive people with calm professionalism. Caution: Very bad language.

Visit Gideon's blog to see a really strange form of motorsport. No, make that gameshow.

The thing is, I enjoy seeing people demonstrate the impressive skills needed to do seemingly ordinary things. A school bus rodeo is a little too removed from my experience for me to get into, but I can appreciate fine grocery bagging or high-speed T-shirt folding.

I don't usually cover the abortion issue here, but I've been loosely following the Illinois Review's coverage of the Planned Parenthood fight in Aurora, and it's taken a really weird direction.

As I understand it, a front company called Gemini Office Development built a medical building in Aurora, putting it through the whole city approval process without ever revealing that Planned Parenthood would be coming in as the sole tenant and opening a clinic that performs abortions.

Opponents of the clinic have been fighting it using, of all things, the zoning rules. Jill Stanek says,

Based on the 3 issues, the ZBA will either decide to close down Planned Parenthood for multiple ordinance and zoning violations, or not.

If so great, the rule of law has prevailed.

That's absurd. Zoning boards are the opposite of the rule of law. Although there are some legitimate aspects, zoning is often little more than a way for local politicians and busybodies to try to control what other people do with their own property. That sort of thing used to bother conservatives.

To see what's being called the rule of law these days, consider this statement from attorney Peter Breen:

Aurora zoning ordinances...state [that] certificates of occupancy can't be issued when there are zoning irregularities. ... Not only have city officials acknowledged zoning screw-ups, zoning violations are now clearly visible, including parking, set-backs, and wrong approvals from the City.

(As quoted by Jill Stanek. Ellisions and insertions are mine.)

An entire business should be shut down and all those people kept unemployed because of parking and set-backs? What ever happened to the conservative demand that government should stay off the backs of business?

In an earlier article about this issue, commenter Larry Hau writes:

The most telling part of this whole situation was an interview with a Planned Parenthood spokesman on Hannity and Colmes. The spokesman said, "We followed the letter of the law." What I heard was, "we did everything we could to avoid following the spirit of the law." It seems that every day, new facts emerge to prove that I heard right.

The "spirit of the law"? Zoning ordinances don't have any spirit. They're just rules, and not terribly important ones.

How weird is it that one of the most contentious issues of our day would come down to zoning?

Without the happy ending.

(Hat tip: Balko)

A few nights ago I was getting ready to go to bed when I heard my cellphone buzzing away in the pocket of my jacket. It does that periodically when I've missed a call, so I pulled it out to see I had missed anything important.

It wasn't a missed call. It was an instant message. Who the heck would send me a message at 2 am? Curious, I opened the message and got a picture. It was really tiny on the screen on my phone, but I could make out most of it. It was a picture of somebody's bathroom, and there in the middle of the bathroom was a naked lady.

She's holding something up in front of her face so I can't see it...Oh, I get it: She's holding her cell phone out in front of her to take a naked picture of herself in the bathroom mirror.

Just to be clear, unlike some of the cool kids, I don't have a lot of women sending me naked pictures of themselves. In fact, that's never happened.

(Ladies wishing to change all that are encouraged to submit photos to my email address in the sidebar.)

The area code for her phone number is one digit off from my area code, so I imagine she was sending the message to someone in her area code and misdialed.

Probably the smart thing to do would be to ignore the message. The nice naked lady would simply discover that her friend didn't get the message and she'd figure her cellular carrier lost it. She'd never know she sent it to a stranger, so she'd never worry about it.

But at 2 am, the smart thing simply didn't occur to me. Instead, I thought it made sense to let her know what had happened:

Got your picture. I don't believe we've met, but it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Seriously, don't worry, but check that number.

She hasn't responded.

Maybe it's time for me to have a new logo designed, like one of these.

(Hat tip: Lindsey)

If you were a clothing designer, and you were making T-shirts for sale at WalMart, and somebody said "How about a shirt with a skull? Maybe something kind of crude and retro-looking?" You might google around for royalty-free skull images and come up with the one I have here, and a few months later the shirt you made with it would be sold in all of WalMart's stores. Pretty cool, eh?

As it turns out, no.

As blogger Bent Corner explains, that's the emblem for the Totenkopf Division of Hitler's Waffen-SS, just like the guards at Aushwitz used to wear.

Of course, WalMart immediately removed the shirts from all stores.

Or so you'd think, yet they're still turning up in WalMart stores three months later:

"Everyone agreed that these shirts have to go, including Wal-Mart; it's just that they didn't do anything about it," [Rep. Jan] Schakowsky [from Illinois] said. "Either at the time they really weren't serious, or their capacity to do that is limited, which makes one wonder about recalls of potentially dangerous products."

Blogger Rick Rottman of BentCorner.com was first to recognize the T-shirt's skull-and-crossbones design as the infamous Nazi emblem, and posted his discovery online in November. At the time, Wal-Mart responded quickly to the public outcry, promising to ban the sale of the shirts and remove them from stores.

Despite the corporate order, it appears the shirts were never removed from at least three dozen of Wal-Mart's 3,300 U.S. stores, according to Consumerist.com, which has been tracking discoveries of the shirts.

I could understand it taking three days to make sure everyone gets the memo, and I could even understand it taking three weeks to be sure that every single store has removed the shirts from the sale racks (memos get lost, employees quit and leave things undone), but three months?

This is a breaking story, but apparently Turner Broadcasting wanted to promote their surreal Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hunger Force in an unusual way, so they hired New York's Interference Inc., which describes itself as "A nationwide guerilla and alternative marketing agency," to drum up some street-level publicity.

I guess you could say it worked:

Electronic light boards featuring an adult-cartoon character triggered bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday, spurring authorities to close two bridges and a stretch of the Charles River before determining the devices were harmless.

Turner Broadcasting Co., the parent company of CNN, said the devices contained harmless magnetic lights aimed at promoting the Adult Swim network's late-night cartoon "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Law enforcement sources said the devices displayed one of the Mooninites, outer-space delinquents who appear frequently on the show, greeting visitors with a raised middle finger.

Sound's like somebody's in trouble.

The discovery of nine of the devices around metro Boston led state, local and federal authorities to close the Boston University and Longfellow Bridges, and block boat traffic from the Charles River to Boston Harbor.

In addition, the Pentagon said U.S. Northern Command was monitoring the situation from its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but said none of its units were sent to assist.

Davis said police "are going to fully investigate this and get to the bottom of it."

Big trouble.

Here's an idea for a post I wish I had come up with: Scared Bunny is blogging about strange signs in the restroom at work.

From an AP report by Chris Newmarker:

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A metal, rock-like object about the size of a golf ball and weighing nearly as much as a can of soup crashed through the roof of a Monmouth County home, and authorities on Wednesday were trying to figure out what it was.

Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces, crashed into the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft.

The rough-feeling object, with a metallic glint, was displayed Wednesday by police. "There's some great interest in what we have here," said Lt. Robert Brightman. "It's rather unusual. I haven't seen anything like it in my career."

He said he hoped to have the object identified within 72 hours, but declined to name the other agencies whose help he said he had enlisted.

Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of a single-family, two-story home, damaged tiles on a bathroom floor below and then bounced, sticking into a wall.

The object was heavier than a usual metal object of that size, said Brightman, who added that no radioactivity was detected.

Hmmm...Freehold Township, New Jersey...Is that anywhere near Grovers Mill?

Update: Cripes! Freehold Township is only about 15 miles from Grover's Mill!

Come to think of it, however, this is more of a Phoenixville, Pennsylvania kind of situation.

Phoenixville is 65 miles away.

Here's a cool and slightly freaky video of an octopus escaping from a box through a 1 inch hole.

In a bizarre story, the folks at the Volokh Conspiracy ask: If a prosecutor walks around naked in his office late at night and there's nobody there to see him, is it still indecent exposure?

(Full disclosure: Not to put any ugly pictures in people's heads, but I'm often naked while writing this blog. Just thought I should come clean.)

The Guardian reports:

Up to 11 stingrays have been found dead and mutilated on Australia's eastern coast since the Crocodile Hunter's death, prompting fears that Irwin's fans are exacting their revenge on the normally docile fish.

Officials from the department of primary industries and fisheries say two of the dead stingrays were not the victims of revenge attacks, but they have been unable to determine the cause of death of at least another nine.

The fact that the tails and barbs of several of the animals were lopped off has environmentalists worried.

Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's conservation group, Wildlife Warriors, said he feared the rays were being hunted and killed in retaliation for the TV star's death.

"We just want to make it very clear that we will not accept and not stand for anyone who has taken a form of retribution. That's the last thing Steve would want," he said.

Well, that's Steve Irwin for you.

As for me, I don't want any animal life out there gettin' ideas. If one of you critters kills me, I've instructed my people to hunt you m*therf*ckers to extinction.

You've been warned.

(Hat tip: Hit & Run)

There's something I admire about people who learn how to do pointless things, so I agree with Blondie that this is cool.

Update: More silly dancing here.

Just in time to cash-in on Snakes On A Plane fever, in New Delhi they have...

On June 9, a monkey reportedly crawled through some pipes and ended up aboard a train, scowling at passengers and jumping around a car.

Passengers had to be moved to another car while staff chased the dexterous creature, causing delays.

"There are too many monkeys," Dayal was quoted as saying.

...mother-f*****g monkeys on a mother-f*****g train!

A lot of folks around here, such as Marathon Pundit and Ferdy, are posting in support of Israel's incursion into Lebanon to suppress Hezbollah forces there.

Well, if you folks want to give them some concrete Chicago-style assistance, don't forget you can send them a pizza.

What a world.

Schwarzenegger to Order Troops to Border

First there was Lazy Sunday: The Chronicles of Narnia rap.

Then there was Lazy Monday: the West Coast Response.

Now the midwest Represents!

Some people think that disturbing elements in our culture—goths, gangstas, and violent video games—are signs of declining morality. Declining from what?

Brown University's library boasts an anatomy book that combines form and function in macabre fashion. Its cover — tanned and polished to a smooth golden brown, like fine leather — is made of human skin.

In fact, a number of the nation's finest libraries, including Harvard's, have such books in their collections. The practice of binding books in human skin was not uncommon in centuries past, even if it was not always discussed in polite society.

At the time, the best libraries belonged to private collectors. Some were doctors who had access to skin from amputated parts and patients whose bodies had gone unclaimed. In other cases, wealthy bibliophiles acquired skin from executed criminals, medical school cadavers and people who died in the poor house.

...

One copy of "The Dance of Death" was rebound in 1893 by Joseph Zaehnsdorf, a master binder in London. A note to his client reports that he did not have enough skin and had to split it. The front cover, bound in the outer layer of skin, has a slightly bumpy texture, like soft sandpaper. The spine and back cover, made from the inner layer, feel like suede.

"The Dance of Death" is about how death prevails over all, rich or poor. As with many other skin-bound volumes, "there was some tie-in with the content of the book," said Sam Streit, director of the John Hay Library.

"If you want to learn how to build a house, build a house. Don't ask anybody, just build a house."

I was stunned into incoherence for about 10 minutes after seeing this...but I would love to see this guy in the debates...

...The Royal Dragoon Guards now carries with it the traditions and history of four of the finest regiments in the British Cavalry; the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. All four were raised between 1685 and 1689, during the protracted contest between James II and William of Orange for the English throne.

—History note on the website of the Royal Dragoon Guards.

Now go here and watch the video.

I think the American military might frown on that sort of thing. Those Brits have been stuck on that island of theirs way too long.

(Hat tip: Stillettos and Sneakers)

This popped up in my AdSense ads, and I just had to check it out. This is a non-AdSense link, so this is not just a sleezy attempt to earn some money. Check it out:

http://www.findyourlostcat.com

So there I was at drugstore.com looking for nose-hair trimmers.

I found the "Conair Ultimate Nose & Ear Hair Trimmer" which is described as having a pivoting head for "hard to reach and delicate areas."

While pondering what that meant, I noticed that the "Customers who bought this product also bought" list consists of

• K-Y Personal Lubricant Jelly
• O'My All-Natural Flavored Lubricant with Hemp, Kicky Kiwi Strawberry
• Astroglide Personal Lubricant
• K-Y Ultra Gel Personal Lubricant currently in stock

I'm pretty sure I really don't want to know.