No Turkish Bride_It Was An April Fool's Joke

No, I am NOT marrying a Turkish woman named Sibel Turkan Atasoy, and though we googled that name to make sure no one actually had it, if indeed, someone has that name it was not our intentions to use a real name.

On Twitter yesterday, I pulled another April Fool's Joke, when I said that liberal filmmaker Michael Moore had endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president; they are actually both from Michigan! But, Moore has not endorsed him.

Also, I thought it was an April Fool's Joke when I read that the progressive talk show host Keith Olbermann, who had already been fired from MSNBC, got the boot again_ this time from Current TV.

But, amazingly enough, that is true! Olbermann was apparently fired for making fun of how a limo driver smelled.

My fellow progressive Turkish-American Cenk Uygur, who also left MSNBC, has a show that is still on Current at 7:00 p.m. We certainly hope he sticks around for a long time to come!

The Great Virginia Earthquake of 2011

Personally, I prefer the Turkish word for eathquake which is 'deprem.' My late father's country has had a number of devastating shakers, including one in the eastenr city of Erzincan in the 1960s and more recently a series of massive quakes in wetern Turkey, including a 1999 deprem which put Istanbul and surrounding areas into chaos.



Yesterday's 5.9 earthquake centered around the small town of Mineral, Va., which is between Richmond and Charlottesville, did create some problems for those around the epicentet. Various sources said that residents of Mineral felt the tremor for up to 40 seconds.



Diane Miller who works at the local Louisa County Animal Shelter told NPR that the cats were hiding in their litter boxes. And, at least one florist shop in the area received major damage to inventory.



The often-hilarious liberal talk show host Keith Olbermann gave a stirring commentary during his show on Current TV last night when he pointed that the earthquake occured in the district of Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va.).



Cantor, who is the majority leader on the Hill and a member of Congress known for being uncompromising and arch conservative, had argued that federal funding for the United States Geological Survey needed to be cut. So, Olbermann was thus able to make him an easy target for ripe political humor.



But, much of the chat about the quake which I felt in North Carolina for 10-12 seconds some four hours from the epicenter has come to an abrupt halt on the Internet.



Though a tweet from WashDCNews asked the following question: "How could Virginia-quake be felt in Canada and crack the Washington Monument?"



The answer is apparently that there is a vast geological different between fault lines in Virginia and those in California.