GORMLESS WORM

Hey...it's tea party protest day!!!!

2010-04-15T10:52:00.000-04:00

Diversity vs. Necessity...Jackassery wins every time...

2010-04-11T11:46:00.003-04:00

Health experts warn against complacency in fighting viruses

Okay...so how do we address that?

Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of strict hygiene rules introduced by the NHS to restrict the spread of hospital superbugs.

Unbelievable ignorance to appease...

Celebutards are shallow and daft...

2010-03-21T12:22:00.002-04:00

I sort of like Simon Pegg. You know..."Shaun of the Dead"...and Scotty in the new Star Trek film. Of course, he's not a MENSA candidate...and he seems to be rather oblivious to reality. Take this Tweet, for example:

Fingers crossed for healthcare reform in the US. Seems strange there's even a debate having grown up with the NHS. Free vs expensive ... hmm

Yeah...that sums up the argument.

Well, Simon...NHS, huh? It's truly...what...fantastic?

The NHS fails again, and again it seems nobody is to blame

NHS 'fails to involve patients'

System that puts targets before patients fails NHS

Man Dies After the NHS Fails to Diagnose a Stroke Three Times

NHS fails the elderly

Labour hid ugly truth about National Health Service (NHS)

Billions squandered as the NHS fails to deliver

NHS 'fails' youngsters with muscle diseases

NHS dentistry fails Preston youngsters

NHS fails to act on dementia: NAO

Here's my favorite, Simon:

A PATIENT was left infertile after doctors operating on his testicle removed the wrong one.

Another Celebutard weighs in on the argument, and offsets a feather. Staggering intellect...indeed.

Watching the bowl swirl...

2010-03-15T11:12:00.002-04:00

Last week I provided a quick lesson in "demographic marginalization" to Matt Damon. This week, the audience (or lack thereof) is teaching him the same lesson.

Breitbart's Big Hollywood has the story. In short...Damon's film was made for $100 Million (on paper). It pulled in a putrid $14.5 Million upon debut. I said it before. I'll say it again:

Hi...I'm Matt Damon. I stand on an "X", face the lense, and regurgitate words that someone wrote for me. That, of course, qualifies me as a world class thinker. You should listen to me and take heed because I'm cerebral. I'm Matt Damon.

MATTTT DAAAA-MONNNNNNN!!!!!

Equal Opportunity Stupidity and Duplicity...

2010-03-13T11:01:00.006-05:00

City education officials discriminated against an Arabic-language school principal when they canned her for making comments to The Post defending students who wore shirts with the words "Intifada NYC," according to a ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In the decision, released by her supporters yesterday, the EEOC says the Education Department "succumbed to the very bias that creation of the school was intended to dispel."

Debbie Almontaser, who headed up the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, told The Post in 2007 that "intifada" on the shirts meant simply "shaking off oppression" and was not an endorsement of the Palestinian uprising against Israel.

FANTASTIC!!!!

Therefore, no one would be upset if I sported a T-shirt that stated:

"Fight Pedophelia...don't acknowledge Mohammad."
Right? Same premise...right...Bueller...Bueller? Or maybe I'll just draw a cartoon of Mohammad throwing stones at a rape victim.

Bait and Switch techniques by the media on AGW

2010-03-11T11:03:00.005-05:00

Does anyone else find it amusing that USA Today puts the following headline/graphic display out front and center:

Here's the by-line they used.

Questions about research slow climate change efforts

Then...the entire voluminous article is a puff piece to give Michael Mann (discredited Hockey Stick theory dreamer) and life long political hack/mouthpiece/environmental zealot, Carol Browner an opportunity to zing the skeptics while conveniently limiting the absolute turmoil and negative exposure they have experienced due to truth seeing the light of day.

Classic bait and switch. Patently obvious, though.

UPDATE: Take a gander at the comments to the article. The media truly underestimates the motivation and intelligence of their dwindling readers. Its gimmic articles such as this that make those numbers continue to dwindle.

Alphabet words...

2010-03-11T09:43:00.003-05:00

This has got to be the most politically correct stupidity so far. Ok...ready? I'm going to write a sentence that, apparently, offends. Here goes:

"My car was going too fast so I tapped the brakes to retard the velocity a bit."

That's right. The above sentence is offensive to some folks. Those same folks think that everyone should be offended and refuse to use the word retard. You can't ban words with more than one meaning. It's idiotic.

Think I'm embellishing the effort being made to void a word. Look:

Spread the Word to end the Word
Youtube R-word campaign
R-word listings

I hope the matzoh ball soup was cold...

2010-03-10T09:56:00.003-05:00

*Heh*...Biden is in Israel flexing his Vice Presidential muscles trying to give the impression that the President he represents is interested in a peace initiative between Israel and the Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu used the occasion to announce that Israel will build a further 1,600 housing units in a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.

*SMACK*

What was Biden's response?

After the settlements announcement, Mr Biden arrived 90 minutes late for dinner with Mr Netanyahu.

Netanyahu and the crew probably got a kick out of this. The only ones inconvenienced were, likely, those preparing the meal.

Incidentally, this is the same "hardline" diplomacy used by the White House in dealing with the jack-assery presented by the Iranians and their obsession with securing nuclear capability. The current administration is, obviously, consistently inept across the board.

Those nasty Catholics...

2010-03-09T12:11:00.002-05:00

DUBLIN (AP) -- Police in Ireland on Tuesday arrested seven people over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

Irish police said four men and three women were detained in raids across the south of the country.

The force says the arrests were part of an investigation into a ''conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction.''

The force offered the statement in response to a question about Lars Vilks, whom Britain's Press Association news agency identified as the target.

Good luck ID'ing the physical appearances or motivational beliefs of the culprits...

I could be wrong. Might be Presbyterians...In any event, here is the offending cartoon that serves to motivate murder:

COME GET ME, YOU PANSIES!!!!

RUN!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

2010-03-09T12:08:00.002-05:00

JERUSALEM — Calling Washington’s ties to Israel “unshakable,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. opened talks with Israeli leaders on Tuesday, part of a concerted American effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and keep Israel focused on sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program rather than unilateral military action.

Joe the gaffe machine makes a definitive statement calling our relationship with Israel "unshakable." Well...Israelis....RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!

The big shut-up is coming...

2010-03-08T20:26:00.003-05:00

I saw this over at Protein Wisdom. It was a quick blurb stating... "Mock a vegan, go to jail." The Brits are seriously considering giving special rights protection of vegans and a host of other entities/ non-entities.

Fine.

You see, the true end game has finally become apparent to my pointly little head. I say full speed ahead on creating bureaucratic nonsense policy that protects everyone and everything from the outside potential to offend. And, then, I shall enact my plan:

Simply put, I shall lobby for legislative protection as a valued believer in offending whomever I damn well please. I shall be a protected entity...so shall sayeth the law...for I shall be A PROTECTED CURMUDGEON!!!!

A lesson in self-important idiocy...

2010-03-07T12:06:00.002-05:00

"Well, you and the Democrats have been in charge now for over a year and not one banking regulation has been reinstated. We don't have universal health care. The war in Afghanistan has escalated. And tens of thousands of Americans continue to lose their jobs and be thrown out of their homes," Moore wrote.

Just the concept of these self-important half-wit celebutards writing "open letters" to the White House is, in itself, a hoot. Michael Moore is the culprit this time.

The troglodytical hypocrisy is on display in living color as the Docu-Dirigible seems to think that the failure to secure Universal Healthcare connects in the ongoing job loss statistics. The two are mutually opposed. The market understands that rather well. Moore...not so much.

New Hampshire leading the way into the Abyss...

2010-03-07T11:08:00.002-05:00

The tax was added late in the state budget process last summer, and as rules were being developed to administer it complaints from business began to grow. A lawsuit is still in court that challenges the state's attempt to collect the tax for all of 2009, even though the bill did not take effect until the middle of last year.

Lynch said he does not think the state "I don't see New Hampshire as becoming a place unfriendly to business that's not what I hear," he said. "In fact, many people tell me it is the best place in New England to do business."

The tax in question is the Limited Liability Company (LLC). Governor Lynch now wants to consider repealing it, as the purpose (closing a tax loophole) is null and void...since tax experts are already showing that there are other ways around it.

I just find it amusing that Lynch states outright that he doesn't think that New Hamphsire is becoming a place unfriendly to business...

Well?

CONCORD – New Hampshire's Senate has given preliminary approval to entering a 10-state regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions to preserve the state's climate and way of life.

The Senate voted 16-8 yesterday to ask its Finance Committee to review a bill that implements the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative known as RGGI.

Gov. John Lynch believes the initiative will help New Hampshire's environment and economy.

This is a state initiative to institute "Cap and Trade" legislation. View it at any angle and it kicks business in the teeth.

Environmental Services Commissioner Thomas Burack says New Hampshire's electric users will pay higher rates regardless of New Hampshire participating in RGGI. That's because New Hampshire buys about half its power from a wholesale market whose rates will rise as other states' power producers buy RGGI allowances and pass on the costs to ratepayers.

It's high time those wacky scientists in Korea create a genetic path so that we can create two separate mouths on politicians. That way, we can keep the rhetoric categorized.

HARBINGER!!!!

2010-03-07T10:04:00.003-05:00

DAMNING reports on the state of the National Health Service, suppressed by the government, reveal how patients’ needs have been neglected.

They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives.

The harsh verdict on the state of the NHS, after a spending splurge under Labour between 2000 and 2008, raises worrying questions about the future quality of the health service as budgets are squeezed.

It doesn't get any clearer than this. The United Kingdom's nationalized healthcare is a deadly joke. Caress the three paragraphs above and then think about the lack of transparancey, lack of consideration for the will of the people, and outright contempt displayed by the Democrats and President Obama in their pursuit of something very similar.

Key words above "...BLIND PURSUIT OF POLITICAL AND MANAGERIAL TARGETS AS THE ROOT CAUSE OF A STRING OF HOSPITAL SCANDALS THAT HAVE COST THOUSANDS OF LIVES."

This is about control of private lives and the force feeding of what politicians perceive to be necessary lifestyle management. The simple truth is that government has no business attempting to run your healthcare. The paramount truth is that they don't have the character or the competence to do so.

A Greek and a German go into a bar...

2010-03-05T11:10:00.003-05:00

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is widely seen as the most likely candidate to help prevent what would be a disastrous Greek default but there is strong opposition in the country against such a move.

Greek politicians have bristled over insulting headlines in the German press and editorials denouncing the corruption there, although Papandreou himself has acknowledged the problem.

Yeah...corruption. Um...I suppose that's a euphemism for "Socialism." Greece is a socialist country. In fact, while they teeter on the default cliff they are STILL raising taxes in an effort to stave the flow. We are talking about a country that has a public sector holiday allowance where the government can freeze private sector pensions.

Socialism = Corruption.

I just find it amusing that Greece, the most Socialistic of the European Union is in dire straights...and now requires Germany (the most Capitalistic of the European Union) to bail them out. Greece's plan in that regard? Cutting taxes? Limiting spending? Boltering private business?

Nah...Greece wants Germany and the rest of the EU to leverage their own economic ratings to secure better credit for Greece in world markets. In other words, they want to go further in debt, and drag the more solvent members of the EU down with them.

Ahhhhh...Socialism. It's what's for dinner.

Millard Fillmore was more pale than James Buchanan

2010-03-03T11:11:00.003-05:00

This month, the Census Bureau will remind Americans that racial classifications remain an integral part of the country's social and legal fabric while, at the same time, recognizing that racial lines are blurring for a growing number of people such as Harvey. The government will give the nation's more than 308 million people the opportunity to define their racial makeup as one race or more.

The agency expects the number of people who choose multiple races to be significantly higher than the 2000 Census, when the government first allowed more than one race choice. Responses to this year's survey will provide for the first time a glimpse at the evolution of racial identification: Those who were children in 2000 and were identified as one race by their parents may respond differently as adults today and select more than one.

"It's a historic opportunity to see how things have changed or how things have not changed," says Nicholas Jones, chief of the Census Bureau racial statistics branch. Multiracial Americans are "one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country. There's an increasing number of children born to parents of different races."

Why? What is the point of trying to count individuals based on ancestral origin and the amount of melanin content in their skin. It seems arbitrary...and somewhat segregational in a categorical sense.

Why does the government ask about race and ethnicity?

Federal agencies need the information to monitor compliance with anti-discrimination laws such as the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, fair employment practices and affirmative action mandates.

Load of crap answer. They cannot monitor anything by keeping a mere total. Additionally, the very fact that parties filling out the census can now mix and match according to their whims (on the honor system) corrupts any data acquired.

But, more importantly...the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, fair employment practices and affirmative action mandates simply violate the purposes for their creation. Advantages are created for those possessing more melanin or estrogen. That contradicts the philosophy of equal opportunity.

Ditch the racial boxes altogether in the census and you're on the right track. And, incidentally, we are all a minority and a majority of one. Even identical twins possess differences in appearance, intelligence, personality etc... The term minority as it applies to races et al is an absolute misnomer. It's about time people set the race thing aside and acted honestly.

Sexual Orientation Hyposcrisy...

2010-03-02T12:07:00.003-05:00

“Sadly, a court that was with us a year ago was unable to be with us on Tuesday. I am heartened by Justice Moreno’s dissenting opinion and his eloquent words that ‘even a narrow, limited exception to the promise of full equality strikes at the core of…the guarantee of equal treatment.’”

These are the words of John A. Pérez, newly installed speaker of the California Assembly.

Equal treatment, of course, suggests that one's sexual orientation should not be of issue when being sworn in as Speaker...yes?

Reporting from Sacramento - There were rubber ducks on legislators' desks and a chorus belting out a Broadway show tune as John A. Pérez was sworn in as the new speaker of the California Assembly on Monday.

I'll say it again...the homosexual community, and its leaders incessantly barrage the media with statement after statement pleading to be treated just as everyone else. Then, in the next breath, they are organizing "gay pride" parades, and lobbying for special civil rights based only on sexual orientation.

In this case, the swearing in of a Speaker should be only that...the swearing in of a Speaker. Why does it matter what his sexual orientation might be? And, why this?

Those at Monday's swearing-in were treated to, among other songs, "A Brand New Day," a tune from the Broadway show "The Wiz," by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. Each guest also received a yellow rubber duck emblazoned with the Assembly seal and the words "Speaker John A. Pérez."

Hypocrisy...

Car Business as usual...

2010-03-02T11:46:00.002-05:00

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation of the cars’ power steering (General Motors) in January after receiving more than 1,100 complaints, including reports of 14 crashes and one injury. But the new recall, while large, is unlikely to hurt G.M. the way Toyota has been damaged by its recalls, in part because G.M. says the cars can be safely controlled and the problem has not resulted in any serious injuries or deaths.

There is that...and...well...G.M. doesn't have to participate in a dog an pony show before a congressional commission made up of interrogators who took in significant campaign cash from the United Auto Workers Union.

Thanks for the help, guys...but no thanks...

2010-03-02T09:44:00.009-05:00

In case you're wondering what "advice" to the media came out of the White House campaign machine this past week...it's obvious if you look closely. In a period of two days, the Washington Post and the New York Times started their efforts to select the Republican presidential candidate for 2012. You will recall that the liberal slanted media (in general) handed us McCain, knowing full well that he was a lame duck from the onset.

Who's the weakling they're pushing this time?

Set a group of plugged-in conservatives to talking presidential politics, and you’ll get the same complaints about the 2012 field.

Mitt Romney? He couldn’t make the voters like him last time ... Sarah Palin? She’d lose 47 states ... Mike Huckabee? Better as a talk-show host ... Tim Pawlenty, Jim DeMint, Bobby Jindal, David Petraeus? Too blah, too extreme, too green, and stop dreaming ...

But murmur the name Mitch Daniels, and everyone perks up a bit. Would he win? Maybe not. But he’d be the best president of any of them ...

Well, the NY Times has selected Mitch Daniels for us. Uh...no thanks.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the nominal GOP front-runner, named Matt Rhoades, who served as communications director for his 2008 presidential campaign, as the head of his Free and Strong America PAC -- a move greeted with approving nods by many in the Republican chattering class. Romney, in his own address at CPAC, sounded every bit the party leader, denouncing the Obama administration as a "failure" while offering a -- somewhat surprising -- defense of the policies put in place by President George W. Bush, policies that Romney criticized during his presidential bid.

The Washington Post has selected Mitt Romney for the great unwashed extremist Republicans. Then, they decided to push him again in the event that we missed their first directive.

Not a mention of Mike Pence in the whole she-bang. And, the usual lambasting of Palin in all articles. Personally, I think the media is going to be disappointed that they don't have the juice to influence the Republican candidate for 2012. In fact, they should probably resort to reverse psychology and push the people they don't want challenging Obama. It might have a more influencial impact.

UPDATE: Reuters pushing Romney, too.

BOSTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama may have three years to go before the next presidential election, but Mitt Romney has regrouped after his failed 2008 White House run and is already setting himself up for the 2012 Republican nomination.

UPDATE #2: USA Today pushing Daniels.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, asked about a possible presidential bid in 2012, replies: "I don't plan to do it; I don't expect to do it; I don't want to do it."

But he just might do it.

Do you guys see a trend? Two candidates selected...both not really conservative at all. If they choose one pseudo-conservative the people can discard the possibility outright. But, by pushing two pseudo-conservatives, they can create a horse-race scenario and create a winner...which in turn creates momentum.

UPDATE #3: ABC News pushes Romney while taking a jab at Palin.

Where Palin's book is a mix of score settling and juicy anecdotes, Romney's book consists of a 64-point plan for strengthening the United States and countless references to what he has been reading. Palin's book titillated audiences with her take on her husband without his shirt on ("Dang, I thought. Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?").

No thanks...(on the Flu Shot)

2010-03-01T11:24:00.002-05:00

ATLANTA (AP) — A government panel is now recommending that virtually all Americans get a flu shot each year, starting this fall.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had gradually been expanding its recommendation for flu shots — 85% of Americans were already included.

On Wednesday, the panel voted to recommend a seasonal flu vaccination for everyone except babies younger than 6 months and those with egg allergies or other unusual conditions.

Now...at this point in time...the choice is yours as to whether you get a "flu shot." However, how do you think this story would read should the US Government take over the health care system?

You can bet your house that the flu shot would be required under the guise that it would lower costs for everyone in the long run. It would be a violation of the law NOT to get a flu shot.

I've never taken a presciption medication in my life. I've never been hospitalized. The last illness I experienced was a minor cold some 25 years ago. Yet, nationalized health care would likely require me, by law, to take this shot.

What's the big deal, you ask. How about the fact that natural immunity would be compromised? How about the fact that forcing a flu shot on someone isn't too far away from telling you what your diet should be, and enforcing such violations of liberty and freedom?

It begins with a whimper...and ends with no freakin' Ring Dings...

Matt Damon must be munching lead paint chips...

2010-03-01T10:11:00.005-05:00

Hi...I'm Matt Damon. I stand on an "X", face the lense, and regurgitate words that someone wrote for me. That, of course, qualifies me as a world class thinker. You should listen to me and take heed because I'm cerebral. I'm Matt Damon.

"Politics is compromise," says the actor, who campaigned hard for Barack Obama. But Damon feels his candidate has compromised too much. "I'm disappointed in the health care plan and in the troop buildup in Afghanistan. Everyone feels a little let down because, on some level, people expected all their problems to go away. But real change comes from everyday people. You can't wait for a leader."

That's right!!!! "EVERYONE" feels a little let down.

Let's take a look at the intelligence behind Matt's percipience. For example, the subject matter of his latest flick du jour marginalizes half of a potential fanbase by bashing the previous presidential administration. That's a 50% write-off of potential movie goers. He proceeds to suggest that "EVERYONE" is a bit let down by the current president's inability to legislate us back into the Stone Age. Well, you have to believe that he lost another 10% to 20% of demographic audience since 75% of Americans think the current healthcare bills (House and Senate) should be dropped.

So, before the film "Green Zone" has even opened, intellectual giant, Matt Damon, has alienated close to 70% or more of the potential viewers. These numbers don't even take into account all the other idiocy that seems to flow incessantly from his pie hole.

BUT...he is MAAAATTTT DAMONNNNN...

(h/t Breitbart's Big Hollywood)

Me? I'd like to kick the bucket at my own place of residence, thanks...

2010-02-28T20:00:00.003-05:00

The National Audit Office (NAO) and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence advise that all patients should have access to 24-hour nursing services. But a report by the NAO in 2008 found that only just over half (53.2 per cent) of local health authorities provided such a service to all patients seven days a week.

The variation has created a postcode lottery in areas such as Dorset, where round-the-clock nursing care is funded in the east of the county but not in the west. Charles Campion-Smith, a GP in Dorchester and Macmillan adviser, said that there was no cover in his area from 10pm to 6am the next morning.

Oooooo...can we have half-assed nationalized healthcare here, too?

Read the article. The main issue is the fact that nearly 70% of all terminally ill folks in the UK wish to die at home. However, only 20% are given that comfort. The reason they tout suggests that the Physicians just don't address the issue. I would bet it has more to do with having the time to address the issue, and whether the hospital loses funds by not having a captive patient.

Only one in five deaths occurs in a person’s home, despite two thirds of people saying that that is where they would prefer to die. By contrast, about 60 per cent of people die in hospital.

Giving the people what they want is so yesterday.

More than a third of family doctors are not reviewing the needs and wishes of dying patients, while round-the-clock nursing care is not available to give patients support and pain relief at weekends and at night in many areas.

This is what Obamacare would reap...

And the 2016 Summer Olympics go to....Rio de Janeiro

2010-02-26T20:29:00.002-05:00

That's right, folks. Chicago con Obama lost out to scoped automatic weapons on the back of motorcycles in downtown N. Rio ( Dom Helder Câmara and dos Democráticos to be precise).

To be fair...downtown Chicago is a cesspool of juvie violence as well. Perhaps not quite as brazen, however.

Taken in context...there is a reason for the inquiries...

2010-02-26T11:10:00.003-05:00

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN complains that he is being driven crazy because so many people are betting on America’s demise. Reports of it are not just exaggerated; they are, he insists, ridiculous. Like President Obama, he will not accept “second place” for the United States. Despite the present crippling budget deficit and the crushing burden of projected debt, he denies that the country is destined to fulfill a “prophecy that we are going to be a great nation that has failed because we lost control of our economy and overextended.”

Gosh...Joe...name the last Vice President or President of the United States that had so many inquiries from everyday citizens on this issue.

Guess what, pal. You're the first...

That means something...

Congrats...Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey team...(and don't listen to the IOC)

2010-02-26T10:31:00.002-05:00

Players came back onto the ice more than half an hour after the 2-0 victory over the United States. Still in their uniforms and with gold medals draped around their necks, they swigged from bottles of champagne and cans of beer and smoked cigars.

Excellent! You won...enjoy it. You set your lives on hold for years and worked your butts off to win the Olympic gold medal. You had a delicious rivalry with the US Olympic Women's team (even to the point of blows in the lead up to the the big dance)...and you perservered.

Then there is the droning idiocy coming out of the International Olympic Committee suggesting we all be "eunuchs" without cause:

Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympic Games, said he was unaware of the incidents until informed by an Associated Press reporter.

"If that's the case, that is not good," Felli said. "It is not what we want to see. I don't think it's a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that's one thing, but not in public. We will investigate what happened."

Blow it out your politically correct nostrils, you jackass. These ladies weren't competing for certificates of participation. They played to win...and pulled it off on their home turf in front of their screaming fans. I back it...and I'd like to see the US flaunt a bit more in their victories as well.

"The members of Team Canada apologize if their on-ice celebrations, after fans had left the building, have offended anyone," the statement said. "In the excitement of the moment, the celebration left the confines of our dressing room and shouldn't have. The team regrets that its gold medal celebration may have caused the IOC or COC any embarrassment.

I hate the patronizing apology approach. What they should have released was this:

"We're sorry that the IOC is a bunch of whiny, politically correct morons who think that celebration of a monumental goal is offensive to anyone. In the real world, we toast achievements with suds, bubbles and stogies. And, we plan on doing so continuously for the next few days...at least."

PS: I was rooting for the US team...and I appreciate the Canadian's actions full throttle.

Sticks and Stones may break my bones, and names will get you three years at Saint Marguerite Prison

2010-02-25T18:12:00.007-05:00

PARIS — France’s National Assembly approved Thursday night a proposal to add “psychological violence” to a law intended to help victims of physical violence and abuse, despite doubts that the law is specific enough to have much impact.

Carefully covering both genders, the proposed law stipulates that letting a wife, husband, partner or concubine “act or repeatedly say things that could damage the victim’s life conditions, affect his/her rights and his/her dignity or damage his/her physical or mental health is subject to a three-year jail term and a 75,000 euro fine,” about $102,750.

Danielle Bousquet, a Socialist, and Guy Geoffroy, a member of the ruling center-right Union for a Popular Movement, wrote the draft law, supported by 30 other legislators. It received backing last November from the government and Prime Minister François Fillon, who called it “very significant progress.”

Ms. Bousquet...you are old. Your face is shaped like a horse, and those glasses make you look like a poor child's homemade version of Mr. Potato Head. Notice...I said "Mr." On top of that, Ms. Bousquet, your thighs cause so much friction when you walk, that people cringe everytime you stop at the petrol station. Oh...and you are a classic idiot.

Come and get me facists. I just broke your precious little "sticks and stones" law. Gosh, the French are filled with such pseudo-eruditical nonsense that is self-proclaimed as civility. It makes my teeth hurt.

Global Warming brigade really grasping now...

2010-02-24T10:23:00.002-05:00

Although global warming could cause the number of tropical cyclones to decrease around the world by the end of the century, the storms that do form probably will be more intense, a study in the journal Nature Geoscience finds.

Just like all the other snake oil out there, I don't buy this study in the first place...but suppose it's true. How much more fierce are those lesser number tropical cyclones going to be?

Landsea says the potential increase in strong hurricanes is "pretty tiny. We're not looking at any drastic increase by 2100." For example, he says, a 150-mph hurricane might increase only to a 157-mph hurricane. "In my perspective, that's a little change, a long ways in the future."

That's hilarious. We have this big threatening article in USA Today entitled:

"Fewer, fiercer tropical cyclones are in our future, study finds"

...and we are talking about a Hurricane packing a 157 MPH punch as opposed to a 150 MPH punch...(Laughing)

Nostalgic Nastiness...

2010-02-22T20:37:00.003-05:00

(Oh ho...I just found something I wrote on a previous blog back in 2001. I'm going to repost it, because it's nasty and fun. Plus, it is my eulogical send off for Susan Sontag):

I’m With ‘Crash’ Davis, Ms. Sontag

November 13, 2001

One often wonders who is there to assist Susan Sontag in the event of a thunderstorm. There is always that risk in the undertaking of self-righteous nose raising that she may drown in the downpour. Be comforted in the realization that drowning requires the depletion of oxygen on the intake. Sontag has long been accustomed to existing without adequate oxygen reaching the brain.

Thomas Wolfe has her pegged as “just another scribbler who spent her life signing up for protest meetings and lumbering to the podium encumbered by her prose style, which had a handicapped parking sticker valid at Partisan Review.” That’s why Wolfe makes the big bucks.

At the risk of portraying a valid point wrapped up in the fictitious Durham Bull soliloquy of “Crash” Davis, “I believe…in the soul ... the small of a woman's back, the hangin' curveball, high fiber, good Scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap...” So, in the interest of comparison, what is it, exactly, that Sontag believes? She believes in herself. That is a meritorious endeavor. However, despite that very act being the goal of any caring parent to instill upon their child, there are serious repercussions to placing one’s confidence in an irrelevant claptrap.

Face it, she is amusing. No matter the issue. No matter the importance. Sontag is the moral equivalent of Benny Hill in a nunnery. She ensconces her percipience, and in the fashion of a drunk baker twists, kneads, and manipulates her message into a preexisting expectation of where her lapdog gnomes of the cultural garden expect her to be. That is all well and good except for the fact that the very foundation of her pedestal is a bunch of hooey. The Sisters of St. Augustine would, certainly, experience trepidation in the acts of Benny Hill. A thinking populace is no more swayed by Sontag.

In fact, I invite Sontag to speak at length, on any topic and at every occasion. It’s not because she says things I want to hear, or encourages a healthy discourse. I don’t and she doesn’t. However, the very nature of her ludicrous points of view is damaging to the credibility of anyone who, somehow, mirrors that high school lesson of “guilt by association.”

When she was interviewed by the New Yorker in the days after the September 11th terrorist attack she did not disappoint. The piece’s title “Observations by Susan Sontag” would have been enough. Where most would use that encumbrance as the header in their personal diary entry. Sontag, somehow, perceives her view as something to be showered upon the great unwashed. I always wondered what entitled her to that luxury. Surely, it wasn’t something that she regurgitated in the past. I have read a number of her “works.” The most impressionable on me was not her intended message I fear.

Early in her career she wrote a number of essays dealing with art. She expounded on Antonin Artaud, proclaiming him a failure. Sontag deduced that Artaud was unable to complete a thought and that his numerous varied works “amount to a broken, self-mutilated corpus, a vast collection of fragments.“ It never occurred to Sontag to look at Artaud’s endeavors as a means to a goal. Despite his own admission of his difficulties in grasp and concentration, perhaps he enjoyed what he did. Perhaps he enjoyed the challenge that accompanied the profession. Perhaps it was the striving for improvement that drove Artaud to cover the gambit of art, cinema, poems, prose, painting, music et al. Instead, Sontag could only see her picture of another artist’s work. There lies the cornerstone of her failings. And there lies the basis of her warped assessment of the events of September 11th. Her audacity to categorize Artaud as a failure in her definition of the word shows the epitome of hypocrisy when you digest, quite forcefully, one of her most well known pieces.

In Against Interpretation and Other Essays (1966) the intuitive response, as she would call it, was the concept of avoiding the intellectual and analytical evaluation of a piece. “The 'meaning' of art lies in the experiencing both style and content together without analysis. “ That’s an interesting revelation coming from someone who, quite solidly, categorized Artaud as a failure based on the inability to stay focussed on a specific idea. I suppose, sometimes one has to twist, knead, and manipulate until the soft pretzel resembles what the public would recognize and consume.

Regardless, in the New Yorker Sontag queried, “Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a "cowardly" attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world" but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions?”

In her “intuitive response” Sontag failed to acknowledge the minor analytical detail that she is an American Citizen, and that the acts of the terrorists were defined by the actors to be murderous, callous acts in cold blood against all American citizens. No. Instead, we ‘intellectuals’ should ponder the all encompassing innate observations and deliberate the feelings of the rat bastards who butchered 4,537 human beings in the name of their “God.” To Sontag, that would be the reasonable response.

Sontag doesn’t think America plays fairly. “How many citizens are aware of the ongoing American bombing of Iraq? And if the word "cowardly" is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing to die themselves in order to kill others.

What a wonderful argument for the necessity to initiate an immediate program to provide “certificates of participation” to all parties of conflict (no matter the purpose) so as not to have to go through the uncomfortable foible of having to declare a winner or recognize right from wrong, sane from insane, smart from dumb. I am reminded of the profound words of chronic law abuser Rodney King and my heart just runs with endearing warmth. “Can’t we all just get along?” The answer is “no,” and there are very valid analytical (sometimes intellectual) reasons for that disclosure. Life is not an exercise in participation. Life is not something to be pondered. It is more than that I hope. Maybe it is an ongoing mission in personal accomplishment and achievement. Life could be an effort to better yourself in all capacities. It is not an application in holding back your own potential so as to allow others achievement at your expense. The whole concept of freedom affords the opportunity to accomplish goals as an individual and as a nation. Making the battlefield one of equality is the “intuitive response” of inept logic. Show me a boxer with short arms, and I’ll show you a throw rug.

“Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen. "Our country is strong," we are told again and again. I for one don't find this entirely consoling. Who doubts that America is strong? But that's not all America has to be.”

By all means we grieve together. And, by all means, we shall not be stupid together. Instead, I leave that to Susan Sontag alone. Historical awareness is a conscious motivation to act in a capacity that would guarantee a desired outcome and future deterrent. History holds the souls of Beirut in 1983, Kenya in 1998, Tanzania in 1998, Somalia in 1993, Yemen in 2000, Saudi Arabia in 1996, New York in 1993, and New York, again, in 2001. We are finished with the history lesson Ms. Sontag. The class is entirely too loud. Our country is strong. We are strong in character and pride. I find that extremely consoling, because I realize that character and pride are not given, but earned. They are earned, sometimes, at the expense of those who would try to tarnish those innate qualities within us. A strength-of-purpose lives within the knowledge that our Republic has the ability to control our own destiny so that those cherished freedoms are not on loan from others.

Susan Sontag would say I didn’t understand her point. But, in the very color of her position I understood the whole encompassing view of her work. It initiated an intuitive response. I didn’t take away a single, one-sided, analytical perception as to what she was trying to express in each sentence or phrase. It was pure, unadulterated discord; all of it.

A lesson in reverse to Susan Sontag, never teach the unwashed how to juggle knives, lest they learn to throw them.

I'm hoping for half a grave twist on that...

Over six years ago this made a dent in my noggin...

2010-02-22T20:05:00.003-05:00

I thought I would dust off one of my favorite Mark Steyn quotes that seems rather relevant today. He first leveled it in a National Post piece back in November of 2002. For some reason, the National Post didn't hold onto it for posterity and you'll stumble on their "Sorry, this article is no longer available" page. However, here's the quote. It made an impression such that I remember it to this day:

"Democrats have perfected the art of being simultaneously maudlin and vicious, and above all else ruthlessly partisan in their pious denunciations of partisanship."
--- MARK STEYN November 3, 2002

The reference was commentary by rather partisan politicians at Paul Wellstone's memorial service. You can absorb the whole thing, these days, in the Freerepublic archives. But, that quote is the one that left a mark...and applies in full to the Democrats of today.

Plea deal? The milk already expired!!!

2010-02-22T11:27:00.004-05:00

Najibullah Zazi, the Colorado airport shuttle driver accused in an alleged plot to attack New York City with homemade bombs, is cooperating with authorities in preparation for an apparently plea deal, the Associated Press reports.

Plea Deal!!!!????

Just to make sure I have this straight. This clown is in the process of making bombs in Colorado with the specific intention of driving to New York and blowing something up. He has explosives training courtesy of an al-Qaeda terror camp in Pakistan. Hence, he is a freakin' terrorist. He is an enemy to this country...and he is human excrement.

Zazi's apparent cooperation suggests that prosecutors hope to expand the case and bring charges against other suspects in his case and possibly other terror probes, the AP says.

This dirtbag, mouthbreathing troglodyte was arrested in September 2009. What possible unpersishible information could he provide that would be of any use to anyone five months after being picked up? The Department of Justice dog and pony show is absolute fatalism and prescribed suicide. The pissant terrorist should have been bled of his possible information five months ago while the "milk" was still fresh.

Watching Liberals kick themselves in the teeth is more fun than watching curling...

2010-02-20T10:52:00.005-05:00

Last month, Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that the city had purposely discriminated against hiring blacks when it continued to use a test that was deemed biased against minorities.

Again, I invoke the "we just want to be treated like everyone else" mantra.

So...pass the damn test. I can only imagine the idiocy applied to indicate that the written firefighter test was...ahem...bias. It's a common victim mentality that always finds the excuse explaining failure.

A group of women sued the department in 1979 after failing the physical, claiming it was discriminatory.

You know...because...they unfairly made the women lift heavy stuff...which...you know...never happens at a fire, car accident or inner city mishap.

The women who sued were allowed to take a different test. As a result, 41 females entered the department in 1982.

Okayyyyyy...instead of lifting the long hose...lift that smaller one. We only need the long hose sporadically. What's a couple lives here and there...no biggie.

In 1983, the city devised still another test for women testing speed instead of strength.

Short hose too heavy? Okayyyyyy...see how fast you can sprint down the street to that Duane Reed and get us some bandages and sauve...we're going to need them.

The next year, the judge ordered the test changed again to be less physical and increased the weight of the written exam.

What? You might get winded running down the street? Jeez...Okayyyy...ummm...well, just stand over there and try not to get in the way.

"It's a physical job. It requires physical strength," said Deputy Chief Paul Mannix, who said he wasn't speaking for the department. "People ask why there aren't more women in the Fire Department. Why aren't there more women in the NFL or Major League Baseball?"

Egggggg...zactly!!!

But, I do enjoy how the Liberal inner city enclaves keep kicking themselves in the teeth while feeling really special about their diversity. So a couple buildings burn, people die...no big deal. Liberals FEEL better about themselves...until they have a fire, of course.

Jesus, apparently, had track lighting...

2010-02-19T10:52:00.005-05:00

Elton John's take:

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems,” he told Parade. “On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you're as good as dead."

(shrugs)...How come I keep hearing how sexual orientation doesn't matter? Yet, those who mention it at every opportunity are always the ones to make it an issue. As a straight person...I don't see the purpose of "gay pride" parades or "gay civil rights" because it flies in the face of the other mantra "we just want to be treated like everyone else."

That being said.... "MOHAMMAD WAS A PEDOPHILE." That happens to be a fact...unless you don't think a six year old is too young to offer a marriage proposal...or nine years old is too young to consumate the marriage.

How come Al Gore's blog doesn't allow comments?

2010-02-18T12:37:00.002-05:00

Al's Journal is HERE.

He, apparently, does not want your scrutiny, input or contributions (intellectual...not monetary). He just wants to tell how it is...and what you need to do. Gore bars the press from his speaking events. I find that interesting because of what Gore has to say about the media:

Television stations and networks, by contrast, are almost completely inaccessible to individual citizens and almost always uninterested in ideas contributed by individual citizens.

Replace a few words and you could say the exact same thing about Al Gore's alarmist brigade.

I was just curious...why doesn't Al want to chat?

Fantasy world politics (Nuclear Power)

2010-02-18T10:55:00.005-05:00

WASHINGTON — There has been no more reliable cheerleader for President Obama’s energy and climate change policies than Daniel J. Weiss of the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

But Mr. Obama’s recent enthusiasm for nuclear power, including his budget proposal to triple federal loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors to $54 billion, was too much for Mr. Weiss.

The president’s embrace of nuclear power was disappointing, and the wrong way to go about winning Republican votes, he said, adding that Mr. Obama should not be endorsing such a costly and potentially catastrophic energy alternative “as bait just to get talks started with pro-nuke senators.”

Actually, the president's "embrace" of nuclear power is an absolute joke. Even if he does follow through and put money aside for a measley two (2) nuclear projects, the greenies out there will file lawsuit after lawsuit to make sure that nothing ever comes to fruition.

This has nothing to do with the will of the people. Any lawsuit will eventually end up in front of some judge who likes to legislate from the bench... This is a safe bet for Obama, because he knows there will be no new nuclear plants while he is in office. Greenpeace...Friends of the Earth...WWF and all the other statist idiots are already gearing up for challenge after challenge and injuction after injunction. The Ninth Circus Court of Appeals is alread clearing their schedule.

In other words...."Screw You" (Updated)

2010-02-16T19:33:00.004-05:00

HOUSTON, Feb. 16, 2010 -- ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] today announced that it will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). This action enables the company to better focus its efforts on ensuring fair and equitable treatment of the transportation sector and its consumers and on expanding opportunities for greater near-term GHG reductions through increased use of natural gas.

In other words..."SCREW YOU."

I get the distinct impression that ConocoPhillips stuck their collective fingers up in the air, and realized that those who would chastize their company for walking away from the "cap and trade" brigade is significantly smaller than those who would cheer the reality wake-up call.

Who's next?

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long. Add BP America and equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. to the list. (via Big Government and a news piece on Breitbart)

Pork Bellies, pronto...and ditch the Carbon...

2010-02-15T19:37:00.004-05:00

Ah...yes...I believe I can sense Spring in the air...or perhaps spring in my step...

NZX Drops By Record After Slashing Proceeds of Carbon Unit Sale

Feel the rush of the Carbon Market as it caresses the valley floor...

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- European Union carbon permits fell from their highest level in seven weeks as gas prices dropped.

Gas prices? Ok...whatever story makes you feel good...but there is THIS.

Investors are steering clear of energy-saving projects meant to generate carbon credits, and traders in Europe are hunkering down through a period of consolidation that is disappointing to those who had hoped carbon markets would grow quickly into a $2 trillion-a-year business.

That's a shame...

Bureaucratic promises of markets for forestry carbon offsets, claimed to be worth $150 million, would not materialize unless the US Congress passes a so-called “cap & trade” climate bill. Known as “cap & tax”, such legislation would tax energy users, producers and most emissions. A recent report says faltering congressional attempts to pass such a bill, means that a forest carbon market is unlikely soon.

If a forest carbon market falls apart and no one is there to hear it...does it make a sound?

The market for carbon trading, never popular in some circles to begin with, is starting to look rather shaky. The bungled Copenhagen summit was bad enough. Now we have the UK energy regulator suggesting the market is not working and that a floor price for carbon should be imposed.

I love the fact that these opportunistic jackasses who were looking to make a killing on the carbon market are now wondering whether it's time to cut and run before the bottom falls out. I'd like to see quite a few of them wrecked...

Which is more disconcerting?

2010-02-15T18:56:00.002-05:00

...that there are mouth breathers out there wishing malice and violence on a kid wearing fur?

U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir says he received threats from anti-fur activists that made him fear for his safety, causing him to scrub any plans to stay at a hotel while in Vancouver for the Olympics.

Or that the best "male" figure skater from the USA dresses in public like a drag queen.

"Ask again, later" (McCain v. Hayworth)

2010-02-15T12:17:00.003-05:00

Stumping last week at a GOP club located at a retirement community south of Phoenix, Hayworth focused much of his speech on immigration, telling a packed room that "border security is national security, border security is economic security."

It's not clear how much support Hayworth will have from Tea Party activists, the conservatives who rail against government spending. McCain has the support of Sarah Palin, his 2008 running mate and the recent keynote speaker at a national Tea Party convention. She will campaign for him next month. Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican cheered by conservatives for winning his state's special election last month, also backs McCain.

"They are a significant political force," McCain said of the activists. "How that force gets channeled ... is not yet clear to me."

I think it will become abundantly clear to McCain when momentum enters the polling process for Hayworth. However, that won't start up until the media out there begins to use the potential embarrassment of McCain to distract from the even worse embarrassments of the Democrat party...in general.

Cambridge Climate Congress (aka: moronic, meddling, simpletons)

2010-02-14T12:03:00.002-05:00

About that Audi commercial during the Super Bowl...

Parody...yes?

Congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Elimination of curbside parking. A carbon tax "of some kind," not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. Advocating vegetarianism and veganism, complete with "Meatless or Vegan Mondays." Those are just some of the proposals put forth by the Cambridge Climate Congress, an entity created in May 2009 to respond to the "climate emergency" plaguing the Massachusetts city.

Going green will not be optional in Cambridge, Mass., if the Cambridge Climate Congress has its way. It will be mandatory.

There will be congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Curbside parking will be eliminated. There will be a carbon tax "of some kind," not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. And the Massachusetts city, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will advocate vegetarianism and veganism, complete with "Meatless or Vegan Mondays."

Those are just some of the proposals put forth by the Congress, which was created in May 2009 to respond to the "climate emergency" plaguing Cambridge. Once the Congress settles on its recommendations, they will submitted to the City Council.

Behold the idiots and their jack-booted followers...

H1 N1 and the semantic game

2010-02-14T11:40:00.003-05:00

ATLANTA (AP) — Swine flu cases are down, but health officials say the disease's cumulative impact has grown to 57 million U.S. illnesses, 257,000 hospitalizations and 11,690 deaths.

I'm not buying it. That is over 1/6th of the entire US population. That would mean that one in six of the people I meet daily would have had the illness. Yet, I know not one.

Then again, it all hinges on what the meaning of the word "is" is. Anyone want to take a stab at the meaning behind "cumulative inpact." I think it has something to do with pinball.

The Right to Offend...(Orchestrated Babyism)

2010-02-13T19:20:00.002-05:00

Via Gateway Pundit...

Thousands of protesters turned out in Oslo to protest a cartoon published in a local newspaper that showed Mohammad as a pig

.

Wow! What an outrage!!! I know...let's post it again.

Holy crap....Weren't you in ZZ-Top?

2010-02-10T16:06:00.004-05:00

AN Arab ambassador has annulled his marriage after discovering his veiled wife-to-be had a beard and was cross-eyed.

The diplomat had only met the woman a few times, during which she had hidden her face behind a niqab.

Local media reported that after the marriage contract was signed, the man tried to give his new wife a smooch only to find she had facial hair.

Heh!

I'm a bit confused by the "cross-eyed" issue though. With a niqab...the eyes are the only thing you can see. And if the niqab is so necessary as to hide the sexuality of a woman to this culture...why should it matter if she sported a beard? Eh?

Someone explain Occam's Razor to U-Cal...

2010-02-10T15:44:00.004-05:00

Too much time in front of the television has long been linked to childhood obesity. Now, new research suggests it’s not the TV but the commercials that are making kids fat.

In a study of more than 2,000 children, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, compared the time the kids spent viewing television and video. They asked caregivers to track children’s media use during one weekday and one weekend day during 1997, then again in 2002.

The findings showed that the amount of television a child watched wasn’t a predictor of obesity risk. Instead, risk for being overweight increased the more television commercials a child was exposed to. There was no association with television viewing and obesity for those who watched videos or commercial-free programming.

You probably didn't want to read all that...so I'll summarize:

Kids who don't see commercials as often are usually thinner. The University of California attributes this to children being more educated as they watched educational videos or public television.

HERE'S WHAT THEIR SUMMARY SHOULD HAVE CONCLUDED: When the commercial comes on interupting the intending viewing...that's the time to make a break to the fridge. Without commercials...the option for refueling is just not there...unless the show sucks.

New York Times late to the party...

2010-02-09T09:45:00.005-05:00

But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, called for Dr. Pachauri’s resignation last week.

I love the way the NYT limits the damage by only noting two of the items that plagues Pachauri and the IPCC. Sloppiness? Bull hockey...the information and statements appearing now suggest that it wasn't sloppiness but intentional misrepresentation (significantly more egregious).

Potential financial conflicts. No...it has been proven (not only with Pachauri) that there are, indeed, financial conflicts of interest throughout the entire AGW cast and crew. But, the NYT misses out on informing on the blantant violation of the Freedom of Information Act...wild accusations over the years that never came true...the court case in Great Britian which substantively gutted Al Gore's fictional "An Inconvenient Truth..."

The simple fact of the matter is that this article by the NYT is an attempt to limit the damage (the only reason they are even touching this story)...which is so obviously bad, that even they can't shut it down entirely.

But they try.

"Do these slaves really love their chains?" (Hitchens)

2010-02-07T12:01:00.003-05:00

Christopher Hitchens has a piece over on Slate that gives us a window into North Korea's plight (for lack of a better term):

Here are the two most shattering facts about North Korea. First, when viewed by satellite photography at night, it is an area of unrelieved darkness. Barely a scintilla of light is visible even in the capital city. (See this famous photograph.) Second, a North Korean is on average six inches shorter than a South Korean. You may care to imagine how much surplus value has been wrung out of such a slave, and for how long, in order to feed and sustain the militarized crime family that completely owns both the country and its people.

Interesting piece...give it a look. Hell, it's Hitchens. He's always interesting.

Parody fighting it out with Reality...(Never good)

2010-02-07T10:12:00.006-05:00

Tim Blair has posted the Audi Super Bowl commercial...and it's disturbing in the fact that parody is way too close to reality. The underlying amusement, however, is that there will be a demographic of viewers out there that just don't understand the humor associated with the bit. The greenies will sit there "smileless" wondering when the humor will kick in.

Most folks will chuckle and realize that the commercial is there to sell the Audi clean diesel vehicle, and take home the indirect punchline that Audi is saying..."yeah...this whole green thing is a bit out of control, but here's our contribution to the trend...and remember us when you Green stormtroopers target major corporations...we're playing along."

HERE'S THE LINK TO BLAIR'S POST WITH THE VIDEO.

My favorite part is the music underneath...Cheap Trick's "Dream Police" is now Audi's "Green Police."

Where's Jay Currie's Blog gone to?

2010-02-06T16:14:00.009-05:00

What happened to Jay Currie's Blog? He's a great source for Canadian Hi-jinks, but a trek to his site states that the Account is Suspended.

I, personally, hope this is temporary or that I'm just too daft to realize he has a new site somewhere. Of course, he has a tendency to slap the Canadian Human Rights Commissions around...and rightly so. But, they would never stoop to censorship...*snort*

No one tells me nutin'.

UPDATE: Back in operation after remembering to pay the piper...

Behold the "retarded"...

2010-02-06T15:14:00.002-05:00

You know how everyone is all bent out of shape about implying that someone is "retarded?"

Well, not being a subscriber to the whole politically correct cadre of triviality I would like to point out that this guy is...RETARDED:

Which brings us to Barack Obama’s “war on terror.” Conservatives keep saying that Obama doesn’t really believe we’re at war; that he sees terrorists as mere criminals, not the epic evil-doers that they really are. But here’s the irony: It’s precisely because he doesn’t see the terrorist threat as quite so epic that al Qaeda is falling apart.

Yeah...yeah...I suppose my accusation could be considered an ad hominem argument. For those of you reading who, also, happened to be retarded...the reference is an "argument towards the person."

The author of that backwash percipience is Peter Beinart. He is the senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He's obviously educated. Apparently, he molds young minds, more than likely, to his way of "thinking" in his position as professor. Therefore, I am left with two posibilities in consideration of the absolute nonsense his above statement implies.

Either Mr Beinart is dabbling in parody...or is retarded...in which case he, likely, would not understand the concept of parody.

I'm betting on "retarded."

Just STOP with this esoteric Global Warming nonsense...

2010-02-06T11:07:00.004-05:00

A study of beleaguered butterflies in California provides some of the best clues yet as to how other animals may react to climate change, scientists say.

Yes...yes...the butterflies are a "clue" to climate change destruction.

"Like polar bears, these high-elevation butterflies were already living in extreme environments, and now they don't have any options" for escape, Forister says. He says butterfly populations have always shifted over time, but the destruction of their habitat has occurred at an accelerated pace in recent years because of urbanization and warming temperatures.

As I type through my tears shed in sympathy for the wayward butterflies and the down-trodden polar bears...I am ashamed to ask:

HOW IN THE HELL CAN THIS STUDY SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY WHEN THE EARTH'S TEMPERATURES ARE PROVEN TO HAVE FALLEN SINCE A PEAK IN 1998....HUH?!?

The good Dr. Matthew Forister's study says in black in white "accelerated pace in recent years because of urbanization and falling temperatures." Yet, the study is hogwash because the Earth's temperatures have been falling for the last decade!!!

Well, I am pragmatic. So, let's look for a bit of motivation for such a report. How about that the report was initiated by a Federal Grant by the National Science Foundation? In other words, your tax dollars paid for this nonsense. And, since the jackassery in Washington D.C. is bent on disrupting private business by applying "cap and trade" legislation that would hogtie viable US industry, those "scientists" wishing to continue making a comfortable living have to return studies (funded publically) showing "proof" of the necessity. That way, when it comes time for another Federally funded round of grants to be approved, Dr. Forister gets first dibs.

This AGW racket has become a laughable, insufferable...joke.

It's a test...

2010-02-05T11:28:00.004-05:00

THE TOPIA INN, a laboratory of sustainability with an artsy vibe here in the Berkshires, confirmed my reservation with a friendly e-mail reminder about its “green” guest policy:

No Smoking.

No chemical fragrances/bug repellant.

Leave your shoes at the front door or cover them with the inn’s neoprene booties, so as not to track in pesticide residue and other pollutants.

Leave all grooming products at home, so as not to interfere with the chemical-free organic mattresses and bedding. Complimentary organic bath and body products provided.

Oooooo...nice! Take that special woman in your life away for the weekend up into the Berkshires...and make sure she leaves all her grooming products at home so she doesn't interfere with the organic matresses and bedding.

If you can still look her in the eye at the end of the weekend...she's a keeper.

Bonus: When you get home...crank the climate control...take a shower and douse yourself with chemicals...order a huge non-fair trade pizza and feel good about your 48 hour tribute to Mother Earth...while sipping a nice glass of Shiraz made from grapes harvested by underage Australian Aborigines in wheelchairs.

"As they say in the glacier business, ice work if you can get it."

2010-02-05T10:47:00.002-05:00

Mark Steyn's latest in MaCleans. It's a pisser...

Go back to that Berkeley professor mooning over the loss of that “magnificent landform” he once thought “immutable, eternal.” From his prose style, one might easily assume Orville Schell was a professor of creative writing or some such. In fact, he’s the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism. Yet, for all the limpid fragrance of his poignant obsequies, professor Schell would seem to lack the one indispensable quality of a journalist: basic curiosity—the same curiosity that led Miss Laframboise to see just how much of the “science” in the IPCC report rested on the assertions of the panda-cuddlers. So instead, professor Schell bid a teary farewell to his beloved landform, even though the glaciers of the western Himalayas are, in fact, increasing.

Each day seems to reveal a new revelation suggesting that man-induced "climate change" is an absolute fairy tale. And, as each small glimpse of reality sprouts to the surface the big picture takes form. Each cry by the supporters of "the science is settled" shows a perceived desparation to protect that "settled science." In other words, scrutiny and time has been plucking pieces of the weigh bearing wall holding up their theories and the realization, awareness and knowledge threatened their stranglehold on what they hoped to pass out as truth and fact. Desparation and frustration had been ramped up in an effort to stave actual science from intervening.

"Jim Treacher" attacks State Department SUV...

2010-02-04T20:15:00.002-05:00

Treacher, who rolled out a tag-along blog (Daily Trawler) to Tucker Carlson's and Neil Patel's Daily Caller online media outlet, started a fight with a black SUV.

It was unclear as to the whether Treacher was upset that the SUV was a product of "Government Motors" (GM), black in color...priced above his pay grade. Therefore, it's hard for me to speculate whether Treacher was acting out as a domestic right-wing terrorist, a racist, or trying out a little class envy. I said it was hard for me to speculate...but I will.

All three!!! Hat trick...baby!!!!

Nah...check out the ongoing story here...and learn how the security folks at the State Department operate when it comes to manning up and taking responsibility for their actions. I don't think we'll be handing out any "good samaritan" awards...but a Nobel Peace Prize has been mentioned.

What would Lenin say?

2010-02-04T11:13:00.003-05:00

If you're living a green lifestyle, it turns out you can take it with you.

Cemeteries and funeral homes across the USA are offering environmentally friendly burials featuring formaldehyde-free fluids for embalming and biodegradable caskets made of pine, wicker or even cardboard.

Green burials are available in nearly 30 cemeteries nationwide, up from a handful at the start of 2008, says Joe Sehee, executive director and president of the Green Burial Council, a non-profit organization that encourages environmentally sustainable death care.

Nice! I always thought the funeral scene was a bit subdued. What we need is the slow slake of dry ice fog to gently caress the vistors as they say goodbye to Uncle Henry.

But...one would have to wonder what Vladimir Lenin would look like today in his Мавзоле́й Ле́нина as misguided Russians form long lines to visit with his remains every day from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, except Mondays and Fridays. Or, what about the sacred bodies of Ho Chi Minh, Chiang Kai-shek and other lefties of that ilk. In fact, lately, Osama bin Laden has been rumbling about ecological impurity in the West.

Of course...in the case of the latter, a quick cremation from a daisy cutter can prove his dedication to the cause.

Should have thrown in some dark cataract glasses...

2010-02-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

BOSTON (AP) -- A hearing on an asylum request by President Barack Obama's African aunt has started in Boston.

Kenya native Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUH'-nee awn-YAHN'-goh) is arguing Thursday in U.S. Immigration Court that she be allowed to stay in the United States.

Onyango showed up for the hearing in a wheelchair and with a cane across her lap. Lawyer Margaret Wong says Onyango and two doctors are expected to testify. The hearing is closed to the public.

Wong says she is applying for asylum for medical and ''other'' reasons.

Keep in mind that she had a previous hearing in 2004 and was ordered to be deported. Onyango ignored the decision, and continued to remain in the US while enjoying taxpayer funded public housing all the way to the present.

I'm kind of skeptical about the medical condition. Then again...I'm kind of skeptical about everything (and everyone).

Bad magic...

2010-02-03T10:33:00.003-05:00

Senate Democrats are preparing to release a roughly $80 billion jobs program this week, but its prospects are uncertain in a political landscape where voters are angry about unemployment yet fuming about federal spending.

I am reminded of a magician I saw in a comedy club outside of St. Louis about ten years ago. The magician, obviously drunk, wobbled around the stage nearly falling out into the audience a number of times and always fortifying his balance with another belt from the highball glass sitting on a stool.

Eventually, he holds up a sheet, covers the stool and glass with the linen and looks expectantly to the crowd. After a rather shakey count of three he whips up the sheet to reveal...that...nothing had changed. The half empty glass remained centered on the stool.

The drunk magician...not disturbed in the least points out over the audience to the bar in the back of the room and shouts..."Get me another Crown Royal."

(shrugs)

Yeah...I know, it wasn't funny. As comedic magicians go...this one sucked. But, it does parallel well with the Democrat's big reveal on a jobs bill. Nothing changes...and eventually they will ask for more...

I bet I could make the New York Times profitable...

2010-02-02T10:49:00.003-05:00

The New York Times is a cesspool of agenda driven "reporting." More often than not, they regurgitate the liberal position and serve as the Democrat Party's mouthpiece to promote and (just as readily) hide the real story. The stubborn (and suicidal) stance has led them to the abyss financially.

So...the question remains...what do they have to do to actually succeed as a viable business?

It's not as hard as you might think:

1. No more opinion in hard news stories. Instead of handholding the reader with a by-line that leads them to a desired conclusion...stick with factual representation only. Instead of using convaluted verbs like "implied" or "alluded" or "suggested"...the journalist should rely on "stated" or "said."

2. No more "well placed anonymous sources." Simply put, the NYT does not possess the credibility to be able to allow the luxury of trust with the reader. The immediate thought of any intelligent consumer should be "I think they just made that up, or secured the information from a politically motivated individual."

3. Page 2 of every New York Times issue should remain totally blank. Page 2 is for corrections, retractions and clarification. If there is nothing printed on that page...then they are doing their job. If retractions or clarifications are required, they are out front and center for the reader providing a sense of honesty and responsibility. On those days when the page is blank for extended periods at a time, the owner of the NYT can reward his valued employees accordingly.

4. The Op-Ed section of the paper should be more transparent (as should the paper in general). NO OP-ED's are written by anyone without attribution to the writer. Op-Ed's attributed to some nonsense reference like "staff" or "Editorial department" are a license to lie and obfuscate. Writers should be held accountable, and if someone in the Op-Ed department pens something questionable, they ought to have the courage to sign their name.

5. ABSOLUTELY NO POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS BY THE NYT. That is not the function of a "newspaper."

6. Continuing with the Op-Ed portion of the NYT. There would be a "left of the fold" section for left leaning writers. There would a be a "right of the fold" section for those leaning to the right. Each contracted Op-Ed contributor would provide a full bio reflective of their politics in that regard.

7. Also, in Op-Ed, there would be a separate section available for guest Op-Ed's reflective of the hot topics of the present. Again, contributors must provide a full bio available to the reader with their piece.

8. With each Op-Ed, the NYT would contract with a number of blogs to critique offerings in the newspaper. The NYT would provide links to at least two blogs under each Op-Ed where the discussion of the topic would be ongoing. The suggested process would be to have blogs from both ideologies addressing the offering. The writer of the NYT Op-Ed would be encouraged to participate in these discussions and compensated by the NYT for substative involvement.

9. All journalists and Op-Ed writers for the NYT (all sections) would be encouraged to participate in internet generated discussion throughout the blogosphere on pieces they produce. In addition, certain blogs (on a rotating basis) would be permitted to reproduce pieces in full (as opposed to an excerpt) to generate interest and discussion. The Fair Use Doctrine is void when a commercial venture is realized (blog collects revenue via advertising on the blog, or donations; LA Times v. Free Republic). However, with permission the reproduction of the full article will generate interest for the NYT and the blog...and a form of revenue sharing can be contracted in advance.

10. Guest writers (primarily Op-Ed) can be solicited from the blogosphere on topics in which they excell. To this point, the NYT and other newspapers have not made a real effort to co-exist with the internet. They have failed to tap into what could be a vast resource (not only of information) but also of revenue via captive readers to specific blogs.

11. For God's Sake...New York City has an absolutely wonderful collection of sports teams, individual atheletes and one of the most loyal fan bases on the planet. CREATE A PREMIER SPORTS SECTION!!!

12. New York has a great reputation for fasion, lifestyle and entertainment, but the NYT relies on self-important and self-proclaimed experts to present their views. The problem is that they fail to tap the resources available to them. How many members of the entertainment industry live in the Upper East Side? Who wouldn't want an inside story or two from actors who happen to be native New Yorker's? How about a human interest story penned by some of the fashion greats once in a while? Instead, we are stuck with ecclectic and elitist drivel from prunes and plows.

13. ENOUGH WITH THE LEAKING OF CONFIDENTIAL AND CLASSIFIED REPORTS!!!

I could go on and on and on. But, to summarize...the NYT could really be a gold mine if someone understood transparency, understood the demographics of their customers...but more importantly realized that the current ideology of the NYT voids an entire market of potential consumers (likely much larger than the current readership and circulation). When circulation increases, advertising rates increase. In addition, if the readership includes both sides of the aisle, the potential advertising base increases as well. Folks on the left do, indeed, purchase different products from those on the right.

Also, there needs to be an innovative effort made to make the blogs benefit the "big media." I provide just a scant portion of views in that regard. There are many (not yet tapped).

Above all...the NYT lost its reputation for straight informative and factual news. She traded in on liberal ideology. The first step in making her profitable is making her trustworthy. That is an earned reward...and the revenue would follow.

Motivation of the means...

2010-02-01T11:35:00.003-05:00

The American Thinker has a piece up highlighting Li Xing's evaluation of climate change after attending the Copenhagen fiasco:

It is amazing that Chinese media examine what has recently come out revealing IPCC "mistakes" and conclude more serious examination of its work is in order. Yet the American mainstream media brush aside such concerns seeking to keep an obvious political agenda alive.

As, contributor, John McLaughlin, points out, the US Media is AWOL on the issue of "hide and decline."

The New York Times has a piece out today showing that China is surpassing everyone in "Clean Energy" production and research.

China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants.

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

I suspect that Global Warming is not the motivation for this exploration. Rather, dominating the world economy and being able to breathe in downtown Bejing without hacking up a lung is more likely...

Curt Schilling on the AGW lemming mentality...

2010-02-01T11:16:00.003-05:00

You lemmings that scream as loud as you can, just because. Think about this. If the evidence IS so overwhelming and the science is irrefutable, why would there EVER be a reason to fabricate ANY data? Wouldn’t the overwhelming evidence be RIGHT IN FRONT OF US? Would the data be so concrete we couldn’t debate it? Why would these ‘top scientists’ lie? Hide data? You do those things because you ARE lying and you ARE hiding the facts because both the DATA and the FACTS go against the arguments you are making, that’s why.

Curt Schilling, apparently, has taken up tennis after baseball.

That is GAME, SET, and MATCH...my friends.

The Hole in Global Warming...

2010-01-31T11:40:00.006-05:00

Well over two decades ago we, the public, were on the receiving end of the Montreal Protocol. Do you remember what that was? Here's a hint:

The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer is a landmark international agreement designed to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. The treaty was originally signed in 1987 and substantially amended in 1990 and 1992. The Montreal Protocol stipulates that the production and consumption of compounds that deplete ozone in the stratosphere--chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons, carbon tetrachloride, and methyl chloroform--are to be phased out by 2000 (2005 for methyl chloroform).

Here's the thing...which I happened to mention on this blog quite a while ago under the very apt titles of "Behold the Idiots" and "I want a refund." I find it hard to believe that the Montreal Protocol served any valued purpose in reducing the size of the Ozone Hole. I base this on the fact that the Hole was bigger than ever just three years ago.

Stratospheric ozone has been depleted by 5 to 6 percent at middle latitudes, but has somewhat rebounded in recent years. The largest recorded Antarctic ozone hole was recorded in 2006.

Gosh!...those climate scientists screwed up the "model." Of course, despite the increased costs of switching over to approved automobile air conditioners that did not use freon and other costly changes that you likely weren't aware that you financed...it was all for naught.

Ah...but have faith...

While most of the world has warmed, parts of the southern hemisphere have remained stubbornly cold—oddly enough because of a gaping hole in the ozone layer. Now new research shows that all the efforts made by scientists and environmental advocates to close the hole may actually increase warming throughout the entire southern hemisphere.

I, actually, pointed this out a little less than a year ago.

June 10 2008 A new study led by Seok-woo Son and Lorenzo Polvani, in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at SEAS, is suggesting that the winds in the Southern Hemisphere will be greatly impacted by the expected recovery of the ozone hole in the second half of this century. In a study that appears in the June 13 issue of Science, Seok-Woo Son, lead-author and a postdoctoral research scientist at SEAS, and Professor Polvani suggest that stratospheric ozone ought to be more carefully considered by the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) round of climate model predictions.

"We were surprised to find that the closing of the ozone hole, which is expected to occur in the next 50 years or so, shows significant effects on the global climate," said Lorenzo M. Polvan one of two principle investigators and professor of applied mathematics at SEAS. "This is because stratospheric ozone has not been considered a major player in the climate system. We believe the closing of the ozone hole is likely to have profound impacts on the surface winds and, also likely, to have an impact on other aspects of the Earth's climate, including surface temperatures, locations of storm tracks, extent of dry zones, amount of sea ice, and ocean circulation."

So, why trot out this "old" study now? Not much attention was paid back in June 2008. Well, the IPCC's agenda driven Climate Change stance is decaying rather quickly due to false premise, unreliable model, activist "scientists," climate-gate and various other idiocy. The whole "global warming" mantra is rather unpredictable (mostly because no one has developed a model that includes all the applicable factors in climate change...and likely never will). Also, as the Earth's climate cools (as it has been for the last decade) the global warming cabal is left looking...silly.

The fact that more press has been given to the Ozone Hole lately,...and it's inverse relationship to "warming" suggests that it's getting more difficult for the activist scientists and the "climate change machine" to hold back reports detrimental to their preconceived goals.

I look at both the Montreal Protocol legislation and the IPCC's Climate Change report and realize that the environuts are zero for two...while costing us all a pretty penny in the process. I, also, find it ironic that the downfall is delivered in cold hard scientific facts; the same type facts the IPCC is supposed to deliver, but decided on agenda driven tripe wrapped up in ulterior motives instead.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a female oversell her capabilities,” she said.

2010-01-30T12:16:00.002-05:00

OSLO — Arni Hole remembers the shock wave that went through Norway’s business community in 2002 when the country’s trade and industry minister, Ansgar Gabrielsen, proposed a law requiring that 40 percent of all company board members be women.

The message here is that performance and aptitude are not the primary criteria for running a successful company. Boobs and a uterus are far better qualifications.

Well...

Indeed, the world has noticed: Spain and the Netherlands have passed similar laws, with a 2015 deadline for compliance. The French Senate will soon debate a bill phasing in a female quota by 2016, after the National Assembly approved the measure last week. Belgium, Britain, Germany and Sweden are considering legislation.

Full speed ahead in destruction of merit based promotions...and how's that working out?

Using a common market-based measure of corporate governance, known as Tobin’s Q, the study found that companies in Norway actually performed an average of 20 percent worse the year after adopting the quotas, with those companies that were required to make the most drastic changes to their boards suffering the largest negative impact. The measure, named for the late James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel laureate in economics, is a ratio of a company’s market capitalization to the replacement cost of its assets, which economists consider to be the best proxy for investor confidence in a company’s management.

BUT...they feel as if they have struck a blow for equity in the boardrooms...which is...er...important.

It's a "Nice N Easy" root touch-up for TOTUS

2010-01-30T11:47:00.007-05:00

State of the Union Address (January 27, 2010)

Address to the Republican House Retreat (January 29, 2010)

Just like the SOTU address...it was a "wash-out."

Old bags of the nanny state...

2009-06-23T12:02:00.002-04:00

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"

2009-06-23T11:32:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-23T11:07:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-23T10:56:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-19T11:31:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-18T12:45:00.000-04:00

Climate-Change Report: From Bad to Worse

In reality:

"From FAD To PERVERSE"

Timmmmay!!!!!!!

2009-06-18T12:09:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-17T11:14:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-16T11:20:00.007-04:00

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...

2009-06-15T20:31:00.005-04:00

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...

2009-06-15T11:13:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-15T10:59:00.005-04:00

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...

2009-06-14T12:25:00.004-04:00

"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...

2009-06-14T11:35:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-14T11:22:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-13T11:52:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-12T12:38:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-12T12:12:00.005-04:00

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..

2009-06-11T20:32:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-11T12:00:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-11T11:39:00.004-04:00

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"...

2009-06-10T11:59:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-10T11:50:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-09T11:48:00.001-04:00

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...

2009-06-09T11:13:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-07T11:30:00.006-04:00

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...

2009-06-06T20:52:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-06T12:40:00.002-04:00

Doing a 180...

2009-06-06T11:50:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-06-05T21:11:00.002-04:00

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)

2009-06-05T20:35:00.003-04:00

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!!!

2009-06-05T20:16:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-02T11:27:00.004-04:00

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?

2009-06-01T11:44:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-06-01T11:16:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-01T10:59:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-05-31T19:46:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-05-31T11:50:00.003-04:00

"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...

2009-05-31T11:43:00.004-04:00

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...