Dark Humor, Sweet Revenge, and Repetitious Redundancy

Report: 25 killed in China karaoke blast http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_KARAOKE_BLAST?SITE=CAANR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

BEIJING (AP) -- A blast ripped through a karaoke parlor and bath house in northeast China, killing 25 people and injuring 33 others, state media reported Thursday.

Xinhua News Agency said the cause of the Wednesday night blast in Tianshifu township in Liaoning province was being investigated.

Several employees and the wife of the parlor owner, who was killed, were being questioned, it said, without saying if they were suspects.

Xinhua initially put the death toll at five, but said 25 bodies were found when rescuers had finished clearing away debris from the blast.

China has suffered a string of blasts, fires and accidents in shopping malls, movie theaters and other public places despite repeated government promises to improve safety. Many are blamed on lax safety procedures and negligence. In 2005, a fire in an illegally run bar in the southern city of Zhongshan killed 26 people. Local officials said the bar lacked fire extinguishers and its emergency exit was too narrow.

In China's worst recent nightclub disaster, a fire blamed on a welding accident tore through a disco in the central city of Luoyang in December 2000, killing 309 people. Local reports at the time said the building had failed 18 safety checks in two years.

If only they’d had some sort of fire drill in place.

I don’t know what to make of all the recent horror stories about China. Poisoned food, lead paint – why is the media painting this picture? What mindset are they trying to cultivate? Are we supposed to stop buying products from China? If this scrutiny is being instigated by the government, I would suspect that they are trying to engineer some sort of economic hammer in the hopes of slowing down China’s enormous growth (read: competition). If the media is doing it on its own, they’re probably just trying to kill Wal-Mart.


Coyote causes fatal motorcycle crash
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=77466

Sure, it's insensitive, but this was the first thing I thought of:




Detroit employee sues city over co-worker's perfume
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/watercooler/watercooler_article.aspx?storyid=77513

DETROIT - A Detroit planning department employee has sued the city because she claims a coworker's strong fragrance prohibits her from working.

Susan McBride's lawsuit was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

McBride claims she is severely sensitive to perfumes and other cosmetics. The lawsuit states the co-worker wore a strong scent and plugged in a scented room deodorizer which caused McBride to go home sick. The woman later agreed to stop using the room deodorizer but continued wearing perfume.

The suit says her work environment violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. McBride is asking for a ban on such scents at work and unspecified damages.

Okay, smokers. We have a precedent. At my signal…unleash lawsuit Hell.


Naked man walking near train tracks in Petaluma arrested
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_6288982

Police have arrested a man who was drunkenly walking naked along the railroad tracks on Monday night for indecent exposure, criminal trespassing, annoying children, resisting arrest and being under the influence.

“Annoying children” is now a crime? I’m in trouble; I annoy my kids all the time. I’m assuming that it’s a misdemeanor, so logically, annoying an adult would be a felony. This has possibilities.

FYI: Annoying me is a capital crime.


Pleonasm Party
“I used my PIN number to get cash out of the ATM machine. I had to get a book on CAD design for the CAT test. I looked it up by the ISBN number, because I couldn’t find the UPC code.”

“Let me see if I understand. You used your personal identification number number to get cash out of the automatic teller machine machine. You had to get a book on computer-aided design design for the California achievement test test. You looked it up by the international standard book number number, because you couldn’t find the universal product code code."

"Uh...yes."

“You talk too much.”