Two Viral Reasons Why I'm A Proud Green Mountain Boy

Madelyn Linsenmeir, shown here with her son Ayden, died
of an opiod overdose recently. The obituary her sister wrote
has gone viral. 

Two incidents originating in Vermont went viral in the past week, and both cases make me incredibly proud to be a Vermonter.

This is true even though one of the incidents involved a tragedy, the other basically focused on a national crisis

MADELYN ELLEN LINSENMEIR'S OBITUARY

The more viral of the two incidents regarded the death of Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir, 30, whose obituary described how her addiction to OxyContin affected her and her family, and ultimately killed Linsenmeir.

Part of the blunt, loving and heartbreaking obituary read as follows:

"It is impossible to capture a person in an obituary, and especially someone whose adult life was largely defined by drug addiction. To some, Maddie was just a junkie - when they saw her addiction, they stopped seeing her. And what a loss for them. Because Maddie was hilarious, and warm, and fearless, and resilient. She could and would talk to anyone, and when you were in her company you wanted to stay.

In a system that seems to have hardened itself against addicts and is failing them every day, she befriended and delighed cops, social workers, public defenders and doctors, who advocated for and believed in her 'til the end."

The obit also said that using drugs "is not a choice or a weakness. And chances are good that someone you know is struggling with it, and that person needs and deserves your empathy and support." 

It now seems that practically everyone across the nation has read that obit. It asked for donations to the Turning Point Center, which helps addicts in Vermont. The Turning Point Center is now being swamped by donations and messages.

Adding more to all this was a Facebook post by Burlington, Vermont Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.

He said he had a "problem" with the Linsenmeir obituary and here's why, as del Pozo wrote on Facebook:

"A family member with a talent for expression wrote her the honest and moving obituary she truly deserved. It went viral. It's being read across the country. It's in People, the Globe, HuffPost, and the Daily News. My problem with it is that it's a much better obituary than the rest of us deserve."

"Why did it take a grieving relative with a good literary sense to get people to pay attention for a moment and shed a tear when nearly a quarter of a million people have already died in the same way as Maddie as this epidemic grew?

Did readers think this was the first time a beautiful young, beloved mother from a pastoral state got addicted to Oxy and died from the descent it wrought? And what about the rest of the victims, who weren't as beautiful and lived in downtrodden cities or the rust belt? They too had mothers who cried for them and blamed themselves."

The entire Facebook post by del Pozo, is a must read, just as Linsenmeir's obit is.

Vermont has been hit hard by the opiod epidemic.  In 2017, 107 people died of opiod-related causes, the vast majority of them being overdoses, says the Vermont Health Department.

There's plenty of blame to go around for the opiod deaths in Vermont and the rest of the nation. There are some real efforts to combat this. But it's not enough. The Linsenmeir obit, and to a somewhat lesser degree del Pozo's Facebook post, has got the whole nation talking about and confronting the opiod epidemic. At least everybody is tweeting about it, if nothing else.

The obituary was written by Linsenmeir's sister, Kate O'Neill, who told NPR: "Our hope also now lies with policymakers and politicians and the people who can make the change necessary so that these deaths stop happening. Let's put our money where our tweets are."

Once again, Vermont leads. Compassionately.

LAMOILLE COUNTY, VERMONT'S MUSICAL CAMPAIGN DEBATE

Vermont House candidates Zac Mayo amd Lucy Rogers are competing
against each other. But they ended a recent debate by
performing a duet with each other. 

Up in Lamoille County, Democrat Lucy Rogers and Republican Zac Mayo are aggressively competing against each other for a seat in the Vermont House.

Recently, Rogers and Mayo had a debate at the local library. The back and forth was reportedly respectful, and both candidates seemed to have the smarts and the goods to be decent legislators

But what happened at the end of the debate shocked locals. And that event was so shocking, it's now nicely jarring people across the nation. This, too, has gone viral.

Both candidates asked the moderator for a bit of additional time at the end of the debate. They didn't say why they wanted it, but the moderator basically shrugged and said OK.

Rogers and Mayo then began moving tables off to the side. She brought out her cello, he brought out his guitar, and the two candidates from opposing parties performed a duet in very nice harmony.

The song they chose was "Society" by Eddie Vedder. The lyrics challenge materialism and greed and excess competitiveness.

CBS Evening News picked up on this story and broadcast it to the nation in their "On The Road" segment. CBS reported there wasn't enough tissue to go around in that library for the teary-eyed audience when the candidates did their performace.

That's because politics is getting worse and worse. Lord knows it's all noise and bitterness and attack ads and hate and vitriol. Rogers and Mayo gave us, and the nation a needed political salve, a needed other way.

I don't live in Lamoille County, so I can't vote for either one of them. I'm not sure which one has political opinions most closely match my own. But whoever wins, Vermont will be well-served.

Or, as CBS said, the election has already been decided. It was a landslide victory for civility.

Here's the video of the CBS report:

Awesome Reactions To Chris Christie's Sad,Terrified Moment At Donald Trump Presser

Chris Christie stares glumly and terrified, having
endorsed Trump and now listening to Trump's victory
lap press conference after the Super Tuesday primaries. 

The headlines all agree: As Donald Trump gave his victory press conference last night after the Super Tuesday primary, it looked like we were watching a hostage situation.

I say that, because you've probably seen by now the visage of Chris Christie standing behind Trump as he spoke.

It looked a bit like those grainy terrorists videos from ISIS, in which they proclaim "Death To America" while a hostage sits terrified and glumly behind.

That's what Christie looked like last night.  The momet instantly became one of the most popular Internet memes I've seen in a long time.

How hard he has fallen. Christie dropped out of the race for GOP nominee for president recently, as his poll numbers really sucked. He then mystifyingly endorsed Trump for president.

People have had it with Christie, let me tell ya. Not only did practically nobody want him to be president, everybody is thinking he's an idiot for endorsing Trump.

The influential Manchester Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire, which had endorsed Christie before that state's primary in February, now says it was a terrible idea for them to endorse Christie. 

Six New Jersey newspapers today jointly called on Christie to resign as governor, saying in editorials they were fed up with Christie's constant travel out of state, and the hypocrisy of trashing Trump as unfit to lead, then endorsing him.

Now we have the piece de resistance that ends Christie's political career, which was his deer in the headlights, 'What have I done' stare as he stood in the background during Trump's press conferne.

It really did look like Trump was holding Christie hostage. I almost wouldn't put it past Trump. Still, the whole thing was entertaining.

Thanks to Twitter, we were able to compile some of the best reactions to Christie's long lost stare behind Trump last night.  

In keeping with the hostage meme, Eli Clifton tweeted, "I hope Trump releases Christie's wife and children after the speech is over. Poor guy is worried sick."

Other people urged him on Twitter to blink twice if he was in trouble, and suggested maybe when he did blink, he was doing so as Morse code, pleading for help.

"Gov. Christie, are you happy to be here?"-- Paul Singer of USA Today.

"I hope some day Chris Christie finds his forever home." -- @pourmecoffee

"Why hasn't President Obama sent the Navy Seals in to rescue Chris Christie already?" --Dan Savage 

"His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back and then he endorsed the abyss."-- Chris Cillizza.

"Chris Christie's expression I believe must have been Robert Oppenheimer's at the Alamogordo test site,"  -- Neil Bhatia. 

"I think Trump must keep Christie in a basement in full leather with a ball gag," -- Erick Erickson.

"It's like watching Christie try and understand a Jackson Pollock canvas" --- Jason Horowitz.

"Chris Christie looks like my dog when she realizes our car ride is to the vet,"-- @Matthops82

"Chris Christie will just be sitting in a diner later tonight and 'Don't Stop Believing' will start playing. We'll never hear from him again." ---Jason Diamond 

 Ned Resnikoff imagined on Twitter that Christie was singing to himself, "Hello darkness, my old friend."

TV critic Ryan McGee, noting the apparent horror on Christie's face as Trump spoke, tweeted, "We are all Chris Christie."

We can only hope we are not all Chris Christie. That would be a living hell, wouldn't it?

Ludvine The Hound Dog Does Quite Well In Half Marathon Race

Ludivine the hound dog
poses with her medal after
finishing an Alabama
half marathon in very fast time. 

Congratulations go out this morning to Ludivine, a 2 and a half year old hound dog who last weekend finished the inaugural Trackless Train Trek Half Marathon in Elkmont, Alabama, in the very good time of 1:32:56.

Ludivine charmed the half marathons, and now much of the world after her story went viral.

Ludivine was let out of her home to do her business last week when she noticed the half marathon starting.

So she decided to run the whole thing, much to the delight of fellow runners. Ludivine really ran the whole, entire half marathon, though there were a couple of detours to investigate a brook and a dead rabbit, says Runners World, via Canadian Running Magazine. 

Ludivine's time in the half marathon was good enough for her to finish seventh place and receive a medal.

I, like many others, love the idea of a dog liking sports and other people so much that she would run a half marathon with everybody.

Her owner, April Hamlin, had let Ludivine outside to do her business, just as the half marathon's starting gun was about to sound nearby.

Hamlin said Ludivine has a penchant for venturing out through the small town of Element, with a population of about 500, so it wasn't surprising that she wandered off.

That Ludivine would run an entire half marathan DID surprise Hamlin, though, reports Runners World. 

"She's actually laid back and friendly, so  I can't believe she ran the whole half marathon because she's actually really lazy," Hamlin said,

Not as lazy as Hamlin thought, apparently.

Ludivine looking fine as she approaches the finish line
of the recent Trackless Train Trek Half Marathon in
Elkmont, Alabama. Photo by Jake Armstrong.

Incredibly, another very notable record was set at this small town half marathon, notes Canadian Running Magazine.

A boy named Gratton O'Neill, 8, ran the marathan allmost as quickly as Ludivine, finishing at 1:38:22. That's a new world record for the fastest half marathon time for a person under the age of 10.

The town is thrilled by Ludivine's epic run and ensuing fame, since what she did was a community service.

That's because the half marathon was a fundraiser for the local high school cross country running team. The school district doesn't have a lot of money, so Ludivine's run is bringing attention and donations to the school.

Again, congratulatons, Ludivine! And Gratton!

Would-Be Darwin Award Winner Tries To Put Out Fire Using Ammunition-Laden Van

A van and its cargo of ammo goes up in flames
in Missouri after a guy tried to use the van to
put out a garbage fire he'd set. 

One of the worst ways to get rid of garbage is to burn it. It releases toxic smoke.

That was the man's first mistake when he set fire to pile of trash in a Missouri field.

From there, the man kept letting his dumbness cascade with abandon.

According to the Kansas City Star, (Note, the link has an obnoxious autoplay)  the garbage fire started getting out of control. The man, who the paper did not identify, thought he could put the fire out by repeatedly driving his van over it.

Yes, yes, you and I know what would happen when we do that, but he didn't. The van's tires caught fire and soon the van was ablaze.

Oh, and did I mention the van was full of ammunition? And the guy knew that before trying to use the van to put out the fire?

A Clay County Deputy Sheriff who was conducting a traffic stop nearby, noticed the black smoke and went to investigate. Which is how we found out about this.

The deputy sheriff, probably knowing that if he cited the guy, the man's name would be made public record, decided not to file a complaint. The lawman also probably figured the guy was already being punished enough for his stupidity.

Also, nobody got hurt, so there was that good fortune.

The man with the van and the ammunition didn't file an insurance claim either, says the Kansas City Star. Too embarrassing?

Next time, dude, try putting out a fire with gasoline. That'll work!

Harsh: Toll Collector Fired For Undercharging Driver And Paying Difference From Own Pocket

Sam Samsonov became an Internet sensation
this week aftere being fired for using $5.50 of his
own money to fix a mistake he made in the toll booth
where he worked.  

It sounds like the people who run the toll booths at the Gasparilla Island Bridge in Florida really wanted to get rid of one of their toll collectors, Vladislaw "Sam" Samsonov.

Samsonov, 77, worked in the toll booth for 30 years and people really liked him. He'd hand out dog treats to cars with dogs in them, and sometimes lollipops to children.

He was fired a few days ago, though.

Why?  He accidentally forgot to charge $5.50 for a trailer being towed behind a vehicle.

OK, so he shorted the toll booth company $5.50?

Not exactly. To fix the mistake, he just took $5.50 out of his own pocket and put it in the register to make up for the shortfall. He figured he made the error, so he'd make up the difference.

That, apparently, is against the rules, says the Huffington Post.

I guess Samsonov has got a record of "breaking the rules." He has occasionally ponied up a little money when motorists have driven up to the toll booth and realized they didn't have enough money with them to pay the toll.

According to the local NBC affiliate, he knew it was against the rules to pay the tolls, but he'd never been written up for the "transgression." I don't know why it's against the rules, because his former employer, the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority, still gets all the money that's due.

However, the local paper, the Boca Beacon, interviewed his bosses, who said that under auditing rules, putting your own money into the till is considered fraudulent. Instead, he shouldn't have noted his mistake as an explanation as to why the books that day were off by $5.50.

The bosses said everyone makes mistakes, that's OK, but putting your own money in the till is NOT OK.

I don't know accounting, so I still don't know why this is "fraud."

In an age when it seems like big banks get away with murder through accounting tricks, it seems a little odd that taking ownership of and fixing a $5.50 mistake is fraudulent.

As punishment, the Authority offered Samson work two days a week instead of five, but Samsonov didn't go for it. "If I can't be trusted for five days, how can I be trusted for two days,?" he asked.

Of course, this information comes from Samsonov's daughter's Facebook page. The Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority says it doesn't talk about personnel matters, so maybe there's more to the firing than this.

Still, people in the area love the guy. This is the first time I'm aware of that people actually like a toll collector and are trying to reinstate him.

The Boca Beacon, ran an editorial praising him:

"You represent part of what so many llike about Boca Grande - a person can be gone for years, but once they cross that bridge they're back in the land of familiar faces. It's people like you that we took for granted would always be there in the booth on weekday mornings."

Although the Internet is riled up about what happened to Samsonov, don't worry about him. His wife said he was working too hard anyway. He's got a nice military pension to live on, he says, so money isn't going to be a worry.

He says, though, it's nice to know his community has got his back.

President Obama Reads His Hate Tweets

President Obama examines some of the mean Tweets
directed at him for Jimmy Kimmel Live.  

A regular feature on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show is celebrities reading hateful Tweets about themselves.  

I've featured some of those in this here blog thingy a couple times because they're funny.

Kimmel went straight to the top this time, though, when he got President Obama to read mean Tweets about him.

I have no idea how they picked which ones to read. Given how so many Republicans can't stand the president, it must have been hard to choose from the avalanche of hate Tweets.

You'll have to watch the video, below.

But it seems everything is Obama's fault. Like this Tweet: "A 30 rack of Coors Light is now $23 at the Sun Stop. Thanks, Obama."

Well, we'll see if Obama will now be blamed for crashing Twitter, if everybody watches this video of him reading the Mean Tweets:

Sean The "Dancing Man Found" Is Case Study On How To Joyfully Combat Cyberbullies.

Some morons took these two photos of Sean,
the one on the left of him dancing, the one
on the right showing Sean after they jeered
at him for having the temerity of dancing
in public. You go Sean!!! 

I'm happy to report another victory in the battle against trolls and cyberbullies. It seems that the rule about online bullies, "Don't Feed the Trolls," isn't always the best advice.

Earlier this week, we had Curt Schilling fighting back brilliantly against cyberbullies. Now we have another case, and this one involves thousands of people.

A guy who now has Internet fame as "Dancing Man Found" is the latest winner in this battle.

The whole story, which I love, has become A Thing and it's a really fun story.

Some idiot on the social media site 4chan took a photo of an overweight man dancing to some band's music and wrote: "Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing."

The accompanying photos this moron posted showed the guy dancing, and then, having bee stopped by the laughing jerks, looking a bit hurt.

Apparently, to this 4chan nutcase, only people of a certain weight and appearance have the right to enjoy music and dance.

I always thought that music is to be enjoyed by everyone.

Luckily, that's what a whole bunch of people online think, the lowlife from 4chan notwithstanding.

Somebody re-posted the photos of the dancing man on another social media and photo site, Imgur. The person who posted on Imgur objected to the idiot from 4chan. People agreed, and in the discussion on Imgur, people wanted to do something nice for the man in the photo.

A bunch of people who hated
that Sean was cyberbullied
tracked him down and
invited him to a big
dance party in L.A. Looks
like the party will be awesome.  

Cassandra Fairbanks, an activist and writer with The Free Thought Project, spotted the photo. She said the initial photo from 4chan "broke all of our hearts."

Fairbanks put it on her popular Twitter feed and tweeted: "Anyone know this man or who posted it? There's a huge group of ladies would would like to so something special for him."

As is always the case with the Internet, there's no hiding, and the dancing man was quickly found. Fairbanks posted a new photo of the man, smiling and holding a hand-scrawled sign that read:

 "Hi Cass + Twitter. (as requested)!

The guy is named Sean and he's from London. In response, he started his own Twitter account @dancingmanfound

He's out of the country on business, but is available for the dance party in a couple weeks. That should be fun!

In just 20 hours A GoFundMe page had raised $22,889 as of early Saturday morning  to send Sean to Los Angeles for the dance party.  Money left unused in this fundraiser will go toward an anti-bullying campaign.

I don't think the details of the dance party are final yet, but I can tell it's going to be a doozy.  Sean has already said "Watch Out LA!"

I believe him.

Even Pharrell Williams might get involved. He tweeted: "Hey @CassandraRules keep me posted about your dance party! @Dancingmanfound, never be ashamed of yourself."

Other musicians who produce great dance music, such as Moby, have also expressed interest in performing at the dance party.

Fairbanks said she's had a conversation with Sean, who told her, "Big-hearted people far outweight the small minded, every day of the week. "

The lesson here, reinforced by Curt Schilling earlier in the week is, we need to stand up to the cyberbullies, just like kids sometimes have to stand up to playground bullies.

The additional lesson is we can't stand by and do nothing when somebody is attacked. The women who invited Sean to their dance party are a great example of that. Take something ugly and make it into a fun event.

The cyberbullies will never go away, unfortunately, I read that original thread on the 4chan discussing Sean dancing in public.

A number of people defended him, but there are a bunch of people who left comments like a moron who said that heavier people should just lose weight in private before going out in public. Apparently, a heavier guy should not go out to nightclubs and interact with women, says this presumably thinner idiot on 4chan.

Why? Because of the competition? As has been demonstrated, women are quite understandably much more turned on by Sean and his dancing than the idiots abusing him on line.

Go back to your mom's basement, 4chan loser.

And Sean, I hope you keep dancing forever. Any time somebody partakes in a happy dance, the world becomes just a little bit better.

Oblivious Texting Guy Misses One Whale Of A Cool Moment

Photographer Eric Smith took this photo
in Redondo Beach, CA of an oblivious guy texting on his phone
while an incredible moment in nature
played out right in front of him.  

If there was ever an illustration of how sometimes, smart phones, social media, texting and all that jazz can make you miss out on more exciting stuff, this is it.

CBS News says photographer Eric Smith took a pic of a guy on a boat in Redondo, Beach, Florida intently texting somebody on his phone while a whale surfaced right next to the vessel.

Actually the whale and her calf were "flapping, breaching, jumping, mouths eating fish," right there, Smith said, and the guy never noticed.

"The guy never looked up from his phone during the entire breach," Smith said.

Too busy on the phone.

I hope whatever was going on in the text was more interesting, but I doubt it. I haven't experienced it yet, but people have told me there is practically nothing more awesome than watching whales nearby.

Smith said he admits he can get too wrapped up with a phone. "We're all guilty being buried in our phones, even me," he said.

The photo of the oblivous guy on the boat with the whale is probably one of the best illustrations of the Way We Are these days.

Though this might be his best photo, Smith is an experienced photographer with a lot of great work. Check out his Instagram page.

Finally! Some Honesty In A Beauty Pageant

Normally, I don't take note of beauty pageants. They're kinda dumb, if you ask me.

However, I've always wondered what would happen if a person who did not win the pageant ever became honest.

You know, instead of a fake smile and a halfhearted kiss and hug for the winner, the runner-up told us how she or he really felt.

We got an answer in Brazil recently, when the person who did not win did not play nice.  (The non-winner accused the winner of buying the pageant victory.)

Can one be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in a beauty pageant? I also don't think the women in red is going to win Miss Congeniality. Nice departing greeting to the audience, though.

Watch at bottom of post:

...but Sheisane Hayalla wasn't happy about it.  

Carolina Toledo recently won a local
beauty pageant in Brazil.... 

Brady Bunch-Like All Star "We Are The Champions" Is Pretty Fun.

Ann A-List bunch of singers did this
Jimmy Fallon video. Pictured in this
screen grab: Fallon, The Roots, Carrie Underwood,
Ariana Grande, Sam Smith.  

In honor of the Superbowl, the Brady Bunch Jimmy Fallon, The Roots and a bunch of celebrity musicians decided to make a fun little video of the Queen classic "We Are the Champions"

For those of you with post Superbowl hangovers, the a capella dity is fun to watch.

Heck, even for those of us who don't have hangovers, it's fun to watch. It's set up like the opening credits to "The Brady Bunch" which makes it cool.  

(Is that a sly congratulatory nod to winning New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady? Hmmmm.)

The A-listers on the video are Carrie Underwood, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Blake Shelton, Usher Meghan Trainor, One Direction and Christina Aguiler, who of course tries to steal the star power.

No matter if you're bumming over the Seattle Seahawks loss or the New England Patriots' win, you'll be humming this for the rest of the day.

Manhunt For Vermont's Washing Machine Pee Perp

Waterbury, Vermont police know who this
guy is, peeing into a washing machine at
a laundromat, thanks to lots of tipsters
who identified the peeing perp.  

We pick on Florida all the time for its,  um, creative criminals, but up here in Vermont, we have our own special breed of weirdos.  

Exhibit A this week is a guy named Steven Byrd who decided it would be fun recently to take a pee into a washing machine at Waterbury Laundry & Dry in Waterbury, Vermont.

Surveillance video shows Byrd stepping up on a chair, unzipping his pants, peeing into the machine, zipping his pants back up, and closing the washing machine lid.

He wiped his dick with his sleeve for good measure before finishing up. A real class act, that guy.

I guess he thought he was being hilarious. He and some friends had arrived at the unattended laundromat to throw things around. Again, because I guess it's fun to do that. Or something.

Vermonters, though, fight back against crime. Especially pee crime. Waterbury Police Chief Toby Feccia released the surveillance video of Byrd peeing into the washing machine. People then gleefully uploaded the video to YouTube.

The Waterbury, Vermont "Peeing Perp," Steven
Byrd, in his Facebook photo in which he
thinks he's a gangsta or something.  

Police know the peeing perp was Byrd because Feccia said he received "dozens of calls" from people identifying Byrd. On their Facebook page, the Waterbury Police Department said that within 28 hours of posting the video, it got 29,000 views, 255 shares and 64 comments.

It didn't help that Byrd was wearing the same goofy hat he posted on his Facebook page a couple days earlier when he peed in the washer.

His Facebook photo is a piece of work, too. It shows him crouching in front of a graffiti-smeared wall. Yeah, you're a real gangsta thug, Steven!

Authorities were still trying to find Byrd at last report, but when they do catch up with him, he'll be charged with vandalism.

And being a total moron.

Plus, he'll live on in Internet infamy. This story has been picked up all over the nation and the world, including in the New York Daily News, The Smoking Gun, The popular blog Nothing To Do With Arbroath and others.

His mother must be so proud.

Watch the surveillance video if you can stand it:

Let's Climb Into A Balloon!

I wonder how he eventually got out.  

Just because I'm in a wicked silly mood, let's spend a moment with a guy who gets inside a giant balloon.

Not sure what's funnier: The guy in the balloon or the other guy in the room laughing:

Wild Excitement With Mousetraps And Ping Pong Balls For Cool Factor And Advertising

Turns out lots of mouse traps and ping pong
balls make for a really cool video. Who knew?  

For no other reason than to see if they could make a cool video and advertise Pepsi Max at the same time, some filmmakers decided to set up 2,014 mousetraps and 2,015 ping pong balls to set up a chain reaction.

This was done as an advertising gimmick for New Year's Eve (note the 2,014 and 2,015 figures) but the results really are quite spectacular.

Not as good as the New Year's Eve fireworks in Dubai, but pretty damn good.

Especially since we're just talking about mouse traps and ping pong balls here.

I have no idea whether Pepsi Max is any good, but at least they got their product placement in. And they got me to post this cool video, which has also gone viral, so I guess their advertising dollars were well spent.

The video is mesmerizing, but I found the music with it to be a bit annoying. You can always mute the sound if you agree with me.

Here is the video:

Warfare Between Dog and Cat. Dog Eventually Wins. Or Not

From Andrew Sullivan's "Mental Health Break" videos, which offer a comical interlude between the usual musings on politics, we have two videos

The first is a hapless dog trying to reclaim his bed from a completely unimpressed cat:



Later, the puppy does manage to reclaim his bed, but notice how the cat pretends to "let" the dog have his bed back, and preens afterward.

No matter, the dog is happy. Watch:

Bully Bad Cops In New York Assault Dancing Prankster Because They Can

Prankster is caught dancing near cops. Cops are
not amused, so they assault him. And will
probably get away with it.  

The other day I complained about some of New York's finest really overreacting to protesters calling for reforms in some police practices.

After all, since they are part of government, and this is democracy, they shouldn't be immune from criticism, like some of the spokes people of the police unions seem to think.

Some cops, a minority of them to be sure, are so arrogant they think they are above everything.

The latest example: A prankster named Alexander Bok took up a challenge by comedian and talk show host Ellen Degeneres to dance behind unsuspecting people to see what their reaction is when they discovered what was going on.

Bok did this behind a couple of New York City police officers and the cops got all abusive. Calling him names, and trying to come up with things to arrest Bok for, even though he didn't do anything illegal.

Eventually, six police officers accumulated around Bok. Like we need six police officers to yell at a guy for dancing near them? What a terrible threat a goofy dancer is!

Frustrated they couldn't arrest him they tell him to take "a fucking walk" then shove Bok to the ground. That's assault. But cops, at least some of them in New York, and probably elsewhere, think they are above the law.

They're goons, plain and simple.

Look, I get it. Cops have a difficult, dangerous job. And a few asshats, people much worse than the cops in Bok's video, seem to think hurting or killing cops is the solution to reports of police abuse.

And the cops in New York are understandably on edge because of that jerk that ambushed and killed two of them earlier this month.  I can see why they wanted to make sure Bok was not a threat. Asking him what he was doing is OK.

But you'd think, once the cops realized Bok was just goofing, to let it go and get on with their jobs.

The cops in the video are totally not helping their cause if they think they can convince us we shouldn't criticize them.  Bullying only increases resentment. Don't they train you to de-escalate tension whenever possible so somebody doesn't get hurt? Including the police?

If they keep this up, maybe people will start to be afraid to call the cops when there's trouble. Or is that what they want, somehow?

Some people in the comments section of the YouTube video said Bok shouldn't have danced near the cops, because he should have known they might turn into assholes.

But that's the point. The cops are not above the law. So I'm glad Bok did this and somebody got it on film. I'm glad the video is going viral. I bet, or at least Ellen Degeneres features it on her show pretty soon.

The more people know about the bad cops out there among the good ones, the more likely the scummy cops can get weeded out and the good ones can go about their work.

If there's more to this video in which Bok threatened or assaulted the cops and that was edited out the video, I'll update this. But I don't think Bok did that.

Here's the video, in which people react well enough to his dancing, until he encounters the jerky cops.

Dads Can't Dance. Usually

One of the "talented" dancer dads.  

Mashable featured a fun video today of dads trying to dance.

Middle aged men, in general, can't dance. I'm a middle aged man, I know. I try, Oh, Lord I try, but I'm no Gene Kelly, that's for sure.

Some of my favorites in the video, below, are the guy in the black socks grooving while sitting in a park with a highly embarrassed kid.

I also love the button down executive looking type trying to dance with a young girl in a pretty green dress.

And watch the bald buy in the background in a stadium when a guy in front of him tries to dance.

Not sure what the guy on the right is doing, but the guys
on the left seem unimpressed 

At least that's what I think he's doing. It could be something worse, I don't know.

More power to them. They're all having fun, and are uninhibited, and that's a VERY good thing.

Maybe my standards are low, but some of the dad dancers in the video are actually pretty good, in my opinion.

Not many of them, but a few of them. I especially like the brief glimpse of the guy on a treadmill.  

I do like how they set all of this supercut to Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk."

You be the judge of the talent.  Here's the video:

Texas Plumber NOT A Terrorist, But Terrorists Using His Old Truck

A Texas plumber discovered an old truck he'd traded
in is now being used by Islamic terrorists in Syria.  

Let's be clear: Mark Oberholtzer is a fine, upstanding Texan. By all accounts a proud American.

He's owned Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, Texas for 32 years. People like him and his work in the plumbing and contracting business. Lots of five star reviews of Mark-1 Plumbing out there.

A few people, idiots, actually, now think Oberholtzer is sympathetic to those horrible ISIS Islamic militants in Syria.

Why? Because there's a photo that originated on Twitter floating around out there of one of his trucks, with the Mark-1 Plumbing logo clearly displayed, being used by the militants with an anti-aircraft gun in the truck's bed.

Don't worry, Oberholtzer is not giving material support to the terrorists. He, and everybody who knows him wants to make clear he did not give or sell his truck to terrorists.

Somehow, after he traded in the truck three years ago to an AutoNation dealership, the vehicle ended up in the hands of terrorists. 

Oberholtzer says that usually, when he trades in one of his old work trucks, he removes the logo from the vehicles. This time he didn't because he assumed AutoNation would. But they didn't.

So now, in Syria, unfortunate victims of ISIS terrorists can see an advertisement for Mark-1 Plumbing before they are hurt or killed by the violent morons.

Nobody knows how the truck ended up in Syria, but it was auctioned off after Oberholtzer traded it in, and it probably went through a few owners before winding up in Syria.

Oberholtzer says he's gotten thousands of calls about the truck in Syria. He says some people have threatened him because they think he's supporting the terrorists with this truck.

Of course the people criticizing or threatening Oberholtzer are some of the world's biggest idiots.

He told television station KHOU:

"We have a secretary here, she's scared to death. We all have families. We don't want no problems."

 Luckily, there's a major backlash against the people unfairly targeting Oberholtzer and his business. You can see that nice, welcome backlash on the Mark-1 Plumbing Facebook page. 

In a way, it's free advertising, because some people are saying they want to have Mark 1 Plumbing fix their leaking pipes or whatever. Just to support the guy.

Hell, I'd have him do my plumbing, too. But I don't think Oberholtzer wants to travel from Texas to Vermont to look at the drip, drip in my basement.

Christmas Performances That Are Different Than The Usual Boring Stuff

A fun Christmas performance  

Hat tip to my husband Jeff Modereger who found this unique performance of the "Hallelujah Chorus"

It was done by a group of high school students acting as monks who had taken a vow of silence but still had to present a Christmas show.

The video was first uploaded to YouTube about six years ago, but it's getting renewed notice lately.

Jeff got this from a site called faithtap.com which has a variety of fun and inspiration videos to waste time with if you're not in the mood for controversy or negativity.

There's another video of the "Hallelujah Chorus" on the site that was done as a flash mob at a shopping mall that's worth watching, too.

So I'll give you both. First, the "monks" then the shopping mall for your holiday enjoyment.

And You Thought Your Flight Delays Were Bad

Passengers (allegedly) push a plane to get it
going in Siberia amid temperatures in the minus 50s.  

I'm sure it's havoc in the nation's airports today, especially on the East Coast, where a snowstorm is totally screwing up Thanksgiving travel.   

But if you're stuck in some bland airport terminal, waiting for word on a flight to your destination that may or may not come in the next week, it could be worse.

I'm serious.

Up in Siberia, a plane with 70 passengers couldn't leave because the temperature was a bracing 58 below zero. (As you can imagine, winters are a bit tough in Siberia)

It was too cold the brake pads froze. If the airplane could be moved a little bit, the brake pads might have gotten warm enough for the plane to actually leave.

So, the plucky passengers all got out and pushed the plane a few feet, says the Siberian Times. 

If you're stuck at LaGuardia or something, just thank your lucky stars you don't have to push a 747 out of a snowbank.

According to Siberian Times:

Another view of the passengers pushing the
plane in frigid Siberia.  

"Reports of the incident led to worldwide praise for the stoic Siberians for their ' an do chutzpah' in the words of Agence France Presse. 

'Siberians are so tough that for them pushing a frozen plane along a runway is a piece of cake,' added Russian daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Social media sites were equally gushing in commending the oil workers. 'Who mentioned sanctions?...We just push together and off we fly,' wrote Dmitry Kozlov on Twitter.

'It's just an ordinary morning in Russia. People push-start a plane at minus 50,' said (one passenger)"

Siberian Times went on to say that local officials and those with the airline were not amused by the reports of passengers pushing the plane.

Those officials said the passengers didn't push the plane; it was just a social media stunt. The passengers said they really pushed the plane, so there's a bit of a conflict there.

Again, from the Siberian Times:

"Airport chief Maxim Aksyonov claimed, 'Most likely the plane's passengers, oil workers, decided to do a kind of selfie. It was a good joke and it became a big thing on the Internet. 

However, one of the 'hero' passengers... insisted the passengers did push the plane. 'We were on the bus that took us on the plane when we were asked to help the tractor (push the plane),' he said. 'Before that, we had already spent one day at the airport, waiting for our departure.

'We pushed it a short distance -- about five meters, maybe more. I worked for four years on shifts, but do not recall that we pushed the plane previously.'"

The plane, with the possible push from passengers, then managed to take off and land safely at its destination.

Next time, maybe they should just drive.

It's Saturday: Be Like This Golden Retriever

This golden retriever will instruct you on ho Add caption

A viral video shows the results of a dog obedience class.  

The dogs, after completing the classes are told to walk along a carpet lined with extremely tempting food treats and toys.

In the video below, you'll see the first two dogs complete this course very well. Nice doggies!

Then it's the golden retriever's turn. Let's just say the obedience class didn't work well, but I LOVE the dog's attitude.

As you go about your weekend, take a lesson from the golden retriever who didn't take his lesson.

It's much more fun that way.

Here's your instructional video: