Madness Beckons

Dropping Babies In India If you did this in the USA you would go to jail for child abuse. They actually think it is healthy to drop the babies like this.

Worshippers at a Muslim shrine in western India have been dropping babies from a tower for good luck.

The “good luck babies” are thrown from a height of 50ft on to a cloth sheet in a bizarre ritual that is thought to bring them good health.

Baby dropping has taken place at the shrine in Solapur, in the state of Maharastra, for over 500 years. It also takes place on special days in other parts of the country.

The ritual is practised by couples who are blessed with a child after taking a vow at the Baba Sheikh Umar Saheb Dargah or temple.

Locals claim there have been no accidents and children thrown from the tower do not suffer from any physical disability.

The ritual is observed by both Muslims and Hindus every year.

—-And you thought your folks were weird.

This is from the BBC:
Mother jailed over Shannon kidnap.
The mother of Shannon Matthews has been jailed for kidnapping her own daughter in an attempt to claim reward money.

The child’s mother and Michael Donovan faked a kidnapping and kept the girl tied up and drugged in the Donovan’s flat.

This whole thing is just plain despicable but the judge’s comment lends a certain comic relief to the situation.

He said: “Having regard to their low intellect… it must be doubtful whether they could have conceived or continued these offences without the assistance or connivance of others.

It’s sad commentary when the judge says you’re too stupid to have thought up or carried out your crime all by yourself.

This is from NPR:

“PETA thought that by renaming fish sea kittens, compassionate people who would never dream of hurting a dog or a cat might extend that sympathy to fish, or sea kittens,” PETA campaign coordinator Ashley Byrne says.

Byrne says that rebranding fish as sea kittens was obvious.

“Fish not only have the same ability to feel pain as a dog or a cat, but they also communicate with one another,” she says. “They have complex social interactions; they form bonds; they express affection by gently rubbing against one another.”

PETA has so far only promoted the campaign in North Carolina but plans to take it nationwide.

Once again I’ve been out-weirded by the pros.

Grilled sea kitten, soft corn tortillas and pico de gallo. —Sea Kitten tacos….. Yummy.

Washington Post: WASHINGTON – AirTran Airlines says nine Muslim passengers were removed from a flight from Washington, D.C., to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark.

An AirTran spokesman says the it was a misunderstanding. The Muslim passengers say AirTran wouldn’t rebook them Thursday and they had to pay for seats on another airline.

AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson agreed that the incident amounted to a misunderstanding. But he defended AirTran’s handling of the incident, which he said strictly followed federal rules. And he denied any wrongdoing on the airline’s part.

“At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn’t have made on the airplane, and other people heard them,” Hutcheson said. “Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions.”

Hutcheson confirmed that it was ultimately the pilot’s decision to postpone the flight. But he said the pilot was influenced not only by the complaints from passengers but by the actions of two federal air marshals on board, who had learned of the incident and reported it to airport police.

Passenger Kashif Irfan tells The Washington Post the confusion began when his brother remarked aloud that the plane’s jets were next to his window.

Kashif Irfan, one of the removed passengers, said the incident began about 1 p.m. after his brother, Atif, and his brother’s wife wondered aloud about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

“My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport security,” Irfan said. “The only thing my brother said was, ‘Wow, the jets are right next to my window.’ I think they were remarking about safety.”

Two other passengers reported hearing what they considered to be a suspicious remark.

AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson says the airline strictly followed federal rules.

Federal officials ordered all 104 passengers off the plane and re-screened them before allowing the flight to depart.

AirTran –Paranoid and proud.

Just how well untrained are those Air Marshals? –They must work for the TSA.

It’s like the old joke where a man gets on a plane, spots his brother, and says Hi. Jack……. Except this overreaction is real.