Joy is an idiot.

This morning on local radio, Alabama State Representative Alvin Holmes was interviewed regarding his harsh words to Christian Coalition of Alabama President John Giles. Holmes ended his letter to Giles with “Go straight to hell” followed up by “Peace be with you.” Holmes called Giles a hypocrite for allegedly taking out of state gambling money to fight Holmes’ gambling legislative efforts. Holmes then acknowledged that he was a Baptist and saw no problem with go to hell comments. Despite his religious background, Holmes noted he was in favor of every type of gambling possible for the state.

B’ham News story below…

MONTGOMERY - The Christian Coalition of Alabama claims allegiance with heaven, but a Montgomery lawmaker on Monday told the group’s leader to go some place warm and fiery.

Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, responding to the group’s annual political questionnaire, asked the Coalition President John Giles to first answer questions about casino-interest money the group received and other matters.

“Until you answer these three questions, Go straight to hell,” Holmes wrote. Holmes signed the letter “Peace be with you.”

The Christian Coalition does an annual survey polling members of the Alabama Legislature about their views on abortion, gambling, same-sex marriage and other matters.

Holmes said the Christian Coalition survey was hypocritical considering past news reports that gambling interests funded some of their anti-gambling work.

Holmes said he wanted the coalition to:
- Reveal its sources of income.
- Disclose if it received any money from Ralph Reed or convicted lobbyist Michael Scanlon to lobby against gambling in Alabama.
- Explain why the group opposed a bill that would require nonprofits to reveal sources of income if they do election advertising.

E-mails released by a Senate committee last year showed Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff solicited money from the Choctaw Indians and routed $850,000 of it to the Christian Coalition of Alabama during a bitter legislative fight over video poker in 2000.

Giles has said he was unaware that the tribe was the source of the money, which was funneled through a third organization.

Reed repeatedly assured the coalition that the money was not from gambling interests, Giles said last year.

Story

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Police have been looking for a disgruntled McDonald’s customer who ran into two other customers with her car after a dispute over who was next in line.

Melinda Ann Thomas, 34, and Linda Ann Thomas, 51, were standing in a crowded line around 8:30 a.m. Saturday as they waited to order breakfast, police said. A cashier opened a new line and they stepped to the front of it — a move that angered another customer who was waiting to order.

According to the report, the unidentified woman started yelling at them and threatened to kill them.

The woman then left the restaurant before the Thomases and stayed in the parking lot, sitting in her dark blue Jeep Cherokee, witnesses told police. As the Thomases made their way to their car, witnesses said the woman pulled out of her parking space and sped toward the women, striking them both with the passenger side of the Jeep.

Neither woman was badly injured, the police report said.

The woman is being sought by police on charges of aggravated assault.

Decatur, AL - Four neighbors face charges after a tag-team-style rumble broke out over a cigarette butt that a guest casually tossed into a yard, police said Wednesday.

The fight involved two parties, a brother and sister and a husband and wife, all who live in the 1600 block of Jackson Street Southeast, said Lt. Chris Mathews, a police spokesman.

At least three of the participants went to the hospital after Friday afternoon’s melee, Mathews said.

“Now, this is all over a cigarette butt,” Mathews said.

A guest of a 42-year-old man smoked as they stood in the yard and talked. When the guest finished the cigarette, he flicked it toward the edge of the yard, Mathews said.

A neighbor, 24, saw the butt and began yelling about it.

“According to several residents of the neighborhood, (the two neighbors) argued about this for the entire day,” Mathews said.

During one of these arguments, the 42-year-old man’s 32-year-old sister, who lives across the street, called the neighbor an expletive.

“(The neighbor) then tells her that he’s not going to fight a woman, but when his wife gets home, he’s going to bring her down there to whoop her a—,” Mathews said.

As promised, the neighbor later showed up at the sister’s house with his 27-year-old wife in tow. A fight broke out between the women, during which the sister allegedly pulled out a pen and stabbed the wife once in the chest and once in the lower abdomen.

(more…)

Keynan McGuire, and Josh Bryant, right wearing the Napoleon shirt, both 11, were two of the children who found an alligator.

Some birthdays stand out as exceptionally memorable; 16 and 21 usually make the list.

Josh Bryant will never forget his 11th birthday, when he came nose to snout with a 5-foot alligator in Kalispell.

On Monday afternoon, Josh and his mother, Lynn, were trying out the new fishing pole she’d given him for his birthday. The Shady Lane fishing pond near the old Steel Bridge, where he spends three or four days a week during the summer, seemed the perfect place to test the rod.

It was about 4 p.m. when Lynn Bryant spotted something swimming toward them. “I thought it was a muskrat,” she said. Then she took a closer look. Muskrats didn’t swim with just their eyes and back ridges sticking out of the water.

A friend grabbed Josh’s pole and tried to hook the gator. He succeeded a few times, but each time the alligator simply swallowed the lure.

By this time, onlookers had called friends and soon a crowd of about 50 people had gathered. Some simply watched. Others tried to help subdue the alligator, which was now agitated. “This thing was very aggressive,” Bryant said. “It was snapping at us kids and adults,” Josh added.

Someone brought a bow and shot it. Then the arrow — and the alligator — disappeared for almost an hour. Suspense mounted on the banks of the pond. “It was like a serial killer movie or something, a killer alligator,” Josh said.

The gator didn’t stay down for good, though. When it surfaced, the crowd was ready. “His dad jumped in the water,” Josh said, pointing at his friend, Kaynen McGuire. McGuire, 11, nodded. His father had plunged in the water with a stick, grabbed the alligator by the tail and swung it onto the bank.
Four men held it down and tied its jaws shut with fish stringer, then put it in a canoe and dragged it up to the road. Someone produced a knife and tried to slit the animal’s throat. Still it didn’t die.

A deputy later shot the alligator.

For more on this interesting story…

Hopefully, you remember the story here on Festville about a Pittsburgh Steelers fan who died and had his funeral visitation sitting in a recliner with Steelers garb all around…remote in hand watching a Steelers game. Cigs and beer on the table next to him.

Well, here’s the photos of it. Very, very nice, but pretty disturbing. Click below if you want to see them.

(more…)

Lu Di, 6, does pushups as other young kungfu students watch at a kungfu school in Central China’s Henan Province July 26, 2006. According to school president Shi Yongdi, Lu did 10,000 pushups in three hours and twenty minutes four days ago. Since he shows so much promise, Shi says the school will waive his tuition for ten years.

I’m sure his haircut had something to do with the tuition being waived too.

Post pushup flex.

Source

Richard Jewell, the security guard who was branded a suspect after the deadly bombing at the 1996 Olympics, was honored at the state Capitol on Tuesday, 10 years later, for saving lives by moving people out of harm’s way just before the blast.

Jewell sued several media companies and settled for undisclosed amounts, but his lawsuit against The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is still pending. He settled with NBC for $500,000.

The state Legislature issued a proclamation honoring Jewell in 1998, but it was not presented in person; it came in the mail. Gov. Sonny Perdue sought to change that when he invited Jewell to receive another award from the governor himself.

Since the Olympics, Jewell has worked in various law enforcement jobs. Now 43, he works as a sheriff’s deputy in rural Meriwether County. Jewell’s wife and mother attended Tuesday’s ceremony.

“No one can rewrite history,” Jewell said. “We can only learn from it.”

And Richard once again comes through with a stunning quote.

If you would have told me Jerry Lewis died after this crappy rendition I would have believed you.