interesting things
The man who injured President Obama during a basketball game nearly 3 years ago finally gave his first interview:“I’ve played basketball a million times in my life and I’ve never elbowed anybody. So the first time I do this, it’s to the President of the United States? What is the probability of that? Nil, right?â€
via Gawker http://gawker.com/the-man-who-elbowed-president-obama-during-a-basketball-493216984
Penis scientist Rush Limbaugh is reportedly upset with executives at his flagship station WABC and its parent company, Cumulus. He’s so mad, in fact, that’s he’s reportedly threatening to leave the company. Why? Because Lew Dickey, Cumulus’s CEO, is (probably correctly) blaming Limbaugh’s “slut†comments last year for declining ad revenue at the company
Several major advertisers dropped support for Limbaugh after the “slut†incident, but Limbaugh and a source who spoke with the Daily News said the show’s earnings were “very minimally impacted in the short term.â€
Politico, however, notes that Dicky, on an August 2012 earnings call, said Cumulus’s top three stations lost $5.5 million. Some of those losses, Dickey said, were because of the boycotts agains Limbaugh. In a March 2013 earnings call, Dickey said the company was still suffering because of the comments, blaming them for roughly a third of the company’s revenue losses.
“There has been residual hangover … in terms of advertisers sitting out,†Dickey said in March. “Clearly that’s had an impact. … That’s something that we are dealing with on an ongoing basis.â€
But a source told the New York Daily News, “Lew needs someone to blame, (so) he’s pointing fingers instead of fixing his own sales problem.”
Another source spoke to the Politico:
“It’s a very serious discussion, because Dickey keeps blaming Rush for his own revenue problems,” the source close to the show told POLITICO. “Dickey’s talk stations underperform talk stations owned by other operators in generating revenue by a substantial margin. It’s not a single show issue… it’s a failure of the entire station. And trying to blame Rush for that is not much of a business partnership.”
So, would the top-rated radio host in the country actually leave the stations that broadcast him in his largest markets? Maybe. Less Rush would certainly be a good thing, though that seems very unlikely to happen.
Regardless, this will make for a boring section in John Cusack’s movie about Limbaugh.
[Image via AP]
To contact the author of this post, email taylor@gawker.com
via Gawker http://gawker.com/rush-limbaugh-threatens-to-leave-network-over-blame-for-493007045
There were hundreds of heroes in the aftermath of Monday’s tragic bombing attacks in Boston. Doctors, police officers and even former NFL players responded with tremendous courage and saved lives. Carlos Arredondo — easily recognizable in photos and videos because of his cowboy hat — was one of those heroes and is prominently featured in two of the more memorable and traumatic images from Monday’s attack.
In the above photo, Arredondo can be seen apparently holding together the femoral artery or tourniquet of a victim who had lost both his legs in the attack. “I kept talking to him. I kept saying, ‘Stay with me, stay with me,’ ” Arredondo told the Press Herald.
And at the 1:45 mark of the video below, you can see Arredondo rushing to help victims just seconds after the first explosion.
But who is Arredondo? As several tipsters and and publications have noted, the 52-year-old has quite the past.
Arredondo was watching the race to support a runner who was running the marathon in honor of Arredondo’s son, Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. When Arredondo was told (on his 44th birthday, no less) about his son’s death by a group of Marines, he didn’t believe them. From a 2007 New York Times article:
“I just screamed,” he said. “I said ‘No, no! It can’t be my son.’ “
Mr. Arredondo said he “lost it.” He ran to his garage and grabbed a gallon of gasoline and a propane torch.
He took a sledgehammer and smashed the government van’s windshield and hopped inside. As the officers tried to calm him, Mr. Arredondo doused himself and the van with gasoline and lit the torch.
There was an explosion, and the officers dragged Mr. Arredondo to safety. He suffered second- and third-degree burns over 20 percent of his body.
“I went to my son’s funeral on a stretcher,” he said.
The incident – and the 10 months he spent in the hospital recovering – spurred Arredondo to a life of activism protesting the war in Iraq. He drove around the country in his son’s truck, which was carrying a coffin and was decorated with pictures of his dead son at his funeral. “As long as there are marines fighting and dying in Iraq, I’m going to share my mourning with the American people…Every day we have G.I.’s being killed, and people don’t really care enough or do enough to protest about how the war is going,” he told the Times. “Some people say I’m dishonoring my son by doing this, but this is my pain, my loss.”
That loss grew exponentially four years later, when Arredondo’s surviving son killed himself at age 24, partly out of grief from losing his older brother. Now, Arredondo has again found himself in the midst of tragedy and again responded with resiliency and courage. Below is an interview with Arredondo taken after the bombings.
[Image via AP]
via Gawker http://gawker.com/5994736/cowboy-hat+wearing-hero-of-boston-bombings-is-famed-peace-activist
Gregory Rodriguez, the host of the Sportsman Channel show The Rifleman’s Journey, was killed Friday night, the victim of a murder-suicide by an apparently jealous husband, according to Montana police. Rodriguez, who is also an editor at Shooting Times Magazine and a contributing editor at Petersen’s Hunting, Guns & Ammo, was visiting a woman at the woman’s mother’s home in Whitefish, Montana when Wayne Bengston, the woman’s husband, showed up. It remains unclear what Rodriguez and the woman were doing at the time, but whatever it was, it sent the 41-year-old Bengston into a rage; shortly after entering the home, he shot and killed Rodriguez and severely beat his wife.
Police say Bengston then drove his two-year-old son to a relative’s home before returning to his own home, where he fatally shot himself. Bengston’s wife was treated at a nearby hospital and released.
According to Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial, Rodriguez met the woman, who works for a firearms manufacturer, at a gun show. Dial said the relationship appeared to be casual, not romantic.
The Sportsman Channel released a statement saying it will miss Rodriguez’s “thoughtfulness, candor and dedication to encourage a safe and enjoyable outdoor experience for all.”
Rodriguez was 43 and leaves behind a wife and two kids.
[CBS, NY Daily News/Image via AP]
Hours after her sister sat behind President Obama during his speech in Chicago on Friday, 18-year-old Janay McFarlane was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is; not three weeks ago, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was killed by stray gunfire in Chicago, just days after performing at Obama’s second inauguration. MacFarlane’s 14-year old sister Destiny is a student at Hyde Park Career Academy, the school Obama visited on Friday to speak about Chicago’s gun violence.
In addition to being a new mother (her son Jayden is just three months old), MacFarlene was supposed to graduate from high school this spring. After graduating, her mother, Angela Blakely, said she’d shown interest in becoming a chef.
“I’m just really, truly just trying to process it, knowing that I’m not taking my baby home any more,” Blakely said.
Obama’s speech emphasized the need for tighter gun controls while highlighting Chicago’s epidemic of gun violence.
“Last year, there were 443 murders with a firearm in this city, and 65 of them were 18 and under. That’s the equivalent of a Newtown every four months.
“That’s precisely why the overwhelming majority of Americans are asking for some common sense proposals to make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun,” he said.
The president also mentioned Pendleton, the 15-year-old gunned down days after performing at his inauguration, during his speech. Blakely, McFarlane’s mother, said her daughter often spoke about Pendleton as well.
“She said ‘Mom, that’s so sad. I feel so bad for that little girl,’ ” Angela Blakely told CBS Chicago. “Every time she saw kids on TV she said, ‘Momma, I feel so bad for these people that gotta leave their kids.’
[Image via AP]
After gaining access to the personal email accounts of Dorthy Bush, George W. Bush’s sister, and several friends close to the Bush family, a hacker apparently obtained Bush family photos, cell phone numbers, security codes, information about George H.W. Bush’s health, a post-election email from Fox New’s Brit Hume, and, most amazingly, pictures of George W. Bush’s in-progress paintings, which are just as awkward and simple as you’d hope. All told, six accounts were hacked, including emails for Barbara Bush’s brother, family friend Willard Hemingway, and CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, another friend of the family.
A large number of the stolen emails, which dated from 2009 to 2012, dealt with George H.W. Bush’s recent stay in the hospital. One email from Jeb Bush noted H.W.’s friendliness toward Bill Clinton, noting “how kind he was with President Clinton and he helped restore his sordid reputation. A very tough thing to do but with kindness, dad probably helped Bill Clinton than anything he himself has done.” He added, “Might be tough to say it that way in a eulogy with President 42 there.”
On December 26 of last year, George W. Bush emailed his siblings to say he was “thinking about eulogy” and to ask for advice: “since the feeling is that you all would rather me speak than bubba, please help.”
After the election in November, Brit Hume, sad faced Fox News political analyst, emailed Hemingway, writing, “Election outcome disappointing, but there are many silver linings.”
But the truly remarkable parts are the photos. The picture above is obviously excellent, but it’s nothing compared to George W. Bush’s attempts at painting, pictures of which he apparently emailed to his sister two months ago. The paintings, both self-portraits, are…well, just judge for yourself.
There are also pictures of the family with Ralph Lauren.
And Bubba himself.
But really, let’s just go back to those paintings. Here is the master, at work on a picture of a nearby church.
As for the hacker, Guccifier, he claims he’s not worried about the inevitable Secret Service investigation. “i have an old game with the fucking bastards inside, this is just another chapter in the game,” he told The Smoking Gun. He also said the “feds” started investigating him “a long time ago” and that he had hacked “hundreds of accounts.”
The Rihanna plane, which earlier today was on the verge of anarchy, officially descended into total chaos somewhere between Berlin and London. Journalists are chanting, Australians are streaking, and passengers are being forced to consume strange foods.
Mutiny #RIHANNAPLANE
— mary hk choi (@choitotheworld) November 19, 2012
OMG!!! Streaker runs through Rihanna’s 777 plane – riles up 150 angry journalists #777Tour twitter.com/VH1Music/statu…
— VH1 Music (@VH1Music) November 19, 2012
Journalist gone mad on the @rihannaplane lockerz.com/s/262593963
— Necole Bitchie(@necolebitchie) November 19, 2012
BEDLAM on the @rihanna plane and press corp YELLS “save our jobs” and “just one quote.” And screams “B ROLL” to sabotage the doc footage.
— mary hk choi (@choitotheworld) November 19, 2012
The Australian with the harmonica STREAKED the plane asthe press corp chanted. #RIHANNAPLANE #WHEREHAVEYOUBEENALLTHISFLIGHT
— mary hk choi (@choitotheworld) November 19, 2012
THE MUTINY FINALLY HAPPENED on plane BLN>LDN. Ppl chanting “RIHANNA! SAVE OUR JOBS!” WE ALL COLLECTIVELY LOST IT AT THE SAME TIME. #777tour
— J. Escobedo Shepherd (@jawnita) November 19, 2012
So yeah, the #777tour plane staged a revolution against Rihanna on flight between Berlin and London
— Jason Newman (@Jasonrnewman) November 19, 2012
Crowd chanted “Just one quote!,” “I need a headline!” and “Occupy 777” while Aussie journo stripped naked and ran around the plane.
— Jason Newman (@Jasonrnewman) November 19, 2012
Watch the streaker run naked on @rihanna #777Tour plane! WE GOT VIDEO! youtu.be/Ugax2gEQgiM
— Fuse TV (@fusetv) November 19, 2012
That thing where everyone starts screaming for Rihanna to leave her panic room on the plane and she doesn’t come out but it’s the best.
— itsthereal (@itsthereal) November 19, 2012
And we now have reports about the food. “We have eaten such a strange amount of lox. And coleslaw. French people are obsessed with carrot coleslaw,” says MTV’s Maud Deitch. Her colleague Mary HK Choi adds they were served “German meat chips” as a 4 AM snack. Deitch also reports that “it now smells like a movie theater concession stand on the Rihanna plane and the people next to us just rolled up to their seats with tumblers filled with whiskey and then one of them promptly spilled it into his seat back pocket.”
#pray4therihannaplane
Throughout the #777Tour, Gawker.com will be bringing you updates about the status, location, activities and smells of the Rihanna Plane and its inhabitants, cobbled together from the distorted dispatches of the embedded Rihanna correspondents.