Saturday, April 30, 2011

http://nafoom.yuku.com/reply/290465/This-will-bring-a-tear-to-your-eye-#reply-290465

"Superman Renounces His American Citizenship"

Grok that, Super Dude, almost gave up my citizenship during the Cheney presidency.

I didn't leave my country; it left me.

[...According to ComicsAlliance, the comic book sees the superhero flying to Tehran to support protesters who are demonstrating against the Iranian regime. But the security adviser to the U.S. president becomes upset with him because the Iranian government mistakenly believes Superman was sent there by America and considers his actions an act of war.

After realizing that he behaved foolishly, Superman decides that he will renounce his American citizenship at the United Nations the next day but continue to fight crime from a global perspective.

Superman -- an alien who came to Earth from the planet Krypton -- explains that he "can't help but see the bigger picture" and that the world is "too connected" for him to identify himself as being solely American.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/27719103/detail.html?treets=orlc&tid=26513271874813&tml=orlc_ent&tmi=orlc_ent_1_11150104292011&ts=H

"Union Song:" Free Download


The Night Watchman (Tom Morello): "Union Town"

Friday, April 29, 2011

Poem 17

I'd like to make you laugh
but know I'd also make you cry.
Would like to tell you only true,
but sometimes I would lie.

Don't know why that is,
why i am what I am.
Too much in my head
questions for every man.

Lord, You know in You I believe
Please help me in my unbelief
Woman, you know i love you,
Won't you give me our relief?

After the Magic Lose, I Still Root for the Cubs

Earned Run Average: "is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine."

So let's do the math.  7 runs given up with only 1 out for the Cubs, 1/3 of an inning.  So 7 divided by 1/3 equals 21 and multiplying by 9 innings--which, thanks to all goodness and kindness in the Universe, Dempster did not throw that day--yields us, cubs fans and fellow sufferers, an ERA of one-hundred-eighty-nine' for 9 innings if the slaughter continues.

One-hundred-eighty-freakin'-nine!

[Dempster imploded again in the first inning of the opener of the four-game series, allowing seven runs on four hits, four walks and a hit batter while retiring only one of the 10 hitters he faced. It was the shortest start of Dempster's career. He lasted two-thirds of an inning while starting for the Marlins against the Braves on Oct. 5, 2001.]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0429-cubs-diamondbacks-chicago20110428,0,5676089.story

Thursday, April 28, 2011

My Journalist's Code of Ethics

Appropriately, will just plagiarize that of Paul Carr, albeit with full attribution.

[As a Brit, this concept is obviously very new to me – like sprayable cheese and light beer. And, like sprayable cheese and light beer, there’s something about the phrase ‘journalistic ethics’ that sounds hideously oxymoronic to my ear.
But when in Rome, right? And so to assist my transition from cheap Brit hack to proper American journalist I’ve decided it’s about time I published my own Ethics Statement. I hope it clears up any misconceptions you might have.
Principle One: I am a whore.
Look at the cover of my book. See the word Whore? It’s in red. That’s because I am a whore; a hussy; a slut-for-hire; a man of scarlet letters. I write newspaper columns because people pay me to do so. I write books for the same reason. The more I get paid, the better I write – which is just one of the reasons this blog is so shit. I’ll let others kill themselves in search of the truth – they can tell me all about it over dinner and Champagne later; my treat.]

US Uncut: Why Does Bank of America Pay No Taxes?



Zsa Zsa Pachulia a Better Actress than Zsa Zsa Gabor?

Now, Can We Talk About the Economy?

My Application for MoveOn Training

Blessed by birth in Milwaukee in 1958, have voted as a yellow dog Democrat union man my whole life.  Even at tender age of 10, I knew Nixon lied about his secret plan to end the Viet Nam War.

With only limited experience making phone calls in 3 different election cycles, the 2012 election will determine whether our country veers even further towards the right and social darwinism of the Koch brothers, and I must do more to support progressive ideas.

All progressives must do more for the far right will have the bigg bucks; we will only have--as ever--truth and organizing on our side.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hands Off Our Cupcakes

http://blog.energytomorrow.org/2011/04/higher-energy-taxes-or-hands-off-americas-cupcakes.html

Taleban Dan Takes the Heat

Nice to see CNN shows no bias in reporting.

Nope, nosiree, those teabagging partiers last year arrived on American shores like Venus from the sea, gen-u-ine pariots, not astroturfed by Dick Armey's Freedomworks or Koch brothers supported groups.

But those mean people shouting at the nice Congressman with his spiffy charts?  That had to be them damn libruls.  How dare they organize?

How dare organizations like MoveOn dare, you know, organize voters from Taleban Dan's own district, FL-08?

Note to CNN and the Orlando Sentinel, have you seen the news in the last several months?  People use social media like MoveOn email lists to bring together like minded progressives to advocate for change to benefit more than the top tax brackets..

The great rightwing Kochtopus, interpreting low turnout midterm elections as mandate to ram through their extreme agenda.

You in the media had better recognize people who voted for jobs, jobs, jobs have now realized they get shit, shit, shit on by RepubliKKKans.


[Washington (CNN) – House Republicans back home for congressional recess have been getting some tough questions about plans to overhaul Medicare, but GOP freshman Daniel Webster's town hall meeting in Orlando, Florida, Tuesday was beyond tough - it turned into a chaotic scene.

Webster used charts and graphs to try to explain the controversial House GOP budget he voted for, but he could barely be heard over angry yelling - mostly about the Medicare proposal.
As one man held a sign saying "keep your hands off my Medicare," another woman screamed that the congressman voted to give corporations a tax cut "but take away Medicare for people like me."
Webster tried to explain that the GOP plan - which would create new private accounts for seniors to choose from - would not kick in for some 10 years, and not affect anyone age 55 or older. But it was hard to get his message across over the cacophony of loud voices in the audience.
Another man asked if Webster was voting to "privatize Medicare and cut VA benefits," and accused Webster of giving away "all these tax cuts."
Before Webster could answer, there was more yelling.
Some in the crowd came to Webster's defense, chanting, "Let him talk, let him talk!"
It was hard to determine how much of the anger was genuine, and how much was ginned up by Democrats who are making it their mission during this two-week congressional recess to attack Republicans on Medicare. In fact, CNN covered this town hall after Democrats put in on a list of Republican events they planned to target.
Some in attendance told CNN they were everyday, average citizens, but others appeared to be organized by liberal groups. The Orlando Sentinel reported that some of the angry audience members included those with the left-leaning Moveon.org.] emphasis added


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/26/crowd-turns-loud-at-town-hall-session-for-freshman-gop-rep/#more-156817

Bernie Sander's Corporate Freeloaders

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

NASA Photo Gallery for Earth Day

Wow!!!!

Few things in writing require even a single exclamation point, but these images, found from Talking Points Memo, really excited the space geek in me, still partly the little kid in Milwaukee, WI, given the day off from grade school to watch Gemini launches, eating lunch on a TV stand in the living room.


You really should look at the whole NASA Earth Day Gallery.  Image above numbered as 36 and shows a composite of photos of earth at night.

For your consideration at at future time, please note the plethora of lights in the "civilized" world come at cost of environmental degradation for the whole planet: global warming, climate change, air pollution, and whole in the ozone layer, pictured below.

(Image numbered as 40.)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Note On Sidebar Countdown Clock

OK, guess should have labeled it Rapture Countdown Clock but forgot to reread Revelations or study at all what this kook or crook preaches for do remember in my Bible Jesus recorded as saying no one shall know the time or day of the end times.
RepubliKKKans conveniently forget He preached on doing the best for even the most downtrodden of society: the poor, the widows, the infirm, and even foreigners among us.
A government budget remains a moral document: "What Would Jesus Cut indeed."
Great Mencken's ghost, what translation of the Holy Bible do these hypocrites read, these hucksters and clowns, the Koch brothers new abridged version?
[The end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That's the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord. At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world's population will be immediately "raptured" to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.
If Mr Camping were speaking from any normal pulpit, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another religious eccentric wrongly calling the apocalypse. But thanks to this elderly man's ubiquity, on America's airwaves and billboards, his unlikely Doomsday message is almost impossible to ignore.
Every day Mr Camping, an 89-year-old former civil engineer, speaks to his followers via the Family Radio Network, a religious broadcasting organisation funded entirely by donations from listeners. Such is their generosity (assets total $120m) that his network now owns 66 stations in the US alone.]  emphasis added

Progressive Christian Movement: "What Would Jesus Cut?"

[It’s refreshing, therefore, to see a group like What Would Jesus Cut? amid the partisan posturing surrounding debates over the federal deficit crisis. Launched by Jim Wallis, the co-founder and CEO of Sojourners magazine, this movement aims to infuse this critical national debate with thoughtfulness about the moral priorities it reflects. To deliver the message, the campaign sends What Would Jesus Cut? bracelets and emails to congressional representatives, and questions the limited pain of national belt-tightening the "super-rich" are asked to bear under the House Republican deficit-slashing plan.
Wallis correctly notes that recently passed tax cuts benefit ted this group, adding billions of dollars to the of burden future generations whose fiscal health the Republicans otherwise claim to defend steadfastly. He also points out that the GOP plan actually called for an $8 billion increase in defense spending, while cutting $758 million from Women, Infants, and Children, a program that provides nutrition for many of the nation’s neediest souls. Clearly, the What Would Jesus Cut? movement approaches the deficit dilemma by seeking to beat swords into plowshares.
Though its themes have been haltingly whispered before, the emergence of What Would Jesus Cut? represents the most viable, coherent and exciting vision for fastening a Christian moral vision to our national politics at the other end of political spectrum.]

Strengthen Social Security: Don't Make Us Work Until We Die


http://strengthensocialsecurity.org/dont-make-us-work-til-we-die

"Ten reasons to miss William and Kate's Royal Wedding"

[1. You're Irish -- enough said.
2. It is on at 7.a.m.

3.Frosty Queen and Prince Philip nattering on about how wonderful it is --remember how they treated Diana.

4. US anchors gushing over royal couple and forgetting we are an independent republic.

5. Because it is not really a fairy tale --last three big royal weddings Diana, Anne, Andrew ended in divorce. 

6. Because it isn't really meaningful -- no power other than opening every charity fete from here to Kingdom come. 

7. Billions in cost to beleaguered British taxpayer. 

8. Flood nonsense written after wedding about greatest day ever in history of civilization.

9. 'B' list celebrities, English style, worse than their American equivalents. 

10. So much ado about nothing as Shakespeare might have said -- now there is a great Englishman.]

Saturday, April 23, 2011

AFI: "Death of Seasons"




"Death Of Season"

Of late, it's harder just to go outside
To leave this deadspace with hatred, so alive
Writhing with sickness, thrown into banality, I decay
Killed by the weakness, but forced to return, turn it off

I watch the stars as they fall from the sky
I held a fallen star and it wept for me, dying
I feel the fallen stars encircle me, now as they cry

Out there so quickly grows malignant tribes
Posthuman extinction excels unrecognized
Feeling surrounded, so bored with mortality, I decay
All of this hatred is fucking real, turn it on... yeah

I watch the stars as they fall from the sky
I held a fallen star and it wept for me, dying
I feel the fallen stars encircle me, now as they cry

It won't be all right despite what they say
Just watch the stars tonight as they, as they disappear, disintegrate
And I disintegrate 'cause this hate is fucking real
And I hope to shade the world as stars go out and I disintegrate 

"Custard Pie"

Paul Rushell: "Shake 'Em All Down'

N Mississippi All Stars: "Keep the Devil Down"




Satire of the Trump

Why does it take one from abroad to more clearly see the satire of our society such as the Trump and President used in the same sentence?






[The news that Donald Trump went bankrupt more often than he married wives has led to a great deal of angry second guessing by leading republicans -- not.

Previously,The Donald filed for corporate bankruptcy in 1991, 1992, 2004, and 2009 according to the Wall Street Journal.

And this guy wants to run the biggest corporation on earth?.

And Republicans want to line up behind a guy whose idea of good business is to leave thousands of debtors holding his debts while he reorganizes and stiffs 'em?

Ah yes, that prescient, brilliant Donald Trump.

Personally I'd prefer Donald Duck running the country.

The Donald is not all he is quacked up to be that is now abundantly clear.

But the process of running for president will expose all these flaws and megalomania in the Donald until he runs screaming for the exits.

It says here he won't be able to stand the heat.

It will be roast Donald Duck before all this is over.

And the media will be looking for the next sucker to draw in.

Michael Bloomberg anyone?[


http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/people_and_politics/donald-trump-will-quit-presidential-run-after-bankruptcies-revealed-120425679.html

Friday, April 22, 2011

When Did Zsa Zsa Pachulia earn the NBA Right to Throw a Tantrum Without a Technical Foul?

Seriously.

Then Zsa Zsa flops and Dwight Howard gets called for an offensive foul?

Then Zsa Zsa and Jason Richardson get thrown out and Dick Bavetta consults the tape to create a technical foul on Mr. Howard!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shame, Dick Bavetta, SHAME, thou damned Archangel of Der SternFührer!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Please consider supporting the International Fund for Relief and Development.

[Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.[1][2] Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,[3] and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.[4] Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day.[5]]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day



Boycott These Banks: Bank of America, PNC Bank, Regions Bank, SunTrust and Wachovia

[Unions representing Central Florida teachers, firefighters, police and other government workers are pulling an estimated $10 million from five banks affiliated with the Florida Chamber of Commerce, blaming them for an attack on public employees.

The unions are also asking their members — an estimated 20,000 people — to withdrawal their personal money from Bank of America, PNC Bank, Regions Bank, SunTrust and Wachovia. And labor leaders across the state could follow in the coming weeks, union officials say.

Executives from the banks in question sit on the Florida Chamber's board of directors, and the chamber has pushed legislation that would prohibit state and local governments from collecting union dues through payroll deduction.]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-unions-versus-chamber-20110420,0,4998142.story

"The End of the World as We Know It..."

"and I Feel Fine"

Michelle!  Bachman!  One of the most influential humans alive!

[Our species accomplished a lot in the 200,000 years we were around. The Mona Lisa. Landing on the Moon. The Snuggie. But clearly, our time as masters of our domain is over; there is no question that today’s news represents the first clear and convincing sign that our species is doomed.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.,is one of the 100 most influential humans alive.

There is quite simply nothing that can be said to redeem this. If Bachmann is in the 99.9999987th percentile of influential humans, then our species has clearly reached its endpoint. If Bachmann is one of the 100 people directing the course of humanity, we are not only being directed to our demise, but we clearly deserve to be.] (emphasis added because wish that line came from me but have no time and little stomach to care a wit about crazy fool Michelle Bachman)




Wow, finally read the lyrics and liked them but must confess have always looked down on REM mayhaps as they came together in Athens, GA.

Has any thing good ever come out of Athens GA?
"Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped..."

Toddler Shoots Mom; Pistol Packing Pastor Shoots Car

Of course, Mom's family disbelieves this, and police will determine if the child would have the hand strength to pull the trigger...

unless of course it were a Glock.

Great Mencken's Ghost, I won't even go into someone's house if they own a Glock; soon in FL one will have to ask friends if they carry a concealed Glock before getting in a car.

Thanks FL RepubliKKKans, looser gun laws, just what we need to stay safe.

Bastards.

[MIRAMAR, Fla. Police have identified the woman whose body was found in a South Florida apartment after a 911 caller reported that she had been shot by her toddler son.

Thirty-three-year-old Julia Bennett was found at her Miramar apartment Wednesday evening. Neighbors described hearing one gunshot at about 7 p.m.

Miramar police spokeswoman Tania Rues said Thursday that the father of the 2 1/2 years old boy had placed the 911 call. He told investigators the child had somehow accessed the gun and accidentally fired it.

The father has a concealed weapons permit for the firearm.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/27622121/detail.html?treets=orlc&tid=26513271874813&tml=orlc_12pm&tmi=orlc_12pm_1_10500204212011&ts=H

[DETROIT, MI -- Controversial Pastor Terry Jones accidentally fired his .40-caliber handgun while he was at a Southfield television studio Thursday night, according to police.

The outspoken pastor, 59, of Gainesville, Fla., was getting in the passenger side of his car at 11:10 p.m. after an interview when the Taurus handgun went off, sending a bullet into the floorboard, Southfield Police Lt. Nick Loussia said today.

"Officers heard a gunshot, approached the vehicle, asked Mr. Jones if he was OK," Loussia said. Jones and the driver were in the parking lot of Fox2 studios on West 9 Mile. "He was, and they also observed he had a gun in his hand."

Officers took the gun, and also found another gun near the 42-year-old driver, a man from Florida traveling with Jones. Both men were carrying valid Florida concealed weapon licenses, which are recognized in Michigan, Loussia said.]
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/article/201654/6/Police-Terry-Jones-Accidentally-Fired-Gun-in-TV-Station-Parking-Lot?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|t

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

My Boy, JJ, Can Play

View from Inside Stricken Nuclear Plant

We are so screwed.




Found at link above.
[AMY GOODMAN: Talk about exactly—I mean, as a physicist, to explain to people—exactly what has taken place in Japan at these nuclear power plants.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: Think of driving a car, and the car all of a sudden lunges out of control. You hit the brakes. The brakes don’t work. That’s because the earthquake wiped out the safety systems in the first minute of the earthquake and tsunami. Then your radiator starts to heat up and explodes. That’s the hydrogen gas explosion. And then, to make it worse, the gas tank is heating up, and all of a sudden your whole car is going to be in flames. That’s the full-scale meltdown.

So what do you do? You drive the car into a river. That’s what the utility did by putting seawater, seawater from the Pacific Ocean, in a desperate attempt to keep water on top of the core. But then, seawater has salt in it, and that gums up your radiator. And so, what do you do? You call out the local firemen. And so, now you have these Japanese samurai warriors. They know that this is potentially a suicide mission. They’re coming in with hose water—hose water—trying to keep water over the melted nuclear reactor cores. So that’s the situation now. So, when the utility says that things are stable, it’s only stable in the sense that you’re dangling from a cliff hanging by your fingernails. And as the time goes by, each fingernail starts to crack. That’s the situation now.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the food, the level of contamination of the food? They are increasingly banning food exports.

DR. MICHIO KAKU: The tragedy is, this accident has released enormous quantities of iodine, radioactive iodine-131, into the atmosphere, like what happened at Chernobyl, about 10 percent the level of Chernobyl. Iodine is water soluble. When it rains, it gets into the soil. Cows then eat the vegetation, create milk, and then it winds up in the milk. Farmers are now dumping milk right on their farms, because it’s too radioactive. Foods have to be impounded in the area.

And let’s be blunt about this: would you buy food that says "Made in Chernobyl"? And the Japanese people are also saying, "Should I buy food that says 'Made in Fukushima'?" We’re talking about the collapse of the local economy. Just because the government tries to lowball all the numbers, downplay the severity of the accident, and that’s making it much worse.]

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Drumthwacket

"Drumthwacket is the official residence of the governor of New Jersey. The mansion is located at 354 Stockton Street in Princeton, New Jersey, close to the state capital of Trenton."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DrumthwacketNJ

Happy Palm Sunday

No blogging today, maybe later after my nap.

But watching the Magic last night strained my sarcasm ligament.

peace

Friday, April 15, 2011

God Says Pay Your Taxes

6. You must also pay your taxes. The authorities are God's servants, and it is their duty to take care of these matters. 7. Pay all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor.
Romans 13:6-7 (emphasis added)

Or else, you know, that angry old bearded white man in heaven that RepubliKKKans presume to follow might just send you to Hell.

Oh synchronicity, thou doth maketh me laugh out loud.

As a bored human getting by on pittance but with cable modem, food, beer, and a roof over my head, life gets a trifle boring since having to slash my entertainment budget to pay off the winter heating bill.  so the tendency runs towards signing up for every darn newsletter I can, including daily bible verses from 2 different sources, Sojourners and Bible Gateway.

Golly, guess it a sin to feel pride this verse today says I'm right with my socialism and they wrong with their desire to abolish all vestiges of a progressive tax system.

I'll ask for forgiveness Sunday but gloat for now.

Oh yes, the last sentence says respect this President's authority.

So teabaggers, pay your taxes, damn youse!!!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Obama Done Playing Possum?



From my new best friend, Jim Messina (Did he play with Loggins?): "1. "Our approach lowers the government's health care bills by reducing the cost of health care itself.

Already, the reforms we passed in the health care law will reduce our deficit by $1 trillion. My approach would build on these reforms. We will reduce wasteful subsidies and erroneous payments. We will cut spending on prescription drugs by using Medicare's purchasing power to drive greater efficiency and speed generic brands of medicine onto the market. We will work with governors of both parties to demand more efficiency and accountability from Medicaid. We will change the way we pay for health care -- not by procedure or the number of days spent in a hospital, but with new incentives for doctors and hospitals to prevent injuries and improve results. And we will slow the growth of Medicare costs by strengthening an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers who will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services seniors need."

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/play_possum

Will Alex Sink Never Learn?

Got a new email from one of my BFF's, failed former gubernatorial candidate of FL, Alex Sink.

Now, Ms. Sink, we can't mostly blame you for losing since Governor 48.9% "won" despite losing the endorsements of all 16 FL newspapers, papers that have never reached unanimous agreement on anything, not even the sun will rise in the east in the morning.

Great, you have joined Hyde Park Capital. Goody for you.

Don't you even see the irony in your dispassionate email when sent while Governor Voldemort, hand in hand with the RepubliKKKan state legislature, runs roughshod over the Constitution, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled?

Girlfriend, if you bon't want to read my blog, read the Reid Report, Joy Reid's blog.

C'mon, show me outrage!!!

Sheesh.

"Dear Dan,

I have some very exciting news to share with you. Yesterday, Hyde Park Capital announced I will be joining as a Senior Advisor. Hyde Park Capital is a leading investment banking firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions and capital raising for public and private companies in Florida and the Southeast. My focus will be business development and expanding client relationships for the firm. Hyde Park Capital’s relationships with successful public and private middle market companies allow me to pursue my continued long term interest in working with Florida’s business community and entrepreneurs to build a stringer Florida economy...

On another note, our work to start non-profit, nonpartisan policy foundation focused on building a strong foundation for Florida's economy and protecting our quality of life will continue. Please continue to stay in touch with me at alexsinkflorida@gmail.com."

On another note, grow or borrow a metaphorical pair. Great fighting Bob La Follette's ghost, my father's family hails from Mt. Pilot, and I thought a lady from Mt. Airy would have some true Democratic by God gumption.

No Satire for Watson IBM Supercomputer

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -- As smart as IBM's Watson supercomputer may have seemed while defeating two former Jeopardychampions, it wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with or speak intelligently to the attendees at its own conference, according to artificial intelligence (A.I.) experts who spoke at MIT Monday.
"Although Watson is a tremendous engineering achievement, there are some things it can't do," said Patrick Henry Winston, a professor and former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. "For example, if there was a conference about Watson, Watson couldn't attend. It would have nothing to say about itself. It can't participate in discussions about how it works."]

Police Reading Private Emails Without Warrants


IDG News Service - Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher.
Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper.
"Unfortunately, there are no reporting requirements for the modern surveillance methods that make up the majority of law enforcement requests to service providers and telephone companies," Soghoian wrote. "As such, this surveillance largely occurs off the books, with no way for Congress or the general public to know the true scale of such activities."

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Sometimes Satire Comes Too Easy: Beaver Anal Glands and She Fights (2 Items)

On The Late Show, noted Chef Jamie Oliver said USDA labeling rules allow adding an extract made from beaver anal glands as natural flavorings, naming vanilla ice cream as 1 of the destinations.

Thinking this preposterous, a quick visit to the Wiki machine confirmed it as true: Castoreum has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a food additive,[12]. Nevertheless my patron saint, H. L. Mencken, prompted me to check at least 1 of the foot notes, #12.

"Castoreum extract (CAS NO. 8023-83-4; FEMA NO. 2261) is a natural product prepared by direct hot-alcohol extraction of castoreum, the dried and macerated castor sac scent glands (and their secretions) from the male or female beaver. It has been used extensively in perfumery and has been added to food as a flavor ingredient for at least 80 years."

Well gee, that still makes me queasy but does lessen my fears. Guess I'll have to keep consuming it considering range of products the stuff gets into: "Found in a variety of foods including: alcoholic beverages, baked goods, frozen dairy, chewing gum, candy, beverages, meat products, pudding, gelatin, ice cream, vanilla flavoring, raspberry flavored food."

Then, a short google search convinced me to eat kosher: "The only way to step around these items is eating foods that are Kosher."

Then just had to read ingredients on my Rice A Roi box and saw natural flavoring listed among the usual chemicals, could have made my brown rice and added my own seasonings.

Guess less processed food and more fresh fruit and vegetables would prove more palatable with less ewwwwwwwwwww factor!]



Then saw a teaser for the next bit on my local 11 pm news. Seriously, life beats me every day so might as well get paid and then kicked in the balls, cervical fracture help with those pesky pain tolerance issues.

Plus this just made me laugh. When does tv sweeps week end?

[ST. PETERSBURG — It sounded like a good idea to George Grayson: Get $50 for submitting to a 12-minute videotaped beating by an attractive female.

A homeless man, Grayson needed the money.

So he followed the recruiters to a St. Petersburg townhouse on seven different occasions over the last few months, he said, and let five different women use his body and face as a punching bag.

Grayson, 37, became one of many St. Petersburg homeless men allegedly targeted by recruiters from Shefights.net, a locally operated website that sells for as much as $900 videos of scantily clad or semi-nude women beating up men, according to a lawsuit.]
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article1163081.ece

Windows Vista users: No Updates for You

[Computerworld -Microsoft's new browser, Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), will not run on Windows Vista, either now in its developer preview form or when the software ships, the company confirmed today.

The decision makes Microsoft the first browser developer to drop support for Vista, and follows the move last year when it announced Windows XP would not run IE9, the browser that went final four weeks ago.]
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215791/Windows_Vista_No_IE10_for_you?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2011-04-13

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Whoever Oppresses the Poor

16Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,
   or gives to the rich,(A) will only come to poverty.

Proverbs 22:16 

Hello Governor 48.9% of FL, Paul Ryan, any RepubliKKKans at all?  What Bible do you "christians" read.?

Happy 150th Anniversary of Start of Civil War Shooting

http://empireofdirt77.blogspot.com/2011/04/12-april-2011-150th-anniversary-of.html

Bob Dylan: "Tangled Up in Blue"

Lighter Notes: "Jimmy Fallon As Bob Dylan"

As 1 who types at a keyboard albeit with a retired teacher father, words matter, maybe more than they ought.

Take the word "As" in the title above.  Did Fallon intend actual verbs such as satirizes, makes fun of, castigates and humiliates, or pays homage?

Choosing the last, will anyone tell me how to get  into Blogger that funky French accent mark to signify pronunciation with silent "h" and long "o"--longish even?

Monday, April 11, 2011

12 April 2011: 150th Anniversary of start of Civil War Hostilities

"On April 12th, Americans will mark the 150th anniversary of the Southern attack on Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War. The reenactors will be out in force, though their numbers will be dwarfed by the revisionists pretending the conflict was about anything else but slavery. Even as the sons of the South unfurl their Confederate flags, today's (sic) Party of Lincoln now advocates states rights, nullification, secession, an end to birthright citizenship and other constitutional perfidies long ago settled by the war and its aftermath." emphasis added and links in original and look at it 'cause too damn early in am or late at night and too pissed off over Governor 48.9% cuts that will kill developmentally disabled humans.
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/002150.htm


Hope for the future of the human race: my 15 year old niece found the Ramones on her own and loved them and liked Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, even though gave her a used cd several years ago, loved enough to put cd on mp3 player she gave back to me a couple of Christmases ago.

Mary Elise, you rock!!!!  But please show me how to plug the damn thing into computer to charge it.



Capitalism Kills: Too Old to Pick Produce



[You buy tomatoes by the pound.


Workers handpick tomatoes by the ton. They must harvest 2.5 tons a day, just to earn minimum wage.It's a backbreaking job that quickly takes a toll on a worker's body.Suddenly, a worker can't afford to buy the tomatoes he used to pick by the ton.
Photojournalist Susan Meiselas and audio journalist Cecilia Vaisman visited Immokalee, Fla., a produce center for some of the nation's biggest food distributors. They met workers who believe they still have productive years ahead of them but struggle to get enough to eat. They also found people committed to improving these workers' lives.]