...the Christian half of my upbring said “thou shalt not kill” and thus I’ve never owned a firearm.

Someone broke into a fish hatchery run by an Everett School District environmental education program and killed thousands of baby salmon.

~ * ~
The state has replaced the school district’s fish at no charge, but the caretaker at the hatchery says the emotional damage is not so easy to undo....

Coffee may be their poison of choice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get tea at their party too.

Organizers of the Coffee Party — which grew out of messages and videos on Facebook and has received a boost in recent days from media coverage — originally billed themselves as a response to the conservative, grassroots Tea Party movement. But Coffee Party spokesman Camron Moore said the movement is neither liberal nor conservative, and even Tea Partiers are welcomed to crash their party....

Coffee partiers held low-key gatherings today to discuss the movement.... 

...Minnesota Majority staged the rally on the state capital mall to hear Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann speak to the gathered opponents of the overhaul of the health-care system

~ * ~
I’d have put the crowd somewhere between three and four thousand.  They were not just numerous — the largest rally I’ve personally attended at this venue — but also enthusiastic.  Some got a little overly enthusiastic, such as the few who brought actual pitchforks.  (They were asked to step to the back of the crowd.) Almost every sign carried to the rally was homemade, as you can see from the pictures.  They all came out to the capital on a day where the temperature didn’t get above 40 degrees during the entire rally, and where a cold wind blew across the mall....

bacon

Toby Elles, 22, made the discovery after burning the food when he fell asleep while cooking.
After lifting off the scorched bacon Mr Elles, from Salford, Lancs, could not believe his eyes when the Christlike image stared back at him.
The face is complete with eyes, nose, a beard and is framed by long flowing hair.
Mr Elles, a cashier for Halifax Bank, said: “I fell asleep cooking some bacon and it had burned this face onto the pan, it’s some kind of miracle…

An Israeli doctor says,
“Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks.”

A German doctor says,
“That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.”

A Russian doctor says.
“In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks.”

An ILLINOIS doctor, says.
“You guys are way behind. We recently took a man with no brains out of ILLINOIS , put him in the White House and within SIX MONTHS, half the COUNTRY is looking for work.”

What’s your favorite punctuation mark?

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israel’s behavior “insulting” after it approved 1,600 new homes last week at a settlement in the Jerusalem area on the very day Vice President Joe Biden was there to set a seal on relaunched negotiations.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night by arriving 90 minutes late to a scheduled dinner.

Mr Biden’s late arrival was in response to Israel announcing 1,600 new homes will be built in disputed east Jerusalem during his visit to the region.

Ever wonder what’s actually in a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget?…

Dig if you will the picture: A middle-aged man stands in an elevator on the 26th floor of the Palazzo, one of the most luxurious (well, expensive) casino/resorts on the Las Vegas strip. At 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, he’s a pretty big guy, though he “carries it well.” His red hair is cut in a flattop, and he has a closely cropped beard, but he doesn’t look particularly imposing. He’s dressed in a faded sea foam green Banana Republic polo shirt, khaki shorts from Target, and Birkenstock sandals. Over one shoulder is a small messenger bag. He stands in the corner and tries to look like everyone else; he may or may not be checking messages on his PDA, but he’s pushing buttons on it and appears busy.
The doors open and three women step on: a blonde, a brunette and one whose hair has been bleached and blown dry so many times it’s not a discernible color. All of the women could stand to have a good 3 inches cut off their hair. They wear slight variations on the Little Black Slut Dress. They wear too much makeup, a pair of shoes that doesn’t quite match the dress, towering heels.

The man in the corner rolls his eyes and thinks to himself, “And I’m the hooker.” ...............

Chicago’s Urban Prep Charter Academy has a mission—for its students to graduate and succeed in college. Now, for the first graduating class at the high school, it’s mission accomplished.

All 107 seniors were accepted to a four-year college, a significant accomplishment considering they are from one of the toughest neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago.

~ * ~ So how did they overcome the odds? King created a school that excused nothing—and expected everything.

Each new freshman starting school gets his own wristwatch to keep track of time.

“Kids would be late and say they didn’t know what time it was,” King said. “Part of our creed reads [that] we make no excuses, so we wanted to remove that excuse. ... There was no excuse for me being late. “

Students attend school from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30pm. That’s 72,000 more minutes in high school than most other students—almost an extra school year.

“They are in a double period of English each and every day,” King said. “Four years of math, four years of science, four years of social studies, three years of foreign languages.”

“It’s an eight-hour day so it’s basically preparing us for having a job,”..........................

*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*clap*

Police in Seattle arrested a suspicious man who forced the closure of several streets surrounding the King County Courthouse Friday morning.

Earlier in the morning, the director of the Seattle Union Gospel Mission, Mike Johnson, said the same man walked in, claimed he was a vampire and then showed them what appeared to be a pipe bomb.

“He wanted us to give him access to his food, which is people. He wanted to get into our day room. We wouldn’t let him in,” Johnson said.

“At the mission, we work with folks that aren’t always well, mentally. It didn’t necessarily shock us until he brandished his arm and showed us his bomb.”