On 'Blogging'

(GRINS!)

"The Worst Day Since Yesterday"

Woke up to still another day of a skiff of snow, a promise of
wind, rain and clouds.

Flogging Molly gets it right :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkPUGeoDbbk&feature=related

I first head this song in a Stargate Universe episode.

The Cooking Channel - 1950

I found this wandering around at Lawyers, Guns and Money :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjmANi13WA0

From :
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/02/lets-make-a-sandwich

To think this was 'us' just 60 years ago.

Somewhere In America People Elected This Person

'Today [NH state] Rep. Jeanine Notter (R-Merrimack), who sits on the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee, caught our attention once again with another of her “Notter Notions”. During a hearing on late-entry House Resolution 29, urging the United States Department of Health and Human Services to rescind its rule requiring health plans to cover preventative services for women such as contraceptives, she told committee members that health plans shouldn’t cover birth control because it causes prostate cancer'.
From : http://mikethemadbiologist.com/2012/02/18/medicine-movement-conservative-style-its-every-bit-as-daffy-as-altie-woo/

'For those of you keeping score at home, women don’t have prostates, men do'.

Better then 'death panels'?

'Gilligan found that, over the 108 years covered by his analysis (1900-2007), the age-adjusted suicide rate increased by an average of 9.7 per million over each Republican four-year term but decreased by an average of 11.1 per million over each Democratic term. The age-adjusted homicide rate increased by an average of 3.6 per million over each Republican term but decreased by an average of 4.2 per million over each Democratic term'.

'These differences may sound small, but they are not. According to the CDC’s latest National Vital Statistics Report, there were 37,793 suicides in the U.S. in 2010 (122 per million population) and 16,065 homicides (52 per million population). Applying Gilligan’s figures to those baseline levels (and assuming 1% population growth per year) implies a projected total of 213,000 violent deaths over the next four years under a Democratic president, but 236,000 under a Republican—a difference of 23,000 lives'.
From : http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/01/30/politics-is-a-matter-of-life-and-death-times-23000/

The claim that bussiness is uncertain so won't invest?

'Bank of America Corp., under pressure to raise capital and cut risks, is severing lines of credit to some small-business owners who have used them to stay afloat'.

'The Charlotte, N.C., bank is demanding that these customers pay off their credit line balances all at once instead of making monthly payments. If they can't pay in full, they are being offered new repayment plans for as long as five years, but with far higher interest rates than their original credit lines had'.
From : http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/bank-america-initiated-new-loan-shark

First annual 'Idiots Delight' year-end awards

Over at Addictinginfo :
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/31/idiots-delight-the-annual-edition/

**'John Boehner: Not since the Ford Motor Company decided it would be a good idea to name a car after the son of its founder, has more misfortune befallen one individual'.
'Whether he can survive through this congressional term remains to be seen. What is certain is that the political firestorm that is the House of Representatives will be a sore spot for the GOP throughout the 2012 campaign and for that, Republicans – and Democrats, as well – have John Boehner to thank'.

**'Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry: Or, as I prefer to call them, Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest. Bachmann, Cain and Perry epitomize the very worst of a polarized and paralyzed political process that has made them the laughing stock of most voters and severely damaged their own party'.

**'Anthony Weiner: And now we come to the greatest shame and waste of 2011. The former Democratic representative from New York was one of the Party’s most articulate, passionate and effective leaders until his fall this past spring'.
'In a House of Representatives that desperately needs sensible alternatives to the madness of the Tea Party infestation, Democrats are still searching for their voice.
Weiner’s departure has left a political vacuum that the Party must fill somehow or risk further collateral damage in 2012'.
'As I said at the time, nice goin’, putz'!

**'The Agents of Intolerance: Whether it was Fox News, or much of the A.M. radio dial, or the Tea Party Express, or some pretend evangelical spewing hate as scriptural doctrine, 2011 was yet another painful reminder of just how far the nation has been dragged into the mud and how much farther it still needs to go to recover; assuming that’s even possible'.

'I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again. The only way the Left can persevere is to resist the urge to one up the Right. Succumbing to its lesser angels not only undermines its moral high ground, it elevates that which it purports to hate the most to the status of equal'.
'And can there be any more revolting a concept as that'?

FIRE

I am huge fan of the sci-fi series Firefly and also a huge fan of education.

My mood determines which comes first. (GRINS!)

Anywho, I cam accross this http://thefire.org/article/13977.html and since it satisifies both my top two prorities, life is good.

'The video, which features an interview with legendary author Neil Gaiman, is a lighthearted look at how the University of Wisconsin-Stout backed down from its censorship of Professor James Miller's posters, one featuring a quote from the science fiction show Firefly, and the other condemning fascism. Stout stood by its actions until FIRE's advocacy campaign on Miller's behalf inspired Gaiman, along with Firefly actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin, to take to Twitter to encourage their millions of followers to contact the university with their support of free speech'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iAOtkpFGhc

And just some extras...................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i6gF0iOW2M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwPtZHhwJmw&feature=related

Love this one .............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UcwnbDTnMs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuGYn82vKEE&feature=related

"That is quite unusual"

'Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard'.

'Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks".

'The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa'.

'It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined'.

'Routine checks by Finland's traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed'.

"Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives," said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation'.

"Of course, there are legal transports of weapons or defence material [through Finland] but in this case the cargo was marked as containing fireworks," she told Finnish media. "That is quite unusual."

'Patriot missiles, designed by the US company Raytheon, are supplied to "US and allied forces", according to the company's website. South Korea is among states which deploy them'.
From : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16292244

'Don't Worry - Be Happy' - 'Preventive Priorities Survey: 2012'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU

'The Preventive Priorities Survey (PPS) is intended to help inform the U.S. policy community about the relative urgency and importance of competing conflict prevention demands. The Center for Preventive Action asked a targeted group of government officials, academics, and experts to comment confidentially on a list of contingencies that could plausibly occur in 2012'.

'The list of preventive priorities for the United States is grouped according to three tiers of relative importance to U.S. national interests, based on different levels or categories of risk associated with various types of instability and conflict. The preventive priorities within each tier are not listed in any order of priority or probability'.

Tier I
•a mass casualty attack on the U.S. homeland or on a treaty ally

•a severe North Korean crisis (e.g., armed provocations, internal political instability, advances in nuclear
weapons/ICBM capability)

•a major military incident with China involving U.S. or allied forces

•an Iranian nuclear crisis (e.g., surprise advances in nuclear weapons/delivery capability, Israeli response)

•a highly disruptive cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure (e.g., telecommunications, electrical power, gas and oil, water supply, banking and finance, transportation, and emergency services)

•a significant increase in drug trafficking violence in Mexico that spills over into the United States

•severe internal instability in Pakistan, triggered by a civil-military crisis or terror attacks

•political instability in Saudi Arabia that endangers global oil supplies

•a U.S.-Pakistan military confrontation, triggered by a terror attack or U.S. counterterror operations

•intensification of the European sovereign debt crisis that leads to the collapse of the euro, triggering a double-dip U.S. recession and further limiting budgetary resources
From : http://www.cfr.org/conflict-prevention/preventive-priorities-survey-2012/p26686?cid=nlc-news_release-news_release-link4-20111209

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

Some of us are old enough to remember that today use to be observed as Armistice Day.

I was only 2 but 5-6 years later the change was still new enough that I understood what the change was and why it happened.

99% of us who served didn't do so to boast about it or add it to our resume. It was, for right or wrong, our duty. Following the orders of the leaders of our Nation to protect and defend our Constitution.

Some gave all. All gave some.

Remember that.

A couple of great organizations if you want to do more then pay lip service to those who served are :

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

http://www.operationhomefront.net/

An hour of your time. An hour of your pay. If you can. As you can.

The 1%

The Occupy Wall Street movement has put the bulk of the attention on the leaderless and directionless 99%.

But what about the 1%?

Not that they have wealth but what is the reason, purpose use of their wealth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCNKn7JirBU&feature=player_embedded

The first of 8 videos.

'Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune made a documentary in 2006... and it's really engaging and well-done. The first of eight YouTubes of it is above and that one will allow you to find the other seven'.

'Mr. Johnson insists he's not opposed to wealth-- including his own. Wealth, he says, has given him a great education, freedom, chances to travel and, best of all, the resources to do films about wealth. He says that while his documentaries are profitable, they wouldn't pay for his lifestyle'.

'Yet with The One Percent, Mr. Johnson wanted to show how the rich have gone too far. Through interviews with economists, policy experts and environmentalists, Mr. Johnson argues that today's wealthy have become an increasingly isolated elite. He says rather than using their wealth for good, they have used it to restructure the economy, lower their taxes, cut social programs for the middle and lower classes, and amass ever more wealth'.
From : http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/9565/the-one-percenters-are-way-more-disgusting-than-you-thought

Mitt Romney - just 'one of the guys'

'Multimillionaire Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) told employees at a steel fabrication plant on Monday that government employees “are making a lot more money than we are.”
From : http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/07/romney-complains-federal-employees-make-more-than-he-does/

'Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's personal wealth — up to $250 million — survived the nation's economic crisis, according to figures released Friday. But his pledge to sell off interests that conflict with his GOP stances did not extend to some investments in a family charity'.

'The new records make clear that Romney is much wealthier than President Barack Obama or any of Romney's GOP opponents. The immense fortune controlled by Romney and his wife, Ann, is worth $190 million to $250 million — within the same range as his 2007 presidential financial disclosure records, his campaign said'.
From : http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700170347/Romneys-wealth-endures-but-conflicts-persist.html

Strippers in North Dakota make more then we do.
http://gawker.com/5853252/north-dakota-strippers-make-more-money-than-you-do

Do you want to cut the 'Stripper Work Force' Romney?

Yep. Ole Mitt is just one of the guys.

Cutting taxes to create jobs

'New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) noted, the Garden State offered food company Goya $80 million in tax incentives last month, for which the state will receive precisely nine jobs in return':

'Imagine you are a New Jersey job seeker (one of 418,000 unemployed in the state as of September, 2011, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development) and you read in the news that a firm will be getting a state subsidy to hire 175 new workers. You would be thrilled to see those new job opportunities in the state, right'?

'But, in the case of Goya Foods, Inc., only nine truly new jobs are being created'.

'Nine'.

'Of the other 166 “new” workers, 66 would be moved from Goya’s location in Bethpage, New York and 100 already work for Goya as contractors based in Secaucus, according to documents from the state Economic Development Authority (EDA). So these “new” workers are actually existing employees'.

'In addition to $80 million from the state, Goya could receive a property tax break from Jersey City'.
From : http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/02/359776/new-jersey-goya-nine-jobs/

Gotta protect those 'job creators'.

US Bank President to COuntry - 'Get over it'
'US Bank President Richard Davis addressed the 1% at a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce luncheon this afternoon while the 99% protested outside'.

'The "Golden Boy of Wall Street," as the New York Times recently dubbed him, was there to discuss the chamber's 2012 legislative priorities -- none of which include housing, the foreclosure crisis, or banking issues, although "tax reform" is on the agenda as the body's "major policy initiative."
'In a speech lasting about half an hour, Davis did not address the Occupy movement sweeping the country'.
"'Everybody's breaking the rules, blah blah blah,'" Davis said at one point, admonishing the assembled business leaders to "get over it."
From : http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/11/us_bank_president_richard_davis_get_over_it.php
That's prfetty much the point Mr. Davis. Everybody is doing it and it needs to stop.
Might want to add US Bank to the list :
'Bank Transfer Day is November 5th - Are You Going to Move Your Money'?
http://www.creditunionsonline.com/news/2011/bank-transfer-day-is-november-5th-are-you-going-to-move-your-money.html

Take a number

When I was born, I was the 2,652,690,053rd person in the population at that time.

That's my number, go get your own.

Today the UN estimates that the World's population will hit 7 Billion.

Imagine. In just under 60 years, we have gone from 2.6 Billion to 7 Billion people living on the Earth.

The good news is that the rate of increase is declining :
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762181.html

The bad news is that the population is still increasing. Along with the suffering and misery of poverty.

'At a poverty line of $1.25 a day, the revised estimates find :

'•1.4 billion people live at this poverty line or below'.

20% - 1 in 5 people living in the World today, sustain themselves on $1.25 a day.

But that's the World. We're the US. The Greatest Country in the World.

Where our poverty rate is only 15%.

Looking for that 'Pot 'O Gold'

'A Northern Ireland man who tried to turn his own faeces into gold by putting it on an electric heater has been jailed for three months'.

'The bizarre experiment, carried out by Paul Moran, 30, caused around £3,000 worth of damage to his Housing Executive home in a block of flats at Derrin Park in Enniskillen in July'.

'His Honour Judge McFarland told him: “Rather bizarrely you were attempting to make gold from human faeces and waste products'.

“It was an interesting experiment to fulfil the alchemist’s dream, but wasn’t going to succeed.”
From : http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/man-who-tried-to-turn-his-faeces-into-gold-is-jailed-16066385.html#ixzz1bJ2MVNKu

OWS - The Good, the Bad and now the Ugly

The 'good' was the orginal intention.
The bad was protesting the wrong people.
The ugly?
What a leaderless, directionless 'movement' becomes.

USA Today:
Report: Fights erupt among Occupy Wall Street protesters

Gawker:
How Occupy Wall Street Cost Me My Job

NewsBusters.org blogs:
Another Public Radio Employee Canned for ‘Occupy’ Activism

Power Line:
Occupy Wall St. Sanctioned for Public Masturbation
Boston Globe:
Boston police probing threats possibly tied to Occupy movement
News Hounds:
Bill O'Reilly Lectures Guests To Back Up Allegations, Then Takes Credit For Drop In Public Approval

NY Daily News:
Occupy Wall St. gets dangerous; NYPD threatens to sue rowdy demonstrators who initiate violence

With friends like this.......

'A Vallejo man was found in a child's swing Saturday morning after reportedly being stuck for about nine hours, police said.

'At about 6 a.m., a groundskeeper of Blue Rock Springs Park heard a man screaming when he arrived at work. He then called the police to investigate'.

'Upon arrival, police found a 21-year-old man stuck in a child's swing, which has two leg holes'.
'The man told police that he had been stuck in the swing since 9 p.m. Friday after he allegedly made a $100 bet with his friends. He proceeded to lube himself with laundry detergent to get into the swing, police said'.

'The friends then reportedly left him swinging through the night'.
From : http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_19176380?source=most_viewed

While you were sleeping

'On Monday, at around 2 p.m. ET, a coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into the Earth's magnetosphere. According to NASA's Space Weather Laboratory, the conditions were just right for the CME's magnetic field to compress the Earth's magnetosphere so much that, for a short time (between 3:06 p.m and 3:11 p.m. ET), energetic solar wind particles penetrated as deep as geosynchronous orbit -- home to hundreds of communication satellites'.
From : http://news.discovery.com/space/epic-geomagnetic-storm-erupts-111025.html

This is so cool!