Nic-out™ Filters remove over 95% of harmful tar & nicotine in cigarettes! It’s the nicotine in cigarettes that makes you want to smoke and that also makes it hard to kick the habit. Nic-Out™ filters reduce the quantity of tar inhaled and reduce nicotine cravings without affecting the taste. Just attach to cigarette — each disposable, reusable filter lasts for 5-10 cigarettes. You get a set of 30 filters.

$7.98 or 2 for $14.98 I did some quick math. If you smoke a pack a day and these work for 5 cigs, then this will set you back about $390 each year (plus shipping and tax).

So do they really work? Let’s look at two reviews from Amazon.

I have no idea if this stuff works, I don’t find myself wanting less, or feeling less like I smoked, and just want to quit. … One can see the filter getting darker and feels a slight bit of comfort that maybe it is keeping out some of the harmful effects, but then one might get the idea they could continue to smoke if they continue to use these, a double-edged sword. So its hard to recommend, but on the other hand, if it works, then I have to recommend it. Can’t find any medical evidence about it though.

I have been using nic out for about 3 months now and I find I am breathing a little better when I take my dog out for a walk. I can’t seem to kick the habit, but I feel I am cutting down on the tar and nicotine and maybe eventually I will be able to quit. I can go longer without a cigarette now, so maybe soon I can try to seriously quit. I would reccomend this product.

And from NicOut’s website, a testimonial from Ashraf M. (Pennsylvania):

I always thought that I am eternal, but recently my medical doctor “pronounced the verdict”. I have just a few years left to enjoy my life. I must quit smoking, but I could not. Now, with Nic-Out Filter inserted between my lips and a cigarette, I am able to satisfy the cravings. I have an option between suffering and relief. I feel myself more comfortable.

NicOut’s website claims it’s the “Best Gift for Smoking Loved Ones”

Below are a few photos of a Klan rally that was held on September 15, 2007 in Athens, AL. All photos courtesy of bradbrad.

I love how this guy whipped out this shirt or whatever is out of the package and it still creases in it.

The speech I guess. Check out the winners standing behind him including Big Boy.

Family values or something like that?

This is particularly nice as the guy pulls up his shirt for all to see his tat.

The best for last. Note the oxygen intake.

Complete set…

Part 3 in a multi-part series on the candidates running for the mayor of Birmingham (AL).

Bernard Kincaid is currently serving as mayor of Birmingham. Kincaid was elected mayor in 1999 and has since been reelected once. Over his tenure, it’s safe to say his relationship with the city council has been rocky. His last tussle involved pay raises for police and fire.

Kincaid has campaigned with the slogan “Moving forward honestly,” which touts his administrations lack of scandals and suggests that Kincaid’s term of office has seen the city progress.

Kincaid’s campaign funding has overwhelmingly come from one source, a political action committee backed by Donald Watkins and headed locally by Emory Anthony, both close associates of former mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. This has sparked some controversy because Watkins’ bank is among several banks the City of Birmingham uses.

Kincaid is often mocked and rightfully so, for wearing ball caps with the word “MAYOR” printed on the front. As if he thinks people don’t know who he is. It’s especially humorous when he is outdoors in a press conference with other dignitaries such as the governor or U.S. sentars and he’s got his hat on.

Some quotes from the mayoral debate:

• “Thanks for allowing me to be the good steward.”
• “In the city of Birmingham ‘if it bleeds it leads’” It’s not crime, but the perception of crime.
• About education, Kincaid said the school board sets policy and there’s little the mayor can do. “You need to stay in your lane, otherwise there’s going to be a wreck.”
• Kincaid said the mayor can do little more for education than to “provide a bully pulpit.”
• “Birmingham is open for business and we’re doing quite well,”

Kincaid’s campaign website: http://www.kincaidformayor.com/

Part 2 in a multi-part series on the candidates running for the mayor of Birmingham (AL).

Larry Langford is the former mayor of Fairfield, AL and current Jefferson (AL) County commissioner. Larry is famous for bringing an amusement part which at the time was called VisionLand to Bessemer, AL. It was deemed a failure, but was purchased and has seen recent success and is now known as Alabama Adventure. If I recall correctly, a lot of local governments spent a lot of $ on the project. Larry is employed by Birmingham Budweiser.

Larry has recently been investigated by the SEC. A recent article in the Birmingham News questioned a large loan that he had repaid by a friend, Al LaPierre. Larry claims that he spent something along the lines of $60k on dental bills, thus the B’ham News cartoon.

A few quotes from the mayoral debate:

• “Birmingham needs a crazy man to run this city.”
• “You can hire a million cops. It’s not going to stop me from killing you.”
• “Give the teachers the right to knock your kids out.”
• “Last I checked she hadn’t killed anybody,” Langford said of the police chief. We don’t need police “to do what we should do ourselves.”
• “In Alabama we’ve been stuck on stupid so long we can’t get from point A to B.”

Larry has a one page website: www.langfordformayor.com. It features an ad in which he claims a “one-point plan” to fight crime in Birmingham. And that one point is to put criminals behind bars.

Festville will begin a series profiling the candidates running for the Mayor of Birmingham (AL).

Today we will feature, Willis Buddy Hendrix.

WBRC Fox 6 conducted a really nice interview with Buddy that you can watch here.

First, we’ll highlight some quotes from the mayoral debate that was held on Tuesday, September 18.

“I will help the people of Birmingham in you elect me governor.” Hendrix said. He later added, “I’d make our schools concentrate on teaching everything to everybody.”

“It’s up to you kids to do what you want to do,” Hendrix said. “Don’t go belly-aching down to city hall about it.”

And later, “There is no such thing as discrimination against race,” Hendricks said. “I’ve got many friends among colored people. I give them free plants and they give me free labor. There’s no discrimination out there. There’s no such thing.”

According to Buddy in the Fox 6 interview, he is a real-estate lawyer and a farmer. He has several very expensive plants which he marks on his land with fake roses that can be found on trash piles.

• He states that he is a full-time attorney and that’s what the city needs. He claims he lectures all over the world and is on the ethics committee for the United Nations.
• He claims there is no work or industries in Birmingham.
• Education is his hobby which includes wisdom and intellect. He has 5 earned degrees.
• About halfway through he asks if he is being recorded.
• He says the city has more inspectors than Carter has little liver pills.
• He’d like to see fruit trees planted in the city. He had planted fruit trees along his street, but the city cut them all down.
• He suggests putting dams in the creeks that run through Birmingham so people can kayak.
• Disney officials have told him that Birmingham is an ideal location for a Disney amusement part.

A Dundalk, Md., accountant and Wicca teacher is now a multimillionaire. Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett, 40, will meet tomorrow with Maryland lottery officials to claim his share of the $330 million Mega Millions jackpot. Bucky was one of three winners.

“I kind of screamed, and I teared up a little bit,” Bartlett said.

The odds of purchasing a winning ticket were one in 176 million.

The ticket, one of two Bartlett purchased for $5 each at Walther Liquors in Parkville, Md., northeast of Baltimore, is being kept at an undisclosed location, he said.

Otherwise, he said, he plans to invest the money, set up family members in a real-estate venture, donate to charity and invest in the White Marsh New Age store, Mystickal Voyage, where he teaches classes on moon-magic, psychic-shielding and psychic-healing.

After hearing on CNN that one of the winners had purchased a ticket at the Parkville liquor store, Bartlett and his wife checked their numbers. He then went to a Ford dealership in Columbia and purchased a new Explorer with the promise he would return to pay for it later with his lottery winnings.

Bartlett was thinking of his 18-year-old daughter, he said. After getting the new car, he gave her the 2007 Ford Escape that he had purchased in February, an upgrade from her 1991 Honda Civic.

He said he hadn’t decided whether he would accept his winnings as an annuity or choose the lump-sum cash option. A lump-sum payment would be at least $48.7 million, or about $32 million after taxes. Alternately, he could receive $3.7 million a year until 2032.

Bartlett practices Wicca, a religion whose followers worship nature. He said favor with pagan gods resulted in his win.

“I look at it this way. If the gods are going to intervene, it would be easier to manipulate a machine versus me trying to interpret what they are telling me,” he said, explaining why he opted for machine-selected numbers.

Bartlett said he never used to advertise the fact that he was a Wiccan.

“I let [people] get to know me before I tell them,” he said, “although that will be harder to do now.”

Yep, it’ll be harder because as soon as he found out he was a multimillionaire, he got himself a tattoo that features 12 alchemy symbols around his left wrist.

In case anyone can’t see the tattoo, it’s “also outlined in a material that will glow under a black light,” Bartlett said.

Story

I didn’t come up with that title, but it is pretty sweet.