RepubliKKKans Will Kill Children

[As Congress struggles to negotiate a budget deal to keep the government running, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told lawmakers Wednesday that the GOP version of the budget bill would result in the deaths of at least 70,000 children who depend on American food and health assistance around the world.

"We estimate, and I believe these are very conservative estimates, that H.R. 1 would lead to 70,000 kids dying," USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah testified before the House Appropriations State and Foreign Ops subcommittee.

"Of that 70,000, 30,000 would come from malaria control programs that would have to be scaled back specifically. The other 40,000 is broken out as 24,000 would die because of a lack of support for immunizations and other investments and 16,000 would be because of a lack of skilled attendants at birth," he said.]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/31/shah_gop_budget_would_kill_70000_children

Taking 1 for the Progressive Team: Joining Citizens Against Government Waste

Gosh, just what won't I do to try to make my little corner of the world better: trying to think logically and write with irony rather than ire.  Shheeeesh, even watched youtube video of Super Bowl halftime Blacked Eyed Peas and Trans-operative Axl with a better voice just to time out it so friend could get the joke I tried to make.

Greater love hath no cynic.

So after seeing the first TV ad of the 2012 election on TV in Orlando, FL--which lies hard by The Happiest Place ON Earth--the most reprehensible, xenophobic, ignorant of history and economics TV political ad ever made, your suffering cynic actually googled the group and signed up as a bloody member, subjecting himself to horror of email entreaties from RepubliKKKans.

Before regaling y'all with any of those gems, let's just watch the damn video.


(Found on my TV, unbidden by me.)

How many RepubliKKKan bogeyman can we count just as the damn thing even starts?  Let's see:, China, 2013, Mao, a lecturer at a podium in front of a--gasp--university classroom, a Chinese professor at that.

Every reputable economist agrees cutting government budgets in a recession will cut jobs,  up to 700,000 reported Moody's.

That amounts to insanity, cutting taxes for the rich and then crying all the way to the bank about a budget deficit.

Watching this again just made me feel dirty.

Prescription for that: a couple beers and Dropkick Murphys and maybe even a bubble bath.

Where did I put my blog knife?

.

Good Guys Win !: Costco and Sustainable Seafood

[Care2 and Greenpeace got together to let Costco, one of the largest seafood retailers in the U.S., know they should only be selling sustainable seafood.

After 8 months of pressure, Costco listened and decided to stop selling 12 "red-listed" seafood species, including orange roughy, shark and Atlantic halibut. Seafood on the red-list is caught or farmed in ways that harm the environment and other marine life.]
http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/costco-will-become-a-leader-in-the-sustainable-seafood-industry/

Michael Moore: Rich Wot's Ge the Gravy and Poor Wot's Gets the Blame

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/michael-moore-rich-are-committing-class-wa

If There Is Anyone Who Is Offended...

["But if there is anyone who is offended by the conversations of Christ, I can't help it; for the one who speaks in this story is not Christ but my Christ--that is, the voice of my conscience."

Giovanni Guareschi, The Little World of Don Camillo, Pelligrini and Cudahy, 1956, New York.]

Sorry but in the 70's thought song started with, "Lord, a storm is threatening..."

Did Y'all Miss MY Understated Point?

[The Triangle fire laid bare a reallocation of risk that had previously accompanied revisions in corporate structures. New laws limited the liability of stockholders for corporate debts, spurring investment and making it possible for firms to raise more capital and expand. Corporations also successfully claimed to be "legal persons" and gained access to some Bill of Rights' protections originally written with human persons in mind. These legal innovations reduced the risks of doing business for owners and investors. Firms expanded exponentially, and a merger movement ensued, giving us our first modern megastructures, such as US Steel and American Tobacco.

Workers increasingly gained employment in these giant companies, but no similar legal structure protected them from the risks of business. Wages flattened as monopolies decreased competition for workers, and industrial accidents increased, as owners had great incentive to push workers but had little motivation to invest in safety measures.

The owner of the Triangle factory had broken no laws in locking women into their workrooms, for no regulations existed. In effect, the legal imbalance shifted risk downward so that investors enjoyed protection while workers experienced heightened economic and bodily dangers.]  emphasis added

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/118617619.html

Eyewitness account of a United Press reporter who happened to be in Washington Square on March 25, 1911

[The nation learned of the horrible fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company through the eyewitness account of a United Press reporter who happened to be in Washington Square on March 25, 1911. He phoned in details while watching the tragedy unfold. At the other end of the telephone, young Roy Howard telegraphed Shepherd's story to the nation's newspapers. This document first published in the Milwaukee Journal, March 27, 1911.

I was walking through Washington Square when a puff of smoke issuing from the factory building caught my eye. I reached the building before the alarm was turned in. I saw every feature of the tragedy visible from outside the building. I learned a new sound--a more horrible sound than description can picture. It was the thud of a speeding, living body on a stone sidewalk.

Thud-dead, thud-dead, thud-dead, thud-dead. Sixty-two thud-deads. I call them that, because the sound and the thought of death came to me each time, at the same instant. There was plenty of chance to watch them as they came down. The height was eighty feet.

The first ten thud-deads shocked me. I looked up-saw that there were scores of girls at the windows. The flames from the floor below were beating in their faces. Somehow I knew that they, too, must come down, and something within me-something that I didn't know was there-steeled me.

I even watched one girl falling. Waving her arms, trying to keep her body upright until the very instant she struck the sidewalk, she was trying to balance herself. Then came the thud--then a silent, unmoving pile of clothing and twisted, broken limbs.

As I reached the scene of the fire, a cloud of smoke hung over the building. . . . I looked up to the seventh floor. There was a living picture in each window-four screaming heads of girls waving their arms.

"Call the firemen," they screamed-scores of them. "Get a ladder," cried others. They were all as alive and whole and sound as were we who stood on the sidewalk. I couldn't help thinking of that. We cried to them not to jump. We heard the siren of a fire engine in the distance. The other sirens sounded from several directions.]

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/primary/testimonials/ootss_WilliamShepherd.html?location=Fire!

Traffic: "Low Spark of High heeled Boys"

Oh, Jesus, Why Did I See Pictures of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire?

Please. You could have let me go my whole life without seeing these pictures of aftermath of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire..

Reading 1911 accounts of girls deciding to jump to their deaths troubled me enough to blog and bring up righteous indignation supporting unions.

Thumbnail of faulty fire escapes from Library of Congress, link below.

But the pictures brought bile, rage, and even tears.

Sober tears, even, as among these could have numbered my nieces in earlier times, my dear and still sweet 15 and 18 year old nieces.

To think the factory owners collected more $ in an insurance settlement than they paid out in civil settlements boggles my mind beggars the imagination, and buggers all thoughts of responsible capitalists working with government regulators to make the world a better place.

Fie on that in FL, where governor 48.9% wants to abolish ability of humans raped or killed in FL privatized state programs run by a not for profit company--although sure looks like top administrators make out like bandits at One Kid while real kids die.

[Miami-Dade’s 5-year-old privately run child welfare agency is paid $100 million each year to protect thousands of abused and neglected children. But in recent months, it has been forced to defend itself.

Last summer, several children’s advocates became incensed when Our Kids, a private contractor that oversees foster care and adoption in Miami-Dade and Monroe, paid more than $330,000 in employee bonuses – some totaling five figures – at the same time it cut the stipend given to newly aged-out foster kids by $300.]

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/25/2133051/private-child-welfare-agency-under.html#ixzz1HyBzYmr1
Pictures found at excellent Fox Business News story.

[Fined $20

A year later, in 1913, Blanck, would be fined just $20 for locking the doors to another factory.
The owners lost a civil suit in 1913, but they paid only about $75 per victim. Later, they got an insurance check for $60,000 more than they had reported as losses -- the two owners earned about $411 per victim. The factory soon went out of business.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/03/23/triangle-shirtwaist-factory/#ixzz1Hx4CRSWH]
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/03/23/triangle-shirtwaist-factory/?test=faces

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=Triangle%20Shirtwaist%20Company--Disasters--1910-1920.

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/index.html

Dropkick Murphys: "I'm Going Out in Style"

""Once they torpedoed the economy, they blackmail us -the victims of their thievery"

What Alicia Morgan wrote.

[Once they torpedoed the economy, they blackmail us - the victims of their thievery - into giving them our tax dollars to bail them out, which then - again - they hold onto instead of helping out those they stole from. Now that they've taken our jobs, our homes, our pensions and our health care, our tax revenue base has dwindled away to nothing. So - since we have no federal dollars left in the tax base, the money that would have otherwise gone to the states for education, etc. is no longer available.

SO - now they start howling about the states' fiscal irresponsibility, since they are mandated to balance their budgets, unlike the federal government. Now, the shortfall must be made up by cutting education and gutting public employees and their unions - and collective bargaining - all those things that they hate with a passion, trying to make THEM look like the bad guys and profligate spenders! They are trying to steal the pensions of the public employees - who PAID INTO their pension plan years in advance, having had it taken out of their paychecks in lieu of collecting Social Security.

And now, we get to the end-game - time to cut public education; 'starve the beast', as Grover Norquist would say. When you de-fund public education, and eliminate all its resources, it's the easiest thing in the world to say, "See - public education doesn't work! Look how bad the schools are!"]

 http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/alicia-morgan/35191/sorry-son-no-magnet-school-for-you-the-koch-bros-need-to-pay-less-taxes

Ancient Irish Brehon Laws

[...February first is the day on which husband and wife may decide to walk away from the marriage...

...When you become old your family must provide you with one oatcake a day plus a container of sour milk. They must bathe you every 20th night and wash your head every Saturday. Seventeen sticks of firewood is the allotment for keeping you warm...

No fools, drunks or female scolds are allowed in the doctor's house when a patient is healing there. No bad news to be brought...] emphasis added
http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Irelands-Brehon-laws-were-before-their-time-118762389.html

Bob Herbert: A-Merry-Ca Lost

Paragraphs out of order 'cause I felt like it, fourth para first for me.

[...The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely....

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.

Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=2&hp

Tsunami Video

hat tip

"Because the Poor are Plundered"

"'Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now rise up,' says the Lord."
Psalm 12:5

"The church is obliged by its evangelical mission to demand structural changes that favor the reign of God and a more just and comradely way of life. Unjust social structures are the roots of all violence and disturbances. … Those who benefit from obsolete structures react selfishly to any kind of change." -- Archbishop Oscar Romero, November 1979. Today [24 March 2011] is the 31st anniversary of his martyrdom."  emphasis added
http://www.uscatholic.org/culture/social-justice/2009/02/the-church-called-repentance-called-prophesy

Why We Need Unions:"Let'm burn, They're all cattle anyway."--Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 25 March 2011

"Let'm burn, They're all cattle anyway." p. 10

Capitalism Still Kills.

[Anniversary of factory fire a century ago reminds us of unfinished mission

By Richard Greenwald, March 25, 2011

One hundred years ago, on March 25, 1911, 146 mostly young immigrant women lost their lives in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. That fire changed the attitudes of the American public and the policies of the government. Out of that fire would come a series of reforms that we now take for granted: fire safety, building codes, factory and health codes. But still today our workplaces are not safe enough.

The fire consumed the top three floors of the building that Triangle occupied, in Greenwich Village, N.Y. Workers on the ninth floor were trapped. The doors were locked. Large canisters of oil were exploding in the stairwells, and several tons of uncut cloth were ablaze. Workers went to the windows, but the fire ladders didn’t reach them. Firemen pulled out nets to catch the women as they jumped, but they crashed through to their death.

Many people considered the fire an accident and a regrettable fact of industrial life. They looked to charities to tend to the families of the victims.

But Rabbi Stephen Wise and labor leader Rose Schneiderman rejected this notion.

As Wise said, “It is not the act of God but the inaction of man that is responsible.” Schneiderman, in an impassioned speech at the Metropolitan Opera, pointed her finger at the assembled “best people” of New York and told them: “I would be a traitor to these poor burned bodies if I came here to talk good fellowship. … Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement.”] emphasis added
http://www.progressive.org/mpgreenwald032511.html

[The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women; the youngest were two fourteen-year-old girls.

Many of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits.] emphasis added
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

FL needs no unnecessary regulations placed on businesses, says Governor 48.9%, profit killing niceties like fire codes or child labor laws.

For Walt Disney's sake, when his namesake company has to ask the RepbliKKKan legislature run amok to retain state regulation of timeshare sales and practices because of a history of "lurid fraud" in the industry, the once almost great state descends further into the killing fields of capitalism.

["Florida has what some people would call a colorful history of land fraud that goes back 100 years; others would call it a lurid history of land fraud," Disney lobbyist Brian Bibeau told the House Business and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee last week, when the legislation was first unveiled.]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-time-share-deregulation-20110323,0,701453.story

"Fukushima Fifty," Modern Samurai

Surely, the Wall Street Journal wrote in jest

Contract workers making $110 a day sacrificed their lives to try to reign in the nuclear disaster in Japan for though walking and working still, they will die from radiation sickness after the exposure to toxic particles at the site.

Guess health insurance and death benefits for union workers would have cost Tokyo Electric too much.

Corporate bastards.

[According to the Wall Street Journal,the anonymous workers -- which include employees of Tokyo Electric Power and other contract workers earning 9,000 yen ($110) a day -- have been exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation inside the stricken plant.

Known as the "Fukushima Fifty," the brave band of lower and mid-level managers must wear protective bodysuits to protect their skin from the poisonous radioactive particles that fill the air around them.]
with pictures:

http://fukushimafifty.com/

Reactor Breach.

"All My Life is a Circle"

Count Yourself Lucky If You Have Clean Water; World Water Day

22 March World Water Day

Million across the globe lack clean, potable water for drinking, not just in natural disaster zones but daily sufferings of economic disaster zones.

Crap, some villages don't have a single toilet.

How rare in the 21st century United States for a person to actually use an outhouse as fell to my fortune in rural NC in the 60's.  Thankfully, kin folk had upgraded to toilet paper rather than tear pages out of Sears catalogs to perform the same ablutions.

Sadly, much of the so-called modern world remains in such a state.  Not to write to demean such, but the world has technology and with better investment of $ and time, we--individually but through collective action--can make our world a better place one tiny village at a time.

Good luck and God bless.

6 Steps to Pouring the Perfect Pint

If you ever see a bartender or alleged host do violence to a pint of Guinness with a spoon, ladling out some of the suds in the all-important head to cavalierly fill the glass quicker--yes, Ms. Erin Mann who once 'bout came over the bar at me for pointing out crime of hurrying a pint, I write of you--flee the establishment immediately.


Flee even if the place remains the only location to purchase blessed fermented beverages; a night of sobriety might not kill you.


Besides if you travel, you should have some airline minis stashed somewhere.


A perfectly poured pint of Guinness ranks right with the other twin pillars of human rights: the right to vote and to collectively bargain. 


Peace out, y'all.


[Having a true appreciation for one of Ireland’s finest exports is something you develop over time, as you realize the many factors that are involved in finding the perfect pint.
Guinness Master Brewer, Fergal Murray demonstrates the six steps to pouring the perfect pint.


A big part of the quest for Guinness perfection is how your bartender pours the pint. Follow these six helpful tips and watch the video below, so you can school further educate yourself the effort that goes into a pint of Guinness.


1. You have to ensure your bar tender is not just pouring you a pint of stout in any old glass. It should be a tulip Guinness branded glass.


2.Get into position and get your grip on the glass right, as you place your finger on the harp.
Aim the spout for the back of the harp, so it’s hitting the side of the glass.


3. Begin pulling your pint with a nice easy flow, let the Guinness bounce off the back of the harp, keeping the glass at an angle until the liquid meets the top of the harp and then you tilt the glass upright.


4. Allow it to “settle and surge and cascade” right in front if the customer, “you want to see the beer come alive,” says the master brewer, Murray.  As the stout settles the head shall always fall between the top and the bottom of the harp.


5.Once you have let the stout settled for at least one minute, you can top the Guinness off by titling the spout away from you and allowing the Guinness to flow nice and softly.


6. Serve to the customer ensuring the pint resembles perfection. Murray says the perfect head should be about 3 millimeters tall.]
ttp://www.irishcentral.com/roots/The-secret-to-pouring-the-perfect-pint-of-Guinness--VIDEO-118420299.html

This Can't Be Good: World Wide Weather Patterns Spreading Radioactivity.

http://www.irsn.fr/FR/popup/Pages/irsn-meteo-france_19mars.aspx

Found at Americablog.

Please pass the iodine pills.

Sure, media will duly report a statistically insignificant increase in cancers and blood disorders and diseases caused by such world wide exposure. Yet people will die, more than if the genie of atomic enrgy had not released clouds of toxins.

At what cost do we power our consumer culture?

How many of our children must die so we can buy an iPad 5 with new bells and whistles and "must have" features?


³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?




"Money won't be enough to explain to their children
Why they've poisoned their blood."
Little Steven: "Trail of Broken Treaties"

You Can Fool 48.9%, but Governor Voldemort Gets Booed at Spring Training

Governor 48.9%

Frederick Douglass Fled from Slavery to Ireland

[Obama began with a telling history lesson.

He described the voyage of the great African American leader Frederick Douglass to Ireland where he went to escape the slave catchers in 1845.

Douglass became heavily influenced by Daniel O'Connell, the 'Liberator' who led Irish Catholics to emancipation and detested slavery. O'Connell's embrace of non violence deeply impacted Douglass as Obama pointed out.

He talked about the upcoming visit to Ireland and what it would mean to him. Arguably He will be the first truly significant black figure since Douglass to visit Ireland.

The linkage between black and Irish was also on the mind of Enda Kenny.

In a soaring speech, among the finest I have heard by any Irish politician, he compared the slave trade in West Africa that brought millions in chains to America to the flight from death and starvation of the Irish who came on the coffin ships.  

"Together we built America" he said.]  emphasis added

http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/periscope/irish-leader-enda-kennys-powerful-eloquence-in-first-white-house-vist---obama-remembers-frederick-douglas-in-ireland-118214679.html

Ireland Beats England in Rugby Match 24-8

Take that you Bloody pooftahs!!!

[Ireland won an historic victory over England at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and stopped England's grand slam attempt.

The final score of 24 -8 did justice to an Irish side who outplayed England from the kick off.
Well on top in the first half Ireland relied on the penalty kicking of man of the match Jonathan Sexton,pictured, who kicked four and an unconverted try from Tommy Bowe.

Early in the second half Ireland continue to rout England with Brian O'Driscoll scoring his record 43rd international try and Sexton converted. Ireland 24-England 3.

England did score a try to briefly threaten but Ireland with Ronan O'Gara replacing Jonathan Sexton at out half held on easily for an historic victory...]
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/sport/sean_oshea/ireland-win-historic-rugby-victory-over-england-by-24-8-118297924.html

Super Full Moon

The Kinks: "Full Moon"

Picture of rare supermoon seen from my latitude/longitude.

Top Ten Guinness Facts

6.Guinness does not contain oatmeal, contrary to a popular myth. This wonderful stuff is made of roasted malted barley, hops, yeast, and water. Also it’s not black. It actually a very nice dark ruby red.

http://www.irishcentral.com/food-and-drink/Top-10-Guinness-facts---SEE-PHOTOS-118191024.html

Irish Publican Bans the Queen

[Dublin publican, John Stokes, has been ordered to remove the banner draping the front of his bar which says Queen Elizabeth II is barred from the premise during her official State visit in May.

Judge Paul Kelly told the publican to remove the sign and not put up a replacement.

Speaking in the Dublin District Court Judge Kelly said "You have a perfect right to protest as long as you do this within the law…I’ve no doubt there will be a planning issue with a sign that size.”

Outside the court Stokes told the Irish Times that he will continue protesting the Queen's visit later this year. He said "I’ll just have to find another way that’s acceptable to An Garda Síochána."

He continued "This is nothing against English people. We’ve a lot of English people in the pub, we show English football, and we’re quite happy to do that…I do feel it’s not the right time for the queen to visit this country and I feel I have a democratic right to express that view. She still occupies part of our country and as long as she does I will always object to her presence in this country...”

Stokes said that he had agreed to take the banner down because losing his late licenses could endanger the livelihood of 12 of his staff members.]  emphasis added

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/-Dublin-pub-owner-forced-to-remove-banner-banning-Queen-Elizabeth-118230129.html

 An Garda Síochána

Top Ten Irish Hangover Cures

#5 [Full Irish Breakfast

Nothing like a full Irish breakfast to get you back on the road to recovery. Normally eating something can help reduce the effects of alcohol excess and this is especially true when it comes to an Irish breakfast. Go the full hog with bacon, sausages, black and white pudding, mushrooms, fried tomato, fried eggs, soda bread, spud bread, baked beans and lashings of tea.
If you don’t die of a heart attack your hangover will be cured.

Combine with # 10 hair of the Guinness pint with every meal for health benefits, and you'll feel better.

Just don't put the lime in the coconut.
http://www.irishcentral.com/food-and-drink/-How-to-recover-from-St-Patricks-Day---The-top-ten-best-Irish-hangover-cures-118229524.html

Weezer: "Beverly Hills"

Weezer, "Beverly Hills""The truth is it's something you're born into, and I just don't fit in."

Dropkick Murphys: "Warriors Code"

Brilliant St. Patrick's Day!!!

On the list of disasters in my life, waiting 6 hours for a taxi stuck inside an Irish bar, the Claddagh Cottage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claddagh), with a seeming inexhaustible supply of Guinness for patrons' unquenchable thirst ranks among the turned out OK variety: made it home safely, no stitches nor side trips to the emergency room only to fall asleep in my humble hovel with dreams of bar maidens bearing beers dancing through my brain.

The evening started innocently enough, getting a ride at 4 pm from a neighbor who declined to accompany me inside, "The last thing you want in a bar is a violent drunk."  Point taken.

Oh the best laid plans, just have a shepherds' pie and 3 pints of Guinness stout, the elixir of goodness and God's grace.

Just enough to have a good time and get out and home by dark because taxis come easier the earlier you call.

That assumption failed to hold true this year as actually waited 6 hours for a cab.

Of course waited in style, a nice guy named Joe with a Packers cap gave me his seat at the veritable corner of the main bar, affording me a view of the doors and gateway to the bar warriors who kept the crowd lubricated--Scotty who talked funny compared to kissed the blarney stone dulcet tones of the Irish lasses working there: Heidi and the cute red headed girl who actually talked to me this year but forgot to ask her name this year as ever I do--just to hear her say, "You have noomber 5 tab."  Let's just remember her as Deidre until next year.

The obvious tactical high ground of my bar stool per chance afforded a chance to talk to all the lasses looking for libations: Linda from union shop Cessna, Teri, and also Celeste from Scotland who apparently venerates St. Patrick but drinks Stella Artois.

Go figure.

Dang, what a time without my pocket notebook.

Nevertheless, as the hours waned until midnight, my common sense and survival mode mixed in enough to hourly ask for the pub to call for a taxi again as well as quaff my pints slower and slower.

Without the price of the pie but dead reckoning for the pints, I figure I had 7 in around 7 hours.

Kids, don't try this at home.

What a glorious night and with a not too rough morning, just a frothy foam of a slightly blurred vision and no headache--altogether not a bad outcome in a world with Tsunamis and wars and horrors beyond belief brought to me on my nightly news on my magic glowing box that normally diverts me from paying attention..

Altogether a more enjoyable evening than last year, downing a bottle of Jameson's ensconced in my hovel, cut off from humanity by my choice, Der Steppenwolf of the Happiest Place on Earth.

This year, the Steppenwolf strolled with humans and found them fun.  Fancy that.

So consider St. Patrick added to my personal pantheon of saints: Occam, Jude, and H. L. Mencken.

Quibble if you will, but these work well for me.

See you next year at the Cottage.

"Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor..."

"Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another."

- Zechariah 7:10

Capitalism Kills: Rising Food Prices Push Poor into Starvation

[Corn has soared 52% the past 12 months. Sugar’s up 60%. Soybeans have jumped 41%. And wheat costs 24% more than it did a year ago.

For about 44 million people — roughly the population of the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago metropolitan areas combined — the rise in food prices means a descent into extreme poverty and hunger, according to the World Bank.]

The surge in food prices has many causes. Rising population. Speculators. Soaring oil prices. Trade policies. And, ironically, improved standards of living in emerging nations.]
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2011-03-17-food-costs-world-hunger.htm

David Stern: Fuhrer of the NBA

Wow, a reporter tells the truth.  Want to bet David Stern's minions pull the writer's press pass?

David Stern wants Dwight Howard playing ball in Los Angeles, in Manhattan, or even the stinkin' Bronx with the Nets.

All year, the NBA refs have declared open season on Mr. Howard with egregious technical foul.  Dwight gets the whistle while Le Bron gets away with blubbering like John Boehner. 

Now, the refs have given up any pretense of neutrality, calling absurd offensive fouls on Dwight in the 3rd against the Lakers.

Against Milwaukee, Jameer Nelson grabbed the guard 2 steps before a three and the Bucks still got continuation to tie the game.  The guy got no where near hoisting a shot before getting fouled.

The disgraced gambling NBA ref--a pox upon his name--revealed the refs serve as minions of the Archangel Stern.

Well screw you commissioner.

Whether you know it not, the NBA needs small market teams and their fans to keep the faith, buy tickets, jerseys, and keep paying for half a billion dollar round ball palaces like the Amway Pyramid Scheme Orena.

You, Dave, with Dwight in Brooklyn, our new building will sit half empty and prove the Association a Ponzi scheme  robbing new investors to keep going.

With Dwight here in Orlando, you'd have a legal pyramid scheme, taking $ from current fans but with new fans born in every generation so we keep investing year after year, generation after generation.

Mr Stern, you crackpot Khadaffi, no one ever bought a ticket or jersey to see your smiling, smirking fat face sitting courtside.

Screw you, Davey boy!

[The commissioner’s office will never escape this truth: In so many ways, Donald Sterling has carried out the NBA ownership vision of David Stern.

Bully and mistreat your employees.

Treat the front office and coaches like necessary evils with bare minimum salaries and staffing.

Turn a profit in a sparkling new arena.

Stern has long preached that coaches are too expensive, scouts too plentiful and perhaps no one has heeded the commissioner’s words like the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner. He has a history of hiring them cheap, and refusing to honor contracts. The NBA has a history of letting it go without protests.

Yes, Stern’s silence and inaction on Sterling’s despicable behavior has to be considered as some level of approval. Now, Kim Hughes tells the story to the Racine (Wis.) Journal-Times about how Sterling didn’t pay for his prostate cancer surgery as a Clippers assistant coach several years ago. Clippers players contributed much of the $70,000 needed to take care of the costs that weren’t covered by Hughes’ medical insurance.

And once Sterling fires those coaches and scouts, he often stops paying the balance of their contracts. He dares them to sue. Some can, and do. Some can’t afford the legal fight and end up settling for pennies on the dollar.

This happened with scouts Scott Wissel and Jerry Holloway a year ago. They made less than six figures a year, and the Clippers simply stopped paying them. Essentially, Sterling was telling them, “The season’s over, and so what if your deal runs October to October. It’s April, get lost and we aren’t paying you.”

Eventually, Holloway won a settlement, and Wissel had to fight more than a year to get part of his money. Where was the league office? Where was Stern’s indignity?

This has been going on for years, and the commissioner’s office has allowed it. Often the only injustices in the NBA are injustices directed at Stern. He saves his moral indignity for those daring to challenge him, likeOrlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy late last week. For Stern, here was a crusade worthy of his ire.

Van Gundy tried to make sense of 593 foul calls without so much as a flagrant foul on Dwight Howard(notes). And after speaking the truest words of the season – saying that Stern doesn’t allow dissenting opinions in the NBA, that free speech is a scarce commodity on league issues – the commissioner reacted in a most predictable, childish way on state-run NBA radio. After refusing to confront Van Gundy directly and promising to take the matter to Magic ownership, Stern sounded like a power-drunk small-town mayor saying “… We won’t be hearing from him for the rest of the season.”

Off to Stern’s Siberia. Stern wouldn’t stop there, because he gets such a charge out of humiliating those under him. Taunted Stern, “I see somebody whose team isn’t performing, whose star player was suspended, who seems to be fraying.”

No commissioner has ever been so emboldened to speak this way. Yet now, so much of Stern’s staying power is built on a far more flimsy baseline. Respect has eroded for him, replaced with fear and loathing.

“It’s a divisionary tactic to take away from the 593 fouls without a flagrant,” one long-time league executive said of Stern’s rant on Van Gundy. “The question is: Do you have to be mean and a bully to be a commissioner? As he’s gotten older, he has become more mean-spirited, and it shows in how he deals with his own staff, coaches and with the new-age owners.”

When Stern goes to Orlando’s ownership group, he knows it’ll soon be wondering how much of an impact Van Gundy’s mouth will have on Howard and the Magic in the playoffs. Teams tremble over retribution from Stern and fear it in the form of officiating.

Big and small markets. Winning and losing franchises. Great and lousy general managers and coaches. Old and new owners. They all agree: Don’t push Stern too hard because there will be a price to pay. Better off bowing, kissing the ring and shuffling past him.

Anything goes in Stern’s NBA, except challenging the emperor. The league office never cares about criticism about most of its biggest stars, owners and coaches. In some cases, it’ll openly encourage it. Want to invite a call to your boss? That’s easy. Pull back the curtain on the commissioner.

Several Clippers paid the bill for cancer surgery on an assistant coach, but the NBA cares. Sure it does – about Stern’s power, about his ego. The NBA has taken over USA Basketball and the Naismith Hall of Fame. It’s creating an infrastructure to control and make money off amateur and summer basketball through iHoops. The NBA has mobilized resources and staff to indoctrinate basketball cultures in the Far East, Europe and beyond.]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Avb7A6izWX2.SvQGYn_yhte8vLYF?slug=aw-sternnba031511

Guinness IS Good for You

[The old advertising slogan ‘Guinness is good for you’ is actually true it seems.

While Diageo, the manufacturer, makes no health claims for the product, scientific research shows a pint of Guinness a day is actually good for your health.

Indeed it may work as well as a low dose of aspirin to prevent heart attacks.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin made the discovery recently.

The Wisconsin scientists gave Guinness to dogs who had narrowed arteries. They found the Guinness worked as well as aspirin in preventing clots forming.

The researchers told a convention of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that a pint of Guinness taken at meal time had the best impact.]

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Guinness-is-good-for-you-say-medical-experts-118159174.html

Irish Central

http://www.irishcentral.com/

California Nuke Plant 1 Mile from Fault Has No Emergency Plan

[As the world's attention remains focused on the nuclear calamity unfolding in Japan, American nuclear regulators and industry lobbyists have been offering assurances that plants in the United States are designed to withstand major earthquakes.

But the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which sits less than a mile from an offshore fault line, was not required to include earthquakes in its emergency response plan as a condition of being granted its license more than a quarter of a century ago. Though experts warned from the beginning that the plant would be vulnerable to an earthquake, asserting 25 years ago that it required an emergency plan as a condition of its license, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission fought against making such a provision mandatory as it allowed the facility to be built...

Experts who recall how the California plant came to be erected offer a disconcerting answer: Yes. And some are calling for more urgent government action to review safety at nuclear plants across the country.

"What they're displaying now is exactly what was wrong in the past with the nuclear establishment, which is that they didn't have their priorities right," said Victor Gilinsky, who served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Diablo Canyon debate and agreed with the call for greater attention to earthquakes in emergency plans. "They're more concerned about the protection of the plants, and installation of further plants, than they are about public safety. The president should be saying, 'I want every single plant reviewed.'"

Back when the California plant was being finalized in the mid-1980s, local activists and environmental lawyers sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in an effort to slow the project, arguing that the clear risks from earthquakes nearby required additional planning.]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/16/california-nuclear-emergency-response_n_836751.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=031711&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily+Brief