Breyers, Say It Ain't So; All Natural Doesn't Mean All Milk

Great Haysoos, Mary, and Joseph, even at my most jaded and cynical, had hoped the world held a few things to count upon: man's cruelty to other humans, wars, occasional glimpses of love, and teevee preachers stealing money from the gullible.

Nevertheless among the chaff of human life, always thought I could count on curling up with a quart of Breyers All Natural Mint Chocolate Chip or Butter Pecan ice cream.

Psych, they've started adding natural but crap products.

Do I really have nothing to believe in any more; has everything gotten sacrificed on the altar of Mammon?

[....Breyers has been making ice cream since 1866, and was famous for its Pledge of Purity guarantee and simple ingredients. But Breyers has done a little under-the-radar switcharoo, turning many of its products into something called a “ frozen dairy dessert,” complete with nasty gums and corn syrup and unpronounceable ingredients. The company can no longer legally call such products “ice cream” because there’s not enough cream or milk fats to meet the standards set by the USDA (score one for government regulation).

But you’d have to read the fine print on the packaging to know that your beloved Butter Pecan ice cream is now a chemical swamp.

In what appears to have been a cost-cutting move (using less dairy fat is cheaper), Breyers has been selling this gunk to unsuspecting customers for a few years now. Despite shrunken packages and cheaper ingredients, the price has only gone up.]
http://www.alternet.org/economy/7-major-consumer-rip-offs-watch-out-holiday-shopping-season

Scenes from Behind the Medicaid Cuts: Droolers

Droolers disgust me.

I don't know why.

Oh, that amounts to a lie.  I do have some ideas.

First, we humans have deep innate fears of freaks and geeks and gimps; in olden days perhaps those got shunted off to circus side shows gnawing on chicken bones while caged for spectators.  So my innate fear of a life lived in mockery scares the shit out of me.

Then, we also know in our bones that even if not born a geek, the random number table and physics applied to frail human bones and brains can turn the strong into gibbering idiots, twisted like scrap metal from an "accident" and or with mental faculties faulted, synapses and circuits burned, hands twisted, face contorted into an unfunny grin, trying to point with hands turned claw like and with speech now reduced to squawks, grunts, and moans to try to communicate our wants, needs, and desires, spittle spilling out of our mouths without our noticing., leaving us husks of our former selves.

Would I still inside my mind have full thought but just too many blocks between thinking and expressing, left grunting and squealing at the nurse before meal time because of hunger in our belly, even left like one fed through a tube in his belly to fill the stomach but never to enjoy the rich tapestry of taste while eating?  In a like manner, fear comes of knowing of kindness and compassion in the hugs and pats of loving caregivers but never the love of sleeping next to a partner on a cold winter night, of knowing another in a biblical sense, of la mort petit, of what we too easily and hurriedly call love when we really mean instants lived fully in the moments of physical selves but also grasping the ineffable and infinite.

Even the well-spoken Ronnie, a bit of a misshapen lump in his souped up electric wheel chair who has to look at you askance from his 1 good eye, drools a mite bit on his crisply pressed shirt.

So a high functioning quadriplegic like myself could fit into this adult living facility and hopefully help other residents and prove a positive example even though burn to return to a life of lonely Independence.

So every policy debate in Washington, DC, and state governments around the land come not as choices on entitlements or Medicaid but must measure against the care given those broken beyond repair.

Come and live one stinking, scary day in my wheelchair, Senator Ted Cruz, R Fantasy Land, and Representative Paul Ryan, R Austerity, then tell me what your Jesus would have you do.

Sorry, Lord, droolers disgust me for fear of becoming thus.

Eyesight To The Blind & Christmas - The Who

Crosby Stills & Nash - Cathedral

Crosby Stills and Nash - Teach Your Children Well - Beacon Theater NYC O...

Rock and Roll Doctor ~ Little Feat ~ Live 1976

Led Zeppelin - Black Dog - Celebration Day [OFFICIAL]

Joey Ramone - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Resting.....

....up after dialysis.  Don;t feel  bad; don't feel good either.  Am sort of concerned 'bout getting murdered in my sleep tonight by a vengeful Italiano mafioso grandmama.

You see, every skilled nursing facility, "rehab" centre, and high school  has those think they run things: those to deluded, dim, or beautiful to realize they--and all humans-- merely maintain an illusion of control as we surf the tides fate and fortune.

So this slight, stoop shouldered, shuffling slip of a woman doing laps up and down the hall from after supper until midnight paused early her travels and put her hand on my doorknob and went to close the door.

Don't know why, perhaps just spite or fact had finally door open and view into hall after a  long day of hiding behind a drawn curtain while various indignities and assaults visited upon my person, I told her no.

Then we had a tense 15 minute stand off with her talking in Eyetalian and me saying no.

Good thing she fell for my bluff,

What was I gonna do; get out of bed?

Unfortunately, ain't happenin'.

Clarence Carter Back Door Santa

Rot in Hell, King Leopold

Unaware until today that yesterday stood as the 104th anniversary of death of bad King Leopold the Royal Deuce of Wannabe-Bad-Ass Belgium, as wretched a tyrant as ever lived and mayhaps the worst as he had empire envy: other European powers split most of the the world, and he only got the stinkin' Congo.

To that, he reacted with savagert all too predictable of a civilized Christian:
[Leopold thought, how could a country be influential if it didn't have darker peoples under its boot....The despot's nefarious forces, dubbed the Force Publique, invaded the Congo Free State and unleashed a horror many of us can't even fathom. The invaders raped Congolese women, destroyed homes and villages, sucked vital resources (rubber and ivory) from the country and, more infamously as shown above, cut off the hands of native peoples to intimidate those who didn't produce enough rubber to meet the quota or to show military superiors that bullets hadn't been wasted on, gasp--wait for it, animals. Those beautiful black hands, by the way, are still a presence in Belgium. I was in Brussels several years ago and a candy shop, near the European Commission's headquarters, was selling chocolate hands. No other customer seemed to recognize the odious irony of it all. But, then again, that's Europe for you: a lovely and historically rich continent spectacularly ignorant of its role in multiple genocides.]  (Emphasis added because of sarcasm below, Also can't bare seeing pic at this link)  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/17/1263307/-Rest-In-Hell-Dear-Leopold?detail=email

So US does count as more moral place than Europe 'cause we only have the blood price of one genocide on our heads.

Don't Move to Florida

Sure come to visit and spend your hard earned ducats, euros, and dollars to keep our low wage service economy going, but please don't plan on coming to live.

We will soon run out of water; ever' damn body has a gun and can't wait to stand their ground, and we have crooks aglore, some seemingly too stupid to even breathe.

Things get weird in a hurry down here.

It would help to be crazy to live here, but you gotta embrace the strange: such as the cutest convict or actual flesh eating zombies, and sinkholes swallowing our penninsula.

Rule # 1, cardio.

"Sinkholes illustrate an interesting point: In some cases, what we call natural disasters actually aren't. Florida's sinkhole problem is partially due to a shrinking water table, caused by millions of thirsty citizens. To its credit, the state is looking for alternatives for potable water, and is actually a global leader in desalination. But desalination remains an extremely expensive, energy-inefficient process of turning saltwater into consumable water."  emphasis added

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/floridas-sinkhole-problem-is-one-part-of-americas-looming-water-woes

Update part du trois (Part the three)

OK, count me all in for national security of the homeland, vaterland, and even U S hinterland--plus favor fulll employment for otherwise on the dole, pudgy, living in their parents' basements, and for God's sake at least wear a robe when you role play every waking minute of your pathetic-dreary-afraid-to-talk-to-real-girls lives--but to have the United States of Irrational Security and formerly Great Britain pay so many gamers to "infiltrate" video games like World of Warcraft looking for actual by gosh terrorists that they end up playing with each other, things have gone a trifle too far.

Shoot, Ameriduh, terrorists have passed messages in porn so hire me!

[Computerworld - American and British spy agencies apparently believe there are real-life terrorists lurking among the elves, gnomes and the trolls of online gaming worlds.

For the past several years, the National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), have secretly monitored activity and harvested data from massively multiplayer online game networks like World of Warcraft and Second Life....

Just last week, the Washington Post reported on how the agency is daily collecting location data from millions of cellphones around the world, including those belongiong to Americans travelling abroad.]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244642/The_NSA_tracks_i_World_of_Warcraft_i_and_other_online_games_for_terrorist_clues

Update Part the Second

Sad that CBS 60 Minutes has lost whatever shred of journalistic integrity it once had: [On December 15, 60 Minutes aired a report on the National Security Agency based on unprecedented access to its headquarters and interviews with Agency staff, including its chief, Keith Alexander, who discussed the concerns many Americans have about its operations since the disclosures by Edward Snowden.

The segment opened with reporter John Miller's acknowledgement that he had once worked at another federal intelligence agency. It featured no critics of the NSA....

Miller's report was immediately ripped apart by NSA critics and veteran journalists. Some have called the veracity of CBS News' reporting into question. Others termed the segment a "puff piece" and an "embarrassing" "infomercial," saying that it filmed was under guidelines that overwhelmingly favored the agency and proved the effectiveness of the NSA's communications staff.]
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/17/nsa-report-means-more-trouble-for-60-minutes/197310

Veracity, the ability to speak truth, one would think that important to a "news" show.

Also see: http://prospect.org/article/four-takeaways-yesterdays-nsa-ruling#.UrBw1xOrFws.twitter.

#XMAS JAMMIES - Merry Christmas from the Holderness Family!

Update on 60 Minutes 15 Dec NSA Piece

[Instead, during an interview by CBS correspondent John Miller with NSA officials, we learned of a nefarious plot worthy of the best Cold War era spy novels. NSA brass spoke of a Chinese "BIOS Plot", designed to "brick" all computers and crash the global economy. The supposed evil plan was foiled by the NSA, with the help of a few good computer companies.]

Derision best expressed in a comment: [Second, the US economy is too vast, diversified, and chaotic to have a single point of cyber-failure. Third, China’s economy is so tied to the US’s that Beijing would ultimately damage itself by mass-bricking US computers.]
http://blogs.computerworld.com/governmentindustries/23289/nsa-flashes-bios-60-minutes-itbwcw?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2013-12-17

Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto-James Brown

"All this time, I Just Thought I Was Being Paranoid"

First, let me write it pains me to write anything remotely positive about Larry Klayman, some what less necessary to societty than an enema nozzle. You hate 'em, avoid 'em like plague, but if taking pain killers and constipated, you sometimes need 'em; but c'mon, this ass tool sued his mother.

In this case, Klayman files suit against Obama and others for excesses of NSA spying; a noble cause indeed but he never bothered nor cared nor filed suit for such spying until a brother--oops, a Democrat--gets elected prez while these programs started as far back as when the embers of World War the Deuce cooled.

Now, a federal judge has ruled the current prctices of the National Security Agency may well be proved unconstitutional. (Full Opinion)

Thanks, Mr. Enema, oops, Klayman.

[Computerworld - In a potential blow to government surveillance efforts, a federal judge in Washington D.C today ruled that the National Security Agency's practice of collecting phone metadata records on millions of Americans may be unconstitutional.

In a 68-page ruling, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia noted that the plaintiffs in the case had a legal basis for challenging the constitutionality of the government's bulk data collection.

Based on information presented to the court, the plaintiffs have demonstrated "a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their Fourth Amendment claim" against unreasonable search by the government, the Judge ruled.

He granted a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by public interest lawyer Larry Klayman and other plaintiffs in the case seeking an immediate end to the NSA's bulk collection of phone metadata records. However, because of the significant national security interests at stake and the novelty of the constitutional issues raised by the case, Leon said he would stay the preliminary injunction pending an appeal by the government.]
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244833/Update_Judge_rules_NSA_spy_efforts_may_be_unconstitutional?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2013-12-16

Full Opinion

History: (My emphasis throughout)

[Project Echelon began with a secret post-World-War-II pact between the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, countries housing Echelon's half dozen listening posts. These groups funnel intelligence to the NSA and receive in return technology sharing with the NSA to monitor their own people and a chunk of the budget.

The project has five "ear-in-the-sky" satellites capable of monitoring sounds from thousands of miles away. They allow Echelon to intercept virtually any internationally-transmitted phone call, fax, e-mail or data transfer for the ostensible purpose of tracking international terrorist groups or drug cartels. But unlike many spying relics of the Cold War, Echelon is aimed at surveillance of civilian communications, such as business and personal e-mails. Barr's office estimates Echelon intercepts up to 2 million transmissions per hour.

While the NSA will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the Echelon system, a report commissioned by the European Parliament last year confirmed that every communication in Europe has been subject to surveillance for years and the system can decode any clever encryptions. More alarmingly, European business intelligence has been known to leak from the NSA to American businesses, providing American businesses with illicit information on mergers, take-overs and bids.]
https://www.fas.org/irp/program/process/991116-echelon.htm


While CBS program 60Minutes from 15 Dec 2013 allowed the National Security Agency Administration to burnish the image of the Agency, once jokingly referred to as No Such Agency, their own correspondent reported on the Agency and listening rograms as far back as 27 Feb 2000.
[60 MINUTES
Television Broadcast February 27, 2000

ECHELON; WORLDWIDE CONVERSATIONS BEING RECEIVED BY THE ECHELON SYSTEM MAY FALL INTO THE WRONG HANDS AND INNOCENT PEOPLE MAY BE TAGGED AS SPIES

STEVE KROFT, co-host:

If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency and four English-speaking allies: Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

The mission is to eavesdrop on enemies of the state: foreign countries, terrorist groups and drug cartels. But in the process, Echelon's computers capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world.

How does it work, and what happens to all the information that's gathered? A lot of people have begun to ask that question, and some suspect that the information is being used for more than just catching bad guys.

(Footage of satellite; person talking on cell phone; fax machine; ATM being used; telephone pole and wires; radio towers)

KROFT: (Voiceover) We can't see them, but the air around us is filled with invisible electronic signals, everything from cell phone conversations to fax transmissions to ATM transfers. What most people don't realize is that virtually every signal radiated across the electromagnetic spectrum is being collected and analyzed.

How much of the world is covered by them?

Mr. MIKE FROST (Former Spy): The entire world, the whole planet--covers everything. Echelon covers everything that's radiated worldwide at any given instant.

KROFT: Every square inch is covered.

Mr. FROST: Every square inch is covered.

(Footage of Frost; listening post)

KROFT: (Voiceover) Mike Frost spent 20 years as a spy for the CSE, the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, and he is the only high-ranking former intelligence agent to speak publicly about the Echelon program. Frost even showed us one of the installations where he says operators can listen in to just about anything.] My emphasis throughout.
http://cryptome.org/echelon-60min.htm

Even erstwhile Republican. Eric Margolis,  now recognize the dangers of such a program to our civil liberties:
[In 1975, I was invited to join the US Senate’s Church Committee that was formed after the Watergate scandals. Its goal was to investigate massive illegalities committed by the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI.

As a then staunch Republican, and having worked on President Nixon’s reelection campaign developing Mideast policy, I declined.

With the wisdom of hindsight, I should have joined the investigation.

Senator Frank Church warned: “ If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. “

The Church Committee revealed Washington’s role in the assassinations of foreign leaders, CIA collaboration with the Mafia, wide scale subversion around the globe, mail and phone intercepts, spying on Americans by the US Army and intelligence services, collusion with right-wing terrorist groups like Gladio, and much, much more.

Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA malfeasance have done much the same thing today. Both Church and Snowden were branded traitors by rightwing zealots and flag-wavers. Government security agencies were reined in for decades. But it’s now clear they are not only back to their old tricks, but are out of control.]

The gigantic rock lifted by the courageous Snowden revealed the chilling global reach of US electronic domination and intrusion.]
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-margolis/52487/ben-franklin-was-right-about-the-nsa


Now lest you think this of just academic or historical import, consider the US Drug Enforcement Agency has formed a secret unit to pass on information collected without warrants to local law enforcement agencies about drug crimes, non-violent drug crimes.
[(Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

"I have never heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.

"It is one thing to create special rules for national security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up investigations.]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805

Phonying up investigations: your tax dollars at work.

Thanks, Larry.

http://empireofdirt77.blogspot.com/2013/08/all-this-time-i-thought-i-was-just.html

The Kinks -- Father Christmas (better audio)

Crosby Stills & Nash - Southern Cross (Remastered/lyrics)

One of my favorite songs of all time.  Had to include version w/ lyrics since, as a poetry lover, a few lines bedeviled me for decades.

Plus, perplexes me this music less popular and known; it occupies a greater space in music history than just soundtrack for a target advert: "Teach Your Children," an excellent example of how 3 distinct voices blending in subllime harmony.

Perhaps more importantly, "Teach.." teaches us so-called hippie ethic of love and tolerance and essential elements of ethical human living.

'Nuff ssaid.