ADD Lands Talented Center 33rd Position In NBA Draft

By all means 7 foot tall center Hassan Whiteside is a very talented basketball player. However, in the NBA draft 32 other players were selected before this talented player from Marshall. The Sacramento Kings lucked out to land this quality player.

If anything, this story illustrates the type of stigma that follows some medical conditions, even if they seem to be responding well to medication or other treatment.

The job f0r Hassan Whiteside now becomes a job to prove the critics wrong and to shine as a great NBA player. Whiteside also holds in his hand the power to prove that with treatment persons with ADD can be effective and lead normal lives.

Joe Jackson Intents To Sue For Wrongful Death

The father of Michael Jackson, Joe Jackson, is working on a wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Conrad Murray claiming that he was drinking at a strip club only hours before injecting Michael Jackson with a lethal dose of drugs. For his part, Dr. Murray denies both the story that he was seen drinking at a strip club hours before the events that led to Michael Jackson's death. Further, he contends that Michael Jackson likely self-injected some drug while not in his presence.

A wrongful death suit requires a lot lower standard of evidence than a criminal conviction case, so the possibility of Joe Jackson winning this case could be better than a criminal case where lawyers for Dr. Conrad Murray might be able to raise enough issues of doubt such as the self injection claim.

Naked Cowboy Sends Cease And Desist Letter To Naked Cowgirl

Who knew that street performers could copyright their shitck acts where they panhandle for a few coins laying a hat on the sidewalk? But New York's street performer, the Naked Cowboy has sent a cease and desist letter to some woman who bills herself as the Naked Cowgirl claiming copyright infringement of a registered act. I don't recall the Naked Cowboy ever performing on TV. I don't recall him ever playing a tour across the nation. I don't recall him ever being billed at Las Vegas. Is being a street performer a legitimate and copyrightable act?

At Disneyland you have to be so tall to ride some rides. Shouldn't a street performer act have to so good before it's considered a legitimate act and not just some panhandling screwing around.

Hey, I get some skidrow guy who comes in my grocery store, mumbles when he returns bottles, cuts his hair cut like a Dutchboy, wears women's beads and pisses his pants. Can he copyright that shitck if another guy would steal that act?

Naked Bike Ride Through Portland Oregon Ends In Serious Accident

A naked bike ride event staged worldwide had a tragic accident mar the event when the owner of a new black BMW plowed into a crowd of the cyclists at the corner of 22nd and Hawthorne a little after 10pm last night, causing a chain reaction crash and a number of both minor and serious injuries to the riders. Strangely, a Portland police officer sitting in a car in dry cleaning parking lot failed to respond or to phone in the incident for nearly 20 minutes. Finally, a fire department emergency paramedic crew responded after a number of riders were unable to get up of the street, likely due to broken bones or head trauma.

The bicycle route wasn't marked with either flares or a barricade. Strangely, the event was supposed to make the public aware of the vulnerability of bicyclists on the road with cars.

And I Thought That My Housefire Was Bad

File this under totally messed up. The last few days I've been writing less due to all the problems caused by a housefire. Well, these problems took a much worse turn recently when the the world's worst disaster cleanup company decided to trash my home the other day.

Call this insult added to injury.

My insurance company called in a disaster cleanup company called Servpro, which unfortunately has a terrible business reputation for shoddy terrible work. Locally, the company appears to be managed by some dirt dumb red-haired jack-off who drives a jacked-up four wheel drive to apparently compensate for some serious manhood shortcomings of his own. But overall, the work by Servpro was acceptable enough until the day when the work crew comprised mainly of South Americans and some white trash chain smoker guy were left unsupervised and decided to trash maybe $20,000 or more in antiques and other valuables from my home. Some items like a 4 1/2 foot tall Julius Caesar figure were smashed. So was a giant Royal Doulton dog figure valued at about $550-$1000. Even Stevie Wonder could see that these were very pricey antiques, yet the work crew hired by Servpro are so ignorant when it comes to respect for the property of others that they can't tell expensive antiques from common trash. That's what you get when you hire real cheap help. A bull running free in a china shop couldn't do as much damage as these idiots can do in just business day.

So what happens next? Well, the jacked up truck guy is just intelligent enough to realize that a major league lawsuit will be coming down his way. So this joker looks for a real cheap way to defend himself from having to pay for trashing $20,000 or more in antiques and other stuff. So he pulls a really cheap trick out out of his bag of lowbrow tricks. My brother probably made four calls to Servpro's 24 hour switchboard the evening the huge damage was discovered to complain and to demand to speak to someone in charge, so the jacked up truck guy calls the police the next day and has my brother arrested for telephone harassment of all things. And according to our brave Portland, Oregon boys in blue, you get yourself arrested if you make repeated calls to a really crappy business that trashes your home to complain about petty little things like them causing $20,000 or more in damage.

Servpro claimed that they were going to suspend work on the house and someone in charge survey the damage caused. Instead, the cowardly jacked up truck guy who's not really much of a man at all brings down a few police officers with him to frisk me for weapons, even though I never made any threat against him or he had any reason at all to fear me. He's simply a cowardly piece of crap excuse for a human being who's afraid to talk to his angry customers so he calls in the cops. Maybe, he should be a far better businessman rather than using the police as bodyguards everytime he screws up big time.

Is a housefire the worst thing to happen to me in the last few days. No. Meeting Servpro and having them really trash my house and put my brother in jail for complaining about their terrible service is much worse than the fire.

Servpro claims in their advertising that they take your valuables back to their warehouse for cleaning. The truth in my case is that Servpro actually trashes and destroys my valuables where I lose even more than the fire itself.

Hitchcock's PSYCHO Masterpiece Turns 50

Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece crime horror drama, PSYCHO, turns 50 years old today. It holds up as a great film today because it was so revolutionary in so many ways. It is one of the greatest films ever made.

Hitchcock threw away convention to weave an extremely bizarre crime tale of a twisted personality who took over the persona of his mother and murdered guests at the family motel. To this day, just the image of the Bates motel or home on the hill still evoke cold chills.

Part of what was so unconventional for Hitchcock was to hire a big name actress like Janet Leigh and to mislead the audience into believing that her theft at her job was going to be the main storyline. However, her shocking murder early into the story by lunatic Norman Bates proved completely shocking. It was real unconventional of Hitchcock to kill off the lead actress shortly into the film.

Strangely, after Hitchcock was known for several elaborate color films in previous years. PSYCHO was shot on black & white for a mere $800,000. It was a great film shot to look like a cheaper B grade film, which was another interesting quirk about the film.

In many ways Hitchcock's great film became the godfather to the slasher film genre. However, none of the inspired films have been able to match the greatness of this film which was woven together with a great and memorable soundtrack as well. The unique music writing only helped to underscore the great shock value that this film had. No film has been able to craft pure unexpected shock value as well as this film did.

Hitchcock created a real masterpiece here.

Rush Limbaugh Pays Elton John $1 Million To Play At His Wedding

Conservative radio talk show king Rush Limbaugh paid singer Elton John $1 to perform at his lavish Saturday wedding to 33 year old beauty, Kathryn Rogers. Rush Limbaugh is a staunch opponent of gay marriage, while British born singer Elton John is married to a man.

Kathryn Rogers is a party planner, so no doubt she helped to plan the huge event. Rogers is a direct descendant of President John Adams.

Among the 400 or so invited guests were Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Fred Thompson, James Carville and Mary Matalin and other political world celebrities.

It was the fourth marriage for the portly radio entertainer who has had past problems with prescription drug abuse issues. However, the selection of Elton John by the conservative Limbaugh had to be the most surprising aspect of the event. Who knew that Limbaugh was a big fan of music by gay artists?(Cue the TWILIGHT ZONE music)

The Hornet Name Plate Will Return....Eventually

In the 1950's Hudson awed the early years of track racing with their dual carbed 308C.I. six powered Hornets. AMC brought back the Hornet name plate in 1970 with their new $1994 priced compact replacement for the Rambler(Incidentally, in 1950 there was a Rambler model that sold for just $1880. In 1960 AMC was able to slide in their American version of the Rambler for $1880. In April of 1970 the little Gremlin subcompact based off the Hornet came in at just $1879). Now, a new Dodge plated Hornet model will return, eventually?

With all of the money problems over at Chrysler with the government bailout and help from Fiat, the introduction of the Dodge hornet has become delayed. Somewhere between 2010 and 2013 the potent little competitor for the Mini should debut. In 2006, Chrysler first developed the prototype, but the project was delayed over and over again. Remember the Ford Cardinal?

With 170hp, and blistering acceleration of 0-60 in 7.5 sec. the little Dodge Hornet, whenever it finally debuts ought to be a real fireball. So, where's the car Chrysler?

House Fire Edition

Tuesday morning my little 2 year old Havanese Bichon saved my life. I was getting ready for work at my grocery store a few minutes before opening and his wild barking caught my attention. I opened the bathroom door only to discover hot dark smoke coming all down the hallway. Immediately I knew I was in a house fire. I got my brother up and told him "We've got a house fire. We need to get out right now!". Coming down the hallway the power went out and through the dark smoke I cut my head on something and breathed in plenty of hot toxic smoke burning my throat and lungs. I later found out the fire temperature might have hit as high as 1600 degrees.

I got outside the house, and borrowed a cell phone from a contractor working across the street to call 911. My brother used a chair to break a window out and used a garden hose to fight back the growing flames. Soon four fire trucks and numerous emergency workers arrived.

Both my brother and I were treated for smoke inhalation. Paramedics and firemen insisted I go to the hospital and rolled out a stretcher. But, I refused to go. I signed a release clearing them from liability and acknowledging that I wished to manage the aftermath details of the disaster instead.

The likely cause turns out to be a Coby LCD TV/DVD unit that I learned after the fire had been the subject of November 8, 2007 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall due to fire hazard. For some reason, Coby Electronics of Maspeth, NY, which has these units built for them in China never bothered to do adequate safety testing of these units which can be powered by house current, batteries or by an automobile cigarette lighter outlet. Consumer complaints after incidents drove the recall. In my case, if the dog hadn't of barked, my brother and I probably would have died in the blooms of hot black smoke inhalation or the 1600 degree flames.

Most of my 10,000 or so record collection was either burned or melted with the searing heat. And many movies and books were lost as well. My brother and I will be homeless for three months or more, but living in some rental unit while the work to repair as much $250,000 in structural damage and personal property loss is addressed.

And my home is one of very few to have a Wikipedia listing. It was designed by the famous architect Francis Marion Stokes. Now the home requires extensive repairs.

Not good.

Helen Thomas Forced To Retire After Israel Remarks

Helen Thomas, the veteran Hearst newspapers reporter was forced into an immediate retirement amid the uproar over her comments about Israel. Thomas has covered 10 presidents in her lifetime as a reporter that started out in 1943 as a correspondent. However, her comments this week that Jews should leave Palestine and go home to Germany, The U.S. and Poland created an outrage.

Thomas' view of history wasn't exactly that well informed. As early as 1100 BCE the same region used to be part of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and was known as Judea. However, in later centuries conquering armies from Babylon, Persia & Rome occupied the region, sometimes dispersing the population of Jews into slavery. Occupying armies and rulers helped to move different people into the region as the ancient Jewish kingdom lost it's identity as a Jewish state and was renamed by successive occupiers. From the second century AD to 1948, the region was renamed as Palestine. However, in 1947 as British rule over Palestine was ending, the United Nations set up a new divide between a state called Israel and the Palestinian West Bank. However, a civil war resulted and created the modern state of Israel in 1948. The current state of Israel is more than 75% Jewish and only 20% Arab. And even the Palestinian leadership is split between the more moderate Palestinian Authority and the radical Hamas elements, complicating peace efforts and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict. Since 1948 this has become one of the most politically complicated world situations to resolve.

The dispute over the West Bank only continues to be a thorny issue among the Palestinians and the Arab neighboring states as well. Israel would be a landlocked state without these ports which are in this disputed region. However, arms to support radicals often flow into this area under the control of Hamas authorities who do nothing to stop this and even encourage the freelance violence of individual terrorists. Thomas did nothing positive towards the attempts by Israel to seek a peace with the more moderate Palestinian Authority elements by injecting her own unhelpful personal views on the issue.

Helen Thomas seemed to forget the most rule of journalism; You report the news, and not create it yourself. In this case, it ended her long journalism career.

What Thomas does now is a major question. But, likely doing PLAYBOY is out of the question.

Shannon Price Stands To Profit From Gruesome Photos Of Gary Coleman

TMZ and other sources are reporting that the widow of Gary Coleman, Shannon Price, has completed a deal to sell three gruesome hospital photos of a bloody Gary Coleman hooked up to life support tubes to the tabloids for a five figure price. A death photo wasn't part of the deal. But that could come later.

For her part, Shannon Price showed up in a wheelchair for her GOOD MORNING AMERICA interview that ran this morning. It was only more questionable theatrics from the professional drama queen.

Apparently a lawyer that worked for Coleman now claims that the couple divorced in August 2008. But it's unclear whether they actually remarried or not. It's also somewhat unclear whether Shannon Price actually had the legal authority to pull life support for Coleman as well. A manager, Dion Mial, has taken over becoming executor of the late actor's estate because it appears that Shannon Price did not have that authority as a legal survivor. Price apparently lacks legal authority to oversee the funeral of Coleman as well.

Even in death, the DIFF'RENT STROKES kids continue to make wacky news. Now, Todd Bridges has an awesome responsibility to carry on the wacky behavior for all three actors.

Rihanna Goes For That STAR TREK Character Look

Normally beautiful recording artist Rihanna has a new red Moe Howard hair style, that coupled with her strange stage fashions now gives her a look not unlike some STAR TREK character. The new look is simply bizarre to say the least.

Well, at least the Sci Fi nerds will take notice.

Betty White & Rue McClanahan's Favorite Dirty Jokes

On the set of THE GOLDEN GIRLS in between filming, best friends Rue McClanahan and Betty White often used to tell some really funny dirty jokes. Both were ardent animal lovers, who strangely liked to often tell dirty jokes about animals.

To paraphrase one blue joke Betty White told Rue McClanahan on the set, "A young woman is pulled by a gorilla into his cage and he sexually assaults her. People told the woman, "You must feel terrible". The woman replies, "I sure do. He never writes or calls".

And Rue McClanahan told a funny one about a man stranded on a deserted island with a dog and a pig. To paraphrase that joke, "A man's stranded on a deserted island with a dog and a pig. After some time he starts to find that pig looking pretty attractive and tries to make romantic moves on the pig. But, his dog starts to bark and stops him. At night he tries again, but the dog again barks at him and stops him. One day, a beautiful blond also becomes shipwrecked on the island and meets the man meets her for the first time. "I'm so glad to see you. Can you hold that darn dog!".

Bet your grandmothers never told dirty jokes this good, huh? Thank you for being a dirty friend?

AMERICAN TOP 40 Now & Then

AMERICAN TOP 40 is still around after all these years. The popular three hour long radio program top 40 singles countdown show made popular by radio host Casey Kasem is airing a 1977 digitally remastered version of a classic broadcast on oldies stations this weekend, while celebrity Ryan Seacrest hosts a new version of the radio show now named AT40.

Certainly, the concept of what makes a single has changed over the years. Back in 1977 a single was a 7inch 45rpm record with a large hole in the center selling for around .75-.99 at record store retailers, which wholesaled for around .59. Today, the digital download single is the most popular format, although a few cd singles still exist, especially for radio station use. Most likely these are two song cds with the album version and an edited shorter radio play version.

Strangely, because the concept of a single has changed so much over the years, current acts like Lady Gaga are able to have three songs in the current top 40, with The Black Eyed Peas, two songs. It is far easier for acts to place several songs on the top charts these days. In the 1960's, some acts such as The Beatles were able to have several successful singles on the charts at the time, but that was because of the sheer phenomenon of worldwide popularity and hysteria that they once created as the most successful rock band of the time.

But, Casey Kasem was a real pioneer in the radio countdown type format shows. In 1970, he founded that franchise. The original show ran from 1970-1988. But, Casey Kasem hosted some sort of top song countdown show up until 2004. He also provided the voice for Shaggy in the Scooby Doo cartoon series, and has provide countless voice work to many other commercials and projects.

Casey Kasem decided to retire in 2009. He's now 78. But, he remains one of the most popular Arab-American celebrities of all time. He was the son of Druze parents from Lebanon who worked as grocers to raise young Casey. Casey Kasem has been active in efforts to improve the image of Arabs as well as political activity. His politics tend to be very liberal, and he's supported both Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich in the past.Kasem is a vegan as well.

For years, Casey Kasem would sign-off his popular programs with his signature slogan, "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars".

Harley Davidson's New 2011(For The U.S. Market) Model?

Harley Davidson has long prided itself as a proud American brand. So you have to ask yourself why the new XR1200X model has only been shipped to Europe this past year? But, American buyers for the brand new model can expect to see it in Harley showrooms as a 2011 soon.

The new 1200cc V-twin engined sportster model, which sells for $11,799 should be a big hit in the states. Why do folks in Europe have to get all the fun? With adjustable suspension and a unique new white or black matte look, American buyers should appreciate the new Harley model and it should sell very well.

Willie Nelson Cuts His Hair?

Country music legend Willie Nelson pulled a real shocker. He cut his long hair. He claimed that his signature waist-long red hair was getting in the way of things, and decided to pull a big surprise by going with his own new bizarre country music outlaw crossed with the Dutch Paint Boy look. Now, all he needs is the paint can and the overalls to really confuse things.

John Densmore Of The Doors Surfaces In Paris

A 65 year old John Densmore, former drummer for the legendary rock group, The Doors, surfaced this week at an event in Paris. Since his days in the rock band fronted by the controversial ,Jim Morrison, Densmore has returned to his jazz musician roots and has a new jazz group, Tribaljazz.

Densmore has even tried his hand at acting. But, the great musician provided drums for performance dance shows for several years and even won an NAACP Award for his musicianship and music writing abilities.

Densmore has at times had strained relations with the other surviving Doors members. Being an ardent environmentalist, Densmore joined family members of the late Jim Morrison and his late common-law wife to sue to prevent the other Doors members from leasing Cadillac the song, "Break On Through" for an advertising campaign, although it cost the royalty holders $15 million in lost royalties. Densmore claims that after he allowed Pirelli to use the song, "Riders On The Storm" for some tire ads, he heard Jim Morrison's voice scolding him and he donated the money to charity. Jim Morrison once vetoed a lucrative offer to use Doors music in an automobile ad.

But at other times, the accomplished musician has had very warm relations with both guitarist Robbie Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek from the band. He has worked on both music and film projects with the other two over the years, and the three have mended any differences.

Thanks for running that photo of the legendary drummer, TMZ. Fans of The Doors love the latest news of this great band.

Cd Review: AC/DC IRON MAN 2 Soundtrack

AC/DC was chosen by the producers of IRON MAN 2 to provide the soundtrack. And the result is a very nicely remastered compilation of 15 essential loud and rockin' AC/DC standards. The cd also includes a very nice companion DVD that not only includes some great live performances of classic songs from the album, but a great "Shoot To Thrill" IRON MAN 2 video.

Some very nice photos of the band spanning their career are included as well, making this an excellent value package and a real must for any true AC/DC fan.

All in all this is very impressive package, which offers plenty to enjoy. There's the songs, the videos, and the great booklet section included in the Cd packaging.

The Bottom Line: An extremely good AC/DC product. A must have. +++1/2(Three and a half stars for overall enjoyment, quality and enjoyment).

Family Feud Delays Gary Coleman's Funeral

The Gary Coleman death story just took another strange turn. The widow of Coleman, Shannon Price is involved in a family feud with Gary Coleman's parents, delaying his funeral which was supposed to take place this Saturday morning.

Further, Shannon Price is making more bad news on her own with the release of some new photos posted over TMZ that show the supposed grieving widow to be all smiles only hours after deciding to pull the plug on Coleman. Shannon Price was photographed with Shielia Erickson, an agent who worked for both Coleman and Price. The couple met while working on a low budget comedy movie set back in 2006.

Shannon Price did an interview hours after deciding to end Coleman's life. The photo shoot was taken just before that. Price claimed that Coleman did a lot of great things for her like "he's bought me a car". However, when Price called 9/11 after Coleman hit his head, she claimed on the phone to the emergency operator that she couldn't drive a car to the emergency because she supposedly has seizures.

Strangely, Price also used the interview as an opportunity to blast Lindsay Lohan claiming that she used to respect her because she has "red hair" and was in "PARENT TRAP".

Even in death, the Gary Coleman sideshow only continues.

Rue McClanahan Dead At 76

Rue McClanahan, the sexy Golden Girl, has died at the age of 76 from a massive stroke. Betty White issued a public statement about how the loss of her co-star "hurts" and her good friendship with McClanahan. White noted that, "Rue was a close and dear friend". Like Betty White, Rue McClanahan was a strong friend of animals and supported their rights.

Rue McClanahan had a decent string of success in two NBC comedy hits. She was in MAUDE which aired from 1972-1978. THE GOLDEN GIRLS was a second big hit for McClanahan, airing from 1985-1992.

McClanahan was the youngest of the cast members, and her story-lines usually involved her character with some romantic adventures with some boyfriend. She proved that older women can indeed be very sexy.

McClanahan was a very fine comedy actress. She was such a great fixture on network TV. She will be deeply missed by all who love her.

Gary Coleman's Widow Makes Outrageous Reference To Muhammad Ali During Terrible Interview

Shannon Price, the widow of Gary Coleman made some news of her own by granting a terrible interview about her decision to quickly pull life support from the 43 year old actor. She claimed that she didn't want him to end up like "Muhammad Ali". And she even compared Muhammad Ali to Terri Schiavo. The beloved former prize fighter suffers from Parkinson's disease. Absolutely outrageous.

Price further made a real point in the interview to claim that she didn't "push" Gary Coleman to his head injuries and ultimate death. A further outrageous statement considering the fact that she hasn't been publicly accused of such a criminal act even though she had a previous arrest record for domestic violence against Coleman before.

An absolutely awful interview to say the least. Price needs to keep her mouth shut and better manage her public statements through carefully written press statements done by professionals.

CSI In It's Final Years?....Another CSI Actor Out

Like many long running TV dramas, CSI has become something of a revolving door for actors in the last few years. Now, word has come down that the contract for actress Liz Vassey hasn't been renewed by the show's producers.

Vassey played lab worker Wendy Simms in the series. She had a brewing script romance with fellow lab worker David Hodges, who played the role as a bit of a nerd, who falls in love with the brainy pretty girl at work. The romance line was sort of sweet, and gives inspiration to the nerds of the world that they can get the girl of their dreams with some effort on their part. It was sort of like CSI's own drama version of THE BIG BANG THEORY.

Reportedly, the show is also planning to go in another new direction for the 11th season by the producers. That might mean some cost cutting measures such as trimming some actors. The ratings have been lower in recent years for the show, down from a high water mark of 26.2 million average viewers to just 15.8 million this season. These numbers are worse than the opening season with more than 17 million viewers per episode average. But, CSI deserves high praise for constantly attempting new things with each outing. However, since William Peterson disappeared as a regular on the show, the show has been missing his highly intellectual patter and dry humor.

Peterson added a certain intellectual appeal to the show that is sorely missed. Although Laurence Fishburne is a very fine actor, his character simply lacks that dry wit that Peterson often employed. That mix of the murder mystery and dry wit reminded me slightly of what the old British TV series, THE AVENGERS, had going for it. Both CSI and THE AVENGERS combined those elements into very entertaining murder mystery tales. And both shows managed to add enough odd comic quirks to what could have unfortunately been a routine murder mystery show. Both shows were more cerebral sorts of entertainment.

William Peterson will be back as Gil Grissom for a movie version of the show that's in the works, though. This should allow the show a little more artistic freedom than allowed by CBS censors who are ever wary of censorship morons like the Parent's Television Council who keep a close eye on the show and have orchestrated at least 15,000 generated complaints over the years against the show to the FCC. Groups like the PTC view the show as one of the worst on TV, regardless of the fact that audiences love it and it has numerous TV awards.

But with ebbing ratings, CSI might only have about two or three more seasons left in it's run before it's hit with a cancellation order by CBS. Other once proud CBS crime dramas like WITHOUT A TRACE and COLD CASE have gone that route. But, the producers of the show and the actors probably want to see CSI spin a few more classic episodes before it hits the end of the road in TV history.

The Sword Is Mightier Than The Sword

Things sure went wrong on the set of a California adult movie production company when they decided to add a storyline with props. When adult film star Steven Hill, 30 was fired from the Ultima DVD movie set, he went on a workplace rampage, using one of the prop swords to kill one co-worker and wound two others.

Police are currently on a manhunt for Stephen Hill, who fled the scene of the crime.

Well, so much for an attempt to add props and a storyline to porn. I used to think that guys watched this stuff more for the wham, bam, thank you mam, stuff.

Mercury Hits The End Of The Road

Ford scheduled a 3pm press conference today to announce the end of the Mercury brand. Since 1939, when the brand was founded by Edsel Ford, Mercury represented a car line higher priced and more luxurious than the Ford line situated between the luxury Lincoln brand.

During the late 50's Ford attempted to add the new Edsel brand of automobiles to more luxury oriented Mercury and Lincoln division of automobiles, but the brand quickly flopped in sales and only 1958-60 models were produced. The 1960 Edsel Comet, a luxury compact car was re-branded as the Mercury Comet, giving buyers of compact cars a choice for a quality product compared to the more Spartan brands such as the Rambler American, Chevy II, Ford Falcon, Chevrolet Corvair, Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Lancer.

Later in the 1960's Ford sought to create a luxury pony car with the introduction of Mercury Cougar, which largely shared some frame and other components from the wildly popular Ford Mustang. The Cougar was a real success in own right, and a highly prized brand. But, after the turn of the century, Mercury models seemed to have less identity and less appeal to buyers. While the Grand Marquis had some appeal to buyers in the Buick luxury price range, it lacked the sheer excitement that the brand once generated with past Mercury luxury and performance models.

Ford's best selling little Pinto line even had an upgraded version called the Bobcat. And the low priced Maverick line included a new version of the Mercury Comet. Both models gave lower priced market buyers some nicer alternate custom versions of both Ford cars.

Likely, Ford will offer more trim and appointment upgrades to existing models as the existing Mercury models are phased out. And Lincoln will continue as the high priced luxury brand for the company. But, for many car collectors and automotive fans, Mercury will forever occupy a special place in their hearts as a truly fine brand that brought out some very great luxury and performance models in it's long life span run.

DVD Review: THE ROAD

THE ROAD is one of the most gloomy and dark post-apocalyptic films that you'll ever see. While some futuristic visions such as those in the MAD MAX series at least offer some hope of survival, THE ROAD's surviving characters only seem to wish for death and really lack the willpower to continue on. In one scene, an expectant mother really didn't want to bring a fresh life into this dying world.

THE ROAD was the latest novel brought to screen by author Cormac McCarthy. Prior to that, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN became an award winning film. But, this depressing and hopeless vision of a land completely devoid of animals, with dying trees and quickly drying up food supplies offers real little hope. It only paints a tale of struggle to survive, with characters of declining will.

Viggo Mortensen, Kodi McPhee, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce all turn in fine performances here. In fact, the performances really seemed better than the story itself, which may have been visually stunning for it's massive scenes of complete desolation, but without a real ray of hope the film left me feeling more empty than anything.

The Bottom Line: A stunning vision of destruction and desolation, but a story in need of more hope and promise. But, fine acting acting performances and massive scenes of desolation shot through a gloomy grey lense do provide an intrigueing tale for the most part. ++1/2(Two and a half stars. Not a classic film by any means. It falls far short of that goal. But it presents the pieces of what could have been a classic with a better story to match the fine acting performances. An uneven mix of greatness and emptyness).

Charlie Sheen Headed To Jail

It looks like any attempt by lawyers for Charlie Sheen to keep the actor out of jail have failed. It looks like he'll get a 30 day sentence, which probably means more like 17 or 18 days with good behavior besides having to take an anger management course.

Sheen hoped to avoid jail altogether. Prosecutors didn't go for that given his troubled history of problems. But he does avoid more serious felony time though, and won't have to plead guilty to a felony offense, only a misdemeanor offense.

At least Sheen will have plenty of time to get this jail time issue behind him before the Summer filming of TWO AND A HALF MEN resumes. So don't look for any episodes to be filmed inside the joint.

Sad how his "dream wedding" turned into a legal nightmare.

Al & Tipper Gore Separate

Following the traincrash history of some other political families who lost the presidency such as Michael and Kitty Dukakis, Al and Tipper Gore have decided to separate. The couple had been married for 40 years.

The son of the famous Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Sr. followed his father into politics after he enlisted for service in Vietnam because he didn't want to find a way out of that war and someone else go in his place. He married his wife Tipper in 1970. The young Gore served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator and vice president. In the 2000 presidential election, Gore won the popular vote by roughly 500,000 votes, but lost the presidency due to the electoral college breakdown by states. While most blame the loss on the narrow loss in Florida, the fact was that Gore lost the election by failing to win his home state, as voters there seemed to send him a rebuff message because of the problems with Bill Clinton sex scandal at the White House. The U.S. Supreme Court in a divided 5-4 decision prevented a recount of the votes in Florida, and thereby gave the narrow victory to George Bush which served two terms.

Meanwhile, Gore went on to become an environmental messenger after losing the election, but was often criticized for seeming too extreme on his message. Even comedy shows like SOUTH PARK made fun of Gore's message. His film, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH even became the subject of British court case which found nine significant errors in the message of the film, while siding mostly with Gore in other areas.

Tipper Gore herself was criticized by music community members such as Frank Zappa for her Parents Music Resource Center, which wasn't really a group of concerned parents at all but a small group of political wives of members of congress and the senate who formed a music censorship group. Some punk rock and rap artists lost recording contracts because of this self-righteous group of censors. Eventually Cd's and records began labeling of content to satisfy these censors and congress. But artists resented the labeling as a serious infringement on First Amendment freedom of speech rights. For some artists and record stores it had a chilling effect, and even led to a few obscenity arrests. Some people in this country believe in doing bad legal things to people to punish them for what they say or believe. Tipper Gore's censorship group was just one of those type of organizations.

The Gores have managed to make plenty of political enemies over the years among both conservatives and liberals alike. Now, it seems that both Al and Tipper Gore can't stand each other either. The word of their split came by word of an email of all things.

Unanswered Questions About Gary Coleman's Death

The death of Gary Coleman is raising some suspicion from his parents and some Internet writers because of the history of domestic violence between Coleman, 42 and his young wife who he married back in 2007 at the young age of 22. The marriage quickly turned unhappy and both Coleman and Price had their share of disorderly conduct and domestic violence allegations and issues. Shannon Price was arrested before in one episode of domestic violence by police.

On the TV show, DIVORCE COURT, the couple made it clear what a caustic and often unhappy marriage they shared. But, rather than attempting to call it quits, the couple still seeked some reconciliation.

And although the parents of Gary Coleman had a very strained relationship with the actor, they still want some answers about the death of the actor. Was it really an accident? How did he manage to hit his head and die from the serious injury.

For her part, Shannon Price claimed that any differences in the marriage had been resolved and that the couple was very happy recently.

But, the death of Gary Coleman remains a mystery given the circumstances of the troubled marriage.