Bennett Madison, who says Valentine’s Day causes stress, poses in New York on Friday, February 10, 2006. Madison has spent a lot of time thinking about this. In fact, he’s written a book, too. It’s called ‘I Hate Valentine’s Day.’

And then to this extreme:

An Islamic separatist women’s group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed to prevent couples celebrating Valentine’s Day in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir.

”We will not allow anyone to observe Valentine’s Day as it does nothing but spread immorality among youth,” said Aasiya Andrabi, firebrand leader of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Millat or Daughters of Faith.

The group, which supports a 16-year-old separatist insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in Indian Kashmir, is also engaged in a crusade to stamp out immorality in the Muslim-majority region.

Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated February 14, is ”against our culture and Islamic teachings,” Andrabi said in a statement reported by Current News, a local news agency.

The anti-Valentine’s Day protest Andrabi’s return to moral policing after her release from jail where she spent four months for harassing a couple.

The group kicked off its campaign Friday against “Lover’s Day” in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, by raiding half a dozen shops, confiscating Valentine’s Day cards and making a bonfire out of them.

The aim of Valentine’s Day is to “pave the way for Western culture to invade youths’ hearts and minds and distance them from their traditional culture and Islamic principles,” added Andrabi.

Look, I don’t give a rat’s patootie about Valentine’s Day...I find it somewhat annoying and if JR ever spent $75 on roses to give me on Feb 14th I’d probably kill him (I’d much more appreciate them on April 19th . Or something). But jebus...for the love of St Valentine........

DaveZilla

MANSTON, England - Adventurer Steve Fossett completed the longest nonstop flight in aviation history with an emergency landing Saturday, flying 26,389 miles in about 76 hours but stopping early because of mechanical problems.

Ground control said Fossett, 61, broke the airplane distance record of 24,987 miles while his lightweight experimental plane was flying over Shannon, Ireland.

Generator problems then forced him to land the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer at Bournemouth International Airport in southern England instead of at a military air strip in nearby Kent.

“I was really lucky to make it here today, there was a lot going on,” Fossett told reporters after he landed. “The tension of the final part really took it out of me, but I will be fine in the morning.”

USA!
USA!
USA!

A1(because he got me most excited about this)

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have stripped most surveillance cameras and agency seals from Iranian nuclear sites and equipment as demanded by Tehran in response to its referral to the U.N. Security Council, according to diplomats in Europe quoted by The Associated Press.

The diplomats, who demanded anonymity, said the move was part of retaliatory measures announced by Iran that have left the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency with only the most basic means to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities, according to AP.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Marc Hutson (center), commander, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Division, 101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, Ky., holds a meeting with local Iraqis from Hawijah and Ryiad, Iraq, to discuss the reopening of route Trans-Am near Forward Operating Base McHenry, Nov. 1, 2005.  U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway

I used to be the Lt Col.’s nanny.

He and his wife, Maj. Jane Hutson are two of the most incredible people I have ever known in my life. And they’ve done things for our Army that are being employed today. Major things.

Aaaaaand....they got me a ride in a Stryker one day! (before quite a few Army folks ever did I might add):

I got to meet Iraqis that were here helping us to liberate their country, too.
(they couldn’t thank us enough, BTW)

I’m so proud and honored to call them friends. Can ya tell?

Thanks for indulging me. I’m having happy flashbacks.

Photo source for Lt. Col. Hutson.

Just how close was the relationship between the White House and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff? The Bush Administration again faced questions about those ties after an e-mail Abramoff sent a journalist friend surfaced last week in which Abramoff wrote that he had met President Bush almost a dozen times over the past five years, and even received an invitation to the President’s Crawford, Texas ranch along with other large political donors. Bush “has one of the best memories of any politician I have ever met,” Abramoff mused in the e-mail last month, adding that, He “saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids.” The White House, however, has continued to assert that the President had no recollection of ever meeting Abramoff. When TIME reported in January that it had viewed unpublished photographs of Abramoff with Bush, aides responded that the pictures meant nothing since the President is photographed with thousands of supporters and White House visitors every year.

Now, finally, the first such photo has come to light. It shows a bearded Abramoff in the background as Bush greets an Abramoff client, Raul Garza, who was then the chairman of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas; Bush senior advisor Karl Rove looks on.

This has to be the most retarded “scandal” I have ever had to squint to make out!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s it. I’m never voting for George W Bush for President of the United States ever again!

(have you noticed that Karl Rove and scandal have the same number of syllables??? Hmmmm???)

Bemember when I said you can pick your nose and you can pick your friends....?
Whell, *I’d* pick Beth’s nose. Because SHE found penis puppetry pics and I’ve only heard about it but never seen it.
THAT, and she lurves me almost as much as I heart her. And she so dammed HOT!!!!!

(but don’t tell her I said that or I might become infamous)

So anyways.... could someone make me a hamburger please?

Close the book.