I saw this letter yesterday in the Athenaeum, a private library and document collection in Eufaula, Alabamajust over the river and around the way from Jimmys home in Plains, Georgia. Its addressed to his sister-in-law Sybil Carter, Billys widow.
5/13/90
To Sybil,
Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot. It may ease your grief somewhat to know that the cat was buried properly with a prayer & that Ill be glad to get you another of your choice.
I called & came by your house several times. We will be in the Dominican Republic until Thursday. Ill see you then.
Love, Jimmy
Firearms safety, people!
Posted by: Mike ||
11/08/2007 07:01 ||
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#1
I wonder when the same thing about people will start comming out?
Lamentably I rallied hatred against your country and your co-religionists by calling your policies "Apartheid" while conveniently ignoring the terrorist practices of the palestinians. Of course, unlike the recent, regrettable cat incident, I meant to do it.
Business memos are perhaps addressed "To" someone, eg "To whom it may concern". Personal notes start with "Dear", or perhaps just the addressee's name dashed off, especially when signed "Love,"
Mr. Carter either was not properly reared, or was well into unmarked senility in 1990. Certainly his use of presidential stationary when out of office denotes a fear that others really don't know who he was.
#10
Great *psychological* insight, TW! What a twisted freak. I've done it before, and I'll do it again:
"I, BA, of the Rantburgian frame of mind, do hereby take it upon myself to humbly apologize to Israel, the United States, Cuba, Venezuela and any other nations whom this creep from my home State has caused pain or anguish upon. Oh, and don't forget the rabbit!"
Posted by: BA ||
11/08/2007 14:06 Comments ||
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#11
Actually, the stationary is correct - I have a letter from GHW Bush on similar letterhead.
Letters written during a presidential term is always on White House stationary.
#12
Out this way that would be a socially lynchable offense. People still bring up an 'accidental' errant arrow killing a neighbors dog some 7 years ago - he didn't have the luxury of skipping the country until it blew over either. Big man, shooting a cat fixated on a bird from a lethal shotgun range. This had to be a premeditated response unless he was hunting the birds, using the bird feeder as bait.
Didn't someone famous just get in a lot of trouble for purposefully shooting animals?..
Don't worry jimmah, whoopie has your back.
#13
my dad shot the neighbor's cat with a bb gun because it was eating all of the birds in our yard. I felt very conflicted about the whole thing - poor cat - but he was a bird killer. It only stung the cat and he stopped coming around after that.
#16
<Letters written during a presidential term is always on White House stationary.
Agreed, Melvin, but Mr. Carter wrote to that note in 1990. He'd been out of office for a few months beyond a decade by then -- most people would have accepted their changed status by then. Either he was having it printed up for him by the ream, or he'd stolen an awful lot of mementos when he moved out. One wonders if his towels and pillow cases bear the presidential seal as well, and if he had it embroidered on his underthings.
#17
#14 Jimmuh is a passive-aggressive snot. Always has been, doesn't look like it will change.
rolf lotp!
...Passive-aggressive personality disorder (also called negativistic personality disorder) is a controversial personality disorder said to be marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed resistance in interpersonal or occupational situations.
...The term "passive-aggressive" was first used by the U.S. military during World War II, when military psychiatrists noted the behavior of soldiers who displayed passive resistance and reluctant compliance to orders. [2]
Snot:
#1) Nasal mucus; phlegm.
#2) Slang. A person regarded as annoying, arrogant, or impertinent.
~:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
11/08/2007 19:55 Comments ||
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#18
He's a Dickhead;
Dick: n. Penis-like
Head: n. you already know
with all the brains that implies
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2007 20:21 Comments ||
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#19
Wotta dumbass, shooting a cat with a shotgun to 'sting' it. Everyone knows the right tool for the job is a pellet gun. Or maybe a .223, depending on how bad you want to startle it.
I'm inclined to give him a pass on using the Presidential stationary. He prolly had a few boxes lying around; shame to waste it, ya know.
In WWII was a Radio Operator. After the war sold 60,000,000 records. Country Music writer/singer for 70 years.
DALLAS (AP) Hank Thompson, who mixed honky-tonk and Western swing on such hits as "A Six Pack to Go" and "The Wild Side of Life," has died. The country singer and bandleader was 82.
Thompson died of lung cancer late Tuesday at his home in the Fort Worth suburb of Keller, said spokesman Tracy Pitcox, who is also president of Heart of Texas Records. He died just days after canceling his tour and announcing his retirement. After University of Texas, SMU and Princeton Hank's Education in Electrical Engineering brought many firsts to the music industry.
First act to tour with a sound and lighting system;
First to receive corporate tour sponsorship;
First to record a live album "Hank Thompson, Live At The Golden Nugget In Las Vegas" released on Capitol in 1960;
First country music show to play in Las Vegas;
First to record in Hi-Fi stereo;
First to perform on a color broadcast of a television variety show
#2
FYI, great CD I linked to by Asleep at the Wheel and all kinds of country artists doing BoB WIlls tunes. Plues the song I linked to that Waylong Jenning penned, and Asleep at the Whell did a great job of.
Link to Milk Cow BLues (check the other tunes for 30 sec).
Warnign, Western Swing is an aquired taste. It is to Mozart what good Moonshine is to Great Scotch - excellent in its own right but some folks just gonna choke on it; but for thsoe that "get it", its the very best of its type.
#4
OS, I agree with you on Bob. Ever go to Turkey, TX on the last weekend in April for the Bob Wills festival? If, not go man go! Maybe we should have a Rantberg reunion there. Expose them to the clown prince of steel guitar!
A man has broken his own world record for sitting in a bath filled with rattlesnakes. Jackie Bibby, from Texas in the US, spent 45 minutes in the transparent bath with 87 rattlesnakes, shattering his own record by 12 snakes. He escaped unbitten.
"They can go wherever they want as long as they don't start biting," Bibby said. "The key to not biting is for me to stay still. Rapid movement scares a rattlesnake. If you move real slow and gentle, that doesn't seem to bother them."
Lemme 'splain somethin' to you, Jackie: the key to not getting bitten is for me to be in Baltimore and the tub full of snakes to be in Texas.
#2
As a reptile person my first reaction is were the the snakes "hot" or "cold". "Hot" snakes are in full possesion of their venom, cold snakes have been disabled. This might be pulling fangs, sewing the mouth shut, etc.
BTW the snake handling cults never spread out of the hills, according to one author, because unlike copperheads and timber rattlesnakes, eastern diamondbacks don't take to be "free handled".
Posted by: bruce ||
11/08/2007 7:37 Comments ||
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#3
shoot, who hasn't handled their snake in the tub?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2007 7:55 Comments ||
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Some records were never meant to be broken.
FYI -- another snake charmer trick is to refrigerate the beasts. Get them cold enough and they can barely move, much less bite.
#5
It also depends on the breed of rattlesnake. Some are relatively peaceful and even personable, unless molested. Others are highly aggressive and ill tempered.
On top of that, they are much less inclined to bite when there are a bunch of them together, since their vision is not that hot and they don't want to bite kin by accident.
A LEADING authority of Saudi Arabia's hardline school of Islam has condemned camel beauty contests as evil, saying those involved should seek repentance in God.
Camel pageants have become major events in the desert kingdom in recent years as tribes hold ever larger competitions, with bigger prizes and wider publicity.
Delicate females or strapping males which attract the right attention during a show can sell for more than a million riyals (about $267,000).
Sponsors spent 10 million riyals on prizes for one competition this year.
Everyone must repent of these acts from which no good can come because of its evils, and they should beg forgiveness from God, said a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued this week by Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak and a lesser-known sheikh.
Millions of riyals are spent on buying camels just to feel proud and not for the reasons God created camels, like for food, drink, riding and work, he said, attacking the contests as a backward tribal custom from pre-Islamic Arabia.
Commentators have pointed to camel contests as a sign of increasing tribal pride, seen as a threat to stability in the kingdom established by the Saudi royal family in 1932.
#1
Millions of riyals are spent on buying camels just to feel proud and not for the reasons God created camels, like for food, drink, riding and work,
Leave something out there, Shecky?
You know what I'm talkin about...
Two Cheshire teenagers who terrorized a vulnerable man before beating him to death and throwing his body in a river, have had their life sentences cut.
Typical Y'urp-peon sentencing. It's cruel and inhumane to send someone to prison, you know.
Craig Dodd, aged 17, will now serve a minimum of three-and-a-half years in prison and Ryan Palin, 15, three years.
The pair were dubbed as "feral" when they were jailed for life for the manslaughter of Raymond Atherton, 40, in Warrington. They beat and urinated on Mr Atherton before dumping him in the River Mersey.
Despite the severity of their crime, Lord Justice Rix overturned the life terms and replaced them with sentences of detention for public protection, giving each a minimum tariff to serve before parole can be considered.
And it will be considered, and granted, because the young tykes will have been 'reformed'.
Lord Justice Rix decided the sentencing judge at Warrington Crown Court had not been right to impose life sentences for the killing.
The victim is still dead, isn't he?
He said: "We think it was an error of principle to say that a discretionary sentence of detention for life should be imposed."
"These are two very dangerous young men whose future progress will have to be very carefully considered."
The court heard Palin, of Grasmere Avenue, Orford, and Dodd, of Lisguard Close, Runcorn spent months systematically abusing the victim, who had severe learning difficulties, in a process they nicknamed 'terroring'. They regularly broke into his council flat on St Katherine's Way, Howley, where they wrote graffiti on the walls, burnt his hair and daubed his face with paint.
On the night of his death in May 2006, the boys were seen by neighbours beating him with planks of wood until he bled.
Dd any of them intervene?
Days later his body was discovered floating in the River Mersey in Westy, Warrington. They were arrested by police after boasting of what they had done to friends.
After Mr Atherton's killing it was revealed that he had been rehoused in a different part of the town by Warrington Borough Council when Palin and Dodd started their "terror campaign" against him.
The judge in the original trial described the killers as "feral, wild and untamed". Judge Rix added: "Mr Atherton's life had been made a misery by the loutish behaviour of those who attacked him. They had not sought to kill, but this was a savage, cruel, brutal and vicious attack."
How does he know they didn't mean to kill? You beat a guy with a wood plank, you pretty much have to figure you could kill the fellow.
Dead bodies are beginning to show up, as the result of a battle between corrupt officials in the FSB (the former KGB secret police, which now combine the powers of the FBI and CIA) and the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), which is actually a large organization dedicated to cutting organized crime down to a manageable size.
#2
FREEREPUBLIC > RUSSIA TO SUSPEND CFE. General - Russia under no obligation to oberve quantitaive limitations of weapons [or even troops]; + RIAN > Russ threatens to deploy forces back alongside its western borders wid Europe in response to CFE conflicts/issues wid US-West.
In a new twist to the outsourcing for which India has become renowned, poor Indian women are renting out their wombs to foreigners.
Surrogate motherhood -- carrying to term and giving birth to another woman's baby - once was limited in India to helping close relatives who couldn't complete a pregnancy due to medical difficulties.
But leading gynecologist Dr. Kamla Selvaraj says it's now becoming a regular "profession" in India, with more and more women willing to carry babies for others, for a fee.
India has for years been providing foreigners with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment at a cheaper rate than the equivalent services in Western countries.
Surrogacy comes in when the biological mother is unable to carry the child. Alternatively, a surrogate also provide eggs when the woman wanting a child is unable to do so herself.
Apart from low-cost IVF treatment, India also is offering surrogate mothers at a considerably lower price than couples would pay in the U.S. or Europe.
Women's counselor Harleen Ahluwalia says surrogacy cases are estimated to have nearly doubled in the past three years.
"Foreigners find Indian legal procedures easy and less exploitative, unlike [in the] U.S., where any complication could cost a fortune," she said.
Although surrogacy cases have been reported from various regions, one area that appears to be over-represented is Anand district in the western state of Gujarat, where more than 50 economically deprived women are reported to be presently carrying babies for foreigners and non-resident Indians.
While a couple in the U.S. will generally pay tens of thousands of dollars to a surrogate mother and affiliated agencies, in India the cost could be around $5,000, plus medical and attendant costs.
Leading advocate of surrogacy, Dr. Naina Patel of the Akanksha Fertility Clinic in Anand, contends that it is a positive service. "Infertility is a global problem and we have its global solution," she said.
Responding to criticism that poor Indians are being exploited, Patel insisted that surrogate mothers were extremely well looked after by those paying for their services. They were housed comfortably and were under expert medical supervision to ensure healthy children for their clients, she said.
But not all share Patel's enthusiasm and many believe surrogacy carries a huge physical and emotional cost for the women.
Dr. Mohanlal Swarankar, chairman of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Jaipur and one of the leading fertility experts in India, is firmly opposed to the practice of surrogacy and wants what he called the "commercial sale of wombs and babies" to be outlawed.
"Surrogacy affects the whole moral fabric of a society and could trigger complex psychological and ethical dilemmas with no easy answers," he said.
Swarankar said he worried that in a country where women are often forced into submission, "Who could tell if a woman hadn't been pressured to be a surrogate mother for the sake of big money?"
He also warned that "the social stigma attached to carrying the child of another man" could traumatize women and their relationships with their husbands.
Swarankar said he offers IVF treatment only to legally married couples, as he believes "providing a child to an infertile couple is a service to God."
He said he was also distressed at the increasing number of young healthy, married working women unwilling to put their careers on hold to have a baby, and thus paying someone else to do so on their behalf.
This was nothing short of sacrilege, he said.
Meanwhile, in the absence of clear-cut statutes, Indian courts have found themselves grappling with cases of proprietary rights of rival mothers. Most rulings to date are stated to favor surrogate mothers, and legal experts note that if a surrogate mother decides not to give up the baby, nobody can force her to do so.
The Indian Council of Medical Research is now drafting guidelines for the Indian government, to cover all aspects of artificial reproduction.
#1
one area that appears to be over-represented is Anand district in the western state of Gujarat, where more than 50 economically deprived women are reported to be presently carrying babies
Golly. Fifty women in a country with about half a B-billion females? We'll be overrun!!!
#2
20 clowns in a 'protest' in India make international news (with closeup photo shots so they appear to be a crowd).
Posted by: john frum ||
11/08/2007 20:37 Comments ||
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INTELLIBRIEFS > THE CHINESE DESIGNS IN ENCIRCLING INDIA. Article's premised Chinese ambitions for Chinese-controlled INDIAN OCEAN PORTS. ADD to already well-reported high male-to-female Chinese demographic probs current and future.
#4
I remember Ellen what's her face, the columnist who is all over a woman's right to abortion because no one should tell a woman what to do with her body wrote some long weepy missive back in the early 90's about how surrogacy was evil and must be stopped. Why?? Because rich women would take advantage of it and her own experience of her babies traveling down her birth canal made her just know it was wrong.
I remember thinking how shallow her thinking level must be that she was unable to see what a glaring hypocrite she was. But then, she's a liberal and that goes with the territory.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday became the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market.
Following a strong share price rally today in his three group companies - India's most valued firm Reliance Industries [Get Quote], Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd [Get Quote] - the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion (Rs 2,49,108 crore).
In comparison, the net worth of both Gates and Slim is estimated to be slightly lower at around $62.29 billion each, with Slim leading among the two by a narrow margin.
Warren Buffett, earlier the third richest in the world, also dropped one position with a net worth of about $56 billion.
Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore (Rs 2.49 trillion) includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore (Rs 2,10 trillion) from RIL (50.98 per cent stake), Rs 37,500 crore (Rs 375 billion) from RPL (37.5 per cent) and Rs 2,100 crore (Rs 21 billion) from RIIL (46.23 per cent).
Slim's wealth has been calculated on the basis of his stake in companies like America Movil (30 per cent), Carso Global (82 per cent), Grupo Carso (75 per cent), Inbursa (67 per cent), IDEAL (30 per cent) and Saks Inc (10 per cent).
According to information available with the US and Mexican stock exchanges where these companies are listed, Slim currently holds shares worth a total of $62.2993 billion, with more than half coming from Latin American mobile major America Movil.
Slim is closely followed by Gates with a net worth of $62.29 billion currently.
Earlier last month, US business magazine Forbes had named Gates as the richest American with a net worth of $59 billion, calculated as on August 30. The magazine had said that a movement of two dollars in the share price for
Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, could "add or subtract a billion dollars" from his wealth.
Since August-end, Microsoft's share price has risen by $6.58 (based on yesterday's closing on Nasdaq at $35.03), which results into a gain of $3.29 billion in Gates' wealth based on Forbes assumption.
Besides a stake in Microsoft, Gates' wealth also includes the commission and license fees earned by him and gains through his shares in an investment holding company that invests across the market.
Gates is followed by Buffett at the fourth place in the league of the world's richest with a net worth of $55.9 billion through his holding in his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway and in other companies. At the end of August, Buffett's wealth stood at $52 billion, as per the Forbes magazine. Berkshire Hathaway's share price has gained by about 7.5 per cent since then.
Earlier on September 26, Ambani had overtaken steel czar Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world.
Mittal currently ranks as the fifth richest in the world with a net worth of $50.9 billion through his 44.79 per cent stake in world's biggest steel maker ArcelorMittal.
While most of Mittal's wealth comes from his steel empire, though he has also spread his wings into businesses like oil and real estate, those of Ambani and Gates are mostly through petrochemicals and software respectively. However, Buffett and Slim are making money from investments across a host of sectors.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/08/2007 15:44 ||
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Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) members studying at Punjab University (PU) beat up two PU Law College students on Tuesday. Gulzar Tahir, one of the victims, alleged that he was driving with his friend Muhammad Muzamil when IJT workers including PU Law College nazim Zakaullah, Muhammad Kashif of the Geology Department and Kamran of the Institute of Communications Studies stopped them and started thrashing them.
He said they submitted an application with the PU Law College principal, but no action had been taken against the IJT members. He said he lodged a case against the above-mentioned students at the Muslim Town police station.
Muzamil said such incidents were frequent. He alleged that Zakaullah had threatened a faculty member last month and that the latter had complained to the principal, but no action was taken. He also alleged that the IJT members had broken his arm during the beating.
A PU Law College student said students denounced the IJT and its hooliganism. He alleged that IJT members were using the PU for political activity and that they had the support of PU teachers. This is why no action is taken against them, he added. The environment on campus isnt right, as acting vice chancellor Dr Arif Butt has a soft corner for the IJT, he alleged.
PU IJT nazim Muhammad Ayub alleged that the two students were harassing girls in front of the Institute of Communications Studies and that was why the IJT workers beat them up. He said girls were comfortable on campus and the IJT did not allow boys to harass them.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) members studying at Punjab University (PU) beat up two PU Law College students on Tuesday. Gulzar Tahir, one of the victims, alleged that he was driving with his friend Muhammad Muzamil when IJT workers including PU Law College nazim Zakaullah, Muhammad Kashif of the Geology Department and Kamran of the Institute of Communications Studies stopped them and started thrashing them.
