More Montana Legislature

The other day I brought you the story of the proposed state love song.

This week it is the proposed state pancake, huckleberry to be exact.  Good for the kids for learning about government, but during a session where money is very tight it might not be a great idea to waste money on this kind of crap.

Senate hears bill to designate state pancake

By MIKE DENNISON, IR State Bureau – 02/11/09

If the way to a legislator’s heart is through his stomach, the promoters of a bill to create a state pancake had the edge Wednesday — even if the measure did face some principled opposition.

Sen. Carolyn Squires, D-Missoula, made her pitch to the Senate Agriculture Committee to declare a huckleberry, whole-wheat pancake as the state pancake, an idea hatched by kids from an elementary school in her district.

“People have written me letters telling me (my bill) is frivolous,” she said. “To me, it’s important, because it’s a group of children learning how government works.”

Squires also had hoped to have Marla Hedman of Trout Creek cook up a batch of pancakes right in the committee meeting room at the Capitol, on an electric griddle.

That idea didn’t fly with Senate security, which feared setting off a fire alarm, so Hedman improvised, cooking fresh pancakes in the Capitol’s basement cafeteria and then serving them to committee members — and anyone else — in the meeting room after the hearing Wednesday afternoon.

One group that didn’t stick around for the food was the Ticknor family, which provided the only opposition to Squires’ bill.

Five Ticknors, ages 9 to 17, showed up to testify against Senate Bill 232, saying it’s a waste of time and taxpayer money and should be rejected.

Eli Ticknor, 15, said his family likes huckleberry pancakes and sometimes makes them while camping, but that Montana already has 24 state symbols and doesn’t need any more.

“Just because they’re good to eat doesn’t mean they should be a state symbol,” he said.

The other group of children involved in the SB232 debate wasn’t able to make it to Helena for the hearing, as their principal wouldn’t allow the trip because of liability concerns, Squires said.

But their teacher, Angie Palin of Franklin Elementary School in Missoula, did attend, and explained how her third-grade class last year became interested in state symbols and thought they might come up with a new one.

They settled on the huckleberry, whole-wheat pancake because it represents products from eastern Montana (wheat) and western Montana (huckleberries). They wrote a letter last spring to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who suggested they contact their legislator, and they wrote to Squires on the next-to-last day of school.

“I know this bill has gotten a lot of publicity as a ‘fluff bill,’ ” Palin said. “But for about 90 third- and fourth-graders in Missoula, Montana, this is huge.”

The children wrote personal letters to members of the Senate Agriculture Committee lobbying for the measure and have learned about the legislative process, she added.

Minkie Medora, a licensed dietitian from Missoula and a board member of the Montana Food Bank Network, also testified for the bill, saying it would promote two types of food that people need to eat more of: whole grains and fruit.

And finally, Pat Keim of Helena came to support the measure simply because he loves huckleberry pancakes. He said his summer houseguests want him to serve huckleberry pancakes every morning, “and I don’t blame them.”

“Wouldn’t it have been nice if we’d had a griddle in here and had the smell of huckleberry pancakes wafting through the room?” he said.

Mmm…Testicles

If eating testicles isn’t bad enough, these people thnk it’s a good idea to eat poisonous testicles.  Idiots.

Blowfish testicles poison 7 diners in Japan

Unlicensed chef prepared delicacy eaten by thrill-seeking gourmets

TOKYO – Blowfish testicles prepared by an unauthorized chef sickened seven diners in northern Japan and three remained hospitalized Tuesday after eating the poisonous delicacy.

The owner of the restaurant in Tsuruoka city, who is also the chef, had no license to serve blowfish and was being questioned on suspicion of professional negligence, police official Yoshihito Iwase said.

Blowfish, while extremely poisonous if not prepared properly, is considered a delicacy in Japan and is consumed by thrill-seeking gourmets.

Iwase said the seven men ordered sashimi and grilled blowfish testicles at the restaurant Monday night.

Shortly after, they developed limb paralysis and breathing trouble and started to lose consciousness — typical signs of blowfish poisoning — and were rushed to a hospital for treatment, Iwase said.

A 68-year-old diner remained hospitalized in critical condition with respiratory failure and two others, aged 55 and 69, were in serious condition, he said.

“It’s scary. If you go to a decent-looking restaurant that serves fugu, you would assume a cook has a proper fugu license,” Iwase said, using the Japanese term for blowfish.

Blowfish poison, called tetrodotoxin, is nearly 100 times more poisonous than potassium cyanide, according to the Ishikawa Health Service Association. It can cause death within an hour and a half after consumption.

Three people died and 44 others were sickened by blowfish poisoning in 2007 — most of them after catching the fish and cooking it at home — according to the Health Ministry.

Goat Detained Over Armed Robbery

 

LAGOS (Reuters) – Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

Link-O-Rama

Mr. Fro’s top 5 links of the week.

5.  I’d like to know, if the bank error was a “gift from God” then who is the prison sentence a gift from?

4.  Check out the third review for this wonderful children’s item, that is pretty darn funny. (H/T to The Dish for the link)

3.  Andy, I have found the perfect job for you.   Applications are due in less than a month, so get that resume ready.

2.  Love this story.  I would say that my wife has the same skills, but I better bite my tongue in-case she were to read this post.

1.  The 1st Annual Buttertub Awards.  Don’t forget to submit your stories.

Ode To Science

You’d think that science would have better studies to run. Also, when they say “the average man can extend…” I really didn’t think the second half of the sentence would fit there… but I guess I’ve been wrong before…

Montana’s Legislature is really busy

This story comes from Wednesday’s (1/21/09) Helena Independent Record.  The four kids that spoke in opposition to this bill are awesome.  I’m sure the guy who wrote the song is a good dude, but the legislator that introduced this bill should be ashamed.  (The bill was officially rejected.)

State love song: Kid tested, but disapproved

By JENNIFER McKEE IR State Bureau – 01/21/2009

Jerry McGowan, a 60-year-old Boston transplant now living in Alberton, really loves Montana.

Some 12 years ago, he wrote a song about how much he loves Montana, and now he wants to give that song to the people of this state.

But he has to get past 9-year-old Thomas Ticknor first.

Ticknor, of Helena, and three of his older siblings were the only people to speak against designating McGowan’s song entitled “The Montana Song” as Montana’s official state love song.

Montana already has three official songs, the children testified before the House State Administration Committee Tuesday morning, and that seems just a little bit silly.

“It’s already excessive,” said Hannah Ticknor, 17, who added that lawmakers in 2009 have proposed no fewer than four bills to make the Legislature meet every single year, instead of every two years.

Maybe if lawmakers weren’t spending their time discussing possible state love songs, she suggested, they’d be able to get all their important work done more quickly.

McGowan, however, is undeterred. So, too, is Rep. Bill Nooney, R-Missoula, who sponsored House Bill 184, designating “The Montana Song” the state’s official love song.

As McGowan tells it, the song will make money for the state and it puts into words the powerful and complicated feelings so many Montanans feel for this place.

“If (Montana) doesn’t move you to tears, you’d better open your eyes wider,” he told the committee shortly before sitting down with his guitar and singing the song. “I seek nothing from this except to offer it to the state. This is a gift to Montana and it’s from the heart.”

McGowan met his wife, Beverly, in his native Boston. As a girl, she had traveled to Montana with her father, who was a tire salesman. She fell in love with it, McGowan said, and after they met and married, they talked often of returning.

They did in 1997, taking a week’s vacation and covering as much Montana ground as they could in seven days. Two weeks later, they sold their possessions and moved out here.

“We didn’t know where we’d live and it didn’t matter,” he told the committee.

They settled in Alberton, in far western Montana. McGowan wrote “The Montana Song” soon after.

Initially, the song didn’t mention much east of the Continental Divide. Earlier in the 2009 Legislature, he rewrote one of the verses after good-natured concern arose that the song didn’t encompass all the beauty of Montana, particularly her high, wide and handsome eastern plains.

McGowan envisions the song being used in tourism. He also told the committee he will pay the cost of producing a CD of the song, and proceeds from the sales will go back to the state’s tax coffers.

The committee didn’t make any decisions about the song.

You Can’t Fire Me! I’m Drunk!

This story comes to us from beautiful Lima, Peru. A land of beauty, intrigue, and unique laws…

LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent.

The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work.

The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.

Calle said the court would not revise its decision, despite complaints from the government.

“It’s not a good idea to relax rules at workplaces,” said Labor Minister Jorge Villasante.

Celso Becerra, the administrative chief of Chorrillos, a suburb of Lima, denounced the ruling.

“We’ve fired four workers for showing up drunk, and two of them were drivers,” he said. “How can we allow a drunk to work who might run somebody over?”

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Dana Ford)

Only The Best In The Big Sky State

School bus stops at liquor store
By The Associated Press – 01/09/09
BILLINGS (AP) — A school bus driver who stopped at a liquor store while on her morning route in mid-December allegedly asked a middle school student to hide her purchase before police boarded the bus, district superintendent Jack Copps said.

Copps said someone spotted the bus at the liquor store on Dec. 12 and called authorities. No students were on the bus at the time, he said.

By the time officers caught up with the bus, the driver had picked up some middle school students and allegedly asked one student to hide a paper bag with bottles of alcohol near the back of the bus, Copps said.

‘‘You can’t make things like this up,’’ Copps said. ‘‘If we were trying to think of something that could be one of the strangest things that could possibly happen in the school district, this is it.’’

Copps said it does not appear the driver had been drinking. The incident is still being investigated and no charges had been filed Wednesday.

Copps said the school immediately notified its bus contractor, First Student, that the woman was not to transport any of the district’s students. She quit her job earlier this week.

Lucky Me

I received this email from Alain Calvin today.  Looks like I am pretty lucky he found me.  This along with the £500,000.00 I won this week from the Microsoft Award Team (why exactly would an American company award an American citizen in British Currency) should make me very wealthy.

From: alain,

Dearest One,

That’s kind of gay.

How are you and every members of your family hope fine Good a thing to write you. I have a proposal for you-this however is not mandatory nor we will in any manner compel you to honour against your will.

Good, I’m glad giving my bank account numbers to a total stranger isn’t mandatory.  Thanks for clearing that up.

Your profile pushed me to send you this mail, I am Alain Calvin 22 YRS OLD , the only son of my late parents Mr.and Mrs.George Clavin. My father was a highly reputable business magnet (a cocoa merchant) who operated through out West Africa during his days.

His dad was a business magnet, I am a chick magnet; seems like we would have had a lot in common.

It is sad to say that he passed away mysteriously in France during one of his business trips broad. Though his sudden death was linked or rather suspected to have been masterminded by an uncle of his who travelled with him at that time. But God knows the truth! My mother died when I was just 4 years old, and since then my father never hide anything from me.

Before he made the trip to france that lead to my misfortune (his death) He called me,explained to me the reason why he will make the trip and also told me that he has the sum of four million five hundred thousand United State Dollars

(USD$4.500,000) deposited in one of the bank here in Abidjan Ivory coast West africa,which he disguised and ordering the transfer through a help of a foreign partner for the future of I and my younger brother. The deposit document which I have in my possession carries my late father’s name as the depositor, while I’m the next of kin on the same document.

I am just a student university undergraduate and really don’t know what to do.

Contacting someone in another country you don’t know was definitely the right way to go.

 This is because we have suffered a lot of set backs as a result of incessant political crisis here in Ivory coast. The death of my father actually brought sorrow to my life.

Really, the death of the person that raised you actually brought sorrow.  Seems far fetched, this isn’t a scam is it?

we are in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regards. Your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded.Now permit, me to ask these few questions:-

1. Can you honestly help me ?

Are you questioning my integrity?

2. Can I completely trust you?

I don’t see why not.  I mean you did randomly email me.

 3. What percentage of the total amount in question will be good for you after the money is in your account? Please Kindly consider this and get back to me as possible if you wish to help, please we sincerely in need of your urgent attention.

Thanks and God bless you,

Yours Sincerely

ALAIN CALVIN