Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Teacher in crack over butt art
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 12, 10:58 PM ET

RICHMOND, Va. - To hear the students tell it, Stephen Murmer is a fun, popular art teacher who is always quick to crack a joke. But there is another side to Murmer. A side that has agitated school officials and resulted in his suspension. A side that focuses, almost entirely, on the crack in his backside.

Outside of class and under an alter ego, the self-proclaimed "butt-printing artist" creates floral and abstract art by plastering his posterior and genitals with paint and pressing them against canvas. His cheeky creations sell for hundreds of dollars.

This has not gone over well with Chesterfield County school officials, who placed Murmer on administrative leave from his job at Monacan High School.

Murmer contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia after he was suspended on Friday, ACLU legal director Rebecca Glenberg said. He told Glenberg that administrators had suspended him with pay for five days because of his work as a butt-print painter and that he also could face unpaid suspension pending an investigation.

Murmer has been instructed by the school administration not to speak with the media, Glenberg said. He did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Chesterfield County schools spokeswoman Debra Marlow confirmed that a Monacan art teacher had been placed on administrative leave but declined to provide additional details because it is a personnel issue. "In the school system, personnel regulations state that teachers are expected to set an example for students through their personal conduct," Marlow said. "Additionally, the Supreme Court has stated that schools must teach by example and that teachers, like parents, are role models."

Murmer went to great lengths to keep his work life separate from his activities as an artist, said ACLU executive director Kent Willis. As a butt-printing artist, he goes by the name "Stan Murmur," and appears in disguise in photographs and videos promoting his art. "As a public employee, he has constitutional rights, and he certainly has the right to engage in private legal activities protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution," Willis said.

A nearly naked Murmer expressed concern about remaining incognito during a 2003 appearance on the now-canceled cable television talk show, "Unscrewed With Martin Sargent." In a clip from the show, available on YouTube.com, Murmer dons a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head, a black thong — and nothing else. "I'm certainly proud of the ass painting," Murmer said in response to questions about his disguise. "I do have a real job where I do have real clients and I don't think they'd be too understanding if I was also the guy who painted with my ass."

That video has made the rounds at Monacan High, where the mere mention of Murmer's name was enough to elicit grins from students Tuesday. Most appeared to be firmly behind their teacher, describing his suspension as "stupid," "ignorant" and "kinda retarded."

"Everyone has been talking about it," senior Heather Thompson said with a laugh as she and other students streamed out of school.

Thompson, who worked with Murmer in the school's art club, said many students have known about his paintings for a few years, but the YouTube clip recently got everyone buzzing. She and other students described Murmer as a funny, likable and popular teacher. There is little support among the student body for his suspension, she said. "It was simply him expressing himself and his art, and it had nothing to do with school — he wasn't advertising," she said.

This is not the first time Murmer has faced potential problems because of his extracurricular activities. Three years ago, he contacted the ACLU after he was told school administrators were unhappy about his paintings, Willis said. The issue eventually blew over with no suspension issued, Willis said. It was unclear why administrators decided to take action now.

Owning a piece of Murmer's art doesn't come cheap. On his Web site, his creations run upward of $900. His most popular piece, "Tulip Butts," goes for $600.

So how does one become a butt-printing artist? On his Web site, Murmur said his journey began a few years ago when he was told to find an organic item to use as a stamp for a class painting assignment. He decided to use his posterior. His final product was a hit with the class and a butt painter was born.

He was, however, the only student not asked to hold up his organic stamp.

Teacher in crack over butt art - Yahoo! News

___

On the Net:

Butt Print Art: Butt-Printing Artist -* Stan Murmur © 1997,2000, 2001 and beyond

YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?vYXIL1VlVjD4

[Jolie Rouge]

Camel sacrifice, spray-on condom among 2006 oddities
By Erik Kirschbaum
Sun Dec 31, 8:32 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - From the Turkish Airline workers who sacrificed a camel at Istanbul airport to celebrate a job well done to the German who invented snug spray-on condoms, the world was full of offbeat news in 2006.

While "Miss Israel" Yael Nezri was exempted from carrying her assault rifle in the Israeli army because it bruised her beauty queen legs, "Mr. Switzerland" Renzo Blumenthal lured lonely women who hate soccer to his country for the World Cup.

Careless thieves once again made headlines round the world. A burglar in Germany left behind a vital clue -- his finger tip. "We usually find finger prints but it's not every day that the thieves leave the original there too," a police spokesman said. It took only a few hours to track down the thief.

A Jordanian salesman was arrested for trying to fleece a money exchanger with a fake ID card bearing a Brad Pitt picture.

In Vienna, burglars fled after finding eight severed human heads. A dentist had stored the mummified heads for research.

Village leaders in India ordered 150 men to dip their hands in boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen.

An Australian man stopped for drunk driving threatened police with a live snake he picked up off the road.

In Cologne, a plastic surgeon cheated out of payment by two women using fake names gave "Wanted" pictures of their enlarged breasts to police. "It's probably the most unusual 'wanted' poster police ever had," wrote top-selling Bild newspaper, which helpfully published life-size pictures of the boosted breasts.

There were tragic moments too. In Hanoi, a Vietnamese man famous on a national TV program for his ability to resist electric shocks was electrocuted while fixing a generator.

In Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian man died when he tried to open a rocket-propelled grenade with a sledgehammer.

STRANGE LOVE

The political year began with a bang when Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a friend on a quail hunt.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany sparked rioting by admitting he lied to win a general election.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie pretended to slap a cheeky teen-ager for a photograph but was questioned by police after child protection officers reported her.

In Bangkok, Thai coup leaders banned go-go girls from dancing near tanks and posing for photos with soldiers because they were distracting the troops.

Random acts of bad judgment in 2006 included: the Philadelphia man who pulled a gun on his 7-year-old son's football coach to demand more playing time; and in Koblenz, Germany, a woman who was caught driving her dead mother across country to save on mortuary transport costs.

Two women working at the German Labor Office got into trouble for writing emails at work moaning about their dull sex lives -- and sending the exchange to thousands of co-workers.

A pilot of Air Canada's Jazz subsidiary got locked out of the cockpit after stepping out to go to the washroom.

Three doctors in India were caught by a TV camera agreeing to amputate healthy limbs of beggars who wanted more sympathy.

Love had its strange moments too. Two prisoners in an Ivory Coast jail got married after falling in love through the peephole in an iron prison door.

And in Finland, a court ruled against a woman in her 20s who charged a 74-year-old man 25,500 euros ($32,000) to fondle her breasts on 10 occasions.

"Based on general life experience, it is indisputably clear that a 25,500 euro charge is disproportionate to the compensation in question," Judge Hasse Hakki told Reuters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061231/od_nm/year1_dc

[MIKAER]

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

exactly.

Why don't ya get a job delivering the pizzas ?

Because then the pizza parlor would be obligated to pay them in $$$$ for their employment. Instead of pizza as a paycheck.

[Jolie Rouge]

Missouri man reels in ancient fishhook
22 minutes ago


COLUMBIA, Mo. - A man hunting for American Indian artifacts with his sons along a gravel bar on the Missouri River has uncovered an ancient fishhook that is making collectors envious.

"The first thing I thought is, 'I hope this isn't metal,'" said Eric Henley, who found the hook last month near McBaine. "When I picked it up, there was a pretty good jump for joy and a couple of 'whoops' and yells. It's the cream of the crop."

The hook is made of bone and covers his entire palm, making it much larger than most bone hooks.

Joe Harl, of the Archaeological Research Center of St. Louis, said the size of the hook suggests the fisherman who used it was after a larger fish.

Another artifact collector, Kenny Bassett, said the large size of the hook might indicate an earlier origin. American Indians used bigger rocks and tools in earlier periods to hunt larger game such as wooly mammoths. He said the hook could have been used to fish for pallid sturgeon or enormous catfish.

Bassett, who works with Henley, said he had to control his envy when he saw the oversized hook.

"I've been hunting" American Indian artifacts "for 30 years and never found anything so identifiably unique. I've never seen anything like it," Bassett said.

Because bone matter deteriorates rapidly, bone artifacts typically have to be buried deep enough in the ground to be preserved. And they are usually found during archaeological digs, said Bill Iseminger, assistant site manager at Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site in Illinois.

Harl said sandier soil in spots along the river might have kept the hook preserved. He said the hook could be anywhere from 300 to 12,000 years old.

Henley, a maintenance man at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has no plans to learn the hook's exact age. Carbon dating the item would require drilling through the fragile bone, and he doesn't want to risk ruining the hook.

Henley credits his sons, 11 and 6, for being good-luck charms because he made the discovery on the first trip the boys had joined their dad for an artifact hunt.

"Now every time I go, they're going to be there."

___

Information from: Columbia Daily Tribune, http://www.columbiatribune.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070103/...cient_fishhook

[MIKAER]

Is that area protected?

[Jolie Rouge]

Robertson predicts 'mass killing'
Tue Jan 2, 6:29 PM ET

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in "mass killing" late in 2007.

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.

Robertson said God also told him that the U.S. only feigns friendship with Israel and that U.S. policies are pushing Israel toward "national suicide."

Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election. Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. He also predicted Bush's victory for a second term in 2005. "I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss."

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America's coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring's heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070102/...son_prediction

[Jolie Rouge]

8-foot alligator removed from basement
10 minutes ago

BUFFALO, N.Y. - An alligator raised in the basement of a house in Buffalo is headed to a new home in a more gator-friendly place, Florida.

A former Buffalo couple who operate a reptile sanctuary in Tampa removed the eight-foot-long gator from the Buffalo home yesterday. The person who owned the 170-pound reptile had contacted the state Department of Environmental Conservation and said he couldn't care for the gator any longer. A DEC officer checked out the gator and contacted Laura and John Paner, who run the Croc Encounters Reptile Sanctuary.

It's illegal to keep an alligator in New York state, but officials say the man who raised the gator won't face any charges because he turned himself in.

The man who owned the gator built an indoor pond in his basement. He also owns more than 20 lizards and large snakes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070618/...d5mL1WcPWs0NUE


hmmmm ... no cats ?

[Jolie Rouge]

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

Teacher in crack over butt art
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 12, 10:58 PM ET

RICHMOND, Va. - To hear the students tell it, Stephen Murmer is a fun, popular art teacher who is always quick to crack a joke. But there is another side to Murmer. A side that has agitated school officials and resulted in his suspension. A side that focuses, almost entirely, on the crack in his backside.

Outside of class and under an alter ego, the self-proclaimed "butt-printing artist" creates floral and abstract art by plastering his posterior and genitals with paint and pressing them against canvas. His cheeky creations sell for hundreds of dollars.

This has not gone over well with Chesterfield County school officials, who placed Murmer on administrative leave from his job at Monacan High School.

Murmer contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia after he was suspended on Friday, ACLU legal director Rebecca Glenberg said. He told Glenberg that administrators had suspended him with pay for five days because of his work as a butt-print painter and that he also could face unpaid suspension pending an investigation.

Murmer has been instructed by the school administration not to speak with the media, Glenberg said. He did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Chesterfield County schools spokeswoman Debra Marlow confirmed that a Monacan art teacher had been placed on administrative leave but declined to provide additional details because it is a personnel issue. "In the school system, personnel regulations state that teachers are expected to set an example for students through their personal conduct," Marlow said. "Additionally, the Supreme Court has stated that schools must teach by example and that teachers, like parents, are role models."

Murmer went to great lengths to keep his work life separate from his activities as an artist, said ACLU executive director Kent Willis. As a butt-printing artist, he goes by the name "Stan Murmur," and appears in disguise in photographs and videos promoting his art. "As a public employee, he has constitutional rights, and he certainly has the right to engage in private legal activities protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution," Willis said.

A nearly naked Murmer expressed concern about remaining incognito during a 2003 appearance on the now-canceled cable television talk show, "Unscrewed With Martin Sargent." In a clip from the show, available on YouTube.com, Murmer dons a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head, a black thong — and nothing else. "I'm certainly proud of the ass painting," Murmer said in response to questions about his disguise. "I do have a real job where I do have real clients and I don't think they'd be too understanding if I was also the guy who painted with my ass."

That video has made the rounds at Monacan High, where the mere mention of Murmer's name was enough to elicit grins from students Tuesday. Most appeared to be firmly behind their teacher, describing his suspension as "stupid," "ignorant" and "kinda retarded."

"Everyone has been talking about it," senior Heather Thompson said with a laugh as she and other students streamed out of school.

Thompson, who worked with Murmer in the school's art club, said many students have known about his paintings for a few years, but the YouTube clip recently got everyone buzzing. She and other students described Murmer as a funny, likable and popular teacher. There is little support among the student body for his suspension, she said. "It was simply him expressing himself and his art, and it had nothing to do with school — he wasn't advertising," she said.

This is not the first time Murmer has faced potential problems because of his extracurricular activities. Three years ago, he contacted the ACLU after he was told school administrators were unhappy about his paintings, Willis said. The issue eventually blew over with no suspension issued, Willis said. It was unclear why administrators decided to take action now.

Owning a piece of Murmer's art doesn't come cheap. On his Web site, his creations run upward of $900. His most popular piece, "Tulip Butts," goes for $600.

So how does one become a butt-printing artist? On his Web site, Murmur said his journey began a few years ago when he was told to find an organic item to use as a stamp for a class painting assignment. He decided to use his posterior. His final product was a hit with the class and a butt painter was born.

He was, however, the only student not asked to hold up his organic stamp.

Teacher in crack over butt art - Yahoo! News

___

On the Net:

Butt Print Art: Butt-Printing Artist -* Stan Murmur © 1997,2000, 2001 and beyond

YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?vYXIL1VlVjD4

Teacher fired for buttocks art sues
By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
37 minutes ago

RICHMOND, Va. - A high school art teacher fired after officials learned he moonlighted by creating paintings using his bare buttocks and other body parts sued his former employers on Thursday.

Stephen Murmer was fired in January after Chesterfield County Public Schools officials saw a YouTube video of Murmer wearing a swim thong and a Groucho Marx mask, demonstrating how he applies paint to his backside, then presses it onto a canvas.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond by the American Civil Liberties Union, said Murmer's firing violates his First Amendment rights. It also alleges that after he was suspended from teaching in December, school officials ordered him not to discuss his suspension even as they commented on it in news interviews.

The complaint seeks unspecified damages and legal fees from the county school board, a school district personnel official and the principal at Monacan High School, where he taught.

School officials had not seen the lawsuit early Thursday afternoon and do not comment on litigation, said spokeswoman Debra Marlow.

Murmer, said in a telephone interview from Alabama, where he now lives, that the school district deprived him not only of his right to free expression but his rights to due process. "This lawsuit is about a corrupt little county in Virginia and making sure they can't do this to anyone else ever again," he said.

Murmer paints under the pseudonym "Stan Murmur," and displays some of his work on his Web site, http://www.buttprintart.com.

One acrylic-on-canvas work titled "Tulip Butts" shows the red imprint of a backside representing the open petals of a tulip with an imprint between them from an adjacent body part that represents a flower's stamen.

The lawsuit said Murmer's paintings sell in a range from $600 to $4,800, and that he uses his own body parts and those of models to "brush" or "stamp" images onto canvas.

Rebecca K. Glenberg, an ACLU lawyer who is one of Murmer's attorneys, said the school board fired Murmer for art created on his own time that he "scrupulously kept private from his students." He adopted the pen name to ensure that his students didn't discover his private work by using Internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo, she said. Murmer received a teacher of the year award in 2002, according to the lawsuit. "In this case, we have someone who engaged in legitimate artistic expression protected by the First Amendment and furthermore did everything in his power to keep his art work separate from his teaching," Glenberg said. "He used a different name, he didn't discuss his art in class, and he did not do or say anything improper in school or a class environment."

In October 2003, however, Murmer appeared on a short-lived local cable television program, "Unscrewed with Martin Sargent." He was introduced under his pseudonym and wore the mask and a white towel wrapped turban-style on his head to conceal his identity. After an interview, he removes a white bathrobe and demonstrates his painting technique.

The video was posted online, and school officials first saw it in 2004, according to the complaint. School officials discussed it with Murmer, he agreed to remove photos of three paintings from his Web site, and he was told there would be no further action, the complaint contends.

On Dec. 8, 2006, according to the lawsuit, school officials summoned him from his classroom, told him the video created so much discussion among Monacan students that it was disruptive, and suspended him. A month later, the school board fired him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071004/...ATvPeet2Ws0NUE


On the Web:

Murmer's Web site: http://www.buttprintart.com

Chesterfield County Public Schools: http://www.chesterfield.k12.va.us/

Virginia ACLU: http://www.acluva.org/

YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?vYXIL1VlVjD4


This is called "updating a previous post ...

[Jolie Rouge]

SINCE 1994 and reaching more than 120,000 readers in over 200 countries, this is the 710th weekly issue of... THIS is TRUE: 20 January 2008 http://www.thisistrue.com

DUKES OF HAZZARD : When it comes to training, says Sheriff Richard Nugent of Brooksville, Fla., "we have done almost everything humanly possible as it relates to pursuits and controlling them." Unfortunately, a recent pursuit went out of control. Deputies were chasing a car that refused to pull over -- and 12 deputies got into the act, what at times ran at speeds over 115 mph. One deputy crashed into an innocent vehicle. One blew out a tire and had to stop. Two others lost control with one crashing through a fence, the other going airborne after hitting a dirt berm. Sheriff Nugent noted that all 12 had signed the department's pursuit policy, which prohibited such dangerous chases -- especially since they knew who the driver was and could have arrested him later. The sheriff suspended all 12 deputies, plus the sergeant who authorized the pursuit. "They got caught up in the moment," the sergeant said. "When the adrenaline gets pumping you tend to forget, you get tunnel vision." (St. Petersburg Times)

...That's not a defense, that's a statement of the problem.


ANOTHER EMPTY SUIT: Dean Hrbacek, the former mayor of Sugar Land, Texas, and now running for the U.S. House of Representatives, mailed a campaign brochure to voters. Those who looked closely could see that in the photo of the candidate, his head didn't quite fit on the body, which is noticeably slimmer than Hrbacek's. Campaign officials admitted the Republican's photo was faked -- they had a nice head shot of Hrbacek, but not a full-length photo needed for the brochure, so they pasted his head on someone else's body. (Houston Chronicle)

...Voters are well used to politicians who don't have their heads on straight. I thought it would be fun to pull up the brochure from this candidate who had the faked photo. The story and the brochure photos, including a close-up scan of what tipped everyone off, is on my blog at http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-another_empty_suit.html



PROTECT THE ONES YOU LOVE: Police investigating a single-car crash in Citrus Heights, Calif., suspected that the driver was drunk. Witnesses say he was speeding on a city street and crashed into a tree. The driver, who was not identified by police, was seriously injured. They noted he was not wearing a seatbelt, but that the 12-pack of beer on the seat next to him was. The beer was not injured. (Sacramento Bee)

...Good. It was, after all, innocent.


DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS: Police in Washington state say Joshua R. Stetar, 20, of Granville, N.Y., met a girl on the Internet, and sent "several hundred" text messages to her cell phone and sent her flowers.

The girl is just 15.

He then said he was coming to see her, and "tell the cops that I'm gonna rape you and your sister."

Her sister is 6.

When the girls' parents spotted him sitting in front of their Spokane house minutes later, they called police. Officers discovered Stetar had driven 40 hours straight to meet the girl. He was arrested on felony stalking charges, but when he was released after posting $10,000 bail, he allegedly continued to harass the girl -- and volunteered to work at her school. He was again arrested and his bail was raised to $100,000. Investigators found Stetar's MySpace profile, which notes he has studied psychology, and as a "very conservative" Christian hopes to "maybe one day" become a Christian school teacher. (Albany [N.Y.] Times-Union, Glens Falls [N.Y.] Post-Star)

...Maybe he should spend more time with the Ten Commandments, rather than reading Genesis 34 over and over.

[Jolie Rouge]

Man fined for throwing hedgehog at teen
Thu May 29, 6:59 PM ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand man who assaulted a teen by hitting him with a spine-covered hedgehog has been fined by a court and ordered to pay most of his fine to his victim.

Whakatane District Court was told Thursday that William Singalargh picked up the hedgehog, a small prickly-backed animal similar to the porcupine, and threw it several yards at a 15-year-old boy in the North Island east coast town of Whakatane on Feb. 9.

Police said the teen was hit in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks. The injury did not require medical treatment.

Singalargh was convicted of common assault and offensive behavior following a defended hearing. He had pleaded innocent to the charges.

He was fined a total of $545, of which $389 were paid to his victim.

A more serious charge of assault with a weapon — the hedgehog — was dropped. The maximum penalty for that charge is five years in prison.

It was not known whether the hedgehog was dead or alive at the time of the attack, but Senior Sgt. Bruce Jenkins said earlier that it was dead when collected as evidence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/...g04Mq9r.QuQE4F

Poor hedgehog ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Man allegedly steals wood from park picnic table
Thu May 29, 6:19 PM ET

PATTON, Pa. - An Altoona man has been charged with theft and criminal mischief for allegedly stealing the wood from a state park picnic table to build a shed.

Prince Gallitzin State Park authorities say they discovered the 23-year-old man loading his Dodge Caravan with wood taken from the picnic table on May 15. The park is about 73 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

According to a criminal complaint, the man told a park ranger he was taking the wood to build a shed for his stepchildren.

Park Manager Dan Bickel said the table was stacked with others to be distributed throughout the park for summer use. He says about 300 to 400 picnic tables are located in the park, each valued at about $300.

___

Information from: The Tribune-Democrat, http://www.tribune-democrat.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/...OJzkG56mQuQE4F