Is Nothing Sacred? Sesame Street Music Torture at Guantanamo

Google Does Wonders

Google World Wonders Project offers 360 degrees views of some of the most historic sites around the world, letting my mind travel w/out leaving my empire o' dirt.


http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/worldwonders/

A Federal Appeals Court Agrees With Me

Wonder what Scalia will say?  He won't agree with me.  We all know this gets his Jesuit hairshirt tied in a knot and the decision will probably turn on whether the increasingly erratic and delusional Justice Kennedy show a trace of reasonableness and common sense.

[BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman discriminates against gay couples because it doesn't give them the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples.]
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-31/news/sns-ap-us-gay-marriage-federal-benefits_1_marriage-act-gay-marriage-gay-couples

God Bless Aldus Manutius & Commas

[The comma’s ancestors have been used since Ancient Greece, but the modern comma descended directly from Italian printer Aldus Manutius. (He’s also responsible for italics and the semicolon!) In the late 1400s when Manutius was working, a slash mark (/, also called a virgule) denoted a pause in speech. (Virgule is still the word for comma in French.) Manutius made the slash lower in relation to the line of text and curved it slightly. In the 1500s, this new mark acquired the old Greek name “comma”. The word comma literally meant “a piece cut off” from the Greek word kopteinmeaning ”to cut off”.

Other than the period, the comma is the most common punctuation mark in English, but the little mark is often misunderstood and misused, even by native speakers. The comma plays an important role in the sentence because it tells a reader when to pause briefly. When should the comma be used? The comma is often used to separate items in a list as in the sentence: “Mark went to the store to buy eggs, bread, milk, and blueberries.” The third comma in that sentence is the topic of much debate. That comma—before “and”—is called the “serial comma” or the “series comma”.  Some usage conventions require a serial comma, but others do not. Whether or not to use a serial comma can also depend on the items in the list. Consider this sentence: “For breakfast, Mary had an apple, toast and jam, and coffee.” Without the final comma the sentence would be unclear. She isn’t eating jam with coffee, so a serial comma clarifies the situation.

Commas are also used to separate independent clauses when a conjunction is used, as in the compound sentence: “Mark went to the store, and he bought eggs, bread, milk, and blueberries.” Commas have many other uses as well. When an entire phrase may be removed from a sentence, commas are used to set the phrase apart. Take this as an example: “Shelia, reconsidering her options, did not want to go to the movie.” In a similar fashion, they set off introductory participle phrases as in: “Reading over her notes, Julie realized she missed an important detail.”

Do you know what an em dash is? Test your punctuation knowledge here.

For a more exhaustive analysis of comma usage, see Ben Yagoda’s recent article in The New York Times.

Do you use the comma regularly? What do you think of the helpful, little mark?

Read more at http://hotword.dictionary.com/comma/?__utma=1.1784924411.1337441925.1337441925.1338434529.2&__utmb=1.8.9.1338435153702&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1337441925.1.1.utmcsr=directutmccn=directutmcmd=none&__utmv=-&__utmk=223973403#DzRPBCFCHTUwfIPY.99]

Adventure in Grammar for Today

When did writers start hating adjectives and misusing poor, misunderstood apostrophes to turn the modifier into a possessive noun?


From the Orlando Sentinel Sports front page 29 May: "...When the conference's (sic) presidents, athletic directors, and coaches meet at the Hilton Sandeston this week..."


Conference, although a noun, can find use as an adjective and modify all 3 following nouns.  Since it serves as an adjective here, one cannot use the apostrophe to make it own anything.


Also, why do FL public servants who work as university presidents, AD's, and coaches, always have to stay in Hiltons or at a Ritz-Carlton?  Because they couldn't book a room at the Econo Lodge?  Do you think they have to fly coach?


Meanwhile, let a college kid get dinner and a few lap dances paid for by a booster and the NCAA will call down the wrath of God and brimstone upon the offenders.


Meanwhile, the system continues the absurd hypocrisy of taking blood money out of the lives of indentured gladiators--excuse me, student athletes--and makes billions of dollars, and I keep buying Gator gear 'cause that's my team.

Memorial Day: "For Each Death, A Hole in the World"

Article by Susie Madrak

Sublime: "What I Got"

Kings of the Blues

Freddie King



Albert King (w/ some white kid who ain't half bad blues player his own self)



BB King

How Does Romney at Bain Capital Differ from Tony Soprano?

Trick question: there ain't no difference.

You just have to love modern vulture capitalism; buy a company, loot assets, and ride off into a political career flush with cash.

Catholic Priest Fathers Child and Lectures on Morality

Dude, gots no problems with humans expressing themselves heterosexually, except for my inability to get a lunch date with Deidre.


So, yes, understand human needs and hypocrisy


Solutions do exist.


Leave the hidebound, archaic, hierarchical, misogynist, criminal conspiracy known as the Roman Catholic Church.


Become a Lutheran.  We let our pastors partner and procreate.  In fact, we actively encourage that kind of commitment, just ask single junior pastor Billy.  My own brand--the one true church of the Missouri Lutheran Synod--does not yet allow female pastors but, Insha'allah, my eyes will see that.


[ROME, May 22 (Reuters) - The leader of the Legionaries of Christ admitted on Tuesday he knew for years the scandal-plagued religious order's most famous priest had fathered a child but still allowed the popular cleric to preach about morality.

The religious order, still reeling from revelations that its founder was a sexual abuser and drug addict with two secret families, suffered another major blow last week when it admitted that Father Thomas Williams, an American based in Rome, had also led a double life.

But the question that had been left hanging after the first admission was how long Williams' superiors knew.

In a letter to members published on the order's website, Father Alvaro Corcuera said he found out about Williams's child "early in my new assignment" as the order's director-general, which began in 2005.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/legion-of-christ-scandal_n_1535387.html

Well This Makes Me Feel Safer

http://newsminer.com/pages/full_story/push?media-image-L19Second04-jpg%20&id=7133630&instance=sports

Defending the Constitution with an AK-47 makes me feel safer.  Right, as if the founding white dudes of the US of Aggression could conceive of automatic weapons, armor piercing bullets, and high capacity magazines to make massacres easier and quicker than ever before.


Sovereign citizens my ever lovin' ass.

Beer, It Does a Body Politic Good

Professor Juan Cole, professor at Univ. of Michigan, made some trenchant comments on the recent election in Egypt, noting humans often vote against candidates on different extremes.  Salafis in Egypt seem to have overplayed their hand with their aversion to beer.


[As for the Salafis, they unwisely began talking about banning beer, and if there is one thing the Egyptian electorate is sure about it is that they like beer.

Ironically, you meet lots of Egyptian men with beards and prayer beads who are leftists, and clean-shaven, dapper men who are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. You suspect that they could fairly easily change their minds.

You have to think about what people are voting against, not just what they seem to be voting for. Last fall they were voting against the fulul, the remnants of Mubarak’s corrupt regime. This May, some large number of Egyptians are telling pollsters that they will be voting against a Muslim Brotherhood one-party state. They will be voting against Salafi puritanism. It is not that the Muslim fundamentalist candidate cannot win, but he now has high negatives to overcome.] emphasis added
http://www.juancole.com/2012/05/are-egyptians-voting-ideologically.html

May the minor muse of grammar forgive for misusing good as adverb to modify the verb does, but thought this headline funnier.

Good Thing We Got in on that Facebook Stock Thing

This edition of what Matt Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone brought to you by Bank of America which despite nature of company as greedy, bloodsucking parasites leeching off the commonweal has treated me fairly well, even temporarily disabling my debit card after it made a charity donation to Queens Park Rangers relief fund, a donation in British pounds.


This automatically made BOA computers burp, which reassures me the mythical Nigerian prince needing me to get millions of pounds out of his country won't actually get any money out of my account if denominated in foreign currency.


Preceding paragraph NOT paid for by BOA, but they COULD shovel $ my way if they wish.


[A suit has been filed by Facebook shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, Morgan Stanley and others. It's based on a very simple concept: when internal analysts learned that Facebook’s numbers were going to be worse than expected, the company and its bankers didn’t tell everyone, but just "selectively disclosed" information to a small group of "preferred investors."

Henry Blodget, who unfortunately should know about these things, gave a good summary of it all on CBS This Morning:

I was on the phone last night with a former hedge fund CEO who was talking about this. "Facebook," he said, "is a colossal example of a complete clusterfuck where everybody wins except the ordinary investor."

His point was that virtually every week now we see stories like this that hint at a kind of two-tiered market system – in which most of the real action takes place inside an unregulated black-box network of connected insiders who don’t disclose their relationships or their interests, while everyone else, i.e. the regular suckers, live in the more tightly-policed world of prospectuses and quarterly reporting and so on.] emphasis added, links in original
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-facebook-ipo-shareholders-werent-invited-to-the-real-party-20120523#ixzz1vnrzAXGv

Pot, Meet Kettle

Let me get this straight.  The leader of a pedophile infested religious organization compares allowing equal rights for human beings with freakin' slavery?


Um, Cardinal O'Brien, people choose partners and your celibacy more unnatural than humans seeking love, and slaves made no choice o get kidnapped from Africa.


Lest you think me unkind in analysis, Charles Pierce describes the official Catholic church: [Let us be clear. Any story that references "the Catholic hierarchy" and doesn't include the phrases "international conspiracy to obstruct justice" and/or "accessories after the fact" is already being overly fair to the organization in question.]
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/catholic-church-washington-post-9033417#ixzz1vdj7zrow

[Irish-born Cardinal Keith O'Brien, 73, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, is leading the battle to defeat a gay marriage bill in the British parliament. He has called gay marriage "madness" and a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right." O'Brien, an Antrim native, said countries that legalize gay marriage are “shaming themselves” and "going against the “natural law.” “Imagine for a moment that the Government had decided to legalize slavery but assured us that "no one will be forced to keep a slave."] Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-born-Cardinal-likens-gay-marriage-to-slavery-says-it-is-grotesque-and-madness-142238485.html#ixzz1vdUvSo7b


Mayhaps the esteemed Koch smoker, err...cleric, fails to see his views as prejudice, because his view of "natural law" used in the past to justify and condone masscres like those of Irish immigrant laborers killed in United States of Assimilation.


[Five murdered Irish immigrants cast into a mass grave in 1832 at Duffy’s Cut near Philadelphia will be reburied in a full Catholic ceremony today. Four laborers and one female, a washerwoman, will be reburied.] Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/-Five-murdered-Irish-emigrants-will-be-reburied-in-a-new-grave-today-142041103.html#ixzz1vdWrIEub





http://www.irishcentral.com/news/-Five-murdered-Irish-emigrants-will-be-reburied-in-a-new-grave-today-142041103.html

FBI Created "Homegrown" Terrorists

It really pains me to write anything which ones would construe supportive, sympathetic, or endorsing in any way haters like the St. Cloud, FL, American Front members.


Nevertheless, some of state charges like conspiracy to foment civil insurrection seem like they could trad upon 1st Amendment right of free expression, which for better or worse include firing weapons where legal like on a ranch out in the swamps.


On a federal level, authorities seem much more interested prosecuting thought crimes by encouraging otherwise peaceful protesters to move, however slightly, to violence.


[The guy who convinced the plotters to blow up a big bridge, led them to the arms merchant, and drove the team to the bomb site was an FBI informant. The merchant was an FBI agent. The bomb, of course, was a dud. And the arrest was part of a pattern of entrapment by federal law enforcement since September 11, 2001, not of terrorist suspects, but of young men federal agents have had to talk into embracing violence in the first place. One of the Cleveland arrestees, Connor Stevens, complained to his sister of feeling "very pressured" by the guy who turned out to be an informant and was recorded in 2011 rejecting property destruction: "We're in it for the long haul and those kind of tactics just don't cut it," he said. "And it's actually harder to be non-violent than it is to do stuff like that." Though when Cleveland's NEWS Channel 5 broadcast that footage, they headlined it "Accused Bomb Plot Suspect Caught on Camera Talking Violence."


In all these law enforcement schemes the alleged terrorists masterminds end up seeming, when the full story comes out, unable to terrorize their way out of a paper bag without law enforcement tutelage. ("They teach you how to make all this stuff out of simple household items," one of the kids says on a recording quoted in the FBI affidavit about a book he has just discovered, The Anarchist Cookbook. Someone asks him how much it says explosives cost. "I'm not sure," he responds, "I just downloaded it last night.") It’s a perfect example of how post-9/11 fear made law enforcement tactics seem acceptable that were previously beyond the pale. Previously, however, the targets have been Muslims; now they’re white kids from Ohio. And maybe you could argue that this is acceptable, if the feds were actually acting out of a good-faith assessment of what threats are imminent and which are not. But that's not what they're doing at all. Instead, they are arrogating to themselves a downright Orwellian power – the power to deploy the might of the State to shape a fundamental narrative about which ideas Americans must be most scared of, and which ones they should not fear much at all, independent of the relative objective dangerousness of the people who hold those ideas.] Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/how-fbi-entrapment-is-inventing-terrorists-and-letting-bad-guys-off-the-hook-20120515#ixzz1vdT9oeIh


It seems to me blowing up stuff in the woods and reading race war porn does not prove intent to start a damn war.

http://www.osceola.org/correctionsdep/161-3457-0/corrections_reports/InmateSearch/230414.cfm

Statute FL yokels charged under,“State Antiparamilitary Training Act.”    http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?mode=View%20Statutes&SubMenu=1&App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=790.29&URL=0700-0799/0790/Sections/0790.29.html

Everything Connects

How did the elephants know their friend died?


[For 12 hours, two herds of wild South African elephants slowly made their way through the Zululand bush until they reached the house of late author Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist who saved their lives.The formerly violent, rogue elephants, destined to be shot a few years ago as pests, were rescued and rehabilitated by Anthony, who had grown up in the bush and was known as the “Elephant Whisperer.”

For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve in the South African KwaZulu – to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died? Known for his unique ability to calm traumatized elephants, Anthony had become a legend. He is the author of three books, Babylon Ark, detailing his efforts to rescue the animals at Baghdad Zoo during the Iraqi war, the forthcoming The Last Rhinos, and his bestselling The Elephant Whisperer.

There are two elephant herds at Thula Thula. According to his son Dylan, both arrived at the Anthony family compound shortly after Anthony’s death.“They had not visited the house for a year and a half and it must have taken them about 12 hours to make the journey,” Dylan is quoted in various local news accounts. “The first herd arrived on Sunday and the second herd, a day later. They all hung around for about two days before making their way back into the bush.”Elephants have long been known to mourn their dead. In India, baby elephants often are raised with a boy who will be their lifelong “mahout.” The pair develop legendary bonds – and it is not uncommon for one to waste away without a will to live after the death of the other.]
http://delightmakers.com/news-bleat/wild-elephants-gather-inexplicably-mourn-death-of-elephant-whisperer/

Maybe 'Tain't Just Voices in My Head

Might have something with me ginger hair, me genes.


[Studies have shown that redheads truly are in a league of their own. The so-called ‘ginger’ population inherit certain traits that distinguish them from their other-colored hair counterparts.

The Daily Mail reports on the findings about redheads and their reactions to pain and other sensations. Studies found that redheads were less susceptible to skin pain and can better handle hot and spicy foods. However, the studies also found that that redheads are more aware of toothaches and cold sensations.

“Our tests showed that redheads are less sensitive to this particular type of pain,” said Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen, one of the researchers conducting the study. “They react less to pressure close to the injected area, or to a pinprick. They seem to be a bit better protected, and that is a really interesting finding.”

These findings, which are apparently unique among redheads, have led researchers to believe that there might in fact be a “redhead gene.”

'It seems that [the gene] MCR1 is involved in central functions in the brain, and we know that subgroups like MC2R, MC3R and MC4R, which are also linked to redheads, have considerable involvement in brain functions,” said Professor Lars Arendt-Nielsen.

“This could be the key to explaining why redheads are a little different to other people.”

Only approximately 2 percent of the world’s population is a redhead, and in the northern hemisphere of the world, that figure jumps to 6 percent.]
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/The-luck-of-the-Irish---redheads-feel-less-pain-than-most-142099413.html#ixzz1vM4UGuqN

This picture accompanied the Irish Central article.

If this be the Irish Islamic martyrs heaven, sign me the frak up and give me a strap on bomb.  Heck, I don't even care if the gingers in the pic are virgins.  I might have more fun if they ain't.

(For the irony impaired that last paragraph amounted to a joke, made because men are pigs and I work harder at filth than most.  It ain't easy bein' sleazy.)

Neil Young AND Crazy Horse: Americana

With sides of Pearl Jam, Zep, and even Springsteen not singing about a car or New Jersey.


















And just because...


Where's Axl?


Who cares?  Myles Kennedy gots the pipes with less drama.

"Being Poor"

[Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.]
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Food Revolution Day: Millions Starve While Numbers of Obese Increase

At first, it seems an impossible contradiction that millions starve across the globe while obesity and related health risks rise at astounding rates.


Nevertheless when we consider the allocation of food resources across the globe, it becomes obvious that 'tain't a bug, it's a feature.


Industrialized countries have increasingly turned towards prepackaged pablum or fast food poisons, light years away from fresh produce and good nutrition.


Poor countries have increasingly had subsistence culture changed by demands to grow cash crops rather than traditional foods.  Marketing genetically modified seeds also crowds out and impoverishes local indigenous farmers.


Also increasingly, humans have predictably based the system on the seemingly cheapest source of energy: oil.


Nevertheless, free market economics easier values direct costs.


A more humane economic evaluation includes indirect costs like those carried by climate change, air pollution and resulting cases of cancer, and the great Pacific Garbage Dump created by our plastic waste befouling the life giving ocean.


Let this become the greatest challenge of my generation: feeding people with healthy food.


From the Prince's Speech:
[Questioning the conventional worldview is a risky business. And the only reason I have done so is for the sake of your generation and for the integrity of Nature herself. It is your future that concerns me and that of your grandchildren, and theirs too. That is how far we should be looking ahead. I have no intention of being confronted by my grandchildren, demanding to know why on Earth we didn’t do something about the many problems that existed when we knew what was going wrong. . . .

Very nearly 30 years ago I began by talking about the issue, but I realized in the end I had to go further. I had to put my concern into action, to demonstrate how else we might do things so that we secure food production for the future, but also, crucially, to take care of the Earth that sustains us. Because if we don’t do that, if we do not work within Nature’s system, then Nature will fail to be the durable, continuously sustaining force she has always been. Only by safeguarding Nature’s resilience can we hope to have a resilient form of food production and ensure food security in the long term.

This is the challenge facing us. We have to maintain a supply of healthy food at affordable prices when there is mounting pressure on nearly every element affecting the process. In some cases we are pushing Nature’s life-support systems so far, they are struggling to cope with what we ask of them. Soils are being depleted, demand for water is growing ever more voracious, and the entire system is at the mercy of an increasingly fluctuating price of oil.]



[This Saturday, May 19, will be the first-ever global Food Revolution Day. I can not tell you how proud I am that we have more than 500 cities in 57 countries around the world standing up for real food. And it couldn't be a more important time for it.


According to the World Health Organization, global obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and more than tripled in children. Across the world more than 1.5 BILLION adults are overweight and of those 200 million men and 300 million women are obese. We are in big trouble.


Despite these grim statistics, and general shouting about the problem across the world, no one -- not government, schools or doctors -- have worked out a plan to give our children the tools to live longer, healthier, happier and more productive lives. Our kids are the first generation predicted to live shorter lives than their parents. As a father this is unacceptable to me -- and should be unacceptable to you.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-oliver/food-revolution-day_b_1524926.html

Where do poor kids eat in the summer?

http://feedingamerica.org/need-help/summer-meals/florida.aspx

http://feedingamerica.org/need-help/summer-meals.aspx

http://www.hungeractioncenter.org/register.aspx

Click last link to protest this monstrous injustice: This week, the House of Representatives voted to cut SNAP (food stamps) by $36 billion. If that cut is made law:  

• Every SNAP recipient will see a reduction in monthly benefits;
• Two million people currently on SNAP will lose SNAP benefits entirely;
• 280,000 children will lose free school breakfast and lunch.

Kill Chrome Cookies

Yay, Youtube plays videos with sound now!

Only had to delete cookies, internet temp files, and browser history.

War, "Cisco Kid"

Robin Trower: "Little Bit of Sympathy"

Youtube, You're so Frustrating for Me

Dang, i really, Really, REALLY, hate computers at times, times like when Youtube videos play without sound.

Kind of defeats the purpose, no?

Yes, have checked 'tubes mute button repeatedly, checked system sound which plays darn well through Windows Media Players with Logitech speakers and subwoofer.

Nevertheless, how will I ever get to check niece's fave band, Rise Against, w/out auspices of Youtube.  At least she bags on Bieber and terminates Twilight soundtrack.

You rock, girrrl!



Oh well, probably will get 30 days in Youtube hole.



Dang it, probably do need a techie Doctor.



Some days you just need a rock and roll Doctor, howevs.

Mark Zuckerberg: Hoodie most conventional thing in his biz

Fascinating account of rise and rise of Facebook fortunes.


[Zuckerberg’s true skill has always been a facility for hacking. That’s a foundational verb at Facebook, to hack. In its offering prospectus, Facebook repeatedly describes its corporate culture as “the hacker way”; on its new campus, a 57-acre office park abutting San Francisco Bay in Menlo Park, Calif., there’s a building with a big sign that reads “The Hacker Company.” Those slogans don’t mean Facebook is teaming up with Anonymous or breaking into NORAD. They’re talking about achieving a goal in an unconventional way.]
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-17/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-the-valley

Professor Juan Cole on Race

[[Best of all if we can just say that in the US, we are all Americans and stop categorizing people with regard to their adaptation to ultraviolet waves. It is anyway a temporary adaptation. If you took Swedes and left them in the Congo for 13,000 years, the mothers that could shield their embryos from harsh ultraviolet rays better would be selected for, and they would be darker, and eventually the group would be ‘black.’ If you took Congolese to Sweden, the mothers that could provide their embryos vitamin D more reliably in a low UV environment would be selected for, and over time the group would get ‘white.’ (In fact, we’re all from Africa, so that is exactly what happened historically). It is a minor epidermal health issue, not a matter of character or essence. Get rid of it.]

http://www.juancole.com/2012/05/minority-births-the-majority-on-how-the-whole-idea-of-white-people-is-made-up.html

Fighting Joe Biden Comes Out Swinging

Or at least think so 'cause seen clips on TeeVee news but my YouTube broke with no durn sound.  Windows Media Player working fin, however.





Found at Reid Report.


Damn youse, Youtube!

Romney Campaign for Moral Clarity Continues, Hilarity ensues

“I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said whatever it was.”

Romney today on the campaign trail: http://mediacast.realgravity.com/sharing/abd3f6b0-4082-012f-2a8c-12313d00d151/f8c15ff0-8283-012f-2ea1-12313d00d151.html

Oh My God of Ever Lovin' Irony

https://twitter.com/#!/StopBeck/status/203119907997630465

Someone on something called Twitter wrote this comes from actual screen shot.  What they smokin' at Fox?.

Quote of the Day: Flannery O'Connor

[“He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery...”]

- Flannery O'Connor, fromEverything that Rises Must Converge

Wisdom of Children; 9 year old protests infamous Westboro Baptist "church"

Amen, brother Josef, the Jesus of the Gospels hates no one.  Rock on, little dude.

[A mother was filled with pride when her young son mounted a quiet counter-protest against picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church over the weekend, theAugusta Chronicle reports.

Nine-year-old Josef Miles and his mother, Patty Akrouche, were walking around the Washburn University campus in Topeka, Kan., on Saturday when they saw a group of Westboro Baptist Church protesters armed with signs.

The Church is infamous for using pickets with phrases like "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers."

After reading some of the signs on display, Akrouche said that Miles asked her if he could create one of his own.

Using a small sketch pad, he wrote out his message in pencil and held it out while he stood across from the picket line.

"GOD HATES NO ONE," he wrote.]  Caps in original; bold added for emphasis

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/westboro-baptist-church_n_1518901.html?ref=mostpopular

Fukushima: We are still so screwed

As my dad finds himself fond of telling me if you find yourself in  hole, stop digging, dumbkopf.


[But nuclear waste experts say the Japanese are literally playing with fire in the way nuclear spent fuel continues to be stored onsite, especially in reactor 4, which contains the most irradiated fuel -- 10 times the deadly cesium-137 released during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. These experts also charge that the NRC is letting this threat fester because acknowledging it would call into question safety at dozens of identically designed nuclear power plants around the U.S., which contain exceedingly higher volumes of spent fuel in similar elevated pools outside of reinforced containment.

Reactor 4: The Most Imminent Threat

The spent fuel in the hobbled unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi not only sits in an elevated pool outside the reactor core's reinforced containment, in a high-consequence earthquake zone adjacent to the ocean -- just as nearly all the spent fuel at the nuclear site is stored -- but it's also open to the elements because a hydrogen explosion blew off the roof during the early days of the accident and sent the building into a list.

Alarmed by the precarious nature of spent fuel storage during his recent tour of the Fukushima Daiichi site, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, subsequently fired off letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko and Japanese ambassador to the U.S. Ichiro Fujisaki. He implored all parties to work together and with the international community to address this situation as swiftly as possible.

A press release issued after his visit said that Wyden, a senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources who is highly experienced with nuclear waste storage issues, believes the situation is "worse than reported," with "spent fuel rods currently being stored in unsound structures immediately adjacent to the ocean." The press release also noted the structures' high susceptibility to earthquakes and that "the only protection from a future tsunami, Wyden observed, is a small, makeshift sea wall erected out of bags of rock."] emphasis added



http://www.alternet.org/environment/155283/the_worst_yet_to_come_why_nuclear_experts_are_calling_fukushima_a_ticking_time-bomb

Rehab: "Sitting in a Bar"

Rage Against the Machine: "Testify"

Bob Dylan: "Steal a little and they'll throw in jail"

But literally stealing billions, even trillions of dollars, cratering he economy of the ENTIRE wold brings no criminal charges.

Modern Slavery: Sexual Assaults on Migrant Workers

[By TRACIE CONE Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Female farmworkers across the United States are commonly sexually harassed and assaulted, in part because their immigration status makes them fearful of calling police, according to a report being released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch.


The survey by the international rights group mirrors two previous reports on the risks facing women and girls that had focused on California, where most of the nation's farmworkers reside.


"Our research confirms what farmworker advocates across the country believe: Sexual violence and sexual harassment experienced by farmworkers is common enough that some farmworker women see these abuses as an unavoidable condition of agricultural work," said the report.] http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FARMWORKERS_SEX_HARASSMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT




[MAY 16, 2012 This 95-page report describes rape, stalking, unwanted touching, exhibitionism, or vulgar and obscene language by supervisors, employers, and others in positions of power. Most farmworkers interviewed said they had experienced such treatment or knew others who had. And most said they had not reported these or other workplace abuses, fearing reprisals...]
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/05/15/cultivating-fear

Driftglass: My New Favorite Blogger

Don't know where this picture comes from but found it at link below.  It so explains modern RepubliKKKan thinking, especially by the black robed klansmen on US Supreme Court espousing rights of states and invalidating acts of Congress--the very definition of activist judges of  which teabaggers complain.


Of course the fact rulings of the ilk of Citizens United type confer financial benefits on the Cock brothers has nothing to do with these conservative jackals destroying our democracy.


This picture might have more worth than a million of my words, plus Driftglass absolutely destroys John Hinderaker by quoting him, hoisted on his own petard.


['I don't mind the word "white" in either of those expressions. Conservatism, Inc. or otherwise, is a white people's movement, a scattering of outliers notwithstanding.


Always has been, always will be. I have attended at least a hundred conservative gatherings, conferences, cruises, and jamborees: let me tell you, there ain't too many raisins in that bun.']

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/05/very-very-very-white-mans-burden.html

Why Does Mitt Romney Hate Working People?

[BY ADAM C. SMITH TAMPA BAY TIMES As Mitt Romney returns to Florida on Wednesday for two days of campaigning and money-raising, Democrats are trying to ensure Floridians keep two words in mind: Dade Behring.

It’s the name of a former medical equipment manufacturer in Miami that Romney’s venture capital firm bought and then closed in the late 1990s, walking away with $242 million in profits.

“Obviously you need to make a profit to be successful,” Cindy Hewitt, Dade Behring’s former human resources officer, said Tuesday, at a Miami news conference organized by President Barack Obama’s campaign. “My concern is when businesses are used to generate wealth for a small number of people and businesses are run to the ground and the lifeblood is sucked out of it and all of their employees lose their jobs.”] Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/16/2801276/as-mitt-romney-hits-florida-
democrats.html#storylink=cpy

Reflections from Post Anesthesia Care Unit

Nothing serious.  Kind of funny situation actually, 2 colonoscopies in 2 days, plus an endoscopy to boot.


Really hate reading bloggers whine about their personal life like lost my cell phone but new bad stuff coming as full moon in retrograde of Uranus astrology crap and I also have german Lutheran privacy fetish and abhor writing about myself in first, or worse, third person.


Nevertheless in this case, find it funny and making a practical political point: all 3 procedures, by benefit of the Affordable Care Act--labeled as Obamacare by the rightwing nutjobs--carry no co-payments.


No crushing co-payments I could not pay, no accompanying collection calls from debt vultures picking at my financially broke carcass for years, the health care providers just will have to take just the thousands paid by health insurance and not try to bleed me dry.


Wonder what my local representative, Daniel Webster, wants to replace Obamacare with?


Oh, wait, I already know: a broke ass system where if you broke you can't get medical care until a perhaps minor medical problem goes critical and lands a human in an Emergency Room of a non-profit hospital which by law has to take everyone regardless of ability to pay, thus spreading huge costs which regular care might have mitigated to all insurers and paying patients.


Plus, Propofol anesthesia gives great hallucinations when you wake up.  Well, detailed instead of great as mine had me popping a beer in front row at start of Magic playoff game right as POlice came to haul me away for outstanding warrants.


Props to Michael J.  If you gonna do drugs, do the best.  Just get yourself a better doctor.

Drink & Drive; Saves more lives than texting and driving

[I first tried warning South Floridians in 1993 that talking on their cells while driving posed a particular hazard in our local culture. “A phone in one hand, a steering wheel in the other, how can you aim a pistol?”

Four years later, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that seemed to vindicate us Luddites. Cellular telephone conversations were found to be the statistical equivalent of drunk driving — as unsafe as tooling down the highway with a 0.10 percent blood alcohol level. Cell phone talkers were four times more likely to be involved in an automobile accident than a driver enmeshed in solitude.

In retrospect, a mere four-fold increase in danger seems hardly worth the worry. The National Highway Safety Administration reports that texting while driving ups the danger 23-fold. In the age of incessant texting, a sloppy drunk yapping on his cell phone has chosen the safer, preferable driving option.] emphasis added

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/14/2799450/shut-up-and-quit-texting.html#moreb

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/14/2799450/shut-up-and-quit-texting.html#moreb#storylink=cphttp://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/14/2799450/shut-up-and-quit-texting.html#moreby

Red Smith on Writing

Red Smith, when asked if it was hard to write a daily column. "Why, no," he said. "You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed."

Puns & Justifiable Homicide

"A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Read more athttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/o/oliverwend107447.html#RBiYuAkcSTYUvgdx.99 

Use Sunscreen: Nude 5K run in Kissimmee

[The second-annual Streak The Cove 5K will be held at the beautiful Cypress Cove Resort in Kissimmee, Florida, convenient to Orlando, Tampa, and all of the theme parks of Central Florida.]
http://www.thrillist.com/links/2792994/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5pbWF0aGxldGUuY29tL2V2ZW50cy9FdmVudE92ZXJ2aWV3LmFzcHg_ZkVJRD0xMjIwNQ%3D%3D/direct?utm_content=exhort2_link&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Miami&utm_campaign=5.15.12+MIA%3A+Streak+The+Cove+5K

Millions Starving

Millions at risk of starvation.  Pony up at least--in my impoverished case--$5 cause it's the right thing to do.

Store up your treasure in heaven 'cause ain't gonna do you no good on Earth when you take that long dirt nap.

Mothers' Day: Originally a Call to Peace

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870

Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up withOur own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil At the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace... Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God - In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality, May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace. http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=217 (emphasis added) Via http://agonist.org/matttbastard/20120513/reappropriating_mothers_day by way of http://twitter.com/#!/GuerrillaGsOT/statuses/201646559060959233

Department of Not Surprised: Romney urges Ted Nugent to keep using incendiary, insane rhetoric

OK, I have just about had it with rightwing nutbags, teabagging twits, and RepubliKKKans yelling I'm un-American because of supporting social justice efforts; feeding hungry children, housing humans lacking shelter, and basic health care for all.


No more Mr. Nice Blogger.


You wanna go biblical on me, bitches?


Youse only gots 6 verses in the Bible telling me gay marriage bad.


I gots entire Gospels, including that pesky render unto Caesar thing, meaning since the government grants marriage licenses, Christians ought not worry about to whom licenses granted.


If you call me a socialist, socialism runs all through my Bible. Maybe ignorant gutter trash like Nugent ought to read his Bible.


He feels so proud of never drinking alcohol or using drugs.


Well, Ted, maybe you should burn hemp and lighten the f*** up, Motor City madman indeed.


 F****** you all you right wing cretins.




[Ted Nugent, after a Secret Service investigation, a canceled Army concert and an outpouring of criticism, said presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney's camp "expressed support" for the controversial comments he made about President Obama last month at the annual National Rifle Association meeting.


The no-holds-barred Texas rocker told CBS' "This Morning" that Romney's campaign told him to "stay on course" and not to tone it down after Nugent said he will "either be dead or in jail by this time next year" if President Obama is re-elected.] http://news.yahoo.com/ted-nugent-romney-camp-expressed-support-controversial-comments-122458610.html