Aflac Fires Gilbert Gottfried Over Tsunami Joke Tweets

Duck'em if they can't take a joke!

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried, perhaps my favorite comedian of all time, has been fired from his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck because of a series of jokes he tweeted over the weekend about the disaster in Japan.

Gottfried has never been one to shy away from controversy. He's the comedian that other comedians look to for inspiration when they want to push the envelope. But it looks like the veteran insult comic may have pushed the envelope a little too far for the insurance company, whose global market includes Japan.

TMZ reports:

The company released a statement saying, "Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac ... Aflac will immediately set plans in motion to conduct a nationwide casting call to find a new voice of the iconic Aflac Duck."

Gottfried is well known for his off-color humor. You can view a classic example of it from the documentary "The Aristocrats" on YouTube. It's definitely not for everyone and totally NSFW.

If you ask me, it was only a matter of time before Gilbert's real personality got in the way of the squeaky clean Disney persona that he earned for his voice-over work in "Aladdin". He had a good run with Aflac, but honestly, the only surprise here is that it lasted as long as it did. They knew who he was when they hired him

Let's all pretend to be shocked and appalled for a few minutes, then move on.

Tuesday Morning Ran-dumb-ness

Okay, so here we are on another Tuesday morning with a blank page to fill. The Japan earthquake/tsunami tragedy continues to dominate the news.

Explosions at quake damaged nuclear power plants continue to raise fears of radiation exposure. The magnitude and scope of this disaster seems to increase by the hour. It remains to be seen how the Japanese people will recover from this, but I think it's fair to say that they will, in time. Sending positive thoughts to the victims and survivors.

The move to North Carolina proceeds slowly but surely. We've been able to move a few loads to the new place. We're trying to clear out a lot of excess crap from the basement and garage here at Morning Wood Acres, as well as any extra stuff we don't use all the time.

Not the actual tree, but you get the idea.

We made a trip down over the weekend. the weather was warm at about 74 degrees and the trees were starting to bloom. It turns out that we have one of my favorite trees, a Weeping Cherry, in our front yard and it was in full bloom.

A Weeping Cherry is a cross between a Weeping Willow and a Cherry Tree. This one is probably about 60 years old, so it's very tall and the trunk and inner branches are kind of thick and gnarly. The outer branches trail like a willow and sway in the breeze. It's gorgeous.

This just in via Newsr:

Bomb Squad Sent to Diffuse Sex Toy

Russia has been tense since the Moscow airport bombing earlier this year, but a bomb squad in Petrozavodsk got something to laugh about yesterday. The city's main postal building was evacuated and surrounded by security forces after a worker reported a suspicious package with a ticking noise. The bomb squad was sent in, only to find a vibrator that had been turned on by accident, the Telegraph reports. A police spokesman says the sex toy will be returned to the post office and sent to its intended recipient.

So, boys and girls, thanks for stopping by and get out there and make it a great day! Tomorrow is St. Patty's Day. Get your green beer drink on, but don't drive. The cops will be out in force looking for drunks with green around their mouths.

Related articles

• Russian bomb squad called in to defuse sex toy (telegraph.co.uk)
• Shopping center evacuated over stinky box (msnbc.msn.com)

8.9 Japanese Quake Spawns Massive Tsunami (video)

Japanese residents watch as waves surge through their neighborhood.

Hawaii is experiencing the first affects of a massive Tsunami, with waves as high as 6 feet as a result of an 8.9 earthquake of the coast of Japan Friday afternoon, local time.

Reports say the worst is yet to come, as residents scramble to get away from coastal areas ahead of what could be a wall of water as high as 30 feet. As many as twenty other Pacific Rim countries, including the west coast of the U.S. could also be affected.

Bloomberg News reports:

Chile, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador put communities and ports on their Pacific coasts on tsunami alerts after Japan was hit by its strongest earthquake in at least a century.

Coastal areas of Easter Island will be evacuated today, Chile’s state television station TVN reported. Colombia’s biggest port, Buenaventura, is on alert after the 8.9-magnitude quake in Japan triggered a warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Luz Amanda Pulido, head of the country’s disaster prevention agency, told radio station RCN. Peru and Ecuador’s Pacific coast are also on alert, authorities in both countries said.

Meanwhile, back in Japan residents are being evacuated from neighborhoods surrounding a nuclear power plant over fears of a coolant failure. Reuters reports:

A cooling system for a nuclear reactor was not working after a powerful earthquake in Japan, prompting the government to declare an emergency situation as a precaution although it said there was no radioactive leakage at present.

Residents that live within a 3 km radius of Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been told to evacuate, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.

 The following comes via The Guardian:

Related articles

• Japan earthquake the seventh most powerful ever: USGS (telegraph.co.uk)
• CNN: Tsunami warnings issued for Hawaii, U.S.West Coast and 19 other countries after major quake and tsunami off Japan. (economy4abc.blogspot.com)
• The world's strongest earthquakes and tsunamis (boston.com)