Las Vegas hasn't seen this much snow since records were kept

                               

 I have a nephew who lives near Las Vegas.

He works in the city however.

 I've been there many times myself, and in every season,   but have never seen snow there. Don't tell me there's no global warming!

Click Here for the story.

 

 

 

 

 

AP News Photos

Blog babble on a Rainy Thursday Afternoon

I was checking out the most popular post in the last 48 hours and without a doubt it's the column I wrote for the Times-Standard - Election Fallout: Hate Groups Show Growth (see column on right for a link) a couple of weeks ago. Over 100 readers looked at it.

I have two followers. One, is Tom Holloway who has his own blog: "The Grand Life" (See my blog roll). And the other is ANEMONE (who does not have a blog). I do not know who this person is...but thanks for subscribing!

There's been 50 foreign visitors in the last 48 hours. England and Canada lead the way for the most appearances.
Hello to: Rheden Gelderlands, Netherlands; Taby, Stockholms-Lan, Sweden; Waremme Liege, Belgium; Istanbul, Turkey; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania; Thana Maharashtra, India; Rezekne, Latvia; London, United Kingdom; Huddersfield, Kirklees, United Kingdom; Glasgow, Glasgow City, United Kingdom; Erwitte, Nordrhein-westfalen, Germany; Torhout, West-vlaanderen, Belgium; Newport, United Kingdom; Delta, British Columbia, Canada; Winnipeg, Mantiba, Canada; Birmingham, United Kingdom; Shannon Clare, Ireland; Belgrade, Serbia Proper,Serbia; Camberley, Surrey, United Kingdom; Stratford, Ontario, Canada; Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Athens Atiki, Greece; Veldhoven, Noord brabant, Netherlands; Tasikmalaya, Jawa Barat, Indonesia; Sudbury, Ontario, Canada; Haarlem, Noord-holland, Netherlands;Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico; Whitby, Ontario, Canada;Brno, Jihomoravsky Kraj, Czech Republic; Ajax, Ontario, Canada; Sable River, Nova Scotia, Canada; Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Etropole, Sofiya, Bulgaria; Keighley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom;
Naples, Campania, Italy; Plaza, Cagayan, Philippines;Auckland, New Zealand; Ijmuiden, Noord-holland, Netherlands; Padova, Veneto, Italy; Northwich, Cheshire, United Kingdom; Reutlingen, Baden-wuttemberg, Germany;Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, United Kingdom; Wallsend, North Tyneside, United Kingdom; Tumba, Stockholms Lan, Sweden; Barnsley, United Kingdom; and Knottingley, York, United Kingdom.

Thanks also to the rest of my visitors from throughout the United States. You're getting too numerous for me to list anymore. Your coming in the hundreds every day and I just have to say...thanks for coming my way!

BLOG ON!

Take a Tour of the First Ice Motel in North America

About 10 km east of Québec City, near Montmorency Falls and within the grounds of the Duchesnay winter resort, the first ice hotel in North America is erected each January.

 Its 22 beds were sold out when it first opened in 2000. In its last iteration it had 85 beds, all made of ice but lined with deer furs and covered with mattresses and arctic sleeping bags.

 Only the bathrooms are heated, in a separate insulated structure.

 The hotel is usually made (the architecture and size may vary from season to season) with 4,750 tons of sculpted ice, forming arches over rooms with 16 foot (5 m) and larger and higher spaces for two art galleries (filled with ice sculptures of course) a bar, a movie theater, and a chapel where weddings are celebrated.

 The walls are more than 4 feet (1.2 m) thick on average. All of the furniture is made of ice. In addition to using ice glasses as in the Kiruna ice hotel, the bar (and room service) also serves cold cuts on ice plates.

Photos from Damn Funny Pictures

 

Obama Picks New SEC chief and other regulators

President-elect Barack Obama introduces Mary Schapiro as his designate for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman during a news conference in Chicago, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008.

 With them is Gary Gensler, the President-elect's designate for Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman and Daniel Tarullo, right, for a Federal Reserve seat.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Street Art:Where Illusions Challenge Reality and Perspective

  

Abandoned Art Comes To Life Across America:Junk or Jewels?

  

Cars are deserted and left to rust in every country all over the world. Most people wouldn't see them as very photogenic, but take a look below and see what a little ingenuity with lighting can achieve! These vehicles are from all over the USA, you can see some more abandoned vehicle pictures here.

  

Foreign Countries are Major Donors to Clinton Foundation

Former President Bill Clinton's foundation has raised tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments that his wife will engage as the next secretary of state.

The former president's foundation is releasing a list of its donors Thursday under an agreement that cleared the way for President-elect Barack Obama to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

Saudi Arabia gave more than $10 million to the foundation, which pays for Clinton's presidential library and his charitable work around the world.

Other foreign government givers include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica. Indian interests are represented.

The huge donor list is packed with international business leaders and billionaires.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Barack Obama | Italy | Hillary Rodham Clinton | Norway | Kuwait | Jamaica | Qatar | Oman | Brunei | Clinton Foundation

Gingerbread people just want to have more fun!

       

   

Thanks to Funnyphotos.com

Obama and lobbyists: are they friends or foes?

                                                             By Dave Stancliff
     I don’t know about you, but I am getting mixed signals from the Obama camp about lobbyists.
During the presidential campaign “lobbyists” was a dirty word, and Obama took every opportunity to accuse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of being in bed with them.

One year ago, Barack Obama told the Chicago Tribune, “I’m running to tell the lobbyists in Washington, D.C., that the day of setting the agenda is over. They have not funded my campaign.”
 The problem with this quote is that it’s not true. Anyone who wants to see how much the Obama campaign got from lobbyists can easily Google numerous watchdog and government sites. This is public record, so we’ll move on to an article published in The New York Times on Nov 23rd.
  The Times produced a list of 38 people who were working on Obama’s transition team who have accepted jobs in the White House and are either former lobbyists or have close ties to lobbyists.

  I won’t list them all here for lack of space. For starters, there’s John Podesta, recently named to head the transition team. Podesta lobbied for The Center for American Progress until 2006, and is currently the CEO of that organization, on leave to work with Obama.
 Mark Gitenstein, named as an advisory board member, lobbied for Merrill Lynch, KPMG, and Ernst & Young until this fall. Tom Donilon, member of the State Department review team, lobbied for Fannie Mae in 2005.
 Michael Strautmanis, senior staff member, lobbied for the American Association of Justice, a trial lawyers group, until 2005.  Sally Katzen, agency review member, lobbied for Amgen until 2007. Cassandra Butts, senior staff member, lobbied for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East until just recently.
 You get the idea. Lobbyists are popping out of the woodwork and its payoff time. I admit to a sense of disillusionment as Obama packed his staff with them. Some experts say lobbyists are here to stay and it’s just the price of doing business.
Lobbying is protected under the First Amendment that says we may petition the government for a “redress of grievances.” It appears that lobbying is a necessary evil. It’s also absurdly out-of-control.
          According to Congressional historians, lawmakers rarely became lobbyists until the early 1980s. Lobbyists jobs were considered tainted and unworthy of once-elected officials. It was beneath their dignity.
  That all changed with the increased demand for lobbyists, huge salaries, a greater turnover in Congress, and a change in the control of the House (during Clinton’s term) when the Republican Party held a majority for the first time since 1954.
  Congressional historians pointed out that the Democratic Party was plagued by a series of scandals. Since a 2000 Congressional report, the number of registered lobbyists has grown to 34,750.
 Lobbyists can be seen as good or bad depending on who they represent. What the Constitution failed to cover is how can every American exercise that right when understanding how Congress operates can baffle anyone from a CEO to Joe the Plumber?
Lobbying and political corruption often go hand-in-hand when done on behalf of corporations that make huge contributions to political parties. Obama has come up with a list of new rules that some analysts say could benefit non profits.
    * Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
   * Lobbyists cannot lobby while they work with the transition.
  *  If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they cannot work in the fields of policy in which they lobbied.
   * If someone becomes a lobbyist after working with the transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
    * Finally, a ban on gifts to reduce the influence of special interests.
   I clearly remember Obama’s pledge to change the way Washington works and to curb the influence of lobbyists. It sounded good. These new rules don’t strike me as reducing the influence of professional lobbyists. It’s going to be business as usual.
As It Stands, I find it hypocritical, and sad, that our form of “transparent” democracy is so dependent upon this corrupt practice.

Parowan Prophet Predicts Nuclear Disaster Will Stop Obama From Taking Office

'He will not be the next president,' Leland Freeborn warns those who will listen. He and his followers expect nuclear explosions this Christmas season.

The Parawan Prophet, aka Leland Freeborn, use to be a Mormon but broke from the Church.

He, and his followers, are preparing for the worst, which they expect will take the form of a nuclear holocaust caused by the Russians attacking our country.

Freeborn has his own survivalist web site to spread the bad news.

Peter H. King, of the Los Angeles Times, interviewed this self-proclaimed prophet. Click here to read the whole story.