Bush Can Now Read Your Mail Without A Warrant

 I think I'll Send him a 'Dear John' letter. Maybe then he'll get the message that I want him, and his friends, out of my life forever!

 

December 20th, 2006

Jeffrey Henderson

Today President Bush signed the H.R. 6407, the "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. In doing so he added a few signing statements. One of them is particularly alarming.

The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the Act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.

Link to news release

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Constitution - Bush

Source: Bush signing statement claims he can search our mail without a warrant - WikiProtest ~ The Wiki of the Revolution

Speak!!! Speak Boy!!! Speak!! Gooood! Boy!

See, a dog can do better than this. 

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.'' - Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." - Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003

"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." - quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War

"I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." - Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

"Do you have blacks, too?" - to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001

"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." - as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

"It is white." - after being asked by a child in Britain what the White House was like, July 19, 2001

"I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." - at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001

"I'm the master of low expectations." - aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." -Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet. . . - President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

I'm so proud!  And he's all ours.

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Bush - Humor

Source: UNDERNEWS: THE LIST: Great thoughts of George Bush

Slobs Of The World....We've Been Vindicated!

Now we can all relax and spend our time and energy on useful matters. 

An anti-anticlutter movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands.

Source: Saying Yes to Mess - New York Times

Ignorance (of the Bush Admin.) Is Bliss

Follow the link below and start reading, and continue reading through the comments section. 

Just how many different ways has the Bush Administration tried to hide once-public information sources from the public record? Help us count the ways.

Source: TPMmuckraker December 18, 2006 11:46 AM

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Republican - Interesting - Useful - Criminal - Illegal

Psych' Ward Christmas Carols

Oh!.. How I miss those crazy, kooky times. 

1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and ...

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me!

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy ... oooh look at the Froggy ... can I have a chocolate ... why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --- Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle
Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells ...

Source: Miss Cellania - Miss Cellania

 

Technorati Tags: Humor - Psychiatry - Psychology - Medical

The U.S. Is Doomed... Financially!

 This is old news to many, but it's about to become official.

The 2006 edition of the Financial Report of the United States is due out tomorrow.

"Typically, the Treasury reports the budget deficit on current accounts basis. That's why Treasury announced recently that the 2006 federal budget deficit was going to be $248.2 billion. But it is a gimmick," Williams claimed.

"When we see the Treasury report on Friday we are probably going to find out that the real 2006 federal budget deficit is more like $3.5 trillion."

Williams predicts, however, the mainstream media won't report it.

"It's not the type of news Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal like to broadcast to investors and the American public," he said. "Besides, the financial press won't take the time and effort to analyze the figures and comb through the footnotes. The report is going to be released on Friday and most financial reporters aren't accountants."

--------

How serious a problem are federal deficits of this magnitude?

"A federal budget deficit in the trillions of dollars is beyond the reach of fiscal control," Williams answered. "Even if the federal government raised individual and corporate income taxes to 100 percent, simply confiscating every penny every business and person in the U.S. made, we would still have a federal deficit."

"There are lots of people who know that the federal deficit is in the trillions," Williams continued. "The problem is that few dare sound the alarm. The magnitude of the budget deficit problem is just too enormous and neither political party has the courage to address the problem."

Williams is clear about the coming danger.

"The United States is bankrupt," he insisted. "With less than one-tenth of the actual deficit being reported each year, a cumulative negative net worth exceeding $50 trillion has built up in stealth to where the total obligations of the U.S. government are now more than four times our annual gross domestic product.

Source: WorldNetDaily: True deficit: $3.5 trillion

 

Technorati Tags: Economy - Money - Taxes

30 Attainable Affirmations

Yeah, these are all possible. 

1. As I let go of my feelings of guilt, I am in touch with my inner sociopath.
2. I have the power to channel my imagination into ever-soaring levels of suspicion and paranoia.
3. I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else’s fault.
4. I no longer need to punish, deceive, or compromise myself, unless I want to stay employed.
5. In some cultures what I do would be considered normal.
6. Having control over myself is almost as good as having control over others.
7. My intuition nearly makes up for my lack of self-judgment.
8. I honor my personality flaws, for without them I would have no personality at all.
9. Joan of Arc heard voices, too.
10. I am grateful that I am not as judgmental as all those censorious, self-righteous people around me.
11. I need not suffer in silence while I can still moan, whimper, and complain.
12. As I learn the innermost secrets of people around me, they reward me in many ways to keep me quiet.
13. When someone hurts me, I know that forgiveness is cheaper than a lawsuit, but not nearly as gratifying.
14. The first step is to say nice things about myself. The second, to do nice things for myself. The third, to find someone to buy me nice things.
15. As I learn to trust the universe, I no longer need to carry a gun.
16. All of me is beautiful, even the ugly, stupid and disgusting parts.
17. I am at one with my duality.

Source: Suburban Guerrilla » 30 Attainable Affirmations

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Interesting - Psychology - Sociology

Refocusing the Impeachment Movement on Administration Officials Below the President and Vice-President

This is a brilliant idea. Below are a few excerpts from the article by John Dean (yes, that John Dean). To fully understand the concept it would be well worth your time to read his article in full. This would be a Win, Win situation for the entire country, left and right. 

The Republican Congress shamed itself when it impeached and tried President William Jefferson Clinton. It was a repeat of what an earlier Republican Congress had done to President Andrew Johnson, following the Civil War. Both proceedings were politics at their ugliest.

Democrats, when they undertook to impeach Richard Nixon, moved very slowly, building bipartisan support for the undertaking. Nixon, of course, resigned, when it became apparent that the House had the votes to impeach and the Senate had the votes to convict, with his removal supported by Democrats and Republicans, and conservatives and liberals alike.

Getting the necessary two-thirds supermajority in support of impeachment in today's Senate, which is virtually evenly-divided politically, is simply not possible. With forty-nine senators of the 110^th Congress members in good standing with the Republican Party, and most of them rock-ribbed conservatives, even if the House produced evidence of Cheney personally water-boarding "Gitmo" detainees in the basement of his home at the Naval Observatory, with Bush looking on approvingly, there are more than thirty-three GOP Senators who still would not vote to convict. (Senate Republicans who have no problem with torture, or with removing the right to habeas corpus, and who refused to exercise any oversight whatsoever of Bush or Cheney, are hardly going to remove these men for actions in which they too are complicit.)

Pelosi and Reid have long understood this reality, and rather than do to Bush and/or Cheney what Republicans did to Clinton - impeach him in the House merely because they had the power to do so and they wanted to tarnish him, only to lose their battle decisively in the Senate - they are simply not going to play the same game. Politically, this is smart. Americans do not want another impeachment, particularly when Bush and Cheney will be out of office in January 2009.

-----------------

Lowering the aim of an impeachment effort to focus on those who have aided and abetted, or directly engaged in, the commission of high crimes and misdemeanors, would have all the positives, and none of the negatives, of going after Bush and Cheney. It would not be an effort to overturn the 2004 election, but rather to rid the government of those who have participated, along with Bush and Cheney, in abuses and misuses of power; indeed, many among them have actually encouraged Bush and Cheney to undertake the offensive activities.

Many of these men (and a few women) are young enough that it is very likely that they will return to other posts in future Republican Administrations, and based on their experience in the Bush/Cheney Administration, they can be expected to make the offensive conduct of this presidency the baseline for the next president they serve. Impeachment, however, would prevent that from happening.

It will be recalled that Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution states: "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States." (Emphasis added.) After any civil officer has been impeached, under the rules of the Senate, it requires only a simple majority vote to add the disqualification from holding future office.

In addition, it is likely that the impeachment process of any official in a position below that of the president or vice president, would be treated the same as the impeachment of federal judges. The work is done in both the House and Senate by special subcommittees, so it does not consume the attention of the full bodies until the final votes.

Source: FindLaw's Writ - Dean: Refocusing the Impeachment Movement on Administration Officials Below the President and Vice-President

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Democrat - Impeachment - Interesting

Why Would Bush Be Retaining A Criminal Lawyer?

There's more to this than we'll probably ever know. Thom Hartman announced on his show today (12/12/06) that a retainer had been taken out on Criminal attorneys for himself and Cheney, I'm not a subscriber to the show so I don't have a working link to direct you to, but if it come's from Thom I'm sure it's good info. The article below addresses the issues as they apply to Fitzgeralds investigation, But personally, I think there's a whole lot more to this than is being disclosed to the public.

Mr. Bush has acknowledged that he had met with a Washington criminal lawyer, Jim Sharp, about the possibility that prosecutors might want to interview him about the case. So far, the White House has made no mention of Cheney's interview or whether it influenced the president's decision to meet with Sharp, the Times notes.
Mr. Bush is not thought to be a focus of the grand jury inquiry, the Times says. On Thursday, Mr. Bush said he did not object to the prosecutors' inquiry.
The decision by Mr. Bush and Cheney to seek private legal counsel is routine for high-level officials when they become involved, even tangentially, in legal issues unrelated to their official duties, the Times observed.

Source: Cheney Said Questioned On CIA Leak - CBS News

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Bush - Interesting

Who Can Arrest The President?

 This really needs to be read by everyone. It's a question posed at  The Straight Dope, and, I think it should be mandatory for all U.S. citizens to know just who has the authority.

Another issue raised by the conviction of a sitting president is pardon. Can the president pardon himself? Once again, there is no clear answer in the Constitution. Amar says a sitting president cannot pardon himself; ex-White House counsel John Dean says, in effect, "why not?"

While no president has ever pardoned himself, the law supports the president's authority to do so. Scholarly inquiry into the subject was provoked first by fear that Richard Nixon would pardon himself to escape Watergate; later by thought that George H. W. Bush would do so because of the Iran-Contra grand jury; and most recently by concern about Bill Clinton's problem of a possible post-Presidency indictment and trial. And while a few scholars have concluded that the president cannot pardon himself, many more believe that he can.

There are a couple of international implications here too. What I've said so far applies to arrest and trial of the president in the United States. What if he's visiting another country?
First, as a matter of international law, officers from one country cannot arrest someone in another country. To do so is considered a violation of the asylum country's sovereignty. To be sure, many courts have concluded that the right to complain about the violation belongs to the asylum state and not an individual defendant. Under U.S. law a defendant who is illegally arrested can usually still be prosecuted. So if the president left the country, the U.S. could retrieve him for prosecution, knowing that if the asylum country complained, we'd have an international incident on our hands.
If we decided to comply with international law, we could try to extradite him, assuming the U.S. had an extradition treaty with the asylum country. Most extradition treaties exclude political crimes, though, so depending on the charge, this approach might not work. In that case the United States Attorneys' Manual helpfully lists the following fallback options: requesting expulsion or deportation from the asylum country (called rendition), deportation from a third country (if the fugitive is dumb enough to leave the asylum country for one with less favorable extradition policies), lures ("A lure involves using a subterfuge to entice a criminal defendant to leave a foreign country so that he or she can be arrested in the United States, in international waters or airspace, or in a third country for subsequent extradition, expulsion, or deportation to the United States. Lures can be complicated schemes or they can be as simple as inviting a fugitive by telephone to a party in the United States"), red Interpol notices (a sort of international arrest warrant), revocation of U.S. passport (which will often result in deportation), and foreign prosecution.
One problem with foreign prosecution is head of state and head of government immunity. Persons holding either post are immune from liability or arrest while in office under international law. Once out of office, they can be sued or prosecuted for their private acts, but remain immune for their official acts. In the Pinochet case, the UK House of Lords reviewed the law of official immunity and concluded that international crimes are not official acts. This is the plight of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who

was visited by the police in the Ritz Hotel in Paris and handed a warrant, issued by Judge Roger LeLoire, requesting his testimony in the matter of disappeared French citizens in Pinochet's Chile. Kissinger chose to leave town rather than appear at the Palais de Justice as requested. He has since been summoned as a witness by senior magistrates in Chile and Argentina who are investigating the international terrorist network that went under the name "Operation Condor" and that conducted assassinations, kidnappings, and bombings in several countries.

So writes Christopher Hitchens in an article published on Slate.com in 2002. Hitchens says, "It is known that there are many countries to which he cannot travel at all, and it is also known that he takes legal advice before traveling anywhere." A former president could find himself in a similar situation.
In sum, whether the president can be prosecuted prior to impeachment remains controversial. After impeachment, the president can definitely be prosecuted in the U.S. Even in another country, the president could be prosecuted for acts that weren't part of his job or violated international criminal law.

Source: Straight Dope Staff Report: Who has the power to arrest the President?

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Bush - Useful - Interesting

Where the nukes are: 20 miles from downtown Seattle

We're number one!.. We're number one!

To be hit first that is. 

Nearly one-quarter of America's 9,962 nuclear weapons are now assigned to the Bangor submarine base on Hood Canal, 20 air miles northwest of downtown Seattle.

This makes Bangor the largest nuclear weapons storehouse in the United States, and possibly the world.

The share of the nation's nuclear armaments at Bangor is higher than it has ever been for two reasons:

• The warheads assigned to the ballistic missile submarines stationed at Bangor and at Kings Bay, Ga., now constitute more than half of the U.S. strategic weapons force.

Source: The Seattle Times: Local News: Where the nukes are: 20 miles from downtown Seattle

 

Technorati Tags: Military - Nuclear - Interesting - Washington State - Seattle - Navy - Submarine

Liberal-tarians. The Best Of The New Parties?

Here's a brief excerpt from an article published by the Cato Institute. I personally liked it, and found myself one step closer to finding my true political leanings. 

Conservative fusionism, the defining ideology of the American right for a half-century, was premised on the idea that libertarian policies and traditional values are complementary goods. That idea still retains at least an intermittent plausibility--for example, in the case for school choice as providing a refuge for socially conservative families. But an honest survey of the past half-century shows a much better match between libertarian means and progressive ends. Most obviously, many of the great libertarian breakthroughs of the era--the fall of Jim Crow, the end of censorship, the legalization of abortion, the liberalization of divorce laws, the increased protection of the rights of the accused, the reopening of immigration--were championed by the political left.

Furthermore, it has become increasingly clear that capitalism's relentless dynamism and wealth-creation--the institutional safeguarding of which lies at the heart of libertarian concerns--have been pushing U.S. society in a decidedly progressive direction. The civil rights movement was made possible by the mechanization of agriculture, which pushed blacks off the farm and out of the South with immense consequences. Likewise, feminism was encouraged by the mechanization of housework. Greater sexual openness, as well as heightened interest in the natural environment, are among the luxury goods that mass affluence has purchased. So, too, are secularization and the general decline in reverence for authority, as rising education levels (prompted by the economy's growing demand for knowledge workers) have promoted increasing independence of mind.

Yet progressives remain stubbornly resistant to embracing capitalism, their great natural ally. In particular, they are unable to make their peace with the more competitive, more entrepreneurial, more globalized U.S. economy that emerged out of the stagflationary mess of the 1970s. Knee-jerk antipathy to markets and the creative destruction they bring continues to be widespread, and bitter denunciations of the unfairness of the system, mixed with nostalgia for the good old days of the Big Government/Big Labor/Big Business triumvirate, too often substitute for clear thinking about realistic policy options.

Hence today's reactionary politics. Here, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, the rival ideologies of left and right are both pining for the '50s. The only difference is that liberals want to work there, while conservatives want to go home there.

Source: Liberaltarians

 

Technorati Tags: Liberaltarian - Politics - Progressive - Left Wing - Right Wing

What A Sad Little Man Bush Is

 And deluded.

Worth reading.

Bush began his talk by comparing himself to President Harry S Truman, who launched the Truman Doctrine to fight communism, got bogged down in the Korean War and left office unpopular.

Bush said that "in years to come they realized he was right and then his doctrine became the standard for America," recalled Senate Majority Whip-elect Richard Durbin, D-Ill. "He's trying to position himself in history and to justify those who continue to stand by him, saying sometimes if you're right you're unpopular, and be prepared for criticism."

Durbin said he challenged Bush's analogy, reminding him that Truman had the NATO alliance behind him and negotiated with his enemies at the United Nations. Durbin said that's what the Iraq Study Group is recommending that Bush do now - work more with allies and negotiate with adversaries on Iraq.

Bush, Durbin said, "reacted very strongly. He got very animated in his response" and emphasized that he is "the commander in chief."

Source: McClatchy Washington Bureau | 12/08/2006 | Democrats frustrated by Bush's reaction to Iraq report

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Music For Non Music Lovers

This is great! A web radio site that makes it so easy for the non musically inclined to enjoy music.

Pick the genre, or different genres of music that you would like to sample from the left sidebar, and then pick a mood. You'll like it I'm sure. 

Link to Musicovery : interactive webRadio

 

Technorati Tags: Music - Useful - Interesting - Radio

Hey Lard-Ass!.... Whatcha cookin' There?

 Lard, The New health food.

In response to the news that New York City's health commissioner had asked local restaurants to stop using cooking oils containing trans fats, comparing them to such hazards as lead and asbestos, Kummer proposed that we bring back lard, "the great misunderstood fat." Lard, he cheerfully reported, contains just 40 percent saturated fat (compared with nearly 60 percent for butter). Its level of monounsaturated fat (the "good" fat) is "a very respectable 45 percent," he noted, "double butter's paltry 23 or so percent." Kummer hinted that if I wanted to appreciate the virtues of this health food, I needed to fry shoestring potatoes or a chicken drumstick.

What did I know about lard? Bupkes. To my generation, the phrase deep fried in pure lard is shorthand for morbid obesity. Born in the '60s and raised in New England, I had consumed as much lard as a resident of Mecca. Okay, I exaggerate. I had eaten a pie crust made with lard and seen the way it flaked under a fork. But I'd eaten nothing fried in lard. "It is absolutely the best for frying," says Fran McCullough, author of The Good Fat Cookbook, an impassioned defense of butter, fish oil and other natural sources of fat. "Nothing crisps food quite as well as lard. Hands down, there's no better fried chicken."

Source: Lard: The New Health Food? | Food & Wine

 

Technorati Tags: Health - Food - Useful

Want To Know If Your Cell Phone Is Bugged?

 Be sure to read the story from the link below, if you really want to know.

(ooh, a rhyme!)

This discussion doesn't only relate to "legal" bugs but also to the use of such techniques by illegal clandestine operations, and applies to physically unmodified cell phone hardware (not phones that might have had separate, specialized bugs physically installed within them by third parties).

There is no magic in cell phones. From a transmitting standpoint, they are either on or off. It is true that many phones have an alarm feature that permits them to "wake up" from a seemingly "off" state. However, this is not a universal functionality, even in advanced phones such as PDA cell phones, which now often have a "totally off" mode available as well.

------------

Another clue that a phone may have been transmitting without your permission is if it seems unexpectedly warm. You've probably noticed how most cell phones heat up, especially on longer calls. This is normal, but if you haven't been on any calls for a while and your cell phone is warm as if long calls were in progress, you have another red flag indication of something odd perhaps going on.

Source: Lauren Weinstein's Blog: How To Tell If Your Cell Phone Is Bugged

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Paranoia - Cell Phone - Cellular - Conspiracy

Is This Really A Joke?

This is a report in the Washington Post by Dana Milbank, a regular guest of Keith Olbermann. So It's possible he was just being humorous. 

Minutes after the Iraq Study Group placed an improvised explosive device beneath the Bush administration's Iraq policy yesterday, panel member Lawrence Eagleburger was asked how President Bush reacted to the recommendations.

"His reaction was, 'Where's my drink?' " the former secretary of state cracked after the commission's White House visit and Capitol Hill news conference. Reaching for his own cola, Eagleburger continued: "He was a little loaded. It was early in the morning, too, you know."

Source: Dana Milbank - In Theater of War, It's Iraq Study Group's Turn to Take the Stage - washingtonpost.com

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting - Humor

Gone With the Spin (Wind)

 This will put a smile on your Leftist Commie face...That is if you follow the link at the bottom.

Title Screen: There was a land of Profiteers and Oil Fields called the New South... Here in this petty world, Fealty killed its last sow... Here was the last ever to be seen of individual rights and their basest scares, of disasters that would enslave... Look for it only in neo-con texts, for it is no more than a scheme dismembered. A Machination gone with the spin...

Source: My Left Wing :: Gone With the Spin

Technorati Tags: Politics - Humor

Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal?

So true! 

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who ad-

mitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homo-

phobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups

on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980).

The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosex-

ual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored. They also com-

pleted an Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992 ). Both groups exhibited increases

in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic

men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in

aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic

individual is either unaware of or denies.

Source: Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal?

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Sexuality - Useful

Cause' The Bible Tells Me So

Here's a list of the top ten verses that you will never hear preached about in church. 

2. Judges 3:19-25 ESV

And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out.

Comments: Apparently the sword pierced all the way through and something unexpected came out the other side. The author felt this was a necessary detail to include.

Source: Ten Verses Never Preached On at Church Hopping

 

Technorati Tags: Religion - Interesting - Humor

Carter plays Hardball with Israel

 A video for you.

Jimmy Carter will go down in history as the only American president EVER to call the israeli occupation what it is - HORRENDOUS and APARTHEID.

Source: Carter plays Hardball with Israel | Wake Up From Your Slumber

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

I Think I Want To Eat... This

Simple chart of food cravings and what you may be missing from your diet.

Here's a short selection, lots more after the jump. 

If you crave this...
What you really need is...
And here are healthy foods that have it:

Chocolate
Magnesium
Raw nuts and seeds, legumes, fruits

Sweets
Chromium
Broccoli, grapes, cheese, dried beans, calves liver, chicken

Carbon
Fresh fruits

Phosphorus
Chicken, beef, liver, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, legumes, grains

Sulfur
Cranberries, horseradish, cruciferous vegetables, kale, cabbage

Tryptophan
Cheese, liver, lamb, raisins, sweet potato, spinach

Bread, toast
Nitrogen
High protein foods: fish, meat, nuts, beans

Source: Naturopathyworks - food cravings...

 

Technorati Tags: Health - Useful - Interesting

Bush's Body Language Says "I'm Afraid"

This is from Daily Kos. More info on the 'Psychology' if you follow the link. 

Sometimes, non-verbal communication--that aspect of how we talk that does not involve words--carries the most meaning in a given situation.  

Such was the case during President Bush's recent press conference in Amman, Jordan.  Having read the transcript of this press conference to analyze the President's repetition of the word "success,"  I then went over to C-SPAN  to watch the video footage.  What I saw in that footage took me by surprise, adding an entirely unexpected dimension to my  thinking about the way President Bush attempted to frame Iraq.  With his words, Bush said, "Success, success, success!"  But with every other aspect of his being--his gestures, his tone, his disposition, his glances--President Bush was saying:  I'm afraid.

The President of the United States was the very image of fear in this Amman press conference.   And that image of fear was more revealing than any words coming out of President Bush's mouth, today.

Source: Daily Kos: Frameshop: Bush's Body Language Says "I'm Afraid"

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

Impossibly Possible Scientific Breakthroughs

 

In the past year several scientific claims that apparently contradict "known" physical laws have been making headline news. Some are so contradictory to personal experience that their application would seem like "magic" if we were not already in an age of remarkable discoveries.

Scientific history is full of such botched predictions, though when a scientist of rank and experience says, "it will never work", they are frequently right. When new scientific claims seem to contradict "known" physical laws objectivity is difficult to maintain, even for the best trained scientists.

In 2007 three of these breakthrough discoveries and claims could either make it into demonstrable prototypes or be confirmed by other research labs. Some of the claims are already experimentally confirmed, some are unconfirmed but from credible sources, and some are scientifically unsubstantiated but just too bold to ignore. If confirmed they would be a "hat trick" of remarkable advances that seemingly contradict everyday physical laws. In colloquial terms they are: invisibility, anti-gravity and perpetual motion.

Source: The Coming Era of Magical Physics - OhmyNews International

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Useful - Science - Energy

Calling Bullshit On The Main Stream Media

 Yep!

What is it about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that makes them so refreshing and attractive to a wide variety of viewers (including those so-important younger ones)? I would argue that, more than anything else, it is that they enthusiastically call bullshit.

Calling bullshit, of course, used to be central to journalism as well as to comedy. And we happen to be in a period in our history in which the substance in question is running particularly deep. The relentless spinning is enough to make anyone dizzy, and some of our most important political battles are about competing views of reality more than they are about policy choices. Calling bullshit has never been more vital to our democracy.

It also resonates with readers and viewers a lot more than passionless stenography. I’m convinced that my enthusiasm for calling bullshit is the main reason for the considerable success of my White House Briefing column, which has turned into a significant traffic-driver for The Washington Post’s Web site.

I’m not sure why calling bullshit has gone out of vogue in so many newsrooms — why, in fact, it’s so often consciously avoided. There are lots of possible reasons. There’s the increased corporate stultification of our industry, to the point where rocking the boat is seen as threatening rather than invigorating. There’s the intense pressure to maintain access to insider sources, even as those sources become ridiculously unrevealing and oversensitive. There’s the fear of being labeled partisan if one’s bullshit-calling isn’t meted out in precisely equal increments along the political spectrum.

The return of Democrats to political power and relevancy gives us the opportunity to call bullshit in a more bipartisan manner, which is certainly healthy. But there are different kinds of bullshit. Republican political leaders these past six years have built up a massive, unprecedented credibility deficit, such that even their most straightforward assertions invite close bullshit inspection. By contrast, Democratic bullshit tends to center more around hypocrisy and political cowardice. Trying to find equivalency between the two would still be a mistake – and could lead to catty, inside-baseball gotcha journalism rather than genuine bullshit-calling.

Source: Watchdog Blog » Blog Archive » On Calling Bullshit

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Media

The Future Of Home Wind Power?

 It's not the prettiest turbine, but it is quite efficient (43%) and only requires a three mile per hour wind speed to start.

1. Loopwing Wind Turbine is a well balanced, quiet wind turbine that has globe-rotating trajectory image.
2. The principle of operation is the conventional propeller theory, of which the basic performance is already proved.

• A wind tunnel experiment further proved low noise and high performance at a low rotation speed while delivering high torque.
• Capability to self-start with a natural breeze, air brake, and automatic deflector protecting from over-speeding were also proved.

1. Loopwing's excellence also lies in its appeal of artistic design. It can serve as a work of art, itself.

Source: LOOPWING -PRIDE ON THE SKY -

 

Technorati Tags: Energy - Interesting - New Product

Inject Spit, Pop Spit, Drink Spit. Oh Glorious Spit!

Mother nature at her best again, but as soon as it's synthesized and OK' d for humans were going to have to pay royalties to some major drug company, or spend time in court, or jail for illegally manufacturing and/or ingesting SPIT!

Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say.

The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug.

When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 milligram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 milligrams of morphine.

The substance was so successful at blocking pain that, in a test involving a platform of upended pins, the rats needed six times as much morphine as opiorphin to render them oblivious to the pain of standing on the needle points.

Anti-depressive angle

“Its pain-suppressive effect is like that of morphine,” says Catherine Rougeot at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, who led the research. “But we have to test its side effects as it is not a pure painkiller,” she says. “It may also be an anti-depressive molecule.”

Rougeot and colleagues discovered that opiorphin works in nerve cells of the spine by stopping the usual destruction of natural pain-killing opiates there, called enkephalins.

Source: Natural-born painkiller found in human saliva - health - 13 November 2006 - New Scientist Tech

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Health - Medicine - Drugs - Natural

40 Amazing Facts About Sleep

Here's five of them in no particular order of importance. 

- It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

- A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year

- One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.

- The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.

Source: The National Sleep Research Project - 40 amazing facts about sleep

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Interesting - Health

Meet Keith, The Sewer Snake

Always turn the bathroom light on at night. 

The boa constrictor, named Keith, is thought to have been abandoned after the resident was evicted owing £5,500 in rent to his landlord.

It has been slithering out of toilet bowls thoughout the flats in Manchester since August.

In the wild the snake lives close to rivers or swamps.

The creature has been spotted on several occasions and homeowners have put bricks on toilet seats in a bid to keep the beast from popping out of the pan.

Previous sightings of the animal were treated with scepticism but firefighters were called to the block of flats on Clyde Road, West Didsbury, Manchester after it confronted a resident going to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Source: BBC NEWS | UK | England | Manchester | Snake hiding in sewers is caught

 

Technorati Tags: Animals - Interesting - Odd News

Roller Toaster

This is great, now you can butter your toast before it is finished. 

Link to Jaren Goh Design

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Useful - Kitchen - Cooking

Crazy Republicans!.....No!..Really!

No wonder the 'Big Pharma' get along so well with them. 

Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.

--------------

 

Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.
Rakfeldt says the study was legitimate, though not intended to show what it did.

Source: NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE - NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Politics - Health

Iranian Presidents Letter To The American People

In English 

Link to يادداشت هاي شخصي احمدي نژاد

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Useful - Interesting

Read This Before It's Erased!

 Excerpt is roughly the last paragraph of a very telling article. I won't say anymore.

The media is trying to bury this story. They are spiking it, erasing it from their web sites in a chilling real-life Orwellian rewriting of history.

 
The actions of the US media are those of people trying to protect this spy ring and those that the spy ring worked for. "While I agree with you, if I say anything about US geopolitical interests with Israel, I might as well clean off my desk."
-- Unnamed reporter as quoted in American Media Censorship and Israel

 
The actions of the US media are those of traitors to the American people.

Source: Down the Memory Hole: Carl Cameron's TV story about 9-11 Israeli Spy Ring in U.S.

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

What Different Cultures Eat In A Week

This link is pretty interesting. It's five gages of pictures showing what families from around the world eat in one week. It's worth a look. 

Link to Peter Menzel Photography:Recent Stories

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting

Damn!... What Are They Planning To Screw Up Now!

 Good thing I haven't run out of towels...Yet!

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States warned people to stockpile food, water and medicine in Venezuela in case a vote on Sunday sparks public disorder as anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez seeks reelection.

In a warning to Americans living in Venezuela, which provides about 12 percent of U.S. oil imports, the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday it had no information Venezuela would slip into lawlessness.

But it warned on its Web site (http://Caracas.usembassy.gov/wwwh2848.html) that the measures would be a sensible precaution in a polarized nation where politics often stokes violent street protests and strikes.

Source: The Raw Story

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Why Patriots Fight

Because they're rational, Intelligent, legitimate and if that's not enough, realistic. 

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.

Source: Son also rises in testy Webb-Bush exchange

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

I Smell A Tech Revolution

 

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a computer system that uses positioning lasers, micro-current air measurements, radar speed sensors, and other instruments to measure 27 different variables when a coin is flipped in the air. It can correctly call heads-or-tails nearly 50 percent of the time.

 

Via: Gullible Information

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting - Technology - Computers - Humor

No Child Left Behind Explained For Sports Fans

 A couple more important rules after the jump.

l. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL

3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability, or whose parents don't like football.

Source: No Child Left Behind: The Football Version

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Education - Kids - Sports - Football - Politics

The Corporate Vote In U.S. Elections

I'll probably get in trouble for this, but I posted the article in full (because it's important to know, and to inform the lazy). If need be I'll claim 'Fair Use'. 

From 1776 to 1953, "We, The People" said that only voters - human citizens - have the right to influence elections and legislation

"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, speech, August 31, 1910

Below is the exact and full text of an old Wisconsin law constraining corporations from participating in politics (they can't vote, the logic went - what the heck are they doing in politics?). 

It's typical of laws that virtually every state in the USA carried until Supreme Court decisions based on the 1886 Santa Clara mistake were used to strike them down. Here's the old Wisconsin law:

Political contributions by corporations. No corporation doing business in this state shall pay or contribute, or offer consent or agree to pay or contribute, directly or indirectly, any money, property, free service of its officers or employees or thing of value to any political party, organization, committee or individual for any political purpose whatsoever, or for the purpose of influencing legislation of any kind, or to promote or defeat the candidacy of any person for nomination, appointment or election to any political office.

Penalty. Any officer, employee, agent or attorney or other representative of any corporation, acting for and in behalf of such corporation, who shall violate this act, shall be punished upon conviction by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the state prison for a period of not less than one nor more than five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court or judge before whom such conviction is had and if the corporation shall be subject to a penalty then by forfeiture in double the amount of any fine and if a domestic corporation it may be dissolved, if after a proper proceeding upon quo warranto, in either the circuit or supreme court of the state to be prosecuted by the attorney general of the state, the court shall find and give judgment that section 1 of this act has been violated as charged, and if a foreign or non-resident corporation its right to do business in this state may be declared forfeited. (Emphasis added.)

Until the doctrine that corporations are "persons" with "rights" is changed back to the way US laws were from the American Revolution until recently - so corporations will again, like unions still are today, become "artificial entities" with "privileges" determinde by We, The People - our democracy will continue to be in peril.

(The Wisconsin law was from SECTION 4479a [Sec. 1, ch. 492, 1905] and this law was only struck down in Wisconsin in 1953.)

Source: Wisconsin's Law on Campaign Contributions  Via Thom Hartmann

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Useful - Interesting

Aching back Sitting up straight could be the culprit

But...No slouching! 

“We were not created to sit down for long hours, but somehow modern life requires the vast majority of the global population to work in a seated position,” Dr. Bashir said. “This made our search for the optimal sitting position all the more important.”
The researchers studied 22 healthy volunteers with no history of back pain or surgery. A “positional” MRI machine was used, which allows patients freedom of motion—such as sitting or standing—during imaging. Traditional scanners have required patients to lie flat, which may mask causes of pain that stem from different movements or postures.
The patients assumed three different sitting positions: a slouching position, in which the body is hunched forward (e.g., hunched over a desk or slouched over in front of a video game console); an upright 90-degree sitting position; and a “relaxed” position where the patient reclines backward 135 degrees while the feet remain on the floor. Measurements were taken of spinal angles and spinal disk height and movement across the different positions.

Source: Aching back Sitting up straight could be the culprit

 

Technorati Tags: Useful

How to use "Furoshiki"

 

A new way to do Christmas, or Birthdays or any gift giving occasion.

Source: In Focus: How to use "Furoshiki" [MOE]

North American Union exposed during Senate Debate

 

This is a must watch video from the Montana State Senate.

Source: YouTube - North American Union exposed during Senate Debate

No Excuse Now

This item would be very handy for one of my readers...Wink! Wink! 

Stick the cute starfish to the side of your bath at the top with the attached suction cups - it beeps loudly when the water reaches it, so no more flooding the bathroom by mistake (own up, we've all done it!) In addition, it monitors the temperature for you

Source: Starfish Bath Alert @ Gadget Storm

 

Technorati Tags: Useful

Sidewalk Chalk Drawings

The link below will take you to all of this artist's masterpieces. 

Anamorphic illusions drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

Source: Julian Beever's pavement drawings

Civil War 'Official' In Iraq?

 It's all over now.

"I got four phone calls from friends telling me to change the channel to Iraqiya and see what's happening," said Mohamed Othman, 27, a Sunni resident of Ameriya, one of the districts mentioned in the program. "I think this is an official declaration of civil war against Sunnis. They're going to push us to join al-Qaida to protect ourselves."

Source: McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/25/2006 | Al-Sadr loyalists take over Iraqi television station

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

If It Weren't For Bad Luck

Here's a story from the UK on the world's most unlucky man.

His latest mishap was falling down a manhole where his cries for help were ignored. 

Lyne's career began as a child, when he fell off a horse and cart and was run over by a delivery van. As a teenager, he fell from a tree and broke his arm. On his way home from hospital - on Friday 13th - the bus he was in crashed, provoking another fracture in the same arm.

Since then, he's been hit by lightning twice, fallen victim to a rock-fall in a mine, has nearly drowned and has enjoyed three car crashes.

Source: Britain's unluckiest man falls down manhole | The Register

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting

News From The Front

Found this by way of Suburban Guerilla, It's an Excerpt from a letter that was received by Juan Cole. It's worth the read, especially the portion in bold. 

‘ It is desperate in Iraq, worse then ever and there is no end in sight. I had lunch with [a former high ranking medical educator in Iraq] two days ago. [He]noted that Iraq no longer has neuro-surgeons, no cardiac surgeons, few pediatric doctors - they are all gone, killed or fled to neighboring countries like him. He was given seven days to get out or be killed. He is one of the lucky ones. He and his family have an opportunity for a new life in the US. But what about all the others. Where are they to go?

Another friend, a Sunni sheikh of the Shammar tribe noted to me that thousands of former officers are prepared to assault the G[reen] Z[one]. It is no longer a matter of can they do it, they are only mulling over the timing. The breach of the Green Zone security the other day was a test of their ability to get in, and not a real attempt at a coup, though it is reported as such. Every Iraqi I talk to says unambiguously that the resistance attached to the former regime would take out the Shiite militias with barely a fight, but that the resistance will not commit wholesale revenge against the Shiite population. They just want to get rid of the “carpet baggers” from Iran.’

Source: Suburban Guerrilla » ‘A Test’

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

Were! Number! Wah!.....Uh Number...seventeen.

 U.S. ranks seventeenth, UK twentythird.

Best functioning democracies

1. Sweden 9,88
2. Iceland 9,71
3. Netherlands 9.66
4. Norway 9,55
5. Denmark 9,52
6. Finland 9,25
7. Luxembourg 9,10
8. Australia 9,09
9. Canada 9.02
10. Switzerland 9.02

Source: Norway fourth best democracy - Aftenposten.no

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Interesting - Politics

Calling All Coyotes

Here's a link to a home video (bad quality) of a guy trying to keep a coyote in the camera shot while the coyote does what coyotes do.

Definetly worth a look.

Click here (via dump.com)

 

Technorati Tags: Animals - Humor - Interesting

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

So you won't be out of the loop.

 

 

Tribya.

The whole film was graded digitally on computer. The negative was scanned in with a Spirit Datacine at 2K resolution and then colors were digitally fine-tuned. The process took several weeks. The resulting digital master was output on film again with a Kodak laser recorder to create a print master. It was the first time this had been done for a whole film in Hollywood (but not in other countries).

The American Humane Association, an organization that protects animal rights, mistook a computer-generated cow in the movie for a real animal and demanded proof before they would allow the use of their famous disclaimer, "No animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture." After seeing a demonstration at Digital Domain of how the cow was created, the Humane Association added the now-familiar (but then much rarer) "Scenes which may appear to place an animal in jeopardy were simulated."

The cabin in the valley before it is flooded is a replica of the cabin from The Evil Dead, a movie directed by 'Sam Raimi (I)' , a friend and co-conspirator of the Coens.

The scene where Ulysses, Pete and Delmar come upon the KKK meeting is a reference to the scene in The Wizard of Oz when the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion sneak up on the Witch's castle. The chanting and formation marching of the Witch's guards are mimicked by the KKK members. Infiltration is achieved in both films by overpowering three guards and KKK members respectively and donning their garb.

References to Homer's Odyssey:-The names of

The bluegrass trio, The Peasall Sisters, provided the singing voices for George Clooney's daughters, the Wharvey Girls, but didn't appear in the film. They were told they didn't look pitiful enough to get the part (according to their documentary, "Family Harmony").

The first man to throw a tomato at Homer Stokes at his Political Rally is the folksinger Doc Watson.

What's wrong?

 

The film shows George "Babyface" Nelson on his way to the electric chair. But George Nelson was never arrested in Mississippi, and was killed by police bullets north of Chicago in 1934. The filmmakers knew this.

The people singing along with "You Are My Sunshine" near the end are clearly a few beats off. Their clapping syncs up but they're singing a different line.

In the movie theatre, clearly posted above each door is a modern red-lit EXIT sign.

The real W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel had no presence in Mississippi politics. He was a Texas flour salesman who became a regional radio personality (as host of broadcasts of Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys), then used that as a platform to launch himself into Texas politics, becoming governor, then Senator. The filmmakers knew this.

In the cafe with Big Dan Teague, Everett's voice doesn't match up with his lips while he is ordering during the close-ups of Big Dan.

When the escapees suddenly realize that large numbers of Christian congregants are walking by them singing, it comes as a surprise; this could be because they walked from the church to the river, and so arrived fairly quietly.

When Ulysses goes into the department store to confront his wife, you see her fiancé walking around upstairs. It cuts away and when it cuts back, he walks the same place he walked before.

When Ulysses is walking out of the store having found his pomade, a modern electrical transformer can be seen on a utility pole in the background.

The Martin guitar played by the woman at the rally is obviously not from the era. The gold sealed gear tuning machines were first used in the '60s.

The scenes before and after the flood must only be one or two minutes apart, as they were able to hold their breath and not drown. But before the flood it is very sunny (strong shadows), and after the flood the sky is a hazy white (no shadows).

When the crowd is escorting "Baby Face" Nelson to the electric chair, two musicians are playing. One is playing the fiddle, the other a mandolin. However, the music we hear is that of a fiddle and guitar.

What be said.

 

George Nelson: Cows! I hate cows worse than coppers!
[fires his Tommy gun at them]
Delmar O'Donnell: Oh, George... not the livestock.

Ulysses Everett McGill: You ever been with a woman?
Delmar O'Donnell: I gotta get the family farm back before I start worrying about that.

Ulysses Everett McGill: You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers.

Pete: The Preacher said it absolved us.
Ulysses Everett McGill: For him, not for the law. I'm surprised at you, Pete, I gave you credit for more brains than Delmar.
Delmar O'Donnell: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
Ulysses Everett McGill: That's not the issue Delmar. Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi's a little more hard-nosed.

[Repeated line]
Ulysses Everett McGill: Damn! We're in a tight spot!

Ulysses Everett McGill: Me an' the old lady are gonna pick up the pieces and retie the knot, mixaphorically speaking.

Ulysses Everett McGill: I'll tell you what I am - I'm the damn paterfamilias! You can't marry him!

Pete: Wait a minute. Who elected you leader of this outfit?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well Pete, I figured it should be the one with the capacity for abstract thought. But if that ain't the consensus view, then hell, let's put it to a vote.
Pete: Suits me. I'm voting for yours truly.
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well I'm voting for yours truly too.
[Everett and Pete look at Delmar for the deciding vote]
Delmar O'Donnell: Okay... I'm with you fellas.

Pete: I've always wondered, what's the devil look like?
Ulysses Everett McGill: Well, there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan hisself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork.
Tommy Johnson: Oh, no. No, sir. He's white, as white as you folks, with empty eyes and a big hollow voice. He likes to travel around with a mean old hound. That's right.

And Hallie's most favoritist

Homer Stokes: Is you is, or is you ain't, my constituency?

 

See's Yuuh awlll!.... t'mawroe!

 

Lot's more here (via Amazon)

Somebody Needs A Nap!

Children, very....very,very young children. 

WASHINGTON - Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills,

There's also no guarantee that Republicans will pass a multibillion-dollar measure to prevent a cut in fees to doctors treating Medicare patients.

The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.

The decision to drop so much unfinished work in Democrats' laps demonstrates both division within Republicans ranks and the difficulty in resolving so many knotty questions in so short a time. GOP leaders promised their House and Senate members the December lame duck session would last no more than two weeks, or until Dec. 16 at the latest.

Source: GOP leaving spending bills to Democrats - Yahoo! News

Technorati Tags: Politics

TeeVee I'm Baiting U!

 You know this already I'm sure. Comments welcome! (link, below post).

Republican Vern Buchanan's 369-vote victory was certified by state officials Monday. His camp says that, although people may have skipped the race -- intentionally or not -- there is no evidence that votes went missing.
But the results of the Sentinel analysis, two experts said, warrant additional investigation.
"Wow," University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said. "That's very suggestive -- I'd even say strongly suggestive -- that if there had been votes recorded, she [Jennings] would have won that House seat."
David Dill, an electronic-voting expert at Stanford University, put it this way: "It seems to establish with certainty that more Democrats are represented in those undervoted ballots."

Source: Analysis: Ballots favored Dems - Orlando Sentinel : State News Analysis: Ballots favored Dems - Orlando Sentinel : State News

Analogies Authored By Teenagers

These never get old. Here's the first seven. click on the link below for more. 

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

Source: The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers) « Writing English

 

Technorati Tags: Humor - Interesting

'Phreaking' Wiretaps

 Here's some instructions on how to foil a phone tap.

Think the Feds might be jacked into your home line? Well, there’s no need to skulk down to the corner pay phone to conduct your business. All you need is a C note. University of Pennsylvania computer science professor Matt Blaze ­dissected the wiretap equipment commonly used by law enforcement and found a few, um, bugs. Spies, it turns out, don’t like to record dead air, so they turn the system off by playing a special C-pitched tone when the target phone is hung up. As a result, anyone with an MP3 player and a recorded C can prevent eavesdroppers from snooping on their private chatter. It doesn’t work with all listening devices, though, so there’s no guarantee the NSA won’t come calling.

Source: Wired 14.12: START

 

Technorati Tags: Useful - Interesting - Conspiracy

Meow!...Meow!!..........NOW!!!!!!

 

The only meowing in the cat world is done between mom cat and her young kittens. A kitten’s tiny “mew” is a cute, endearing sound, used to solicit attention and care from mom cat.
So why do cats have two “languages?” Because meowing is unnecessary in a cat’s world. But in your world, your pet cat is dependent on you, and quickly learns that you are clearly not picking up the scent messages she leaves on your things, and you are not completely fluent in cat body language.
The disarming “meow” however gets you to do what she wants and so that develops into a second language. Some scientists would go so far as to say that cats have refined their meows specifically to manipulate people. We have to admit it works.

Source: petcentric: Your Bi-Lingual Kitty

 

Technorati Tags: Cats - Animals - Useful

And The Beat Goes On

This is great - Click it! 

Link to YouTube - Drumline

 

Technorati Tags: Interesting

Pelosi's No Idiot!

 Exactly!! I'm so happy I found this in print. This is what I've been thinking all along.

Cut to '06. Hot on the heels of an electoral triumph, Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi endorses as Majority Leader the member of the House most identified with speaking out against the war -- the man whose courage in doing so fueled the nationalized campaign that gave Democrats the majority in the first place. I'm speaking, of course, about Jack Murtha.

Murtha then loses the Leadership race to Steny Hoyer. As Pelosi no doubt knew, it was an uphill battle from the beginning -- Hoyer had been tirelessly campaigning for the job among Democratic caucus members for months. But Pelosi gave her support to Murtha because, as she put it in the title of her blog this week on HuffPost: "Bringing the War to an End is my Highest Priority as Speaker."

It doesn't get much clearer or more principled than that.

Source: AlterNet: Media Miss the Point on Pelosi's Endorsement

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Fox News Already Has A Comedy Show -O'Reilly!

 Sycophant, Sycophant, Sycophant, nothing else to say here.

O'Reilly phoned in from his undisclosed location to claim "It's a culture war victory. The folks did it, and I am the messenger." He insisted that this proves that FOX News is independent - what other network would allow their commentators to go on air and slam a decision of their programming arm. He then reiterates the falsehood that FOX News Channel "has nothing to do with FOX broadcasting." (Except that they are wholly owned and operated by the same people, share a name, and do incestuous cross promotions all the time. And, as he noted, they are "arms" of the same media octopus.)

Source: News Hounds: O'Reilly on OJ cancellation: "The folks did it, and I am the messenger"

 

Technorati Tags: Humor - Politics - Useful - Interesting - Animals

Christmas Cats

 Looks familiar.

Your Instructors on how to assemble and decorate a Christmas tree are Iris and Fern - 2 fluffy tailed kitty sisters!

Source: A Cats Christmas

 

Technorati Tags: Cats - Animals

Obrador 'inauguration' in Mexico

Think anybody could get away with something like this in the U.S.. 

Mr Lopez Obrador has promised he will do everything he can to hamper the government of Mr Calderon, who succeeds President Vicente Fox on 1 December.

"Those neo-fascist reactionaries better not think they'll have room to manoeuvre," he told his supporters on Saturday.

"We're going to keep them on a short leash."

Source: BBC NEWS | Americas | Obrador 'inauguration' in Mexico

Bush, And The Americas

This article points to the fact that the current administration has done absolutely nothing to promote living standards and Democracy in our own backyard, but has only encouraged these countries to remain impoverished and Despotic, that is, until they have a need for them.

Here's an excerpt relating to Cuba.

 

 A perfect example of accomplishing exactly nothing can be found in a report issued last week by our Government Accountability Office, the Congressionally-mandated organization that helps our legislators fulfill their oversight responsibilities.

    The GAO report found that US funds targeted to promote democracy in Cuba have been used to buy items like a gas chain saw, computer gaming equipment and software (including Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations), a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat and Godiva chocolates. According to the report, one grantee "could not justify some purchases made with USAID funds."

    Reuters reported that the GAO found little oversight and accountability in the program, which spent "$76 million between 1996 and 2005 to support Cuban dissidents, independent journalists, academics and others." It also found that 95 percent of the grants were issued without competitive bids.

    The auditors questioned checks written out to some staff members, questionable travel expenses, and payments to a manager's family. One group acknowledged selling books it was supposed to distribute under the democracy-promoting program.

    Out of 10 recipients of public money reviewed by the auditors, three failed to keep adequate financial records, the GAO said. A lot of the money was used to pay smugglers, or "mules," to avoid US restrictions on taking goods to Cuba.

    Critics have long charged that such grants are aimed more at winning votes in Miami than triggering political change on the communist island, where Castro has ruled since his 1959 revolution. Imagine that! To protect recipients from prosecution, none of the money from the USAID or the State Department is paid in cash to people in Cuba. A Cuban law can impose jail sentences on citizens who receive money. Instead, the funds are distributed to Cuban-American groups in Miami, the heartland of opposition to Cuban president Fidel Castro, and in Washington, and are supposed to be used to buy medicines, books, short-wave radios, and other goods that are smuggled into Cuba.

    President Bush has proposed increasing spending on Cuba-related programs, including propaganda transmissions by Radio and TV Marti, by $80 million over the next two years.

Source: How Long Is Long Enough?

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Another Take On The War

 

1. Iraq was part of a coherent policy of dramatically reducing taxes on the very wealthy, and using war to bring in cheap oil and create jobs that would cover lack of stimulus from the tax package. We can see how the war was the economic stimulus by the speed at which the US economy began its rebound after the invasion.

2. The communications and materials revolution allows for both greater centralization of power, and greater counter-centralization. It does not dramatically improve standards of living over the previous wave of industrialization.

3. Thus the introduction of a light invasion force, without the ability to dramatically improve living standards, unleashed the counter-centralizing tendencies, allowing for the creation of multiple insurgencies and their growth into a civil war.

4. Democracy, even in the Texified form that was proposed, was never an option. The magic free market fundamentalism - essentially "take government away and everything goes incredibly well" - never stood a chance. It is superstitous nonsense to begin with, and implemented by low quality intellects to compound the problem.

- - -

Now for the ugly conclusion. Consider that right now there is almost jubliation in the press over the return of people from the Bush the eldar administration - a failed one term adminstration which bollixed Iraq and the break up of the USSR, failed to deal with the transition away from high octane Reagan deficits, and allowed the largest banking collapse since the Great Depression in the collapse of the S&L scandal. And the Bush the young make these people look good.

There is no money for a "heavy footprint" occupation. The best that can be done is scrounging up between 20K and 40K additional troops and throwing them at Baghdad to suppress the rebellion there temporarily, and allow the military pork to flow for a couple of more years before withdrawal and tax increases are put back into place. Basically, those who have looted the US Treasury want to make a clean get away with the money.

Source: Rebooting the Dictator Software | TPMCafe

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Interesting

Our Man Cheney

 Must have missed this.

And as an added bonus, Cheney now says he's willing to break the law in order to declare war on Iran.

A month before the November 7 legislative elections, Hersh wrote, Vice President Dick Cheney attended a national-security discussion that touched on the impact of Democratic victory in both chambers on Iran policy.
"If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran," Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion.
Cheney said the White House would circumvent any legislative restrictions "and thus stop Congress from getting in its way," he said.

Republicans don't obey the law. They don't obey the will of the people. They do what they want to, to hell with what's right, to hell with the law, to hell with what the people want.

Source: AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Israel's Button Pushing

 There's no end to news like this, and I don't think anyone is reading it.

Gee, I thought Israel had nothing to do with this war, and that anyone who said otherwise was merely spreading anti-Semitic canards. Why, in that case, does Israel need "other options," or, indeed, any options at all?

This war was always about enhancing Israel's strategic position, and nothing else: not oil, not democracy, not WMD. The goal was to extend Israel's sphere of influence, and that is precisely what is occurring. To the victor go the spoils, and Hersh's revelations highlight the Israelis as the real winners of this war:

"Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providing training for Kurdish commando units and, most important in Israel's view, running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. Israel feels particularly threatened by Iran, whose position in the region has been strengthened by the war. The Israeli operatives include members of the Mossad, Israel's clandestine foreign-intelligence service, who work undercover in Kurdistan as businessmen and, in some cases, do not carry Israeli passports."

I love how the issue is framed in Hersh's piece: the Israelis advised us to seal the Iraqi borders against Iranian infiltration, we are told, and warned that the violence was bound to increase. As if only they could have predicted the altogether predictable. What geniuses! A former top Administration official cites his Israeli counterparts as saying: "You're not going to get it right in Iraq, and shouldn't we be planning for the worst-case scenario and how to deal with it?"

In other words: if you're not going to install Ahmed Chalabi and his gang – who promised to recognize Israel and even build an oil pipeline from Mosul to Haifa – and you won't do to the Iraqis what we're doing to the Palestinians, then we'll just have to take matters into our own hands.

By arming Kurdish commando (i.e. terrorist) units, and launching provocative incursions, the long arm of Israel is reaching out to jab Syria and Iran – and stab the U.S. in the back. They did it, so we are supposed to understand, more in sorrow than in anger – after all, they warned us, didn't they?

Source: The Stab in the Back- by Justin Raimondo

 

Technorati Tags: Politics - Conspiracy

Chertoff says U.S. threatened by international law

Shouldn't that be INTERNATIONAL LAW THREATENED BY U.S. 

Nov 17, 2006 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Bush administration official on Friday said the European Union, the United Nations and other international entities increasingly are using international law to challenge U.S. powers to reject treaties and protect itself from attack.

"International law is being used as a rhetorical weapon against us," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a former federal appellate judge, said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative policy group.

Chertoff cited members of the European Parliament in particular as harboring an "increasingly activist, left-wing and even elitist philosophy of law" at odds with American practices and interests.

Source: ABC News: Chertoff says U.S. threatened by international law

 

Technorati Tags: Politics

Iraq pullout talk makes Iran uneasy

All the more reason for the Bush administration to suck it up and start embracing diplomacy....Or, maybe they want Iran in chaos....With nuclear weapons. 

LONDON — Iran has consistently opposed the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, but new prospects of a stepped-up American withdrawal are prompting growing unease in the Islamic Republic, where many fear the repercussions of a dangerously unstable neighbor.
Officially, Iran's policy remains flatly opposed to American troops in Iraq and characterizes them as a key contributor to the escalating violence. Iran's government says it wants the U.S. to withdraw at the earliest possible opportunity.
But the U.S. elections this month that swept in a Democratic majority to Congress and subsequent talk of a phased pullout have touched off a discussion in Tehran about the outright anarchy that could result.

Source: Iraq pullout talk makes Iran uneasy

 

Technorati Tags: Politics