A junior high school band member on the cymbals has new found fame after his instrument fails mid-show and the video goes viral.
His new found fame comes not because of the cymbal that falls apart in his hand, instead it’s his recovery that has people watching, sharing and talking.
It’s like we have our very own war going on right here in America. And the NRA and Republicans in Congress are doing everything possible to keep things that way.
More than ten years ago, in March of 2003, American-led forces began their invasion of Iraq. Since then, 4,409 American service members died in the Iraq War.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, by contrast, occurred less than six months ago. As of this writing, according to data published by Slate, 4,539 people have been killed by guns in the United States.
Parents of Sandy Hook massacre victims are petitioning the state of Connecticut to prevent the public release of graphic photos and audio taken of the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
“We feel very strongly that we need to protect that scene,” said Nicole Hockley, who lost her 6-year-old son Dylan in the shooting rampage. “Once these images are on the internet they are out there forever and I don’t want my 8-year-old son to see these photos of his brother’s corpse when he is older.”
Nicole and her husband Ian Hockley, Mark and Jackie Barden, and Jimmy Greene and Nelba Marquez-Greene filed the petition on the website www.change.org on June 1. They are all parents of children who were murdered when Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 children six adults.
h/t – ABCNEWS
Kristin Beck, formerly Chris, penned her story of going from an elite Navy SEAL to a woman in the book “Warrior Princess.” (“Warrior Princess”/Advanced Press)
A former member of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs has come out to say she’s now a woman.
Kristin Beck, formerly Chris, served 20 years as a SEAL and fought on some of the most dangerous battlefields in the world, but after she left the service she realized she wasn’t living the life she wanted.
“Chris really wanted to be a girl and felt that she was a girl and consolidated that identity very early on in childhood,” said Anne Speckhard, co-author of Beck’s biography “Warrior Princess,” which was published over the weekend. Speckhard told ABC News Beck suppressed that secret for decades, however, through the trials of SEAL training and the harrowing missions that followed, growing a burly beard as she fought on the front lines of American special operations.
Brandon Webb, a former SEAL who served on a different SEAL team than Beck, said that Beck’s reputation in the SEALs was a good one and said she was, by all appearances, the “consummate guy’s guy.”
But the book says that Chris “had considered living as the woman he felt himself to be for a very long time, but while he was serving as a SEAL he couldn’t do it.”
h/t – ABCNEWS
Robin Thicke’s new single has sold 190,000 copies during its first week’s release in the UK making the tune the fastest selling single of the year.
and rightfully so…
This Blurred Lines collaboration with Pharrell and T.I. is perfect for the upcoming summer BBQ and backyard party jams. I caught Thicke’s new song earlier today on the radio waves and I’ve been playing this infectiously smooth dance jam ever since.
I am a huge fan of Thicke, Pharrell, and T.I., so I think this collaboration is quite a tasty one.
The song will no doubt remind you of Marvin Gaye’s classic beat, Got To Give It Up — Another perfect summer jam.
Have a listen and don’t be afraid to get up and dance a little. C’mon, Everybody Get Up!
If you’re living in Maryland that is. The former Republican National Committee Chair is actively considering a run for the governorship.
“We’re looking at it,” Steele told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Monday. “You’re going take a look at the numbers. Maryland’s a tough state, there are a lot of challenges there.”
It’s the second such comment Steele has made recently. Last week, The Daily Caller reported on a radio interview in which Steele said he was “looking at it.”
“I’m looking at it,” Steele said on WMAL radio. “We’ll see what the numbers tell us.”
Maryland’s present governor, Martin O’Malley, is widely viewed as a potential Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. He will have reached his term limit in 2014.
Steele is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland. In 2006 he lost a Senate race to Ben Cardin (D), who was reelected in 2012.
Steele had a rocky term as RNC chairman, with the organization frequently producing negative headlines about lavish spending. He lost his chairmanship to Reince Priebus in 2011, despite overseeing massive Republican gains in the 2010 election cycle.
33-year-old Kentucky K-9 police officer Jason Ellis of Bardstown, Kentucky ended his shift Saturday, May 25th but continued to serve and was killed in a suspected ambush. During Ellis’ funeral his canine partner, Figo, said goodbye by placing his paw on Ellis’ closed casket. This picture, taken by photographer Jonathan Palmer, is currently being shared throughout the world.
Figo Places His Paw On Jason Ellis’ Casket
The Big Three (From left to right: Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and Lebron James) were meant to be dominate for years to come
In today’s world of basketball a superstar cannot take his team to the Finals, or even deep into the playoffs for that matter, anymore. No longer will we see superstars like Allen Iverson take a cap strapped and D-League talent team into the Finals. In today’s basketball world it takes two superstars and one star to carry a team into the playoffs, that is what we know as “The Big Three”. The Spurs have Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobli and we’ve seen the Celtics have their own in Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. None though were ever as feared than Miami’s Big Three in superstars Dwayne Wade and Lebron James coupled with the star power in Chris Bosh. Around those core three a full team was built and made to win, no not just win, but to dominate the National Basketball League for years to come. Why then are the Miami Heat one game away from elimination? One game away from throwing away a season where the Miami Heat earned 66 wins and an almost record breaking 27 game win streak; One game away from what was suppose to be years of dominance being thrown away.
Rather the less famous of the Miami’s Big Three is Power Forward Chris Bosh
While Chris Bosh is not a superstar, he is easily the most important role player on the Miami Heat. His first two seasons in Miami he’s averaged around 18 PPG and around 8 RPG. In this series with Indiana though he’s come up small, so small he might as be invisible. His numbers suggest he’s in a slump (11.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and shooting 41.1%) and he’s even admitted he’s just not feeling his normal self. Granted Bosh is battling an ankle “injury” it can’t be that serious seeing how he has started all the games in the playoffs and only against Indiana has he really fallen off.
The Heat use to be Dwayne Wade’s team before Lebron
Oh the once athletic and high flying Dwayne Wade has started to show the wear and tear of playing basketball the way he does. We all knew Wade was hurting with his chronic knee problems but we never knew the extent of it until this series. His play vs Indiana has shown him miss open shots, easy lay ups, and just not the superstar caliber play we’ve seen Wade play with his entire career; he’s averaging only 14.0 points per game, a post season career low for him. Dwayne has been quoted by saying that the Heat cannot win with Lebron James playing hero ball and that James needs to trust the team and play the way the Heat did to win their last title.
The King is poised to either rise above the rest or watch the “Big Three” era crumble
Tonight all eye’s will be on Wade, James, and Bosh. Will we see a resurgence in Dwayne Wade’s ability to play like he use to? Will we see Bosh become that perfect complimentary piece to James and Wade? If those two continue to hide in the shadows when the spot light is on them, we can all safely say that the era of Miami’s “Big Three” is over and that King James now stands alone in his court.
A New Jersey father who made headlines after naming his son ‘Adolf Hitler’ has marched in to a court wearing a Nazi uniform.
Heath Campbell, 40, from Holland Township, gained national attention back in 2008 when a store refused to put his son’s name on a birthday cake.
Campbell has since become estranged from his wife, Deborah, after their children were put into foster care in 2011. He was at the Hunterdon County Family Court in Flemington fighting for the right to visit his youngest son, Heinrich Hons Campbell, 2.
“I’m going to tell the judge, I love my children. I want to be a father, let me be it,” Campbell told NBC10 outside court.
“Let me prove to the world that I am a good father.”
Campbell has reportedly worn his Nazi garb, including swastika patches, arm bands and a moustache in the style of Adolf Hitler’s since forming the hate group group “Hitler’s Order” a year ago. He was accompanied to court today by a woman, also wearing Nazi insignia, said to be a member of the group.
The New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services also has custody of Campbell’s three other children – Adolf Hitler Campbell, 7, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 6, and 5-year-old Honzlynn Jeannie Campbell.
The children were taken into care after alleged violence and neglect in the family home. Heinrich Hons was taken by authorities 16 hours after his birth in November 2011 but his father denies any wrongdoing.
Frank Lautenberg, a self-made multimillionaire businessman who became a leading liberal in the U.S. Senate and championed smoking bans, gun control, airline safety and rail transportation, died on Monday at 89, an aide said.
Lautenberg, who was the Senate’s last surviving World War II veteran, died from complications of viral pneumonia, the aide said. His office said in February 2010 that he had been diagnosed with cancer and would have chemotherapy and that June he said he had recovered completely.
A co-founder, former chairman and chief executive of the payroll services company Automatic Data Processing, he was elected as a Democrat by New Jersey voters to five six-year terms in the Senate.
He was first elected in 1982, running after incumbent Democrat Harrison Williams quit in a bribery scandal.
Lautenberg retired from the Senate in 2000, saying he was tired of chasing campaign contributions. But in 2002 he came out of political retirement at age 78, filling the seat of Robert Torricelli who dropped his re-election bid amid corruption charges involving improper gifts from a businessman.
Lautenberg was re-elected in 2008 at age 84.
“Almost as soon as I announced my retirement I had pangs of regret,” Lautenberg told The New York Times in 2002. “There’s an old Irish saying that describes my philosophy well: ‘To rest is to rot.'”
Lautenberg had numerous legislative accomplishments. A former smoker, he convinced Congress to bar smoking on domestic airline flights and in federal buildings. He was a strong supporter of gun control and author of a 1996 law prohibiting people convicted of domestic abuse from having guns.
For years a leader on transportation subcommittees, Lautenberg obtained funds for Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, and for New Jersey’s commuter railroad to enable it to expand its network. A key rail station on the Northeast Corridor rail line was named in his honor.
He wrote the law that required U.S. states to set 21 as the drinking age as a condition of getting federal highway aid, a move he said had saved tens of thousands of lives.
They can stand and face a 105 mph fastball, but last night, the macho men of the New York Yankees and Boston Redsox players huddled and cuddled together in their respective dugout, jumping like chickens as a storm passed by.
Especially energetic in his response was Brett Gardner of the Yankees, who almost jumped out of his skin in fear, trying to take cover.
This is one for the ages.
It shouldn’t have taken a report like this to uncover what’s wrong with the Republican Party, but now that it’s been released, it would be great if the power brokers on the right will heed its call. The problem is that this is the other major American political party and their dysfunction is having a profound effect on our political life. Their obstruction has robbed us of a robust economic recovery from a downturn that they planted the seeds for, with Democratic help in many cases, and their lack of identifiable, fair, economically feasible ideas caused the sequester and downgrade of United States’ securities.
But there’s more. Here’s a summary of how young people see the Republican Party on some of the issues of the day.
Gay marriage: “On the ‘open-minded’ issue … [w]e will face serious difficulty so long as the issue of gay marriage remains on the table.”
Hispanics: “Latino voters … tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.”
Perception of the party’s economic stance: “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”
Big reason for the image problem: The “outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices.”
Words that up-for-grabs voters associate with the GOP: “The responses were brutal: closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”
How many national elections do you think the right can win with perceptions like these? We can ask President Hillary after 2025.
The truth is that most people in this country are trending leftward. Not in overwhelming numbers and not by leaps and bounds, but it is happening. Marriage equality will be the law in significantly more states over the next ten years and the health care law will result in broader insurance coverage, technological improvements in health delivery, and a system that encourages and rewards innovation and cost-cutting.
If you were a young adult in 1985, you know how much the country has changed since then politically, economically and culturally. Imagine what the United States will be like in 2035 after an era of expanded equality, more access for more people to the nation’s wealth, less expensive higher education opportunities and a fairer tax code.
Yes, we will have our problems and we could become enmeshed in any number of foreign conflicts (we will get involved in Syria somehow. Mark my words.) and will have our share of domestic disturbances. But if the GOP can reform itself and make the party more responsive to what we need to improve the country, then we will all benefit.
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