curiosity killed the monkey.

Man convicted of brutally murdering 'Curious George' writer




A jury convicted a man Tuesday of killing Alan Shalleck, who collaborated with the co-creator of "Curious George" to bring the mischievous monkey to TV and a series of book sequels.

The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before convicting Vincent Puglisi of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.

Puglisi's co-defendant, Rex Ditto, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery with a weapon in 2007. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Shalleck had 83 blunt force injuries and more than three dozen stab wounds, including to the abdomen, neck and groin, an autopsy revealed.

Shalleck was the writer and director of more than 100 short episodes of "Curious George," which aired on the Disney Channel, and co-wrote a series of books with Margret Rey, who created the mischievous monkey with her husband more than 60 years ago.


Via CNN

George you will be missed....

May 12,1937-June 22,2008



Grammy winning comedian died sunday, at age 71, of heart failure. He had a long history of heart problems.

George had a great career lasting more than 50 yrs. He had 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, 3 best selling books, and had been on a few TV shows and many movies.

I will miss laughing at you Gearge and I know many will. Rest in Peace.

lets have one more laugh. This is one of my favs.



Via Respectance

Newt, what the fuck are you talking about?

I was sitting around my house today with nothing to do. I turned on the news like I always do. BORING! I'm so tired of hearing about the floods. Don't get me wrong i'm not that cold hearted. I just belive there is more going on in the world than a replay of Noah's ark.

So I turn on my computer and go to my favorite blog brickbat. Always very informative and very funny. Today He had a video of Chuck Norris Talking about drilling for more oil in america.

Ok, anything with Chuck Norris in it I have to watch. So I did. As always very funny, but it got me thinking. How much money will we really save if we really do drill in America more. So i starting Googling. The very first site I pulled up was humanevents.com. A conservative site. Well since they are leading the "lets drill America" campaign, I thought they must have some real numbers on how we will save at the pump. No.

Instead, their site sends me to an article that crazy old Newt Gingrich wrote for them. I thought Jimmy Carter could ramble on and on and on about nothing important. Nope we have a new king, King Gingrich of Ramble.

Remember, all I wanted was some numbers.

The title of his article is Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less. It should have been let me bash the liberals in Congress for "voting to block environmentally sound production of U.S. energy in favor of continuing to be held hostage to oil from foreign dictatorships." That's his words by the way.

He starts off by telling us that the liberals voted for a $150 billion tax increase. "They voted to make your next trip to the gas station more expensive; to make your next airplane ticket more expensive; to make heating your home more expensive -- even to make feeding your family more expensive."

Yet still no numbers of how much money we will save if we drill more in America. That is all I'm looking for.

"My Dad, Your Dad, and the Importance of History". That the next segment in his article. What does that have to do with drilling in America? FUCKING NOTHING! That's what.

He goes on to talk about how his dad was a career army officer. Not an oil man, so once again nothing to do with oil or gas prices.

"When I was fifteen, Dad took me to visit the battlefield at Verdun, in France. It was the bloodiest battle of World War I, one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century. As I came to understand the tremendous destructiveness of the battle -- and the distinct possibility that its outcome could have been different -- I knew that I would devote the rest of my life to standing between civilization and the madness of places like Verdun."

What the fuck does that have to do with the price of gas? Nothing!

Newt's next segment. "A Vote That Would Make a Difference in People's Lives". Ok i think to myself this must be the part where he talks about the price of gas and oil and how much less we will pay for both. Close, but no.

He talks about the price of oil and how much it has gone up. His real agenda is putting blame on the liberals in congress.

"Who's to blame for our high gas prices? The oil companies? The Saudis? OPEC? The answer, unfortunately, is closer to home: The "No-We-Can't" Left in Congress."

He goes on to talk about the magical 1 trillion barrels of oil trapped in shale in the U.S. and Canada. GREAT, but how much less am I going to pay at the pump old man ramble?

Now get this...the next segment in his article is titled "Saudi Arabia Did More Last Week to Lower Gas Prices Than Congress Did". WOW! How about you put that wrap you have on your head (oh wait thats your hair) and move your old ass to Saudi Arabia. Damn, why not just piss on the American flag next?

"The Left just doesn't seem to get it. They spent much of last week ridiculing the President for visiting Saudi Arabia in an effort to lower oil prices."

The left understands that it's not important to suck a Saudi's ass to get lower oil prices. They understand it's important to look for alternative energy sources. Sources that does not make us have to skip through a garden holding hands with some smelly Saudi. I sure hope the President washed his hands after that.

Yet, I digress. Back to old man ramble.

"While liberals were voting to prevent domestic production from oil shale, the Saudis, following President Bush's visit, agreed to boost their oil output by 300,000 barrels a day. It won't fix the problem, but at least it won't make it worse, which is exactly what liberals in Congress did last week."

How is that going to lower the gas prices? We are still going to pay the same price for the oil. We are just buying more now. Way to lower the prices.

Oh, speaking of lowering the gas prices...HOW MUCH LESS AM I GOING TO PAY AT THE PUMP IF WE DRILL MORE IN AMERICA? Still no answer.

The next segment " The Left's Answer: More Pain, Not More Production". Pointless. Absolutely nothing for me to talk about there. He should have never waisted his time on that one.

Next segment "Change Jimmy Carter Can Believe In". What? I thought we were talking about oil and gas prices.

"We can't tell [other countries], don't grow. We can't -- drive our SUVs and you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on you know, 72 degrees at all times, and whether we're living in the desert or we're living in the tundra, and then just expect that every other country's going to say OK." ,Obama.

"First, I'm used to my doctor telling me I can't eat as much as I want, but it sounds eerie coming from a politician. Is the "No We Can't" Left planning to ban the buffet line as well?"

Come on old man ramble. Food? I thought we were talking about gas. I know I was talking about gas. Remember, my question was how much less are we going to pay at the pump not at the buffet. Why do old people's minds always wander to coffee and biscuits or buffets?

Now he tries to tell us that the energy shortage is not permanent. Like it wasn't in the '70's. Ok so the price of gas went down a little but it never returned to the way it should have. He goes as far as calling the energy shortage "an artificial creation of stupid government policies."

I think old man ramble forgot the title of his article. Lets remind him: "Drill Here, Drill Now, Payless."

What does any of what he wrote have to do with that title and will someone please tell me how much less i will pay at the pump and do you think its worth sucking smelly Saudi ass to get it?

LET THE GAYS MARRY!!!!!

Phyllis Lyon ,83, right, kisses her partner Del Martin, 87, after being married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a special ceremony at City Hall in San Francisco, Monday, June 16, 2008. Lyon and Martin became the first officially married same sex couple after California's Supreme Court declared gay marriage legal. Newsom picked the couple for the only ceremony Monday in City Hall to recognize their 55-year relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement.

"I'm tired of checking the single box," said Danielle Lemay, 34, who picked up a marriage license in Woodland with her partner, Angie Hinrichs. "I feared I'd be checking that my whole life."

"We're glad that we're living in this time when history is being made," said Sandy Mills, an Oakland physician who was getting married to her partner of nine years, Mar Stevens, an employee of the county district attorney's office.

Unlike Massachusetts, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, California has no residency requirement for marriage licenses. Many couples are expected to head west to wed.

"We might wait a long time in Tennessee, so this is our chance," said Robert Blaudow, of Memphis. He and his partner, Derek Norman, 23, decided to get married at the Alameda County clerk's office late Monday while they were in the San Francisco Bay Area for a conference.

“I didn’t have an equal marriage, so why wear it on the same hand that everyone else wears theirs?” Greenbaum, 37, said in an interview during the weekend, before he traveled to California. “Now I’m going to start wearing it on my left hand because, at least in California, I will have a marriage equal to everyone else’s.”

Via The Kansas city star

Tim Russert dies at 58

Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after suffering a heart attack at the bureau.

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” broadcast when he collapsed. He was rushed to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, where resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and Washington, D.C.

In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of NBC’s TODAY show from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television.

Russert wrote two books — “Big Russ and Me” in 2004 and “Wisdom of Our Fathers” in 2006.

He was “one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time,” Tom Brokaw, the former longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in announcing Russert’s death Friday afternoon. Brian Williams, managing editor and anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” called his death a “staggering, overpowering and sudden loss.”

“This is a tragic loss for journalism and for all who were privileged to know him,” said Walter Cronkite, the retired anchor and managing editor of ”The CBS Evening News.”

Earlier this year, Time magazine named Russert one of the 100 most influential people in the world.



Tim, I here at PETERPAN will miss you. You were a great man and sunday will never be the same with out you. Every sunday i would wake-up to the sound of your voice on my t.v. Thank you for all the great years. Rats off to ya Tim.

Via msnbc

Katie Couric just doesn't get it

Katie, I here at PETERPAN just want to let you know that Hillary did not lose the race because she was bashed for being a woman. She lost the race becase she was not the best candidate. That is not my opinion. Its the opinion of the democrats that made it out of their house to vote. Obama was bashed for being black, muslim, and a christian that hated whites. He had many more odds against him and yet he came out victorious. Maybe she should have ran a better campaign.
This has been PETERPAN. Now back to you Katie.

Video via brickbat

Mccain's women center...funny but oh so true

Via brickbat

Little Sioux Scout Ranch

A tornado ripped through a boy scout ranch in iowa tonight. There were 93 boy scouts, between 13 and 18 yr old, staying the week at the ranch when the tornado touched down killing 4 and injuring 20 others.

Via CNN

The scouts who died.



Sam Thomsen, 13, of Omaha.
"He’s just a great kid," said Dr. Jim White, pastor of Southwest Church of Christ, where the Thomsen family are longtime members. "He was a typical teenager, always has a smile on his face. He was just a joy to be around."




Josh Fennen, 13, of Omaha. "His mind was always working," Alfrey said. "He was always finding something new to do, something to experiment with."




Aaron Eilerts, 14, of Eagle Grove, Iowa. "He was the kindest kid you could ever meet," said Dawn Sievertsen, principal of Robert Blue Middle School in Eagle Grove, Iowa. "He went above and beyond to be a contributing member of the community."




Ben Petrzilka, 14, of Omaha. "I can tell you so many wonderful things about this kid," Principal Kayleen Wallace said. "He always gave it his best effort ... It is a very devastating loss to the school."

Via Omaha World-Herald

Special graduation gift

Sen. Dianne Feinstein gives Arthur a special gift for Graduation. She introduced a bill that will allow him to stay in America longer. It may not pass but it will give them more time to go to the U.S. Senate and plea their case.


Via FresnoBee

Lets not forget a great man.

Robert F Kennedy November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968

Red sox vs Devil Rays

SORRY AMERICA BUT MLB TOOK THIS VIDEO OFF SO PEOPLE LIKE YOU COULD NOT SEE THE TRUTH. NICE TRY MLB. WE ALL STILL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.

In one corner we have the delicious Coco Crisp and in the other the hard hitting James Shields.

"I protected my own players and that's what we need to do around here," Shields said. "We've been getting stomped around the last 10 years and it isn't going to happen anymore. I had to let them know early and let them know right away."


"I charged the mound. (Shields) tried to hit me with a punch," Crisp said. "I'm not upset at all. We fought. That's all it is. There were some cheap shots there. (Carl) Crawford came sliding in. I don't know why he was pulling hair, scratching. After that it was three, four guys on one."

Via chicagotribune

DNC will no longer accept money from lobbyists

Barack Obama lets Howard Dean stay as chairman but will not let DNC take anymore donations from lobbyists and political action committees.

Via AP

Smoltz's 3000th Strikeout

The legend in action.

Smoltz to have season-ending shoulder surgery

John Smoltz can longer play this season because of his right shoulder. This is a sad day for me and many other Braves fans. John is the only pitcher in history with 200 wins and 150 saves. John may not be able to ever return to baseball as pitcher.

via AP

Funny Stuff

via brickbat

Mccain, is he the one to decide on marriage?

Arriving back in the United States in 1973, McCain faced not only his own lingering injuries but also those that his wife had sustained in an automobile accident in 1969. After nine months of intensive physical therapy, he was reinstated to flight status. While stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, he was instrumental in turning around the performance of a Corsair squadron.

His marriage did not recover so well. McCain has admitted to “selfishness and immaturity” and has attributed the breakup of his marriage to his own misdeeds. He has even gone out of his way to exempt Vietnam from any blame. “The blame was entirely mine,” he said.

McCain had already met and romanced, while still married to Shepp, the woman who would be his second wife — Cindy Lou Hensley, seventeen years his junior, the only child of a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix.10 Cindy’s father, Jim Hensley, had been a World War II pilot, shot down over the English Channel. In 1955 he formed his company, Hensley & Co., now the country’s sixth-largest beer distributorship. Cindy had gone from cheerleader to rodeo queen to graduate student at University of South Carolina by the time she met McCain in 1979. A year later, McCain and his first wife were granted a divorce; six weeks later, McCain married Cindy

Via brickbat

OBAMA DOMS NOM

Senator Barack Obama becomes first black man to take the Democratic nomination last night.

via brickbat and ap

Armenian valedictorian to be deported

Arthur Mkoyan, a 4.0 valedictorian, at Bullard High School in Fresno is being deported. He and his mom came to America via the old Soviet Union back in 1992. His mom wanted nothing more than to become an American citizen and for her son Arthur to have a good life and a good education.

Now here in America and out of the repression of the Soviet Union, it looked as her dreams would come true. Not so. The appeals for asylum ran out this year. Arthur and his mom will be forced to go back to Armenia. A country that he has not seen since he was 2 yrs old. He can not even understand the language when it is spoken to him.

"Hopefully, I can somehow stay here and continue my studies here," he said. "It would be hard if I go back."

A plea from a scared yet hopeful young man.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has allowed Arthur and his mother to stay until june 20th. Arthur will now be able to graduate and walk with his class.

"Our goal is to enforce these court orders for deportations," Virginia Kice from U.S. Immigrations said. But "if they come to us and they fully intend to respect the court order, we will work with them."

"There's something very wrong with the immigration laws when our government is deporting our best students," said Mark Silverman, director of immigration policy at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or better known as "The Dream Act" was a proposed piece of legislation sent to both the house of representatives and the senate many times. This act would allow high-achieving, long term illegals to stay in America to attend collage or join the military. It never passed.

As the stands now, children brought here by their parents can not obtain citizenship alone. It must be through their parents or they must be sent back to their home country. They have no garruntee that they will ever return with citizenship. The ones that do must go through a very long process that can take up to 10 yrs.

Arthur does not have 10 yrs to wait. His future is now. He has already applied and been accepted to the University of California. He would like to get a degree in chemistry and later become a dentist or pharmacist.

"Arthur Mkoyan represents another reason why Congress needs to pass the Dream Act," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said. "It is in our nation's interest to provide talented students the incentive to take this path toward being responsible and law-abiding members of our society."

Even though he would be allowed to come back on a student visa. He would have to go back to his country, where he would apply for the visa and wait to be accepted or denied. This whole process has made his and his family's life extremely hard.

"I can't really concentrate on my studies. It's hard to focus, I'm still keeping my grade-point average high,"

Many of his school mates are holding their breath, wanting their fellow student to stay here in America and become a U.S. citizen.

Stop the fighting! Start the uniting!

I fell in love with the Democratic party when i was in my teens. In the days of old Slick Willy. Everything in my life and the lives of people around me just smelled great. Of course we had our problems, but nothing like now.

Now, I am very disappointed with my first love. I feel as if i never really knew who the democratic party was. Everything I knew growing up seems like a dumb young boy's dream of what the world should be.

I always thought that everyone should treat others with respect and dignity. I never imagined that we would attack someone for their beliefs. I never thought we would come after someone just for the coloration of their skin or because they are a woman.

We have spent many many year under the republican party. Many of them being some of the worst years I have seen in my life time. Now we have the best chance to take back the Whitehouse in 8 years and all we can do is yell and argue with one another. We should be throwing parties everyday knowing we soon will be out from under Bush. We should be united. One party one idea. Instead we are fighting with ourselves. I'm sure if the Democratic party was a real person we would be diagnosed with some sort of psychosis.

One of the worst things I have heard from my fellow democrats is "If my candidate does not get the nomination I am going to vote for John Mccain." What a stupid fucking idea. Sorry, excuse my language. Ignorant thinking like that really pisses me off. Let's not forget we all want the same thing. That is for OUR PARTY to take back the country. It's time to get our heads out of our asses and remember what is important. It's not the person its the idea.

Democrats, lets remember what it was like to happy and free. Its time to unite. I beg of you stop fighting with yourself and start fighting the real fight. The fight against injustice. The fight for what is right for every man, woman, and child. The fight for equality.

I know you dont want to tell your children and your grandchildren the world is the way it is today because mommy and daddy could not stop fighting long enough to do anything about it. Sorry we could not look past our own ideas to see the whole picture. I'm sorry we cared about ourselves more than we did you and your future. I'm sorry we could not see that we are not just a woman or we are not just black that we are all the same. Sorry you can't get health care. I'm sorry you cant marry who you want. I'm sorry you have to be drafted. I just thought it was more important for me to vote Republican than to vote for what I knew was right.

The party has already destroyed this boy's dream. Lets not do it to any other young boys and girls growing up today. Let preserve that dream. The American dream.

Stop the fighting! Start the uniting!