The Raging Russell Adventure Race.

I did my first adventure race on Saturday. It was 7 hours and 40 minutes of running, paddling, biking, bee stings, face plants, mudholes, and flat tires. The story is long, but you can read it here.

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Media Whores Online talks about Jeb!

This is just a sweet little story about good old Jeb Bush, brother of our President and Governor of Florida. Turns out that Jeb is planning to do some devious stuff to sink education reforms he promised to the taxpayers who voted for him. He wants to kill the reforms so that it looks like it was not his choice or fault. He would rather hold taxes down for his wealthy buddies. Fortunately, he did not realize that he was being recorded when he discussed these matters with north Florida legislators. He is now trying to back off the statements saying he was being sarcastic, but it did not sound like that on the tape.

Story, a good link to more information, and a link to the audio file are at Media Whores Online.

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Talking Points Memo has some interesting information about the New Jersey Ballot court battle going on.

It seems the Republican nominee, Douglas Forrester, was allowed to take the position of James Treffinger on the primary ballot 40 days before the primary election. Another candidate tried unsuccessfully to keep him off the ballot because of the same law under review now. Only that time Forrester and the Republicans were arguing the exact same argument as the Democrats now.

This perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy in the Republican Party. In one election they are arguing two sides of the very same law.

More information can be found at the New York Times article that first reported the Republicans troubling flip flop on election law.

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Turner South decides to televise two good ol' country boys so that everybody in the country thinks southerners are all still hicks.

Turner South will start televising the country style Birmingham radio duo "Rick & Bubba." A made for radio pair, they describe themselves as:

"[T]he two sexiest fat men alive."

Rick still sports what looks like a small mullet, so that assessment will have to be left up to the viewers.

"Rick & Bubba" is actually the top rated show in many of their 23 syndicated markets across the southeast, although none in Atlanta. They have an easygoing, non-edgy country style to their humor. Many people thought their heavy accents would hold them back in radio, but they seem to have worked around that. Will their show work on TV? We will see.

The crematory operator that didn't cremate bodies feels persecuted.

Tri-State Crematory operator Ray Brent Marsh, currently out on bond for failing to cremate 339 bodies, had shots fired outside his home Saturday night. Needless to say, many people are very bitter about Marsh's crimes, and there have been many death threats.

Marsh's attorney has now asked for police protection whenever his client has to leave his home. A judge has previously turned down requests for police protection. Many families who paid to have their loved ones cremated by Marsh would prefer that he did not get police protection.

I have to wonder if Marsh has requested to be cremated after his death?

Deer population surges at local park.

While I am not a hunter, and could only shoot a deer if all the Krogers closed down and I had no other way to get food, I do realize that some hunting is good. With the deer population getting near 70-90 deer a square mile at Red Top Mountain State Park- the ideal being 10-20- the forest has been stripped bare. Many other animals that should be living there, no longer are. The deer are hungry, and if the population continues to increase there could be some starvation issues. They have no place to migrate.

While there will be protest from animal rights activist should hunting become allowed at the park, there are some other problems that need to be looked at. The surrounding area is heavily developed, perhaps too much to allow hunting with firearms. They may need to allow only bow hunting, or bring in skilled sharpshooters.

The bottom line is that this will be a sensitive issue. I do not like the idea of the deer being hunted, but I like the idea of them starving to death even less.

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