Jet Li survives in the Maldives

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:47 PM | Permalink

Martial arts superstar Jet Li survived the recent tsumani wave while vacationing in the Maldives over the weekend. The "Hero" star (below with actress Zhang Ziyi)and his daughter dashed to safety when a wall of water surged into the hotel where they were staying, according to family friends. The pair ran to higher ground, where Li called his agent to assure him they were all right.

Unfortunately, Victoria's Secret model Petra Nemcova, was not as fortunate as Li. The Czech Republic beauty, who is now recovering in a hospital in Thailand, was on vacation in Phuket with her photographer boyfriend Simon Atlee when waves overwhelmed their beach hut. Nemcova reported hung on to a palm tree for eight hours, and suffered several broken bones, including a broken pelvis. From her hospital bed, Nemcova recalled her recent hell to the New York Post. She said, "Kids were screaming all over the place, screaming, 'Help, help.' And after a few minutes, you didn't hear the kids anymore." Atlee, who shot the photographs for his girlfriend's new 2005 calendar, is still missing.

U.N. Official Takes It Back

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Let's see -- A now red-faced "senior" United Nations official beat a hasty retreat yesterday after accusing the United States and other well-off Western nations of a "stingy" response to the devastation in south Asia.

Jan Egeland, a Norwegian who holds the lofty title of Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, now claims he was “misinterpreted? when he charged Monday that "there are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy."

"It is beyond me why we are so stingy, really," he told reporters.

Misinterpreted? I think not. . . , Egeland knew exactly what he was saying —and he meant every word of it. Of course, it was about as truthful as the rest of the slime that oozes from that corrupt cesspool called the United Nations on New York's First Avenue. Granted, the aid response was seemingly low - but the death toll was 4,000 by Sunday night. No one at the time knew it would reach a toll of 100,000+ four days later when officials began receiving news from remote areas.

Speaking of coughing up millions: If those high-living diplomats would donate a portion of the millions of dollars they stole in the Oil-for-Food program — which was designed as humanitarian aid for starving Iraqis but instead became an under-the-table cash cow for top U.N. officials and their families — Egeland might find some serious cash for the needy in Asia.

While I'm ranting on the subject: Let's add to this sordid mess called the U.N. the recent reports of rape and child molestation committed by U.N. peacekeepers in Africa, allegations of sexual harassment involving the heads of both the U.N. refugee agency and the internal audit division, a revolt against “senior management? by the U.N. staff union, the findings of an internal U.N. integrity survey that a lot of U.N. employees fear retaliation if they speak out, and the statements of a few brave whistle-blowers, fighting for their jobs, to precisely that effect. Plus, if you like, there’s the expanding saga of how the secretary-general Kofi Annan until confronted by the press allegedly failed to notice that his son in Switzerland had allegedly been doing lucrative business deals with a major U.N. contractor under the Oil-for-Food program. All of which has been subject to the marvelously circular argument that the press should shut up until the U.N., in between firing off hush letters to its contractors and employing Mr. Annan’s U.S.-taxpayer-funded staff to lambaste the U.N.’s critics, can carry out allegedly full and independent investigations of all these troublesome matters.

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Custom Designed Pod Skins

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:10 PM | Permalink

Get an iPod as a gift recently? Then you might want to check out this line of unique artist designs for decorative cases. PodSkinz are made of scratch resistant plastic, quite thin, and formed to the shape of the iPod. They are far superior to a sticker, wrap or "Tattoo". Check out the PodSkinz at www.macskinz.com

Lexar USB Flash Drive

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:01 PM | Permalink

At 12 millimeters wide by 4.5 millimeters high, this Lexar flash drive is uber tiny. You really can't get much smaller than this -- these drives are no larger than the ports that they connect to. Lexar hasn't revealed when the flash drive will be available to the public . . .

Bad Guys Break Into Wrong House, Apologize, Go Next Door

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:18 PM | Permalink

Chaos in the Courts

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 2:54 PM | Permalink

"Constitutional Chaos" is a new book that recounts numerous horrifying stories of abuse of regular citizens by the government. The terrorists are not only abroad. Some work for your government.

, Constitutional Chaos : What Happens When the
Government Breaks Its Own Laws

by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Judge Napolitano reviews the dangers of the Patriot Act, which allows government official to write "self-written" search warrants, which means there is no judicial review of the search warrant. That means, that any FBI agent with a bug up his butt can search your home or apartment, without a judge's review and approval for probable cause. That violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. It also states that a person who is subject to such a search may not tell anyone about it, including a wife, friend or lawyer. That violates the First Amendment.

For other chapters, Judge Napolitano relates how he sat in his courtroom as police officers committed perjury, produced fake evidence and entrapped suspects into committing crimes that they would never have even thought of were it not for the police. He saw prosecutors bribe witnesses, lie to suspects to trick them into confessing and use material witness warrants as licenses to kidnap suspects and hold them indefinitely.

All in all what Napolitano saw was America's government breaking its own laws in the attempt to enforce the law and the justification was that rights were not inalienable but merely "gifts" from the state and hence, could be ignored by the agents of the state in the performance of their duties.

The author is not content to show abuse in the simple non-political cases but goes on to far more controversial topics.

In a completely non-partisan way he attacks Attorney General John Ashcroft for shredding the Fourth and Fifth Amendments with the same gusto that he displays while excoriating Janet Reno for the Waco slaughter and clearly demonstrating that both attorneys general hold individual rights in contempt.

Don't believe the political hacks from both parties who will attack "Constitutional Chaos", this book is the most important one on the state of American liberty to appear in many, many years.

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Janet Jackson: The Most-Searched Boob (er, celebrity) on the Web

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 3:16 PM | Permalink

Janet Jackson and her wardrobe malfunctions was the top web search topic of 2004, according to Lycos. Although Janet Jackson and her peek-a-poo breast held the number one spot on "The Lycos 50" for only two weeks, she generated more search activity in those two weeks than any other search topic, making her the top search of 2004. The search for Jackson's exposure was more popular than the combined searches for Paris Hilton and Britney Spears .

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If you're crying over Kerry (still)

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

And are still asking why John Kerry lost the election, you can mull over the cultural and lifestyle differences separated Kerry from the average American. An article by John Ellis discusses 5 reasons why Kerry lost the election.

As for lifestyle, the author nailed it by pointing out, "Pick your poison: wind-surfing and windsurfing outfits, snow-boarding outfits, $8000 bicycles, the daughter's (see-through) dress at Cannes, Teresa, Nantucket." In short, it's a life of privilege few Americans can relate to. Even the Kennedys did a better job at trying to look average.

, Americans don't want a representative who has an eight-figure bank account, has a perfectly bleached smile, botoxed and tan-from-a-bottle orange skin, with a pound and a half of gel combed into his scalp and a shiny black Rolls Royce parked in the garage of one of his multi-million dollar summer houses. They didn't want a leader who says he sympathizes with the plight of the middle and lower class. What they want is a leader from the middle or lower class.

John Kerry tried to attract everyone by pretending to be everyone. Did voters see through the staged goose hunt? ("Can I get me a huntin' license here?" Nice diction, Yale man.) Of course they did. Same with his sports fan pretense. He misnamed Red Sox star players and mispronounced Lambeau Field. The "Lambert" Field gaff will be talked about in Wisconsin for years.

But Kerry didn't lose it all on his own. The Democratic Party did Kerry no favors by giving Michael Moore celebrity status at the Convention in Boston. Michael Moore, PiDiddy, billionaire George Soros and similar detractors were like anchors weighing Kerry down.

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PlayStation Portable Almost Here

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 2:43 PM | Permalink

PlayStation's first contribution to the handheld market is striking fear into its competitors. The PSP comes equipped with Sony's new Universal Media Disc, which can store up to 1.8G of both game and video data. The PSP is a great portable, and the USB and wireless LAN connections make it perfect for online gaming.

The PSP is already available in Japan, and of course, on eBay. It will be officially released in North America in this spring.

Mischa Barton plans to learn defensive driving, carpentry . . .

Posted by Fara Kearnes at 7:40 PM | Permalink

The OC star Mischa Barton has big plans for 2005 - she hopes to learn how to drive and buy her first home.

The actress admits she's looking for a "fixer upper" home in Los Angeles, so that renovating it can become her hobby when she's not working. She says, "Every place my family and I have ever lived in is a fixer-upper. In New York, we bought a loft space that was in a factory and converted it into a real loft. In London, we pretty much built the whole house."

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