Mickey Spillane dead at 88

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Mickey Spillane, the macho mystery writer who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Monday, July 17, 2006. He was 88.

Spillane's death was confirmed by Brad Stephens of Goldfinch Funeral Home in his hometown of Murrells Inlet.

Fans to the End... and Beyond

A German football (soccer, to all you Americans) club is planning to set up a cemetery for fans who want to take their love for the game to the grave.

Hamburg SV chairman Christian Reichert said the cemetery would be built opposite the stadium and have room for more than 150 graves.

"It won't be full of colourful headstones and we don't want to turn the graveyard into a bazaar for fan merchandise, but it will be a place for true fans to find their final resting place," said Reichert.

He added that memorial stones to some of the club's greatest players would be erected in the cemetery - and a display of the club's emblem made from flower beds.

If the football club gets a grounds map like in this movie, they'll be set!

But who will protect SMART journalists?

First the article, my comments follow.

Journalist Groups Condemn Israeli Attack On Lebanon TV Stations

Two international journalists' organizations, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières) and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have condemned Israel's attacks Wednesday on television stations operated in Lebanon by the al-Manar television network.

Al-Manar had been the first to report on the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the demand by Hezbollah terrorists that Israeli release Arab prisoners in Israeli jails in exchange for the two captured men. Following the attacks on its stations by Israeli missiles, al-Manar called for international organizations to "protect the freedom of journalism." Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on civilian targets.

The Israeli foreign ministry responded that the "station has for many years served as the main tool for propaganda and incitement by Hezbollah and has also helped the organization recruit people into its ranks."

But the Committee to Protect Journalists commented: "While al-Manar may serve a propaganda function for Hezbollah, it does not appear ... to be serving any discernible military function."

Okay. the Committee to Protect Journalists obviously doesn't have anyone smart enough in its ranks to either a) remember how a sentence started by the time they finished it, or b) to read and revise the comments they issue.

If al-Manar is serving a "propaganda funciton for Hezbollah, then IT IS serving a "discernible military functiont," YOU IDIOTS!

(Or maybe the Committee to Project Journalists believe that Hezbollah is a union of men who have a strange genetic defect that causes them to expel rockets from their asses at high velocity whenever they fart. Such a belief is almost as sensible as the statement "al-Manar may serve a propaganda function for Hezbollah, it does not appear ... to be serving any discernible military function.")

Another self-centered Hollywood star....

Earlier this year, Ashley Judd underwent a 47-day program at a treatment center in February to deal with issues of her past including depression and isolation. The 38-year-old endured a "chaotic" and "dysfunctional" childhood and slept to combat depression and exhibited a "compulsion to clean."

Oh, sure. Go to "rehab" and get your problems straightened out, Ashley. But did you stop to think about ME and MY needs?!

You could have stopped by my place first. My apartment is a total pig-sty, and I think everyone could have benefitted from someone with a "compulsion to clean" dropping in. I would have even let you sleep your depression off on my couch.

But now what will I do?!