Scuttlebutt Pipeline

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I was reading some of the latest news articles on MSN earlier and Britney Spears’ picture showed up on the sidebar. I took one look at it and wanted to laugh. The dark hair she was sporting looks like a wig, and if it is then she didn’t do a good job choosing one to fit her and if it’s not a wig then she just has serious hair issues. Of course when you think of Britney Spears plastic surgery and implants always comes to mind. Then to top it off I saw more advertisement for rhinoplasty companies like Fort Myers plastic surgery and for the fun of it I decided to do a google search for celebrities and plastic surgery.

CelebrityPlasticPics.com is a website that shows the before and after shots of celebrities. Looking at some of the pictures is hysterical but for the most part they’re sad. These women were beautiful as they were yet they felt the need to change themselves to meet society’s standards. That’s just sad.

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University. He was 73.

(full article)

In all honesty I can’t say I’m really sad to hear this man is gone. Death is a tragedy, yet it happens to us all. This might make me sound callous but I can’t help but see good in this. I am one who has always firmly believed that religion and politics should not be mixed. With Falwell’s death there is a possibility that the religious political community might falter and hopefully lose a lot of their momentum and power. Hey it’s a dream.

Of course if everyone shared the mindset of one of my friends we really wouldn’t have to worry about this. He’s of the opinion that the elderly (apparently anyone over 45) belongs in a nursing home. Since the majority of our troublesome politicians fit that age range we could always opt to place them in a Lubock, Miami, or Brooklyn nursing home and be done with them. This is the man that sees conspiracies under every rock though so I don’t think his ideas have much merit mind you.

What are your thoughts? Do politics and religion belong together? Can a person trully determine what is right for a country and its people when they are attempting to mold the government to fit their own religious beliefs?

Paintball enthusiasts looking for an online source to purchase their gear might want to consider heading on over to Ultimate Paintball, an online paintball supply store that boasts a large selection and free shipping and handling. You can find everything from paintball guns, paintball packages, tippman upgrades, cleaners, you name it they got it. Just about everything you would need to improve your game and keep your gear in tip top shape is available.

Although Ultimate Paintball boasts free shipping it has quite a few strings attached to it. All in all, even if you qualify for the free shipping you still might feel a bit slighted by it. While advertising free shipping and handling is great, and there is free shipping available, the manner in which it is being advertised is very misleading and may cause potential buyers to turn away. I believe the store would do better with a slightly more honest mode of advertising. Something like “Qualifying purchases receive free shipping. Click for details”. As it stands shipping is only free to purchases of more than $200 in the continental United States, the 48 states only (sorry Alaska and Hawaii!). Free shipping is not available to AFO, FPO, and P.O. Boxes. Well that leaves me out!

Instead of the slow economy shipping method usually utilized for free shipping offers Unlimited Paintball offers UPS, which explains some of the selectiveness of the offer. Still though, with so many places refusing to ship to P.O. Boxes for special orders and deals it’s disheartening to see yet another store on that list. But if you checkout via their GoogleCheckout option you will get $10 off your purchase

Now while I agree that the prices are pretty low and reasonable on this site there are a few other sites that can boast similar prices. If one was planning on making a large online purchase and was interested in saving money on shipping and handling I did find some places where you could get it delivered (in the site’s country) for free and one that would ship anywhere for free. That said, I think Ultimate Paintball would do well to look at their shipping policy a bit more. While they are leading in cheap and affordable prices the competition isn’t too far behind.

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When people break the traffic laws they get fines levied on them, and if the infractions are numerous or severe enough they get parole if not jail time. Right? Right. That’s a fact of life that everyone is quite familiar with. Even if it hasn’t happened to you there are a variety of people you work with or go to school with who have found themselves in this situation. Now should you be foolish enough to violate the terms of your parole, which you received in lieu of jail time, then you can expect to get your rear end planted behind bars. Have I said anything that is cruel, are any of the aforementioned procedures unwarranted if you’ve broken the law? Paris Hilton seems to think so.

Hilton was visibly shocked and tearful when a judge imposed the sentence, later calling it “cruel and unwarranted.” (source)

No little girl it’s not “cruel and unwarranted” it’s simply justice. You broke the law and were shown extreme leinancy on account of your status despite the severity of your traffic violation and were granted parole. You chose to violate that which was a blatant disregard for not only the law but the public in general and now you are getting exactly what you deserve. Deal with it. I mean honestly, the way this little girl is prattling on you would think the courts had mandated she adopt Brittany Spears’ look and then under go hairloss treatment for it! The world does not revolve around you, thankfully, and there are far more pressing and interesting things to read about in the news. I’d rather see stock quotes than your your tear stained face as you bemoan the punishment you were given for your crimes. Didn’t your mother ever tell you, if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime? No probably not, she was probably too busy thinking she was above it as well.

Newsflash Hiltons, you’re not. You bleed just like the rest of us when cut so you’ll sit behind bars for criminal offenses just like the rest of us would.

For those that think a person who has taken the life of another has no compassion left, here is an example of a man that still had a kind heart.

A convicted murderer put to death in Tennessee this week got his last meal wish after he died.

Philip Workman had turned down the usual final meal of his choice traditionally offered the condemned, asking instead that a vegetarian pizza be given to a homeless person.

Prison officials refused to send out a pizza, and Workman died Wednesday by lethal injection.

Despite the prison’s refusal to send out the pizzas the homeless and even some troubled teens got a pizza regardless. When word was released to the public about the inmates unusual last meal wish several members of the Nashville community donated pizzas to the Union Rescue Mission. Reports also came in that radio listeners in Minnesota sent pizzas to a center for troubled teens in response.

Now this was a last meal request that wouldn’t cost nearly as much as most requests and was something from the heart. Why couldn’t the prison officials have carried out this request?

Dorinda Carter, spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction, said, “Taxes are to be spent on specific things for the care of the inmates.” But she acknowledged there was no regulation against carrying out Workman’s request.

Sounds to me as though some people were just being cruel.

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