Welcome Home, Female Veterans

Welcome home female veterans.

Sent to fight illegal and immoral wars based on falsehoods, and serving in a system that condones and maybe even countenances rape, they now try to live under the burden of traumatic stress and become homeless after coming home.

Is this a great country or what?

[Even as the Pentagon lifts the ban on women in combat roles, returning servicewomen are facing a battlefield of a different kind: they are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, an often-invisible group bouncing between sofa and air mattress, overnighting in public storage lockers, living in cars and learning to park inconspicuously on the outskirts of shopping centers to avoid the violence of the streets.

While male returnees become homeless largely because of substance abuse and mental illness, experts say that female veterans face those problems and more, including the search for family housing and an even harder time finding well-paying jobs. But a common pathway to homelessness for women, researchers and psychologists said, is military sexual trauma, or M.S.T., from assaults or harassment during their service, which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/female-veterans-face-limbo-in-lives-on-the-street.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130228&_r=0

CSN: "49 Bye Byes"

"Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary."

Had to get taste of last post out of my brain.

The Stupidest Thing I've Ever Seen

Holy Christ on a communion cracker!

Actual living and breathing and presumably somewhat sentient parents enrolled their kids in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) training classes and allow their precious progeny to enter combat in the freakin' octagon.  As if pee wee football not dangerous enough by causing concussions with effects accumulating over a lifetime to cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Your long suffering commentator shouldn't even have to break this down for the pencil neck geeks pushing/allowing their kids into MMA fights.  The bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons have to fully mature, allowing the possibility of greater injury more possible.

Extreme Youth Sports: Have they lost their minds?  Kids this age have little self control, especially in a situation bringing out aggression.  The "insane" arm bar the winner used could splinter one in a split second, and a kid using it is literally insane.

Years ago, I interviewed perhaps the greatest wrestler who ever lived: Lou Thesz.  Mr.Thesz wrestled freestyle and Greco Roman in high school and turned pro at age 16 in an age when even though outcomes came scripted, wrestlers had to protect themselves in case their opponent went off script, protect themselves with actual wrestling, not this showboat carnival crap purveyed to audiences today.  Damn youse, Vincent K McMahon Jr!

Mr. Thesz trained hard all over the world, becoming a hooker, one who knew wrestling moves called hooks, which could legitimately cripple people.  At the age of 83, he demonstrated the double wrist lock on me, and I felt how he could rip my arm out of my shoulder joint.

So yes, let your kids train in karate, wrestling, and the sweet science of boxing.

But let them in a ring for an actual fight?  Never in a million years, at least until they go to high school.

Just for grins, look at the beer swilling, overweight, cholesterol challenged white bums in the audience living their lives on gratuitous child on child violence, seen in 1st link above.

Pathetic slugs.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/MMA-for-kids-exploding-in-popularity/-/1637132/18562986/-/omebvsz/-/index.html

People die doing this shit: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/6/4/3062505/mma-dustin-jenson-death-editorial-stephen-koepfer

Junk Food Pushers

Imagine that, food companies in their greed make a science out of making crap food that has addictive qualities.  You really can't eat just 1 Lays potato chip.  Salt, fat, crunch and mouth feel combine to make our mouths water andour brains crave like Pavlov's salivating dog.

Don't buy the chips and candy.  Eat healthy and live better.

[....Mudd then did the unthinkable. He drew a connection to the last thing in the world the C.E.O.’s wanted linked to their products: cigarettes. First came a quote from a Yale University professor of psychology and public health, Kelly Brownell, who was an especially vocal proponent of the view that the processed-food industry should be seen as a public health menace: “As a culture, we’ve become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing. And we could make a claim that the toll taken on the public health by a poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco....”

What happened next was not written down. But according to three participants, when Mudd stopped talking, the one C.E.O. whose recent exploits in the grocery store had awed the rest of the industry stood up to speak. His name was Stephen Sanger, and he was also the person — as head of General Mills — who had the most to lose when it came to dealing with obesity. Under his leadership, General Mills had overtaken not just the cereal aisle but other sections of the grocery store. The company’s Yoplait brand had transformed traditional unsweetened breakfast yogurt into a veritable dessert. It now had twice as much sugar per serving as General Mills’ marshmallow cereal Lucky Charms. And yet, because of yogurt’s well-tended image as a wholesome snack, sales of Yoplait were soaring, with annual revenue topping $500 million. Emboldened by the success, the company’s development wing pushed even harder, inventing a Yoplait variation that came in a squeezable tube — perfect for kids. They called it Go-Gurt and rolled it out nationally in the weeks before the C.E.O. meeting. (By year’s end, it would hit $100 million in sales.)

So why are the diabetes and obesity and hypertension numbers still spiraling out of control? It’s not just a matter of poor willpower on the part of the consumer and a give-the-people-what-they-want attitude on the part of the food manufacturers. What I found, over four years of research and reporting, was a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive.] emphasis added to highlight greed

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

Does Anyone Need More Star Wars Movies?

Oh please, God, make it stop.  Bought by Disney ensures even more dreck foisted on fans, then director's cuts with 30 more seconds of footage.

But Dan, some say, you have to see it in theatres for full effects. Me sa so sorry, why would I want to see Jar Jar Binx on a big screen.?

What next, Return of the Jar Jar?


Found at First Draft.

Why Do Abusers Always Love Their Victims?

Consider it a rhetorical question, for surely these abusive behaviors stem from control issues, plus an unhealthy dose of mental illness.  Considering my marriage to a bi polar female, I can almost sympathize because they can push every button and get on nerves you never even knew you had.

Like when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, i woke up tp an unending stream of verbal abuse, with her screaming at me I planned to go to a party without her, an accusation with no basis.  We had steaks in the fridge and beer stocked up and that made my plans for the evening.  She still started screaming at me when I'd just opened my eyes.

Nevertheless, yelling at someone back does not elevate the level of discourse.

Finally, she followed her pattern, fleeing across the street to friend's house to complain about me.

Just a few hints in case any of y'all have domestic quarrels.  First, don't start playing Puddle of Mud's "Blurry" at wall shaking volume to prove your love.

Do not yell at your busybody neighbor suggesting anatomically impossible acts.

Do not piss off the police by telling them to get a damn warrant, even if they do knock on your door at 2 am while you lay on the floor in vodka induced stupor, even if the damn call to them got made at 2 in the afternoon.

Most importantly, don't tell the PoPo where she went, or you'll find yourself hauled to the hoosegow, ruining a nice buzz and judge will also prevent you from going back to your own damn house.

Foolish me; kept things together for a few more years, even though she'd flee at drop of a hat, like 2 days after I got out of the hospital after chest surgery.

Still, she had the nerve and me the lack of self esteem to go stay with her for a night during the worst of hurricane Charley in 2004.

Clue it might be over, if you have to put a knife under your pillow in case her ex con boyfriend made it down from Sanford to Orlando, it might be over.

But I never laid hands on her.

Hope they can find an electric chair big enough to fry this fat fuck.

[By Amelia Robinson
Staff Writer

During a self-described ‘walk of shame’ statement that seems more self-serving than apologetic, a 550 pound murder suspect shockingly declares love.

“I am sorry I took your world away from you Dawan. That was not my intent,” 39-year-old Dameon L. Wesley says into a WHIO-TV camera. “Love you with all of my heart. I am still in love with you. I guess God do get his justice and that’s why I am right here, right now. “

Police say Wesley, a convicted murder recently released from prison, on Sunday fired multiple shots into the head of 13-year-old Briona Rodgers , the daughter of Dawan Culpepper — the woman the suspect claims to love so much.

Family members say Wesley may have been in a conflict with Culpepper before shooting her daughter.

He also allegedly shot Culpepper’s niece Alonta Culpepper, 13, and a student at Wogaman School.

Briona died. Alonta is clinging on to life.]
 See more at: http://www.whiotv.com/news/news/commentary-550-pound-kid-murder-suspects-declarati/nWZ5G/#sthash.aFK0Qor2.dpuf

Stupid Crook News: Bad Parenting Edition

Thank God my folks never drowned me like an unwanted cat as acted out a mite bit as a kid and more so as teenager.  Did't wreck the car but had to get it towed after almost driving into ditch.

[SANFORD, Fla. —
A family trip to the theme parks ended with a mother being arrested after police said she left her children at a 7-Eleven in Sanford and told them to sleep in the woods.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office said 32-year-old Tiffany Buffkin was heading back to her home in Jacksonville on Monday with her boyfriend and two children when investigators said an argument happened.

According to authorities, the boyfriend dropped Buffkin and her kids off at the 7-Eleven on State Road 46 and left.

"The female then indicated to the 13-year-old that the argument was his fault and his punishment was to sleep in the woods for the night," said Kim Cannaday of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

According to deputies, one of the kids was in the back sleeping while the other child was in the front of the store trying to call friends or relatives, someone to come pick him up.

The teen eventually made contact with deputies, who spent 30 minutes talking to him and his brother, trying to find where his mother had gone.

That's when deputies said the mother stumbled down the walkway and began to get angry and violent.

Deputies said Buffkin was belligerent and uncooperative, saying she even tried to bite a deputy.]
- See more at: http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/deputies-mom-left-kids-sanford-7-eleven-told-them-/nWZ6g/#sthash.CttrzzPu.dpuf

Informed Comment from Juan Cole

Professor Juan Cole at Informed comment skewers and debunks ideas of lunatic neocons ad their fetish for unending war and fever dreams of world domination.

[The GOP Orcs have a further list of countries they’d like to invade and occupy.Senator Lindsey Graham added Pakistan to the list. Does anybody else in the known universe think it is a good idea for the US abruptly to go to war with the world’s sixth-largest country, which is a nuclear power, and which is backed by China? I mean, shouldn’t this man just be declared clinically insane and mercifully put in an institution instead of being allowed to strut the halls of power? ( South Carolina, by the way, has among the worst health statistics and the shortest life expectancy in the United States, so that you would think Sen. Graham might have other priorities than becoming a 21st century Lord Curzon.)

John McCain joked about bombing Iran. (A bomb strike on the nuclear enrichment facilities at Natanz near Isfahan would release massive amounts of toxins and likely kill 100,000 innocent civilians.)

The Senate in general is all for keeping several million Palestinians stateless and without basic civil and human rights, and for allowing the Israelis (many of them Americans or Eastern Europeans) to steal what’s left of Palestinian farmland. In the Senate’s racial hierarchy of power, Americans are on top, Arabs near the bottom, and Palestinians are in the toilet. The GOP senators are currently thinking up ways to punish the Palestinians for daring to assert their right to be citizens of a state at the UN.

Hagel’s ideas on foreign policy are pragmatic and cautious, and sane. The real reason that he had a hard ride in his confirmation was that the looney tunes Tea Partiers and Neoconservative dead-enders want to keep alive the insane options as long as they can, the dream of striding in camel boots and khaki through the halls of an abject Islamabad, the dream of reducing Iran to a less prosperous version of the Congo, the dream of erasing the Palestinians altogether, the dream of total and absolute global dominance.

Their sense of innate superiority makes them unable to look about a broken-down America, its treasury looted of trillions by crooked financiers, its 30,000 significantly wounded Iraq War veterans needing trillions in health care over the next decades, its bridges falling down, its school students illiterate in mathematics and science, its factory jobs shipped abroad by scheming corporations, its minorities increasingly denied the right to vote, and its industry spewing 5 billion metric tons of hothouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening to wipe out New Orleans and Manhattan with artificial sea level rises.

There is enough to do at home, without small men from small states dreaming of world conquest. Hagel knows this, and so they smeared him with their slime.] emphasis added
http://www.juancole.com/2013/02/confirmed-nationalists-dominance.html

Voters Fire NRA Backed US Representative

Some days, you can find hope in headlines.  Voters, dragging the Republican't party out of the 19th century into the 20th.

[BIG NEWS -- Rachel Maddow reports on last night's special election for Congress in Illinois:

"Robin Kelly made her support for gun reform a centerpiece of her campaign. She was running against someone who had long touted her A rating from the NRA. And the A rating from the NRA lost -- the F rating from the NRA won."]

[In the special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. in Illinois’ 2nd congressional district, former state Rep. Robin Kelly, a supporter of a federal assault weapons ban, cruised to victory in the Democratic primary tonight over a field of candidates including former U.S. Representative Debbie Halvorson. While Kelly’s victory was not altogether unexpected, her total vote share (52 percent in a multi-candidate field) was surprisingly strong, and followed an expenditure of more than $2 million in the race by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to the New York Times.

Citing her opposition to gun safety reforms and past support from the National Rifle Association, Bloomberg spent heavily to damage Halvorson’s candidacy, funding TV ads singling her out for attack. In the final two weeks of the campaign, the New York mayor explicitly backed Kelly as his candidate, and his financial support likely helped boost the size of her victory.]
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/27/nra_candidate_defeated_in_illinois/

Happy Birthday Johnny Cash

[John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an Americansinger-songwriter, actor, and author[2] who was considered one of the most influentialmusicians of the 20th century.[3][4] Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—and blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of induction in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice,[a][6] for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for a rebelliousness,[7][8] coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor;[5] for providing free concerts inside prison walls;[9][10][page needed] and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black".[b] He traditionally began his concerts with the phrase "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."[c], followed by his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_cash

Rolling Stone picture gallery: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/photos-intimate-all-access-shots-of-johnny-cash-20101105?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Another Reason Not to Go to NASCAR Race

You might end up with an engine in your lap.

Who the hell wants  to watch 4 hours of left turns anyway?

Will the Last Moderate Republican't Turn out the Lights When They Leave the Party?

Every time I think they've hit the bottom of crazy, they plumb new depths.

[Still, he tried to persevere. “My ‘youthful idealism’ was that the party was going to change—that the fever would break. Boy, was I wrong. I think back now on the craziness that freaked me out in the party in 2007 and 2008 and it looks like child’s play.” Now, in between his work in law school, he’s started documenting some of that in journalism on how Republicans in his home state “went off the deep end,” turning Arizona into “a national laughing stock”—an apostate’s and native’s testimony. One of his articles describes bills “cloaked in the language of the Constitution” but which are actually “trying to challenge the very premise that we can have a Constitution of the United States.” One would require the federal government employees to register with local sheriffs when carrying out government business in their counties. Another would criminalize the regulation of harmful (or “harmless,” as the bill puts it) emissions; a third would require the state attorney general to seize federal assests if it “increases the ability of this state to generate revenue.” (“What the hell does that mean, as a practical matter?” I asked. He answered, “That’s the point. This isn’t practical. It would mean trying to seize any federal land, including military bases, if the state thought they could make better use of it.”)

From Evanston to Arizona, the loss of sane Republicans has been Democrats gain. Arizona has sent a majority Democratic delegation to Congress (“because Republicans have nominated candidates so far out of the mainstream”); “We have great Democratic mayors in Tucson and Phoenix who are doing incredible things to make those world-class cities.” And Kleiner? Last year he served as issues director for a 2012 congressional primary race fought by the young Democratic writer Andrei Cherny. He is just the kind of super-smart, motivated, talented up-and-comer that any political party would want in its bullpen. Now the Republicans have lost him for good. How many more?]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/173040/moderate-republican-mugged-reality

Rundown Playboy Mansion

Another dream of mine dies: here I thought Hugh Hefner ad found the Fountain of youth: young women.  Nevertheless, all of us must surrender to dustt at some time, even if Hugh Hefner has several lifetimes supply of Viagra.

[This is when I started to get really bummed out. Nothing upsets me more than seeing something that was once glorious fall into decay. I nearly cried once while looking at one of those Us Weekly "Worst Celebrity Plastic Surgery" lists. 

Wandering through the house gave me a feeling not too dissimilar to when a relative dies and you have to go to their place and figure out what to do with their things. Except for, in this case, that dead relative was the magazine industry. Or something. I don't really know what I'm talking about. But the mansion was really, really sad. And it smelled like old man.]
http://www.vice.com/read/i-went-to-the-playboy-mansion-and-it-was-kinda-depressing

Republican't Damns President Cheney

If Rand Paul weren't so batshit crazy, I would almost support him.

[North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones joked Saturday that if Congress won’t hold former Vice President Dick Cheney accountable for the Iraq war, God will, sending the hawkish veep to hell.

“Congress will not hold anyone to blame. Lyndon Johnson’s probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney,” Jones, a libertarian who is often critical of the war in Afghanistan, told a Young Americans for Liberty conference in Raleigh this weekend.

Jones also called the use of drones in targeted killing “absolutely unconstitutional,” warning the autonomous aircraft could be used against Americans in the future. “When that drone comes to America from a foreign country, we’re going to wonder what in the hell hit us. It was a drone,” he said.]
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/26/gop_rep_says_cheney_is_going_to_hell/

Dylan at Concert for Bangladesh

Dolphins Call Each Other by Name

Dolphins might indeed prove more intelligent than humans, with no wars or genocide to their credit.  of course with reports of Dolphins bullying their females and showing aggressive behavior at times, they might rank on par with we naked apes.

[Bottlenose dolphins have been observed to use distinctive “signature whistles” towards each other, says new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. That is, dolphins actually call one another by name, a behavior previously thought to only occur in humans.

Scientists have known that dolphins emit unique whistles that identify them to other dolphins. These can be heard up to 12.4 miles away, depending on the depth of the water and whistle frequency.

Stephanie King, a research fellow at University of St. Andrews, observed that the bottlenose dolphins actually copy the signature whistle of other dolphins when separated from them. This finding, she says in Discovery News, “supports our belief that dolphins copy another animal’s signature whistle when they want to reunite with that specific individual.”

King and her colleagues observed the copying of signature whistles both in wild dolphins around Sarasota Bay in Florida from 1984 to 2009 and in four adult male captive dolphins who live at Florida’s The Sea Aquarium. The keepers had given the latter four the names Calvin, Khyber, Malabar and Ranier but the dolphins were seen to have their own names for each other.]
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/dolphins-have-their-own-names-for-each-other.html#ixzz2LwF1E5Vh

Adventures in Architecture; Aqua Tower in Chicago

[....The Aqua Tower, rising up in a dance of ever-changing concrete forms, is very different from its neighbours. Seen from the sidewalk, it really does have the look of a multi-layered Lake Michigan rock formation, albeit one that towers above the city. This is a Chicago landmark that has broken out of the city-wide straitjacket of right angles and smooth surfaces – as if Gaudi had taken up skyscraper design, or a spinning ballerina had morphed into a building...

....As it happens, Gang is immensely fond of birds. In the design of the Aqua Tower, she has paid careful attention to the way birds see – or don't see – sheer glass walls, helping them to avoid fatal collisions. (A building with a complex facade is much safer for them, as are irregular window bars; birds pick up on the irregularity.) In her office, Gang has a number of bird's nests lined up on a window sill; she says she admires their spare, essential beauty.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/20/aqua-tower-jeanne-gang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_(skyscraper)

10 Worst Foods for Your Heart

Oh crap, most everything I eat lands on this list  .Wonder if kosher dogs might provide better nutrition with less chance of increasing risk of heart disease and cancer.

Good thing I don't drink sodas.

[Hot dogs, bacon, sausage and deli meats -- even lean ones like turkey -- are made withloads of sodium and preservatives, often including nitrates and nitrites, both of which have been linked to heart problems. "With processing, you lose control over the quality of the ingredients," says Cynthia Thaik, M.D., a Los Angeles-based cardiologist.

Processed meats are also higher in saturated fat and lower in protein than any red meat you could prepare yourself, writes director of the Yale Prevention Research Center and HuffPost blogger, David Katz.

Not convinced to stay away? Processed meats have also been linked to a higher risk of diabetes and pancreatic cancer.]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/worst-heart-foods_n_2624859.html

Valentines not for a Day but Year Round

God bless these monks, priests, and other good Catholics following the Gospels.

[St. Valentine, the patron saint of love, was executed in Rome and buried there in the 3rd century. Much later an Irish priest was granted permission to exhume his remains, and now his skeleton lies under a church in Dublin.

In 1835 an Irish Carmelite priest, Fr. John Spratt, used his Irish charm to convince then Pope Gregory XVI to dig up St. Valentine’s remains and take them home as a gift to his fellow Irishmen and women....

In 1950 a statue and shrine was built to honor St. Valentine and placed in the church. As soon as people in Ireland realized that the saint of lovers was buried right under their noses they came flocking to the church to give up their amorous prayers to the saint.

Despite companies around the world cashing in on the romantic holiday, the Carmelite priests said they are staying well clear of the commercialization the holiday enforces and they plan to keep sales of Valentine memorabilia to a minimum.

"We do want to keep it on a level that it's not just 'Valentine's Day.' That would diminish the significance of the saint," said David Weakliam, another Carmelite priest.] emphasis added
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Romance-in-the-air-as-love-seekers-show-up-at-St-Valentines-resting-place-in-Dublin-190657821.html#ixzz2Lreygs64
Follow us: @IrishCentral on Twitter | IrishCentral on Facebook

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Romance-in-the-air-as-love-seekers-show-up-at-St-Valentines-resting-place-in-Dublin-190657821.html#ixzz2LrejDLOs 
Follow us: @IrishCentral on Twitter | IrishCentral on Facebook
http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Romance-in-the-air-as-love-seekers-show-up-at-St-Valentines-resting-place-in-Dublin-190657821.html

Holy Gay Marriage, Batman!

[DC Comics has a surprise twist in store for the latest issue of their “Batwoman” comic: A gay marriage proposal.

In addition to a “massive conclusion to the current storyline as Batwoman and Wonder Woman struggle to defeat Medusa and a horde of villains,” readers will also see Batwoman pop the question to her longtime secret love, captain Maggie Sawyer. Sawyer once served on the supernatural task force with Superman, but was transfered to Gotham City to head their Major Crimes Unit. Oh, and have a tortured but super hot relationship with Batwoman!

DC Comics has been making a serious — if imperfect — effort at diversifying their super squad with reboots of various characters, Batwoman being just one.

And while the possibility of Kate (Batwoman’s real identity — don’t tell anyone I told you) and Maggie’s nuptials is a pretty natural part of their storyline, it also probably doesn’t hurt for DC to get a little good press on gay rights.]

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/20/dc_comics_has_gay_marriage_storyline_in_the_works_for_batwoman/

Record Store Day

Support your lpcal music stores and booksellers.  Mine is East-West records in Orlando, FL.  The owners took the name from Paul Butterfield Blues Band East West album, one of the tastiest blues bits ever made.

[Jack White has been named the official ambassador for Record Store Day 2013, which will take place on April 20th at independent record shops across the world. To announce the news, White took a camera crew on a field trip to United Record Pressing in Nashville, where he offered up a few fun facts about how seven-inch and 12-inch records are made...]

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/jack-white-spreads-love-of-vinyl-as-record-store-day-ambassador-20130219#ixzz2LUlYtrnV

Meanwhile in Afghanistan

Way to go NATO, winning hearts and minds as always.

[KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A NATO airstrike struck two houses, killing as many as nine Afghan civilians and four insurgents in an eastern province near the Pakistani border, officials said Wednesday.

The attack occurred about 10 p.m. Tuesday during a joint NATO-Afghan operation in the Shigal district of Kunar province, a lawmaker from the area said. The U.S.-led military alliance in Kabul said it was looking into the reports.]

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/13/nato_airstrike_kills_9_civilians_in_afghanistan/

Life is a Beach

As a FL boy, am kind of partial to beaches in my state.  Fort DeSoto state park lies on west coast of FL.  If you want to visit, best hurry as our Republican't legislature might sell it soon, "Pave paradise and put up a parking lot."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/worlds-best-beaches-accor_n_2718799.html?ir=travel&utm_campaign=022013&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-travel&utm_content=Title

Ain't capitalism grand?: Corporate tax avoidance edition

Let's see, Microsoft exists as an American company, headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Nevertheless, they can transfer patents for their intellectual property oversea to notorious tax havens to avoid US taxes.  By intellectual property, think software.  So Microsoft can benefit from all protections of laws in the us, laws such as against copyright infringement, then keep all the cash oversea and avoid taxes.

Ain't capitalism grand?

[Last week, the investor David Einhorn sued Apple, in which his hedge fund has a large stake, over how the company can issue preferred stock. At the heart of the dispute is the $137 billion pile of cash that Apple has accumulated, and whether it could be used to better reward shareholders....

Such tax-avoidance techniques, while legal, have come under increasing political attack. On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced legislation to end deferral and force multinational companies to pay taxes on their foreign-source income.Mr. Einhorn’s action highlights a growing problem: many corporations are holding vast amounts of cash and other liquid assets, using them neither for investment nor to benefit shareholders. These assets are largely earned and held overseas, and not subject to American taxes until the money is brought home.

According to the Federal Reserve, as of the third quarter of 2012 nonfinancial corporations in the United States held $1.7 trillion of liquid assets – cash and securities that could easily be converted to cash.

By any measure, corporate cash holdings appear to be high and rising.The major role of R.&D. in large cash holdings may reflect the greater opportunities for tax avoidance among businesses that can easily transfer intangible property abroad without having to move production operations or jobs to other countries. It is a simple matter for companies holding patents, copyrights or trademarks to transfer them to foreign subsidiaries and realize the profits accruing to them in lower-taxed jurisdictions.

I had an experience with this phenomenon just recently. I needed a copy of Microsoft Word for a new computer and went to www.microsoft.com to buy it. But when I tried to pay for it, my credit card was rejected. When I checked with my credit-card company I was told that the charge appeared suspicious because it went to a company based in Luxembourg – a well-known tax haven.

This technique is used by many technology-based companies. For example, The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 7 that the patent for the hepatitis C medication produced by California-based Gilead Sciences is domiciled in Ireland, another common tax haven. The home company thus pays royalties to its Irish subsidiary on sales of the drug in the United States, transferring profits from the United States to Ireland.

Irish Slaves in the New World

You just got to love capitalism.  Importation of Irish slaves to the New World came because they proved cheaper than African slaves.

[....Indeed, the Irish have a gruesome history as being traded as slaves as well and subjected to similar and sometimes worse treatment than their African contemporaries of the time.

Strangely though, the history of Irish and ‘white’ slavery is by and large ignored in the American educational curriculum today.

In his article, John Martin writes “The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70 percent of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.”

“Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white....”

During the late 1600s, writes Martin, African slaves were far more expensive than their Irish counterparts - Africans would sell for around 50 sterling while Irish were often no more than 5 sterling.]
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-the-forgotten-white-slaves-says-expert-John-Martin-188645531.html#ixzz2LNpX9hQC 

Happy Birthday, Smokey Robinson

[William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson was the founder and front man of the popular Motown vocal group The Miracles, for which he also served as the group's chief songwriter and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as The Five Chimes until 1972 when he announced a retirement from the stage to focus on his role as Motown's vice president.]

Stupid Crook News: lessons in bad parenting version

[HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. —
A 10-year-old boy was found wandering around naked and drunk in a Hernando County neighborhood, just north of Tampa, deputies said.

A neighbor said she discovered the boy wandering naked on Friday.

Investigators said the boy's caregiver, Nedra Byrd, was drunk, too, and passed out in her home.

When deputies arrived, they said they found a half-empty bottle of brandy sitting on the counter.

The boy was taken to the hospital.]

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/drunken-10-year-old-found-wandering-naked/nWRm4/

Socialism in the Bible

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.
- Leviticus 23:22

(empasis added t educate supposed Bible believing Republican'ts and funamentalists0

Happy Belated Darwin Day

Happy belated Darwin Day, not to confuse with the Darwin Awards, because Charles Darwin born on 12 February 1809.  Run this passage by your creationist know nothing Luddite Republican't friends and family and see who shuns you and the truth.

[His work and its significance illustrate a great deal about what science is, and what it is not....

The basic idea that simpler life forms have gradually developed into more complex ones over time dates back at least to the Romans. Darwin's theoretical contribution was to propose themechanism by which this process happens. Any population of organisms contains some variation among its members, and some of these variations will be more conducive to survival and reproduction than others. As a result, the individuals which carry those variations will usually produce more offspring, and if those favorable variants are inherited traits (an important qualification), they will become more common in the population, so that over time the nature of the population changes.

It seems like a tiny effect, but operating over long enough spans of time, it can change a population of simple self-replicating molecules into a population of highly complex organisms such as you and me.]
http://infidel753.blogspot.ca/2013/02/darwin-day-2013.html

Would Y'all Get Off Dwight Howard's Back?

He broke his back carrying the Orlando Magic, literally and figuratively. He now averages a double double for a new team with a new couch, another superstar gobbling up all the shots, and an aging cast of veterans.

Who now plays point guard for the Lakers?  Who do they have on the roster besides the baller now known as Metta World Peace?  Does Luke Walton still play in LA for the Lakers?

C'mon, has anyone in Lakers organization seen tapes of Dwight in Orlando, with a point guard who timed up alley oops with him, the pick and roles SVG ran incessantly?

You gotta ask your if exists there a coach who can draw up plays to get the ball to the bigs.  Remember relatively recently the hated Celtics had a trio of tall folks who had a bit of success?  Untrained eyes focus on Mr. Bird but his 2 compadres used actual designed plays and screens and cuts to the basket and passing to score.

Plus, they also played a bit of defense.

People don't see the puppet master's team--another team in FL not my beloved Orlando Magic--playing great defense.  They pick up their men early up high, press them, rotate, and also play the passing lanes.  You can't beat them with lazy offense: cross court or sluggish passes, and quick missed threes with long rebounds leading to runout baskets which can add up to Heat scoring binges.  (hey statboys, lemme see that stat, baskets made by teams after opponents missed threes.)

For Dr. Naismith's sake can't anyone block out on defensive rebounds?  Letting Chris 'softer than tissue paper" Bosh rebound at will on offense amounts to a crime against basketball.

Frustrates me bad I can't wait until Cubs season starts.

How pathetic is that?

Yay. We Do Have Asteroid Defense Programs!

Golly gee whiz, videos of a meteor hitting the Earth this week and also a close asteroid fly by kind of give all a glimpse of the impermanence of our lives.  We can eat all the fruits and vegetables we want, exercise, get good sleep, to increase our life expectancy but a meteor might fall on our heads and kill us anyway.

Damn!.

Might as well have some laughs in the meantime.

[For those still concerned, meet the NEOShield, an actual in-the-works collaboration between private and national research institutions across Europe, Russia, and the United States working toward, as its name implies, a shield for earth. No, not a big surrounding enclosure, but a series of techniques to deflect not just meteorites, but also other, even larger Near Earth Objects, like asteroids. (Again, exhale: today an asteroid is coming as close as we've ever known, but it's not hitting the planet. Today still is a rare day.) Here are the three methods the project is developing. They're all the stuff of intergalactic childhood fantasy andvideo games:]
Read more: Global Asteroid Shield - Earth Shield in the Works - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/the-global-asteroid-shield-15104338#ixzz2L79xuuDv

Stupid Crook News

One Mr. Grady Bishop drove down the main drag of Orlando, Orange Avenue,, hitting three cars and allegedly drunk.  Even worse a crime came in his fashion statement for the evening; extremely short, Short, SHORTS!, and tshirt cut off to reveal an ample and hairy belly.

I wish burning my retinas out staring at the sun would remove the sight of him so clad on my teevee evening news, but blindness cannot erase that horror.  Despite our oft idyllic winter weather, one should at least still wear a coat or cover up somewhat.

Sheesh, the humanity.

[By Ashley Davis, Wed, February 13, 2013
A Florida man clad in extremely short white shorts and a belly shirt with the word “Jamaica” written on it was arrested Wednesday after he drove drunk in Orlando.

Grady Bishop crashed into three cars when he drove drunk down Orange Avenue. Soon, his car broke down, and that’s when police swooped in.

Bishop damaged the cars but no one was in the vehicles at the time. He also crashed into several street lights in front of City Hall.

He was given a field sobriety test on South Orange Avenue, which he failed. Authorities said Bishop, 51, had a blood-alcohol level over twice the legal limit.]
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/florida-man-grady-bishop-drives-around-tiny-white-shorts-and-belly-shirt-gets-dui-0

C, S, N, AND Y: "Cowgirl in the Sand"

Hoodoo Gurus: "Like Wow, Wipeout"

Hoodoo Gurus:"'Bittersweet"

Capitalism: Worst CEO's of 2012

Gosh, ain't capitalism grand?  You get to make multi=millions of dollars to drive companies into the ground, killing tens of thousand of jobs and get to walk away with your ill gotten gains, see Carly Fiorina at HP  or recent Hostess brands bankruptcy.

The latter hurts me personally; the Orlando Merita Bakery had a day old store with baked goods, condiments, cookies, and bread at substantial discounts.  Boy could get Twinkie fix fixed cheap.  Closing this will hurt thousands in neighborhoods, people in group homes, those who ran soup kitchens, many who depended on the savings at the stores.

Plus as for Orlando, there came on a bend on i-4 a wonderful wafting smell of baking bread from the Merita Bakery, and a sign with clock and brand name, an icon of my city.

Bastards.

Take a look at this story: The last sentence reads that Hostess had 900 million in debts, but the story fails to mention these debts came after 2 leveraged buyouts where everyone but the workers made boatloads of money and corporate officers and investors laughed their way to the banks.

[Yes, Hostess Brands was bankrupt before this strike happened. Indeed, it’s been bankrupt twice in the last 8 years, having only emerged from its last bankruptcy 3 years ago. Think about that a second. That means Hostess managed to go bankrupt, restructure, and run itself back into bankruptcy in 3 years. Perhaps this should get more play than “labor strike” when we discuss the demise of the company.

What prompted the company to run itself into the ground again? While the company has publicly placed all its business woes since 2009 on the difficult task of cutting labor costs, the reality is that the company remained behind the times. When America began to seek healthy alternatives to Wonder’s delicious but frightening 1950s deadly chemical feel,Hostess trudged onward losing market share to others. When childhood obesity became a national epidemic, Hostess kept churning out fat-filled cakes that sat uneaten on shelves. As the business faltered, Hostess turned blame on the workers.

But a losing business model with cheap labor can generate higher margins for only so long, and while this strike will provide the basis for closing the doors of the company, it will trigger the event that the company itself has planned for some time — liquidation. Hostess will now sell its famous brand names to other companies who can profit off them with smaller-scale production or by tweaking the product itself to better compete. For those at the top of Hostess, this — and not cutting labor costs while chasing diminishing markets — was the brass ring all along, with the owners of the company likely to become rich on these sales. By the way, who owns Hostess? If you guessed, “Private Equity firms seeking to slowly kill the company while milking its resources” you’d be right!]  emphasis added for scorn and derision

http://recessappointment.com/2012/11/16/hostess-a-lesson-in-blaming-unions-for-your-failures/
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/merita-bread-orlando-may-shut-its-door-following-h/nS787/


[2. Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy (CHK) who apparently has trouble keeping his company’s finances and his own apart. According to Reuters, McClendon borrowed as much as $1.1 billion over three years in undisclosed loans against his stake in thousands of company wells and ran a $200 million oil-and-gas hedge fund on the side, an “obvious conflict of interest,” Finkelstein says. Use of the company jet (and company employees) for personal purposes and a corporate sponsorship deal for Oklahoma City Thunder while McClendon was an owner of the basketball team also didn’t help. Jim Gipson, a spokesman for Chesapeake Energy, declined to comment.]
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/the-worst-ceos-of-2012#r=rss?campaign_id=bw.bs.taboola

J. Geils Band; "Love Stinks"

Jeff Beck; " 'Cause We've Ended as Lovers"

Love

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
h/t http://susiemadrak.com/2013/02/14/love-8/

Doug Flutie to Get Chance to Pitch in Major League Baseball

Huh?  Who said we have no third acts in America?

[Doug Flutie will be remembered as a great quarterback, but as a knuckleballer with the Arizona Diamondbacks? The former NFL Pro-Bowl quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner from Boston College is going to get his shot.

MLB Network will be debuting a new program, “The Next Knuckler” on Feb. 13. The premise of the show is to have former Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield teach a bunch of former college and NFL quarterbacks how to throw a knuckleball. The quarterback who shows the most promise as a pitcher will get an invitation from the Arizona Diamondbacks to try out for the team at spring training this season, according to Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports.]

http://tracking.si.com/2013/02/06/doug-flutie-diamondbacks-mlb-nfl-knuckleball/

Huzzah, Brewers Fight Fracking

Finally, someone stands up for rights of beer drinkers and having clean water to drink, although why you'd drink water escapes me.

[US brewers have now taken up their case against fracking, worried that any potential contamination of ground water supplies would ruin their business. The process of brewing beer requires clean water, with many breweries being built at the sites they are specifically for the mineral composition of the water.

Simon Thorpe, the CEO of the Ommegang Brewery explained to NBC that “it’s all about the quality of the water. The technology surrounding fracking is still not fully developed. Accidents are happening. Places are getting polluted.” His brewery was built in Cooperstown, NY, due to the ready access to fresh water, but “if that water supply is threatened by pollution, it makes it very difficult for us to produce world-class beer here.”...

Purification equipment at the Ommegang Brewery can filter sediment from the water, and alter the pH levels, but it cannot remove some of the chemicals that could potentially enter the water table via fracking, such as benzene, methane, and possibly diesel. If any such chemicals do enter the water supply then the brewery will have to import its water from elsewhere, or close the brewery completely.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-Breweries-go-to-War-against-Fracking-Industry.html

Who the Hell was Wes Montgomery?

Quite a damn great guitarist, as it turns out: John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968)^[1] was an Americanjazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Grant Green, Pat Martino, George Benson, Russell Malone,Emily Remler, Kenny Burrell, Pat Metheny, Steve Howe, and Jimi Hendrix.

C, S, N "4 + 20,' "Suite Judy Blue Eyes'

C, S, N: 'Southern Cross"

C, S, N, And Young

C,S, N, AND Y; "Chicago"

"We CAN Change the World!"

George W. Bush Embraces His Gay

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/09/the_artist_formerly_known_as_dubya/

Oh c'mon, we all face changes in life if good fortune grants us decades.  It might seem more extreme to move  from arguably most powerful man in the world to retire as a painter, narcissist painting pictures of limbs in thee tub.

That explains why you always have to think ahead to the next life, your next incarnation in the play.  Good thing I don't have so many dead bodies burdening my conscience.

[This is Bush the old man, with lots of time on his hands. Once the most powerful man in the world, Bush is now alone, exploring his immediate surroundings in these spurts of introspection. If only he had done this all along, maybe he would’ve been a better leader.]

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/09/the_artist_formerly_known_as_dubya/

Stupour Bowl Commercials

Aliens picking through the bones of no longer Earth and marveling at waste of resources as evidenced by time spent on stupid commercials while issues vital to survival of human race like global warming going unnoticed.

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/31/2013_super_bowl_ad_preview/

Stupid Crook News

Dear criminals of the future, please don't flip a judge off at your sentencing; our jails have gotten crowded..

[MIAMI —
A Miami woman was jailed on contempt charges after flipping off a judge during a drug possession hearing.

A Miami television station reported 18-year-old Penelope Soto laughed Monday when Circuit Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat asked how much her jewelry was worth as he inquired about her financial assets.

The judge told Soto "we're not in a club, be serious about it." Soto said she was being serious.

He set Soto's bond at $5,000 and said, "bye-bye." Soto laughed again and replied, "Adios." He summoned her back to the podium and reset bond at $10,000.

Soto asked, "Are you serious?" The judge replied, "I am serious. Adios."

Soto flipped him off and blurted an expletive as she walked away.

The judge then called Soto back.

Judge: "Did you say (expletive) me?"

Soto: "Actually..."

Judge: "Did you say that?"

Soto: "Yes sir, I did."

Judge: "Oh, you did say that? I find you in direct criminal contempt. Thirty days in the county jail."

The judge asked Soto whether she was on drugs, to which she replied, "no."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.]

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/miami-woman-jailed-after-flipping-judge/nWGDR/

Hillary Clinton Starts Fancy We Site

[Just days after formally stepping down from her role as Secretary of State under President Obama, Hillary Clinton unveiled a slick new website which has, in turn, further fueled rumors that the former first lady may be eyeing a run in 2016.

The DailyMail reports that Clinton’s new site officially launched on January 31, the same day her previous site ‘Hillary Clinton for President’ from 2008 shut down.

Clinton has been coy in her answering of questions regarding a potential run for president in 2016. She last spoke of the matter while conducting a joint interview with President Obama for ‘60 Minutes.’

In the interview, Clinton said, “I am still secretary of State. So I'm out of politics. And I'm forbidden from even hearing these questions.”

Clinton has also said that she is looking forward to a few months of rest and relaxation after her time as Secretary of State which had her travelling around the world. Her post has now been filled by other 2004 presidential nominee Democrat John Kerry.]
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Former-Secretary-of-State-Hillary-Clinton-unveils-slick-new-website-fuels-Presidential-rumors-190179421.html#ixzz2KKPoWst2

Dolphins Blackmail

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/06/3218544/dolphins-get-unanimous-support.html

Coca Cola Vitaminwater Fraud

[In light of Coca-Cola's much-discussed attempt to place itself at the vanguard in the fight against obesity—see video above—it's worth taking look at its line of "enhanced waters," known as Glacéau vitaminwater. You could be forgiven for thinking the product is a life-giving nectar. The made-up word Glacéau evokes the purity of glaciers. Vitamins are essential nutrients. And water is an unimpeachable ingredient.

Coca-Cola's marketing encourages the healthy image. According vitaminwater's website [1], the Power -C [2]flavor of vitaminwater delivers "zinc and vitamin C to power your immune system"; while the XXX [3] offers "antioxidant vitamins to help fight free radicals and help support your body." And so on [1].

But not everyone's convinced that vitaminwater does a body good. Back in 2009, the Center for Science in the Public Interest sued [4] Coca-Cola for making "deceptive and unsubstantiated" health claims about the products. In 2010, a US federal district court judge rejected Coca-Cola's motion to dismiss the suit (document here [5]), noting that Coke's lawyers had made a remarkable argument: "At oral argument defendants suggested that no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

In other words, no one actually believes our flashy marketing—it's obviously nonsense. The vitaminwater suit still hasn't been resolved, a CSPI spokesperson informed me. And hilarity over Coca-Cola's cynical defense strategy is ongoing, too. Stephen Colbert spoofed it just this week:]
http://www.motherjones.com/print/213726

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Did Some Sports Event Occur Sunday?

Sarah Palin: 'Tweren't Worth a Dime

[With the three-year contract now expired between FOX News and Sarah Palin, there is a wealth of commentary made by the former Alaska Governor and GOP Vice-Presidential nominee to dissect.

Palin, who was paid a reported $1 million per year as a contributor to FOX since mid-January 2010 when FOX announced her signing, may not have made quite the splash her employers had hoped during this three-year period, and would, on occasion go weeks between appearances.

So, did the network get their money's worth?

A Smart Politics review of the more than 150 FOX broadcasts in which Sarah Palin appeared as a paid commentator from 2010 through 2012 finds that she spoke 189,221 words on air during this span, for an average pay rate of $15.85 per word.]
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2013/01/the_price_of_palin_15_per_word.php

"How will you keep me from hanging?'

"Prevarication, procrastination and chicanery," Paladin, played by Richard Boone.

Sex Pistols Reunion

Buy an iPad, Kill a Puppy

[Apple has vowed to route out children from its vast workforce after an audit in China revealed one of the company’s component makers employed over 70 underage workers. The tech giant increased its audits by 72 percent in 2012 following numerous scandals emerging over working conditions in its Chinese factories, including a spate of suicides in manufacturer Foxconn factories in 2010.

“While child labor reflected a small percentage of the workforce, Apple is investigating its smaller suppliers – which typically supply parts to larger suppliers and hence face less scrutiny – to bring them into compliance,” Reuters reported. Apple’s senior vice-president of operations, Jeff Williams, said that the company was increasing efforts to look “deep in the supply chain” to check for child workers. “When we do find it, we ensure that the underage workers are taken care of, the suppliers are dealt with,” he said.]
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/25/apple_audit_finds_child_workers_in_china/

The Who: "Who are You"

Beer, not Just for Breakfast!

[The university teamed with a Seattle pharmaceutical firm to, once and for all, resolve the structure of the acids that are created by hops, which are used as a bittering agent in beer. Such compounds, they say, play a role in reports that moderate beer drinking can have positive health effects — on diabetes, forms of cancer, inflammation, even weight loss (explain that to some of my old college classmates).]

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/02/drink_to_your_health_partner/

Fight for the Right to Arm Bears

Or the right to bare arms.  Bare everything in San Francisco.  Having few inhibitions and a day under my metaphorical belt at the nudie beach, it occurs that public nudity of average people does not turn out that titillating or exciting.  Middle aged people generally got lumps and bulges and varicose veins so that getting nekkid in public not exactly recommended.

Oh, I'll stand behind anyone fighting for free expression, but doesn't mean I needed to see the trim gentleman's sack hanging down to the sand at Playalinda.  Golly, guy either had to shuffle his feet to walk or kick his nuts out of the way to take a step.

[The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Four protesters were arrested entirely in the buff as they took to the steps of San Francisco City Hall in a brazen challenge of the city's ban on public nudity on Friday, the first day it went into effect.

One woman and three men — one wearing just a mesh thong — were taken into custody as about a dozen other protesters in various states of undress paraded around with painted slogans on their bodies, holding up signs with messages such as "The Human Body is Beautiful."

Police gave them a 15-minute warning to disperse or put pants on before officers arrested those who failed to cover themselves. The protesters said their arrest would advance the cause of "body freedom."

"No matter what, we're going to continue practicing body freedom," said Gypsy Taub, a mother of two who hosts a local cable program devoted to the nudist cause. "In a society that's repressed and crazy, that glorifies war and at the same time criminalizes the human body ... nudity is a political statement."]

http://www.wftv.com/news/ap/crime/4-naked-protesters-arrested-defying-nudity-ban/nWC9L/

Nudity as a public statement.  Wonder if that line will work, "Hey, baby, wanna see my political statement?"

The University of West Bithlo; Still trying to avoid responsbility

The university of West Bithlo, still appealing to avoid a judgment of negligence in the death of a football player at practice, now also seeks to avoid taking responsibility for getting caught violating recruiting rules.

This comes in addition to joining a disintegrating athletic conference, the Big Least.

Oh irony, thou art a heartless but endlessly amusing wench, that ucF bigwigs about to get their wet dream of major college membership just as that goes belly up like dead fish in a red tide bloom.

[ORLANDO, Fla. —
University of Central Florida officials will be in Indianapolis Thursday to try to avoid serving a one-year postseason ban for its football team when they move to the Big East Conference next year.

UCF President Dr. John Hitt, athletic director Todd Stansbury and members of their legal counsel will present their case in front of the NCAA's committee on infractions.

The NCAA handed down the punishment because of recruiting violations, but the Knights plan to argue that none of the student athletes involved ever played for UCF.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/ucf-officials-try-avoid-post-season-football-ban/nT4zG/

Today in Shameless Self Promotion: Crosby Stills, Nash, AND Young on Sale

OK, even blood sucking behemoths of companies like Amazon can screw up and do something good-or at least not wretchedly evil--like having once of the classic Rock albums, Four Way Street, on sale.

On Sale!

One of the seminal albums of the 70's, put out by Crosby, Stills, Nash AND Young, Four Way Street came out as a double vinyl live collection.

With songs lie "Teach Your Children," "Our House," and "Woodstock," they provided an ethos for a generation.  At tender age of 12, however, I was a little young too have this as my generation and then a little too old after punk came along, a betweener geezer searching for songs with lead guitars, whose only iPod remains the voices in his head.

Like getting it at the electronic cut out rack for only $5.99, damn well a bargain!

Plus, you can join Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and Amazon will give some coin to that worthy cause with their giving aid