Old bags of the nanny state...

A ban on the use of traditional plastic bags by retail stores failed in City Council today under pressure from the business community and the plastics industry.

Councilman Frank DiCicco's bill was rejected by Council this morning in a 6-10 vote. Council President Anna C. Verna, whose husband was buried yesterday, was absent.

I've noted that a number of urban centers are playing around with this nonsense concerning plastic bags as of late. Philadelphia just gave it a shot in their City Council, and it was defeated.

Councilman Jim Kenney, a co-sponsor, blamed ShopRite for lobbying against the bill, and encouraged Philadelphians not to shop there. DiCicco accused the plastic bag industry for undermining the bill.

"I have never dealt with an industry that has been so manipulative," DiCicco said on the Council floor.

A city councilman is encouraging Philadelphians not to shop at ShopRite because they put up opposition to something that would hurt their business. The sponsor of the nonsensical bill claims the plastic industry is "manipulative." Uh...it would seem to me that the only manipulation applied here is by the jackass politicians on the local level who are trying to ramrod a bill through their municipality that would be a detriment to the plastics and retail food industries while making is more inconvenient to the customer based purely on junk science (which wasn't even part of the council's discussion). Who's manipulating...really?

Oh...by the way, I have the whole issue under control. Should my municipality ever decide to outlaw plastic bags at the grocery store, I'm going to buy them bulk on the internet and hand them out for free at the local grocer.

Define "American"

LAREDO, Tex. — When he was finally caught, Rosalio Reta told detectives here that he had felt a thrill each time he killed. It was like being Superman or James Bond, he said.

“I like what I do,” he told the police in a videotaped confession. “I don’t deny it.”

Mr. Reta was 13 when he was recruited by the Zetas, the infamous assassins of the Gulf Cartel, law enforcement officials say. He was one of a group of American teenagers from the impoverished streets of Laredo who was lured into the drug wars across the Rio Grande in Mexico with promises of high pay, fancy cars and sexy women.

After a short apprenticeship, the young men lived in an expensive house in Texas, available to kill whenever called on. The Gulf Cartel was engaged in a turf war with the Sinaloa Cartel over the Interstate 35 corridor, the north-south highway that connects Laredo to Dallas and beyond, and is, according to law enforcement officials, one of the most important arteries for drug smuggling in the Americas.

I noticed in this three page piece that none of the "American" assassins were named Joe Smith, or Billy Mumphry. They all have Latino names. This article seems to uphold the truth that immigration at our southern border is very damaging. I, also, noticed that no effort was made by the journalist to inform us of the history of these "Americans." For all we know, they came to the US as illegal aliens a short time ago.

Family members say Mr. Reta grew up with nine brothers and sisters, living in a tiny wood house, propped up on cinder blocks, in a yard devoid of grass. His father worked construction; his mother was a hairdresser. Before the age of 12, he was a well-mannered boy, respectful of his elders, who did tolerably well in school and spent most afternoons playing ball in a nearby park.

Nine brothers and sisters with very minimal income. Family members who knew what he was doing, but made no effort to report him...

Yeah...these are great "Americans." Put up the freakn' fence!!!!

Both sides wrong...

A federal judge dealt another setback on Monday to the Bloomberg administration’s two-year effort to convert the city’s yellow taxi fleet to gas-and-electric hybrids from the ubiquitous Ford Crown Victoria.

Judge Paul A. Crotty of Federal District Court in Manhattan said a plan to financially penalize taxi owners who refused to buy hybrid cars amounted to an effort by the city to mandate emissions standards — a right that, under existing laws, belongs solely to the federal government.

The same judge made much the same argument last October when he struck down an earlier plan to set a minimum miles-per-gallon rating for taxis.

1. Actually, the true way to describe the ruling would be to reinforce that the United States is a Republic in which each State applies their own laws. Nothing belongs to the federal government relative to requiring hybrid vehicles v. penalties. The fed has absolutely not jurisdiction what-so-ever in that regard.

2. I'd absolutely love to see Ford Motor Company file suit against the State of New York, and the United States of America under the RICO Act stating that the State and the Fed are conspiring in unfair business practices. Ford's balance sheet is so dismal and pathetic, they would not lose business in the process. My thoughts are that they would actually gain patrons by showing a little innovation and backbone.

3. As a form of solidarity, I refuse to ride in a hybrid anything.

Pope-n-tate

Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that countries must continue receiving refugees despite the difficulties they create while also addressing the causes that drive so many people from their homes.

Hear that, everyone? The Vatican (a country within itself) is accepting refugees.

Wait...what? They aren't?

OK...carry on. It's just an naive old man wearing a funny hat spouting fairytales of the standard hypocrisy.

A lack of consistency...by union insistency...

SACRAMENTO — When a company called Ausra filed plans for a big solar power plant in California, it was deluged with demands from a union group that it study the effect on creatures like the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk.

By contrast, when a competitor, BrightSource Energy, filed plans for an even bigger solar plant that would affect the imperiled desert tortoise, the same union group, California Unions for Reliable Energy, raised no complaint. Instead, it urged regulators to approve the project as quickly as possible.

One big difference between the projects? Ausra had rejected demands that it use only union workers to build its solar farm, while BrightSource pledged to hire labor-friendly contractors.

Unions...

Incidentally, this is the same hypocrisy thrown towards Wal-Mart on a daily basis. Most folks just whine and complain about Wal-Mart because their political party does so...or their Liberal political candidate suggests it. The whole basis of the friction lives within the fact that Wal-Mart refuses to unionize. As a result, unions do all they can to tarnish Wal-Mart's image with the public hoping that the pressure will lead to unionization (and an instant $300 Million in new member fees).

The above example is no different. This "California Unions for Reliable Energy" is not interested in the short-nosed kangaroo rat and the ferruginous hawk. They are interested in the membership dues. End of story...

There...that's better...

Climate-Change Report: From Bad to Worse

In reality:

"From FAD To PERVERSE"

Timmmmay!!!!!!!

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says it is clear that the government could have done more to prevent the economic downfall.

In prepared testimony, Geithner says that gaps and weaknesses in the regulatory framework governing banks and other financial institutions "presented challenges" to the government's ability to monitor and address risky market bets.

One problem, he says, is that no single regulator saw its job as protecting the economy and financial system as a whole.

The administration's plan, which Geithner outlined Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, calls for the Federal Reserve to do that job supported by a new council of regulators.

Meanwhile...sane people are aware of the fact that tax cheat, Geithner...had and has no idea what he's doing. So inept was his application that the White House couldn't get anyone to work with him. The Bail Out Bonanza was the improper response to the problem. It was applied ineptly, and abused by Congress as they threw tax payer money at their own pet projects.

In short, Geithner says we should have done more. Individuals with an understanding of the market and capitalism know we should have done less. Then again, the current administration is not interested in a strong market or capitalism.

Poetic Justice...

Word of the deal spread swiftly among Ecuadorean immigrants, along a robust grapevine from New York City out to Long Island and into Westchester County. In Peekskill, N.Y., a gas station worker named Henry León heard about it through a friend of his wife’s: The pastors of a storefront Pentecostal church in Corona, Queens, had the inside track on a special allotment of green cards the government had earmarked for church congregations.

Mr. León and his wife made the two-hour trip by train and subway to Corona to meet with one of the two pastors, Gregorio Gonzalez. He told them that all they had to do was to fill out a form and provide $8,000 each in cash and some personal identification documents, Mr. León recalled. The green cards would be ready in a month.

It seemed too good to be true. And it was, according to prosecutors in the Queens district attorney’s office.

Mr. León and his wife are among at least 120 illegal immigrants in the New York region, most of them Ecuadoreans, who the authorities say were defrauded out of a total of nearly $1 million by Mr. Gonzalez, 56, and two accomplices who were arrested in March and April. The authorities say it was one of the region’s largest cases of immigration fraud in recent years.

Overlook the New York Times' attempt to show how debased and abused the illegal aliens are. Instead concentrate on the fact that the two illegal aliens in this story had access to $16,000 with no problem. They likely don't pay taxes on their income. And, billions upon billions of such wages (untaxed) are sent back to their originating countries without issue.

That's what pisses me off. I could care less if people in the country illegally fall for fraud schemes. In fact, I kind of hope they do. Poetic justice...

Wrong way...

STAMFORD, Conn. — Sixth graders at Cloonan Middle School here are assigned numbers based on their previous year’s standardized test scores — zeros indicate the highest performers, ones the middle, twos the lowest — that determine their academic classes for the next three years.

Ok...that makes sense. You want to group students of similar learning potential so that the curriculum can be adjusted for interest and aptitude. Otherwise, the most able students are going to get bored and slack. They will not be pushed to their potential.

But this longstanding system for tracking children by academic ability for more effective teaching evolved into an uncomfortable caste system in which students were largely segregated by race and socioeconomic background, both inside and outside classrooms. Black and Hispanic students, for example, make up 46 percent of this year’s sixth grade, but are 78 percent of the twos and 7 percent of the zeros.

So in an unusual experiment, Cloonan mixed up its sixth-grade science and social studies classes last month, combining zeros and ones with twos. These mixed-ability classes have reported fewer behavior problems and better grades for struggling students, but have also drawn complaints of boredom from some high-performing students who say they are not learning as much.

Good grief!!! You're kidding me. Guess what? There is a caste system in everything you do. Some students are smarter than others. Some employees are more valuable than others. Some atheletes are more talented than others. Some folks are better public speakers. Some people are more motivated. Some just care more.

So, instead of facing reality and teaching students on their selected comprehension levels, this school idiocy has decided to hold back those with the most potential so as not to hurt the feelings of those students who make up the bottom percentile. This is all predicated on ethnicity. FOOLS!!!!

I'm curious...everyone seems to be ignoring the two ton pink elephant in the room. Why is it that the "minorities" make up a larger percentage of lower level students in terms of standarized test scores? I'll bet that there are a significant number of half-wits out there who would call me a racist just for asking the question, and then try to float an answer that just wouldn't track.

Why are we always catering to those on the bottom? Why are we rewarding their poor behavior and performance? Probably the same reason we are bailing out those mortgage holders who didn't take the time to understand the legal contract. For some reason it's trendy to do this nonsense. The Liberal mentality is all about feeling good and massaging their self-imposed guilt. It makes no difference who they damage in the process. In this case, it is students who value education, and excel at it.

Good Grief...Tarzan was made up...

Western culture understands, or misunderstands, non-Western cultures. Is Tarzan a sexist and a racist who subjugates Jane and treats black men like children? Is he a macho colonialist in a leopard-skin loincloth, rather than a pith helmet? Or was he the first ecological super-hero: a man in recyclable, locally-sourced clothes who fought to protect his pristine jungle from greedy commercial interests?

According to the curator of the exhibition, the celebrated French sociologist and anthropologist Roger Boulay, it depends which Tarzan of the Apes you are talking about. "There is a big difference between the original Tarzan of the Burroughs novels and the culturally impoverished Tarzan of Hollywood movies, starting with silent movies," he told The Independent. "The Burroughs character is complex and eventually speaks 12 languages. The movie character is often a caricature who speaks only in grunts."

Sociologists are obtuse. Anthropologists even more so. When you mix and match, you can only hope the recipient of both degrees has velcro instead of laces.

Here's a clue Mr. Socioanthro-apologist...TARZAN IS A FREAKIN' CHARACTER IN A WORK OF FICTION!!!! He is made up. You won't find him anywhere. He's not a sexist...or a racist...or an ecological super-hero (huh?)...because he just is...not anything other than a figment of Edgar Rice Burroughs' imagination...a man who never step foot in Africa.

Now...on to more important matters. Is Harry Potter gay? Did Fat Albert have a thyroid problem...and was Bill Cosby being insensitive to fat people by calling the fat kid...Fat Albert? Does Dennis the Menace have ADD? Was Wil Robinson really a smart midget?

Projection...

Panetta said of Cheney's remarks: "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

Asked if he agreed with Panetta, Vice President Joe Biden told NBC's Meet the Press that he wouldn't question the motive behind Cheney's criticism.

"I think Dick Cheney's judgment about how to secure America is faulty," Biden said. "I think our judgment is correct."

Liberals are so damn predictable. Panetta has no problem making this embarrassing jump because this is exactly how the Liberal mindset operates. It is an elitist metality that can't process the possibility that their assumption or opinion is wrong. Therefore, they are perfectly willing to suffer extreme hardship and loss to prove their point.

The best example I can think of right now is the Iraq War. Months after it had been proven that the Iraq War was won, most Liberals (including our President and the Liberal head of the Senate) were stating otherwise. Then, when it became apparent that their previous position on the Iraq War was incorrect, they stated (our President again) that EVERYONE WAS INCORRECT IN THINKING IT COULDN'T BE WON.

These folks project too damn much, and it is rather amusing.

Concerning Panetta's comments. Think about this. He makes the comments in an issue of the New Yorker that isn't even on the shelves for another week, and Meet the "DePressed" is already asking VP Biden to comment. Liberal CIA Chief...Liberal Media...and Joe the Idiot (who remarkably didn't think it was worth commenting on).

Cheney just spent a good portion of his reputation and his health making the hard decisions that would not necessarily make him well liked. He did this to keep the USA and our allies safer. Panetta could never understand this and also can't understand the concept of self-sacrifice because it would get well in the way of personal goals. But, most importantly, he could never understand the concept of doing what is right above a warped ideology or what the polls were telling him.

Snack taxes...

Would you like some taxes with that drink?

The Senate Finance Committee, looking for ways to pay for health reforms, has been considering the possibility of attaching a federal excise tax for the first time to soda and other drinks sweetened with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners. Increasing the taxes on alcoholic beverages has also been on the congressional table.

It seems unlikely that these ideas will make it into the health-care legislation that Congress will tackle this year. In an interview with CNBC, committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said they're "on life support." Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, described them as "nuisance taxes."

Read between the lines...

This won't make it into the legislation that the Democrats are going to try to ram down our throats this year. The reason is because they haven't put their hands on the reigns just yet. There will be more leverage to control your lifestyle after they invoke a Universal Health Care, and start making rules that you will have to follow in order to participate. The thing is...they will decimate any private insurer in the process making it an obligation to secure this Universal Health Care. In essence, you will give up the care you have to pay more so that those who did not make health care a priority in their lives get the same half-ass coverage. Then there will be rules that will turn into laws (since there will be no private insurers left as an alternative). One such "rule" will start with the tax on soft-drinks followed shortly after by outlawing the "substance" altogether. This is how the "nanny-staters" operate. Of course, that will only apply to the "great unwashed."

There are 26 states that have taken this route already. Nine of them repealed the legislation shortly after invoking it. Others still have a tax on snacks and soft drinks.

What is surprising is that snack taxes are anything but new, and actually have been especially unpopular and unsuccessful during the last fifteen years. As of 2000, nine states had repealed existing snack taxes - sometimes within just several years of enactment.9 While seventeen states continue to levy some variation of the tax - including California, which has taxed soft drinks since 193310 - most of the existing snack taxes significantly pre-date the obesity crisis. The first soft drinks and candy tax was levied in 1917,11 an era when food was scarce and calories were much more valuable.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Universal Health Care MUST FAIL! It must fail for a whole host of reasons. At the top of that list is the tool it will give our "control freaks" to shape, dictate, and mold our everyday lives. They are not qualified.

Newton's law of motion strikes again...

"So let me be clear. No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other." (President Obama--Jun 4, 2009)

When you say things like the above...

You get things like the below...

Iran on Fire (Continuously updated)
The BBC says clashes between demonstrators and police in Tehran are the most violent in a decade.

The US President needs to stop being so literal, and present these third world cesspool nations with a bit of uncertainty so as to make them consider potential risk to their bloodletting...

The Pussification of America---Obama's next book...

Idiocy in exchange for insecurity...

Studying in the US: Science Students Are Promised No More Visa Delays
State Department sets a goal of two weeks' processing time for security clearances.

American officials say they are working to reduce visa delays that have affected foreign science students, researchers and others. The delays involve a security clearance process called Visas Mantis. Through this program, different government agencies try to identify visa applicants who could threaten national security.

The aim is to protect American military technology or technology with possible military uses to other countries or to terrorists. A two thousand five report said that seventy percent of Mantis requests came from China, Russia and Ukraine.

Oh...that sounds like a great idea. Two weeks turn-around on visa requests from Russia and China...Well, let's hope they are selective in whom is allowed within our borders.

U.S. Visas for Most Russians

U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle said Wednesday that only 5 percent of visa applications filed by Russians were being declined.

Beyrle also told Ren-TV television that he did not expect the visa regime between the United States and Russia to be lifted any time soon. (MT)

That's what I thought. Two week turn-around on visa request from an unknown quantity of "students" at a 95% approval. Who is dumb enough to promote this insecurity?

There have been delays before. Officials said the average processing time in October of two thousand three was seventy-five days. The wait was cut to fifteen days under pressure from Congress. But the wait time has increased again over the past year.

Why, the Democrat infested Congress, of course.

Add it to the list, folks. Congress is not only pushing for "Amnesty" for illegal aliens, they are pushing to saturate our country with an insecure influx of alleged students from countries that have very little interest in the prosperity of the USA. But, when some "manmade crisis" disappears a city within our country, you better believe I'm going to play the blame game. My finger will freakin' point right down to DC and the half-wit, mouth breathers who support this nonsense.

Mating calls between the lines...

A 16-YEAR-OLD Portuguese tennis player tipped as a future great, Michelle Larcher de Brito, emits a wail while hitting shots that seems to last longer than it takes the ball to reach the other side of the net. Sometimes her moans are loud enough to be heard three courts away.

Her decibel level has not yet been officially recorded but she was so noisy during the third round of the French Open last month that her opponent, Ara-vane Rezaï of France, complained to the umpire.

Mohammed el-Jennati, the Moroccan official, issued an unofficial warning. Larcher de Brito continued her shrieking and Rezaï made further complaints, leading to a Grand Slam supervisor attending the court.

No further action was taken and Rezaï eventually won 7-6, 6-2. Larcher de Brito, who has been handed a wild card for Wimbledon, was booed off the court.

I've always hated the "grunters." Monica Seles was always the greatest offender in that regard. This gut born womp of a moan would follow every single shot (even volleys, which proved it was more habit as opposed to strenuous exercise). The Williams sisters do it as well with just as much enthusiasm. Quite frankly, it's annoying (mostly for the crowd). Their opponents should not even have it register if they are concentrating sufficiently.

I find the whole concept of trying to outlaw grunting on the tennis court amusing, however. You could say that the very act isn't very feminine. However, having spent some of my younger days on the national circuit in the US, I can tell you that the feminine players are few and far between (in the women's draw, that is).

I love irony...and hypocrisy in the same sandwich...

SAN FRANCISCO — In the debate over illegal immigration, San Francisco has proudly played the role of liberal enclave, a so-called sanctuary city where local officials have refused to cooperate with enforcement of federal immigration law and undocumented residents have mostly lived without fear of consequence.

But over the last year, buffeted by several high-profile crimes by illegal immigrants and revelations of mismanagement of the city’s sanctuary policy, San Francisco has become less like its self-image and more like many other cities in the United States: deeply conflicted over how to cope with the fallout of illegal immigration.

*Snort*

Imagine that...folks who were breaking the law just being in the US (and San Francisco)...continued to break the law on a more definitive basis. Then, those who FELT better by allowing these criminals to live in their "sancuary" realized that they were not necessarily benefitting from their leeching existence and growing predatory behavior.

Gosh...didn't see that coming...

Greed has its drawbacks...

For the first couple of days after his flight ditched into the Hudson River, Paul Jorgenson was just glad to be alive. But then he started to need his laptop, his wallet, his car keys — all the essentials he had stowed under his seat and left behind in the sinking plane.

AIG has offered each and every passenger $10,000 in return for a full and final release of liability. I doubt that Paul Jorgenson had that much in his wallet. Laptops are less than $2,000 (top of the line).

The truth is that no liability has been assessed against the Airline. However, the junk science "experts" and the diligent plaintiff attorneys are doing all they can to create liability despite that the incident was "an act of God." So, in the mean time, the plaintiff contingency attempts to build a bogus case and their "clients" refuse to sign off on their "claims" because, quite frankly, they see a potential pay day down the line.

I have no sympathy for opportunists.

That's it...just keep releasing them, dimwit...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration released six Guantánamo detainees to other countries on Thursday, including four Chinese Muslims whose cases drew wide attention as the president has struggled to meet his goal of closing the prison by January.

No comment in the story about consideration of returning the Uighur Chinese Muslims to western China. Do you want to know why?

China would just disappear the 17 and classify them as "organ donors." They wouldn't bother with humanity in the least. Instead, the Uighurs head to Bermuda and the Pacific nation of Palau.

Philadelphia: Land Baron..

Al Perry sells houses for a living, so it bothers him to see a boarded-up shell or overgrown lot that is owned - and ignored - by the city.

As president of the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors, Perry is working on an idea that could help the city reduce blight and raise money.

It's marketing: Use Realtors to sell some of the 11,000 vacant houses and lots owned by government entities.

Holy Crap!!!!

The City of Philadelphia (a cadre of different government agencies) owns over 11,000 houses and lots in the city. ELEVEN THOUSAND OF THEM !!!!

If you reside south of City Line Avenue in Philadelphia County, you have my sympathies, and also my curiosity as to why the hell you remain there. Your municipal government is increasing your tax burden by sitting on properties they had no business acquiring in the first place. ELEVEN THOUSAND RESIDENCES AND LOTS!!!!!

Conflict of interest...

WASHINGTON — The richest members of the House of Representatives were not immune from last year's economic meltdown, financial disclosure forms released Wednesday indicate.

The near-collapse of insurance giant American International Group hurt the fortunes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, her report shows. Her husband, developer Paul Pelosi, lost between $100,000 and $1 million when he sold AIG shares at the end of the year, the report says.

The California Democrat reported that the couple's net worth is as much as $96 million, down from as much as $144 million in 2007.

Goodness!!! I'm hovering on the verge of tears.

Of course, I'm also wondering why in the HELL Pelosi was given a free pass to support the hundreds of Billions we taxpayers had to shell out to AIG when it fact it benefited her household personally.

SHE SHOULD HAVE RECUSED HERSELF FROM DEBATE, AND VOTING ON THE ISSUE!!!! ...as should any other legislator (Federal or State) who was involved personally.

State run media...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy delivered two upbeat reports Thursday: New claims for unemployment benefits dropped more than expected in the most recent week, to 601,000 and May retail sales rose by the largest amount in four months.

The Labor Department says initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped last week by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 601,000, below analysts' estimates of 615,000.

But continuing claims for the unemployed receiving benefits rose 59,000 to 6.8 million, the highest on records dating to 1967.

Ummmm...nothing dropped. Read it slowly so USA Today doesn't get their "water carrier" certificate. The initial claims for unemployment were 24,000 less than previous. BUT, UNEMPLOYMENT IS STILL GROWING FROM AN INITIATED BASIS. Additionally, this is a report that claims to be seasonally adjusted. Uh huh. Think about it. This is the start of summer and day labor/ construction jobs rule the roost. In other words, those lackeys putting together the "estimates" can fudge anything they please.

Bottom line...Obama has placed this country in a position to have more people receiving unemployment benefits than we have had doing so in over 40 years. The press just gives him a pass.

NYC...we'll tell you how to "live"...

Dr. Farley noted that over the last 60 years, physical activity has been engineered out of daily lives. About 25 percent of people get exercise and 75 percent simply do not, he estimated. “If we’ve engineered physical activity out of our daily lives, we can engineer it right back in just as easily,” he said.

The city is trying to get that 75 percent of nonexercising people to get some amount of physical activity, since it all results in some health improvement. Ideally, he said, people would have at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day, the amount of time that studies show has the greatest degree of benefit.

New York is filled with nanny-type simpletons.

Their solution is to engineer building codes that would require (somehow) people to use the stairs instead of a elevator. Here's a thought...we live in a country (hopefully) that provides the alternative of being a fat, lazy, and disease prone load. Instead of providing these self-destructive half-wits with healthcare on the same plateau as healthy driven folks...MAKE THEM PAY MORE...AND STOP GIVING FREE CARE TO THE MINDLESS MORONS!!!

And keep building elevators. I don't want to live in a cave...but if you do...go ahead. I might even stop by once in a while to flip the bird from my flying car.

Goose...meet the Gander...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday appointed a compensation czar who will have broad discretion to set the pay for 175 top executives at seven of the nation’s largest companies, which received hundreds of billions of dollars in federal assistance to survive.

The mandate given to the new compensation official, Kenneth R. Feinberg, a well-known Washington lawyer, reflects the federal government’s increasingly intrusive role in the corporate affairs of deeply troubled companies. From his nondescript office in Room 1310 of the Treasury building, Mr. Feinberg will set the salaries and bonuses of some of the top corporate executives in America, including Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America; Vikram Pandit, the head of Citigroup, and Fritz Henderson, the chief executive of General Motors.

Please...please...please...someone with a signficant amount of their own expendable income laying around start a movement that places referendum votes in all 50 states that ties performance of elected politicians to their salaries. If there is a deficit, they receive no pay (and perhaps penalties in the form of taxes that will encourage constituents to fire their voluminous asses). If they balance the budget, we will provide performance driven salaries reflective of the result. The Fed has set the precedent. Let's apply it properly.

And magicians don't really do magic...

BALTIMORE — At one of the nation's top trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive.

They are doing Reiki therapy, which claims to heal through invisible energy fields. The anesthesia chief, Dr. Richard Dutton, calls it "mystical mumbo jumbo." Still, he's a fan.

Diversity will kill us all...

I have no further words for this absolute sophomoric idiocy...

Let him go...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. authorities have brought the first Guantanamo Bay detainee to the United States, flying him into New York to face trial for bombing U.S. embassies, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

The department said Ahmed Ghailani arrived in the early morning hours Tuesday. U.S. Marshals took custody of Ghailani from his military jailers and brought him to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Ghailani is scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court later Tuesday.

''With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people,'' Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press release. ''The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case.''

No trial...just let him go...in downtown Manhattan (Liberal epicenter of NY), set him up with a nice rent controlled apartment, and perhaps a library card. If these idiots are so bent on giving every benefit to human excrement...move them into their neighborhoods and watch them sweat (or continue on in blissful ignorance).

Covering all the bases...with nonsense...

Source: National Geographic- May 19, 2008...

Global warming may reduce the number of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Basin by 2060, a new study says. But it adds that the storms that do form may be slightly stronger and wetter.

It's important to note that this report followed an above average ranked year in Hurricane quanity.

Source: National Geographic- June 30, 2007...

The number of Atlantic hurricanes that form each year has doubled over the past century and global warming is largely to blame, according a new study.

This is from just about one year before the previous study. I find it amusing that 2006 was a very low ranked Hurricane quanity year with none touching landfall in the US (and a low amount of tropical storms to boot).

In short...these studies are proven to be out and out distortions that don't even reflect the most recent season prior to the date of the reports. It is even more amusing that the medium of these two separate and contradicting articles is the same (National Geographic). This year (2009)...the "experts" are already lowering their prediction totals (which rarely correspond with reality).

So...there you have it. Global Warming causes less hurricanes and more hurricanes. The trick is to do a study that forms one postulate or the other and make sure your summary reflects the exact opposite from what transpired most recently. That provides maximum skepticism...and makes the faith base global warming brigade really dig into their hearts for true belief.

Quit stereotyping Islam as peaceful...

The vitriolic response to the Legislature designating Sept. 24 as "Islam Day" is a troubling indication that Americans associate international terrorism with Islam. Gov. Linda Lingle remarked on a local radio show that her office had received "ridicule all across the country." She called the resolution "just an expression of them (legislators) being out of touch."

In fact, a Gallup survey last year found that 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates, and the radicals condoned the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States for political instead of religious reasons.

This is a portion of an editorial in the Honolulu Star Bulletin whining about all the criticism (across the entire nation and some in their own Legislature) to their acceptance of some nonsense called "Islam Day" in that state. It's idiocy...as is the editorial. Let's look at those 93% "Moderate" Muslims, shall we?

…which means that 305,000 Muslims living in the United States support suicide bombings.

…which means that AT LEAST 117,500 Muslims in the United States support Al Qaeda’s objectives, which are to destroy western civilization while converting all people to Muslim at the point of a sword, or kill us if we refuse.

…which means that 1,105,000 Muslims living in the United States are more loyal to Islam than to the country.

…which means that 1,410,000 Muslims in the United States think that “the Jews did it” or that 911 was some other conspiracy.

-25% of all younger Muslims in the United States support suicide bombings to defend religious beliefs.

The editorial claims in its byline that a "Crude Stereotype must be Overcome."

I agree...let's stop all this hogwash about there being anything resembling moderation in the Cult of Islam. The very basis of the cult builds its foundation on the Koran (which is a very radical, opressive, and bigoted wandering).

D-Day...when you were allowed to kick the proper ass...without apologies

Doing a 180...

Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, D-N.Y., a friend of Sotomayor and a fellow Puerto Rican, said Sotomayor's gender may be clouding the views of some critics.

"She has the responsibility as a judge to question and to challenge. If it's a man, that is `tough' -- it's OK -- if it's a woman then somehow she is a bully or has a bad tamper," Velazquez said.

Ah...now we delve into the gender issue as the "Latina" issue seems to have bitten her in the ass due to a multitude of other occurrences showing Judge Sotomayor to be racist.

Last week she was a proud Latina woman with better insight on the Bench based purely on that issue. Today, she is a victim based on that very same understanding. Sometimes it's hard to decide whether to bunt or swing-away.

"I'm a Nutjob"

Yes...you see...under the "occupation" category, I wrote TERRORIST. Under the "restrictions" category...I wrote HARD TO SEE WITH MY HEAD UP MY ASS.

Having sex with a sheet....(I said sheet...not sheep)

Yet she is also the author of what for the Middle East is an amazingly frank new book of erotic advice in which she celebrates the female orgasm, confronts taboo topics like homosexuality and urges Arabs to transcend the backward traditions that limit their sexual happiness.

The book, “Top Secret: Sexual Guidance for Married Couples,” is packed with vivid anecdotes from Ms. Lootah’s eight years as a marital counselor in Dubai’s main courthouse. It became an instant scandal after it was published in Arabic in the Emirates in January, drawing praise from some liberals and death threats from conservatives, who say she is guilty of blasphemy or worse.

How does anyone take the Cult of Islam seriously? Also, how does anyone take the articles of the New York Times seriously?

This book... "Top Secret: Sexual Guidance for Married Couples"...is written by the very nuanced and forward thinking Muslim woman, WEDAD LOOTAH. Want to see a picture of this woman?

Here:




She's the one with the eye slots facing you...fully covered in a niqab so she won't...you know...show any skin while telling you how take it the hard way.

Publishing the book, she notes, was a difficult choice. Her father supported her, but other family members sometimes wondered why she had to be so public about it all. After it was published a man called her office phone and threatened to kill her. Other threats appeared on the Internet.

She brushes them off, saying she has declined an offer of protection from the government. Besides, she adds, educating the public is worth the risk.

“A few days ago a woman came in and asked me if it is O.K. to kiss the man all over his body,” she said. “I told her, ‘Read my book!’ ”

Sure...go to town...but don't draw any cartoons about it. These people are INSANE!!!

I am Spartacus!!!....ummmm....and Batman, too!!!

But conservatives are literally the more easily disgusted of the two when it comes to such squeamish things as maggots, questionable toilet seats and the prospect of eating monkey meat. Such sensitivity, it seems, plays a role in their ideology and moral values.

At simple test...

Put one of those elitist Liberal Manhattanites wearing those goofy and trendy rectangular ice cube spectacles next to anyone from flyover country in a room where the floor is covered with earthworms. Guess which person hyperventilates first...

Take any hunter (likely a conservative and probably an NRA member) and match them up with any Liberal who thinks bean paste is gourmet and ask them to gut a Moose...Guess who goes running for the exit.

This "study" is just another example of wishful thinking. If falls along the same lines of how the Democrats continuously receive a "diversity" label while continuously propogating the opposite. They make shit up like this, and FEEL better about themselves in a superior sort of way. It's really very sad and pathetic.

Models of nothing...

In the waning days of April, as federal officials were declaring a public health emergency and the world seemed gripped by swine flu panic, two rival supercomputer teams made projections about the epidemic that were surprisingly similar — and surprisingly reassuring. By the end of May, they said, there would be only 2,000 to 2,500 cases in the United States.

May’s over. They were a bit off.

On May 15, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were “upwards of 100,000” cases in the country, even though only 7,415 had been confirmed at that point.

Funding...funding...and more funding. Plus, if you are a political machine type operation like the Center for Disease Control, you alway error to the worst case scenario to protect your worthless behind, and increase funding...funding...and funding.

Liberals and their "models." You have to love them. Who knows, maybe some day they will use a half-ass model to predict the end of the world.

I showed you the werewolves...what about vampires?

I've shown you how to hunt down a werewolf using Google. Vampires, however, are a bit more tricky. You might come to the conclusion that there just aren't that many of them, and Google is worthless in that regard.

You'd be wrong.

Vampires are just a bit more organized than werewolves. They hire out and subcontract:

A laptop stolen during a recent blood drive contained sensitive information on 268,000 Minnesota-region blood donors, Memorial Blood Centers say.

The laptop was in a briefcase that was stolen just before 7 a.m. Nov. 28 as workers were setting up a blood drive, said Laura Kaplan, manager of marketing and communications with the blood center. "They were setting up for a blood drive and this was in a briefcase," she said. "The police have told us they believe it was a random crime."

Memorial Blood Centers is a nonprofit blood bank based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It operates 10 blood collection centers in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and collects about 125,000 units of blood each year.

It's a clever approach. The laptop is a virtual smörgåsbord for those in the seethe looking for a night out on the town. Blood type listings does away with the usual "potluck" approach. Vampires will pay top dollar that information. It was taken in the daylight hours (7:AM) to mislead investigators.

Don't be fooled. Vampires are just as, if not more, prevalent than werewolves. And, they are quite continental.

Krugman looks like a genius when standing next to a bag of rocks...

There’s plenty of blame to go around these days. But the prime villains behind the mess we’re in were Reagan and his circle of advisers — men who forgot the lessons of America’s last great financial crisis, and condemned the rest of us to repeat it.

Krugman is insane. The true reason we find our economy so fragile is the sub-prime mortgage mess created and propogated by the Clinton legislation supported by Democrats...who ultimately refused to recognize the toxic debt they were generating despite efforts by some Republicans and the Bush Administration to limit the practice.

On a side note, I bumped into Paul Krugman one late afternoon while walking to the Port Authority. He was standing by himself outside the NY Times building (no longer the possession of the New York Times due to financial idiocy by Pinch Sulzberger). I walked up to him without pause and asked him very matter of factly:

"Where is he?"

He looked at me confused and responded expectly.

"Where's who?"

I grinned my little grin...

"Why...the guy who carries your medication around for you?"

I went on my way having done my good deed for the day, and didn't even bother to take in his response.

Liberals most threatened by Global Warming...they say

New York, Boston "Directly in Path" of Sea Level Rise

Christine Dell'Amore
National Geographic News
May 28, 2009

By 2100 visitors to Boston could be parking their boats, not their cars, in Harvard Yard.

Major cities in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada "are directly in the path of the greatest rise" in sea level if Greenland continues to melt due to global warming, a new study says.

Scientists believe that the influx of fresh water from the disintegrating ice sheets will disrupt a circulation pattern in the Atlantic Ocean, causing seas to expand.

The new projections call for an extra 4 to 12 inches (10.2 to 30.5 centimeters) on top of the rise of 8 inches (20.3 centimeters) previously estimated in the journal Nature Geoscience in March.

That previous study found that, if global warming continues, sea levels around New York City would rise by twice as much as in other parts of the United States within this century.

(You can't see me...but I'm laughing) I find this amusing, because it would seem that those most apt to believe in the nonsense of "Global Warming" and "model predicted sea rise" couldn't wait to put themselves into the role of victim. I really hate to burst their little "feel good" and "woe is me" bubbles...but here's the truth:

Greenland Ice Melt 'not changing' or 'dropping'

Google up a Werewolf...

Did you know that the easiest way to identify a werewolf is to just do a Google search?

Sure...

Use these keywords:

"naked, man, driving"

Think about it. There are entirely too many occurrences in which the police have to arrest some poor slob driving around naked. Well, how do you think they ended up driving around naked? 1,200,000 entries for that simple search phrase...Yikes!

Being a werewolf is hard on the wardrobe, folks.

Uncharacteristically truthful quote...

"There has not been a nominee in several generations who has brought the depth of judicial experience to this job that she offers," Obama says.

Yeah...I can't remember the last time a President nominated a racist for the position...

On a side note, I have taken to approaching each dilemma in my life by following the example of Sotomayor. I just ask myself... "What would a Latina woman do?"

The French Menace...

French oarsman Charlie Girard failed for a third time yesterday in his quixotic quest to row to France from Cape Cod. And US taxpayers are $80,000 poorer.

That's the cost of dispatching a Coast Guard jet and helicopter to a 21-foot, custom-designed rowboat bobbing 150 miles off Cape Cod, where Girard called it quits 10 days into his latest aborted adventure.

Fearful and cold in a menacing fog, Girard used a satellite phone to place an 8:25 a.m. distress call to the Coast Guard in Boston.

"I can't do anything," Girard, 28, said in a weak, breaking voice. "I'm cold, and I don't know what to do."

So, to summarize...the frog gave up for the third time. The US came to his rescue for the third time...and we taxpayers foot the bill every time Frenchman, Charlie Girard wants a little attention...(hmmm...sounds familiar).

"He is well," his website chronicler reported that day. "He becomes used more and more to the life on Caliste. He sleeps better now. A bird accompanied some hours on Saturday. He saw two boats."

The site appealed, in awkwardly translated English, for donations to help Girard "beat the record of the world of the crossing by rows the North Atlantic ocean."

By making a contribution, the appeal continued, "you will allow Charlie to close the budget and you will participate in an exceptional adventure."

On his website, where he says he comes from the Deux-Sèvres region in the west of France, he describes himself as "not a sea man . . . contrary to the previous adventurers, he has only coastal navigation experiences."

Who else is a cynic and thinks ole' Chuck is cashing in by taking in donations, starting a journey, and then calling it off after a short period to pocket the proceeds? Maybe...maybe not...but:

Girard will not be billed for the $80,000 expense, which includes six hours of total air time for the jet and helicopter, and the cost of support crews. Petty Officer Etta Smith, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Boston, said policy is to use taxpayer money to pay for rescues.

Effin' French...

Try it at my polling place, wankers!!!

I wrote this paragraph in the post below to point out the mentality of the Left:

Pure Liberals first define "fairness" for the rest of us, and refuse to consider alternatives. This is why just about every issue comes down to identity politics with them. There is no subjective value accepted by a Liberal despite the fact it is purely subjective. They merely pronounce it objective. Facts, figures, statistics and the law are their worst enemy.

Now...let's see what's happening in today's news:

Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews.

(...)

Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as "the most blatant form of voter intimidation" that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago.

The lawyers also had ascertained that one of the three men had gained access to the polling place by securing a credential as a Democratic poll watcher, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Times.

The career Justice lawyers were on the verge of securing sanctions against the men earlier this month when their superiors ordered them to reverse course, according to interviews and documents. The court had already entered a default judgment against the men on April 20.

That's Eric Holder's Justice Department. You know...the guy who called us all cowards for not taking a blunt dialogue on racism and bigotry.

Well...Ok.

Attorney General Holder and President Obama are racists overflowing with bigotry, which on its own is pretty damning. But, they are also dishonest politicians who, obviously, have no problem bastardizing the rule of law to curry favor for their own personal gain.

How's that, Eric?

Studying the bowl...

The larger point is that liberals and conservatives often form judgments through flash intuitions that aren’t a result of a deliberative process. The crucial part of the brain for these judgments is the medial prefrontal cortex, which has more to do with moralizing than with rationality. If you damage your prefrontal cortex, your I.Q. may be unaffected, but you’ll have trouble harrumphing.

One of the main divides between left and right is the dependence on different moral values. For liberals, morality derives mostly from fairness and prevention of harm. For conservatives, morality also involves upholding authority and loyalty — and revulsion at disgust.

Crap by the bucketload...

Here, try this:

Pure Liberals first define "fairness" for the rest of us, and refuse to consider alternatives. This is why just about every issue comes down to identity politics with them. There is no subjective value accepted by a Liberal despite the fact it is purely subjective. They merely pronounce it objective. Facts, figures, statistics and the law are their worst enemy.

Pure Liberals are only interested in prevention of harm if the application is to themselves.

The whole Conservatives---authority/loyalty thing is just...well a bucketload of crap. I would define Conservatives as pragmatic, more interested in factual truth and more attuned to reality over ideology.

We don't care how you feel about a decision.

We are more interested in assuring that the decision is properly made with the desired result. That way, we don't end up painting the roof of our house white because some "climate creep" liberal idiot thinks it's a good idea.

Global Warming legitimacy SINKS a little further...

UNITED NATIONS — With their boundless vistas of turquoise water framed by swaying coconut palms, the Carteret Islands northeast of the Papua New Guinea mainland might seem the idyllic spot to be a castaway.

But sea levels have risen so much that during the annual king tide season, November to March, the roiling ocean blocks the view from one island to the next, and residents stash their possessions in fishing nets strung between the palm trees.

Uhhh...no...thanks to tectonic shift, the islands are sinking. Rising sea levels are not the cause.

Now if you ask just about anyone living on the islands why this is happening, they will immediately shout "global warming." I was surprised they even knew this term, but they will point north and describe the melting of the ice in Greenland to make their case for climate change. Other people we interviewed described the tumultuous history of the islands, where at one time they used dynamite to fish with resulting damage to the protective coral. They also remind us that the islands are actually part of an old volcano that has a natural history of sinking back into the sea.

I wouldn't be surprised that they knew the term. The United Nations has been force feeding it to them.

*Snort* I remember watching an the Tonight Show back when Johnny Carson was running things, and Bob Uecker (baseball player and all around jokester) was a guest. He noted that he had gone fishing for the first time the week before. He used dynamite...and got 200 bass on his first cast.

I prefer to call it deporting...

Louis B. Susman, Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland

Imagine that...the likely new ambassador to the UK is a campaign bundler for Obama and the Democrat Party who was also the vice-chairman of Citigroup before resigning back in February. That's, of course, the same Citigroup which was gifted like $45 Billion of our tax dollars due to their ineptness (and by association, Susman's ineptness). Oh...and he's from Chicago.

Sorry, UK. Although, you might want to provide a nice warm welcome and thank Susman and his friends for the current economic climate.

Mc-Loven...High Priestess with the Leastest...

The effort to buttress the appeals court judge's nomination from behind a curtain of anonymity highlights the administration's determination to frame the narrative, even as cable news pundits and bloggers were alternately praising and criticizing Sotomayor.

"We protest in the strongest terms the Obama administration's frequent use of briefings done on a background basis . . . especially when the same officials briefing often appear ubiquitously on television shows with similar information," said Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press, president of the White House Correspondents' Association. She said this was particularly true on a Supreme Court nomination, "when the issue does not involve sensitive material such as national security information."

Asked for a response, Gibbs said it was "interesting" that the AP had no qualms about relying on unnamed "officials" in breaking the news of Sotomayor's nomination. "I'm not sure today is the day I'd make that argument," he said.

This is from a Howard Kurtz piece in the Washington Post today on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. I found it amusing because Jennifer Loven is the AP reporter who filed her observations on the President's Inaugural address many hours ahead of the delivery. It was one of the examples we use on this site to point out that the Associated Press possesses a Time Machine.

I wasn't aware that she was the President of the White House Correspondents' Association. I suppose it has something to do with her infinite energy to carry the water for anything and anyone anti-Bush. Apparently, the rest of the cadre is wary of her other tools from the future, and decided to placate her in the event that she holds a death ray gadget, or perhaps can read their minds.

A media debate over Sotomayor erupted immediately after the AP reported her selection at 8:25 a.m., nearly two hours before Obama's announcement. There had been earlier skirmishes because Sotomayor was high on every media organization's list of possible appointees, unlike in some previous instances where the nominee -- Harriet Miers, for instance -- came as a surprise.

Damn Time Machine...

Terminator: Salvation...ignores Global Warming...

So, I went and took in "Terminator Salvation" the other day. There is a fatal flaw in the script...and I'm going to drop it on you like a two ton anvil.


THESE DAMN MACHINES ARE KILLING THE PLANET. THE CARBON EMISSIONS ARE THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!

I'm betting that Prince Charles soiled his Royal briefs after seeing this flick. It looks to me like the rebels are going to have to do some pretty radical cap and trade if they want to live. Actually, as today's "scientists" point out, they would have long passed the point of not return. Why fight? They're already doomed?

On that same note, machines do not require breathable air to live. So, please tell me why biological warfare was not a part of this film?

Whining little children...

• "It seems that the California Supreme Court justices decided to be indecisive," said Takei, who married Altman Sept. 14, 2008. "Our marriage is intact, but this issue is not settled. Inequality is still the rule of the land."

• "I'm sure you heard the prop 8 news," DeGeneres wrote on Twitter. "One day when everyone is treated with full equality, we'll look back and realize how wrong this was."

• "Those full of hate and fear will surely be disappointed that 18,000 same sex couples will be living in wedded bliss, kissing their spouses goodnight, checking off those little 'married' boxes on all those forms we fill out nowadays. That's really going to drive them crazy," Melissa Etheridge, who exchanged vows with her longtime partner in a 2003 ceremony, said in a statement. "I am hopeful as I see more and more states turn to the inevitable future of equality, California will get there. Change takes time."

• "I blame miss california," Margaret Cho wrote on Twitter.

• "That's just awful," Elton John said in an interview on AccessHollywood.com. "When you see places like Iowa saying yes, there's now five states in America (where same-sex marriage is legal). California is supposed to be a progressive state. It defies logic to me. I'm very disappointed."

• "This really makes me sad," Kim Kardashian wrote on her blog. "I thought we were more forward thinking than this, and I'm disappointed in the Supreme Court for being so closed minded. Everyone... gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, EVERYONE should have equal rights to marry who they want to."

• "Gay and lesbian residents of this state are being denied the same rights, privileges and protections that heterosexual couples have when they marry civilly," Hilton blogged. "That is NOT right! That is not fair! That is wrong wrong wrong! This is about equality!"

This is the celebrity response to the Prop 8 nonsense over in California. Again, I'll confirm that I could care less about the gay marriage issue. It is of little importance, and I would not have had a problem with the result of the Court Decision one way or the other. Similarly, I had no problem with a majority of California voters deciding that they didn't want gay marriage in their part of the Republic.

So, my spoiled one-sided, arbitrary, celebrity friends...suck it up. The people have spoken...the Court has ruled...and if you call anyone a bigot for not supporting your side of the argument, you are nothing more than a whining little child.

Finally, lets stop with this hypocrisy about "equality" and being "treated like everyone else." The Gay/Lesbian movement uses that word so easily, and then holds a parade, or a banquet or something else that highlights how different they are. They celebrate that fact, so why be surprised or upset when others do the same...in their way?

What about the dipsh*t in the White House, guys?

Not all remembrances on Memorial Day were about the brave ones who went to war and didn’t come home. Memories were stirring as well among those who, typically without the benefit of ever having been in uniform themselves, sent the brave ones off to war.

We are in a season rich with recollections being offered by key figures in the George W. Bush presidency. They have been busy writing their memoirs, or at least shopping them around — people like Dick Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove and, lest we forget, Mr. Bush himself.

This is to be expected. Once they have let slip the reins of power, senior people in every administration race to their desktops to pound out their side of the story and (no small consideration) to cash in on it. Big time, as Mr. Cheney might say. Former President Bill Clinton remains the gold standard, having received a $15 million advance for a thick memoir judged by some reviewers as notable less for its literary elegance than for its utility as a doorstop.

Recent polls have shown that those wearing the uniform don't have a very high opinion of that guy in the White House. So, the New York Times is doing their part to try and sway a bit more support in that regard. The process is a tired "hit piece" on the Bush administration efforting to alienate soldiers by giving the impression that Bush and Co. didn't care. Cashing in...you get the idea.

The problem is that the New York Times failed to name the most egregious offender of this trumped up accusation. They failed to mention the man in the White House currently...who has more window dressing visages at Amazon.com than all the others combined.

It's all under control...

Yup...North Korea performed a "marginally successful" nuclear test yesterday about 20 times more potent than their first one. Let's see how the United Nations is addressing this distressing news:

UN Headquarters in New York will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
The noon briefing will resume next Tuesday, May 26.

Good grief!!! Shouldn't they be working on a "strongly worded letter" or something?

Remember...

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
(by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae)

Go hifreann leat!

The study also found that alcoholic drinks contribute significantly to emissions, with the growing and processing of hops and malt into beer and whisky producing 1.5 per cent of Britain's greenhouse gases.

Who do you think will win this battle?

Best of luck Greenies...there is a reason certain inhabitants of the United Kingdom have been stereotyped.

That's Racist...

Among several hundred people who gathered to celebrate African-American veterans in Roxbury's General Edward O. Gourdin Park yesterday was the grand-nephew of the famed judge, general, and athlete for whom the park is named.

It's interesting that there are no celebrations to honor those veterans with red hair...or veterans with hazel colored eyes. We consistantly and incessantly hear the "drums" demanding equality from those with more melanin in their skin tone. But, we always see segregational type honorarians such as this at the same time.

The "red hair" and the "hazel colored eyes" examples are arbitrary. However, simply put, were someone to set up a celebration of "white veterans," what would be the response? There is your litmus test on just what a celebration such as this represents.

The Entitlement 'pilot program' of Philadelphia Free Lunches...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is supporting a Bush administration edict to end a well-regarded Philadelphia school breakfast and lunch program, according to a high-ranking USDA official.

Antihunger advocates are outraged, saying many poor children who normally get free lunch and breakfast may go without if the USDA ends the program, the only one of its kind in the country.

Known as Universal Feeding, the program allows more than 120,000 students in poor schools to eat free meals without having to fill out applications. Children and their families in poor communities don't always complete such forms. The USDA, however, is insisting that paperwork be used, which will result in fewer poor children eating, advocates say.

This was/is a pilot program...THAT WAS INSTITUTED SEVENTEEN (17) YEARS AGO!!!

Here's the bonus question:

Why do you suppose they stopped requiring students and parents to fill out applications for the free food? The excuse used was that so many children qualified from "poor families" that they believed it didn't make sense to require qualification any more. I don't think that was the reason at all.

Perhaps:

1. Funding for the next year was based on spending from the previous year (like all government boondoggle...pilot programs).

2. Or...maybe the majority of recipients shouldn't be in this country to begin with...

My thoughts fall along the line that without these bogus give-away tax funded entitlements...maybe folks will think twice about having a family they can't afford. Or not.

Not immune...

FRAMINGHAM - Framingham's human resources director says she was unfairly fired from her job after questioning the legality of a round of Town Hall layoffs in February that eliminated the jobs of mostly older female, minority, and disabled town employees.

I love it when Liberal policies and precedent shoot Liberals in their own Birkenstock clad feet.

Framingham, Mass. is a Liberal bastion of idiocy. The town is smack dab in the middle of Middlesex County. 64% of that county put the current President and legislature into office. Locally, Mass. reaped 35 Democrat representatives in their House of a total 37. 8 or the 9 Mass. senators from that county are also Democrat.

So, as one of the most Liberal states is fighting to stay solvent (Middlesex County Court went insolvent a few years back, by the way) they are being forced to make cuts in civil employees. Presumably, the first to hit the trail are the most expendable. They, of course, hold Liberal "values" as well, and will not go quietly into the night. It is a microcosm of the internal fabric of society being torn and worn when those who supported the Liberal idiocy based on skin color, age etc...are the first to shout about their own lay-off without making a single reference to performance, merit or necessity.

Incidentally, Framingham documents about 2,000 Brazillian immigrants on their rolls. The common sense number is very close to 20,000.

From the no-brainer chronicles...

The United Nations, which aspires to protect human rights around the world, is struggling to deal with an embarrassing string of sexual-harassment complaints within its own ranks.

Many U.N. workers who have made or faced accusations of sexual harassment say the current system for handling complaints is arbitrary, unfair and mired in bureaucracy. One employee's complaint that she was sexually harassed for years by her supervisor in Gaza, for example, was investigated by one of her boss's colleagues, who cleared him.

Gosh...this surprises me.

Well, no it doesn't. But, see if you can spot the commonality on most of the "alleged" abusers referenced.

Some day I hope the alarmists get their heads out of their posteriors...

January 2003:

Are extreme droughts, and the wild firestorms that they foster, just a fact of life? Is this as bad as it's going to get or could the risk of drought and bushfires such as we saw in Canberra continue to grow?

The severe weather conditions that Australia is currently experiencing are a disaster. But it is not a natural disaster. A report, released on January 14, prepared by Professor David Karoly, Dr James Risbey and Anna Reynolds for the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia, found that the severity of the current drought is a result of human-induced global warming.

______________________

May 2009:

CANBERRA, May 22 (Reuters) - Authorities moved to evacuate thousands of people from a second Australian town on Friday as floodwaters from days of torrential rain inundated large parts of the country's east coast.

About 5,000 residents in Lismore, in northern New South Wales (NSW) state, were evacuated from their homes as floodwaters, in some places more than 10 metres (32 feet) deep, surged across riverlands stretching along 300 km (185 miles) of coastline.

Authorities also urged 9,000 people to evacuate the nearby town of Grafton, with floodwaters up to 8 metres deep expected to hit the town late on Friday. State authorities declared disaster zones in six areas, unlocking government help.

Hmmm...I thought they just observed in their discipline...

Tim Blair (The Daily Telegraph-Australia) points to a Guardian article suggesting that:

Changing behaviour will be as vital as new technologies in tackling climate change. So where is the funding for linguists, anthropologists and sociologists?

Of course, we in the States have a separation of Church and State via the First Amendment of the Constitution, and solidified in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists in 1802...so good luck with that. Read the comments at Blair's house...there are some real nice ones.

Make no mistake, the "Climate Change" brigade is a Church based on a combination of blind faith and just plain blindness...

Irony, NY Times Style...

A Quiet Meeting of America’s Very Richest
By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: May 20, 2009
There are fewer billionaires in these tough economic times, so one might imagine that the remaining ones would attract more attention when they moved en masse. Yet when some of America’s most prominent capitalists met earlier this month at Rockefeller University, it took weeks before anyone noticed.

Yeah...yeah...I know. This is crap news that means nothing. But, here's the funny thing. A. G. Sulzberger is the son of New York Times publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. Gosh...wonder how he got his journalist job?

I just wanted to point out that Arthur Sulzberger, Jr (Pinch) was likely not at the meeting of "America's Very Richest."

Carry on...

74

WASHINGTON — An unreleased Pentagon report concludes that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.

The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against the transfer or release of any more detainees as part of President Obama’s plan to shut down the prison by January. Past Pentagon reports on Guantánamo recidivism have been met with skepticism from civil liberties groups and criticized for their lack of detail.

The New York Times needs to finish their sentence above:

"The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against the transfer or release of any more detainees as part of President Obama's plan to shut down the prison by January....unless we can distort, delude, and otherwise shape the factual reference that 74 detainees returned to killing innocents because we wanted to stick it to George W. Bush."

There...that's better.

“It’s part of a campaign to win the hearts and minds of history for Guantánamo,” said Mark P. Denbeaux, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who has represented Guantánamo detainees and co-written three studies highly critical of the Pentagon’s previous recidivism reports. “They want to be able to claim there really were bad people there.”

Mr. Denbeaux acknowledged that some of the named detainees had engaged in verifiable terrorist acts since their release, but he said his research showed that their numbers were small.

“We’ve never said there weren’t some people who would return to the fight,” Mr. Denbeaux said. “It seems to be unavoidable. Nothing is perfect.”

If you go to Seton Hall and you have this guy for a class...do this:

1. Ask for 74 extra credit points on all tests and quizzes. As the good professor points out, it is a very small number and shouldn't make a difference.

2. When you receive a red mark for making an error on a test, request that it be removed because...after all...nothing is perfect.

3. Write at least three highly critical studies on Professor Denbeaux and submit them to the Dean of Academic Affairs.

Cheers,
The Worm

"Angels and Dumbasses"

So, I went and took in that "Angels and Demons" film. Actually, it's a movie, not a film. A film has those annoying words flashing up on the bottom of the screen with a bunch of folks speaking in gibberish. Movies? Well, they sometimes have words popping up at the bottom of the screen, but most of the time there's some English between explosions.

Obi Wan Kenobi is still wearing the robe, but he never whipped out the light sabre...not even to practice. That guy who talks to a volleyball was in this one. I, also, have this vague memory of the same guy putting on a dress years ago and hanging out with some other guy in a dress. Everyone else reminded me of the people who lived at that Florida retirement home on the Seinfeld episode where Jerry hooks his old man up with a new Cadillac. You know...simple, naive and born to be extras.

I know it was pure fiction, because the super collider scene was in Sweden, and I didn't see one Muslim brandishing a protest sign or lighting a car on fire...not one.

As far as the plot goes, I wasn't very impressed. I guess my main gripe is that "The Da Vinci Code" actually takes place after "Angels and Demons." Yet, with the magic time machine of Hollywood (sometimes borrowed by the Associated Press) they somehow reversed them. I suppose it wasn't very important...you know...consistency. Besides, as you traipse through each and every scene of "Angels and Demons" as the Illuminati is applied again and again ad nausea to explain the plot one has to wonder how the Illuminati was able to effect Vatican city centuries before they were ever...you know...created.

Again, I suspect the Associated Press and their time machine...the bastards.

I thought the movie was watchable. I, especially, enjoyed the "Godfather" type rhetoric and speaking cadence of the Cardinals. Brando would have made a great Cardinal. I thought it was a hoot when the volleyball guy was at the "obscure chapel" looking for the Bernini sculpture of "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa" and little Ronnie Howard zoomed in on a male couple together looking sinister in what was likely an inside joke meant for the Catholic church and their aversion to homosexuality. Me? I was shocked by the one dude's haircut. It was creepy.

I'm not Catholic. I'm not particularly religious with the exception of that time I fell asleep at the wheel and woke up in the wrong lane. However, that was a couple years ago, and I've recovered to my heathen ways long since then. I do, however, very much enjoy historical references in fictionalized stories. I prefer if they are done above a third grade level, though. I think Dan Brown was an elemenary school drop out...or maybe he'll just borrow the time machine and go back to finish up later.

I'll give this flick a sideways thumb. That way, even if you don't agree, maybe you'll give me a ride.

The Worm

I beg to differ...

Neutron stars are the second densest objects in the universe after black holes. A teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh about a hundred million tons.

The author never met Paris Hilton after a couple of Mai Tais. There is nothing more dense.

More Smart Car owners is directly proportional to less Democrats available to vote...

The Obama administration's sweeping fuel-economy and emissions initiative announced Tuesday reopens a fierce debate over tradeoffs between fuel economy and auto safety.

The government says no tradeoff exists, because nothing in the new rules would force automakers to sell more small cars, which are more dangerous in crashes than larger ones. But some safety experts think otherwise.

Yeah...fuel efficient cars won't be smaller... * snort *...The automakers will make big cars and SUV's because...you know...the more parts and raw materials used, the cheaper it is to produce...right? And, of course the stringent environmental requirements will be easier to produce with a larger car/truck. Gotta love "Government Motors."

Incidentally...wanna see what happens to a Smart Car (aka: clown car) when it gets hit by a truck?

NY Times breathes a sigh of relief...Conservatives in trouble, too...

If you keep up with the news in the United Kingdom, you are aware of the expenses scandal in the House of Commons. Apparently, a free lance US journalist teacher living in London used the new "Freedom of Information" act and requested certain information on expenses. That led to a line of falling dominos based on the egregious abuse of the system by the Commons members.

Politicians....corruption. It's sort of like peanut butter and chocolate. What I found so annoying was the qualifying last paragraph of the New York Times in reporting the story...Listen to this:

For readers of The Telegraph, many of them staunch Conservatives, the revelations have carried an irony of their own. The day-by-day exposures have raised questions about the integrity of many Conservatives, as well as members of Labor and the Liberal Democrats, the third major party in the Commons, making for what some commentators have called an “equal opportunity” scandal.

Here's a clue NY Times...we don't prop up corrupt politicians regardless of their party affiliation. We send Conservative politicians packing if they step over the line.

Liberal politicians, however...get a pass from their supporters and the media on a regular basis. It's called integrity. Look it up.

Somewhere a village is missing their idiot...

It's Five Questions with Joy Behar from the Detroit Free Press: (aka: bottom of the barrel bilge)

Q: I wanted to know your opinion of Wanda Sykes' routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner and if you thought she went too far with her Rush Limbaugh jokes or if that's within the realm of fair game?

A: Well, Rush Limbaugh is a great target because he's the one who said, among other things, that Michael J. Fox was faking his movements ... to get publicity. So he's quite capable of crossing the line. ... I think that her main problem is that she wasn't getting the laughs. The joke needed to be a little bit more pointed. Because if it's funny, you get away with it. If it's not funny enough, then you veer into bitterness when you're attacking the opposite team. I think that was a little bit problematic for her. But she was funny on other stuff. And anyway, they love comedians and what we say until they don't love what we say. And then we're in trouble again. Remember, the role of the court jester is to tell the king he's full of baloney. That's what our job is.

Well, Michael J. Fox admitted that he was over-medicating which caused dyskinesia. That's a constant uncontrollable rocking motion for those of you playing along at home. Score one for Mr. Limbaugh...

Oh...Wanda Sykes was getting the laughs alright...there was a photograph of our President yukking it up over the liver failure joke. And, uhhh...Ms. Behar...you may consider yourself a comedian...but I don't. I've seen more talent at a funeral home.

I do agree, however, that it is the job of the jester to tell the king he's full of baloney. When we can expect King Obama to get his due...hmmmm?

Great HONEST car review...

So far, though, you have not been told what it’s like as a car; as a tool for moving you, your friends and your things from place to place.

So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.

Jeremy Clarkson takes a look at the Honda Insight 1.3 IMA SE Hybrid in the UK Times and rips it a new one.

The review is hilarious.

So you’re sitting there with the engine screaming its head off, and your ears bleeding, and you’re doing only 23mph because that’s about the top speed, and you’re thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do because you run over a small piece of grit.

Clarkson's verdict

Good only for parting the smug from their money

Read the whole thing...It's a hoot, and indicative of the entire Church of Environmy. Feel the guilt drip away as you limit yourself and sacrifice the bare essensials on a pursuit of Utopia (That's in Kenya...I think).

Newton's Third Law of Motion...

From Gateway Pundit:

The New York Times confirmed yesterday that it killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign. The NY Times killed the investigation before the election that would have shown that Barack Obama’s campaign and the Far Left ACORN Organization were guilty of technical violations of campaign finance law.

From the unforgiving world of "reality."

If the doomsayers are right, control of New York Times Co. could be up for grabs in the next year or two.

My wish is that a substantial portion of the toilet paper stock is purchased by some other elitist Liberal Jackass (David Geffen) so he can lose his silk shirt as well.


______

Power Line Blog dissects Clark Hoyt's (New York Times, Public Editor) sorry excuse for an excuse...

Appeasement...it's what's for breakfast...

BANGKOK — Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, went on trial Monday in a mostly procedural hearing as hundreds of police officers and army soldiers blocked crowds of protesters, according to reports from news agencies and opposition exile groups.

Several foreign diplomats were also prevented from entering the court where Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi faced charges that could bring a prison term of up to five years, according to the reports. A United States Embassy official was allowed to enter because another defendant in the trial is an American man who swam across a lake early this month and spent a night in Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s house.

Here's what the Obama Administration had to say about this injustice:

"________________________________________."

I'm embarrassed by our country's "leadership."

Let's simplify, shall we?

CANNES, France — It goes by a single name, but the Cannes Film Festival is a hydra-headed beast. For most of the world it is a red-carpet event, a seductively foreign affair in which glamorous stars wave at the cameras on their way into films that, save for the larger studio releases, much of the world will probably never see. This is the Cannes where art triumphs over industry (if not necessarily good taste), a festival of auteurs whose work has, at least in the United States, become increasingly difficult to sell to the public. This is the Cannes that, in time, shows up piecemeal at places like Film Forum in New York or through download on cable.

In short...most of the efforts at Cannes just plain suck.

Add to that the self-indulgent and self-important publicity hounds that always frequent these over done circle jerks, and you have the full recipe.