Carl’s corner: first time fingerpainting for granddaughter

Proud grandpa, Carl Young, was Johnny-on-the-spot in documenting his granddaughter Emily Rose’s first experience with fingerpainting.

No kidding! Spaghetti Tacos Are Sweeping the Nation

Spaghetti tacos. Like every good trend, this one started with the kids.

After the character Spencer on Nickelodeon's iCarly cooked up the unusual pairing--a beautiful marriage of two beloved cuisines--kids everywhere demanded it be on their dinner plates.

The New York Times reports it's the most requested dish for slumber parties and there is even a Facebook page with over 1,200 fans and climbing. The dish has had a re-occuring role on the sitcom, appearing in six episodes since 2007. Though the writer of the show Dan Schneider hasn't tested it out, he is married to the woman behind Hungry Girl. They plan to prepare the meal at home and post a video on YouTube.

Panel results: Feds blocked worst-case Gulf spill figures

This information comes as no surprise to many scientists who were involved with the clean-up and tracking of the spill. It’s probably news to the average American, who should be outraged.

The stinking mess from this spill is going to carry over into generations of fish and wildlife. 

Interviews reveal that the White House denied a request to make discharge numbers public:

“The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and made other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster.”

Supreme Court weighs arguments over 'Thank God for dead soldiers' funeral protest

Westboro Baptist Church says war deaths are punishment for U.S. immorality

Supreme Court justices Wednesday struggled with the free-speech question of whether fundamentalist church members have a right to picket funerals for dead soldiers.

See my column: Snyder vs Phelps: a case of free speech or harassment?

The justices heard arguments in the emotion-laden case of Albert Snyder of York, Pa. His son, a Marine, died in Iraq in 2006. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, protested the funeral to make their point that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for Americans' immorality, including tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.

Report: Taliban chiefs enter secret talks with government to end war

Sources say that for the first time negotiators authorized to speak for Quetta Shura

Secret talks to end the war in Afghanistan have begun between representatives of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, The Washington Post reported on its website Tuesday night.

My What Big Eyes You Have! New species from New Guinea

Scientists found at least 20 new species of katydids in Papua New Guinea's Muller Range, including this pink-eyed Caedicia. ;Click through a slideshow of new species found in Papua New Guinea.

“Alan Boyle writes: Conservationists are celebrating the discovery of more than 200 new species in the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea, ranging from flowers to frogs to mice.

The island of New Guinea and its surroundings have been a biological gold mine for more than a century, going back to the expeditions of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer in evolutionary biology and contemporary of Charles Darwin who cataloged hundreds of species throughout the Malay Archipelago.”

Have you ever visited the Moreton Bay Fig Tree off Hwy. 101?

The next time you’re in Santa Barbara stop by the Moreton Bay Fig Tree 

There are a lot of giant trees in the world (like our beloved Redwoods) but this one in Santa Barbara is big in a novel way.

Just off Highway 101 you can see this fig tree, which was planted by a little girl in 1874, who got the seed from an Australian sailor. On the Mapquest aerial photos you can see it as a big dark round spot. The branch span is 170 feet and they claim that 16,000 people could stand under the tree.

You used to be able to climb up the buttresses, and see homeless people camped out in the hollows. Not sure if that’s still happening.The picture doesn’t do it justice. I’m just saying…

Ayn Rand Conservatism at Work -- Firefighters Let Family's House Burn Down Because Owner Didn't Pay $75 Fee

 The other day I saw a post on SoHum Parlance about firefighters letting a house burn down because the owner didn’t make his $75 payment to the department.

 I looked into the situation and was pretty disgusted at what I found out. Just as I was preparing to write something about it someone emailed me this link which sums up the situation better than I could.

Excerpt:

Talk of limited government is appealing until you see what it actually means in practice: a society in which it's every man for himself.

“Thanks to 30 years of right-wing demagoguery about the evils of “collectivism” and the perfidy of “big government” -- and a bruising recession that’s devastated state and local budgets -- we’re getting a peek at a dystopian nightmare that may be in our not-too-distant future. It’s a picture of a society in which “rugged individualism” run amok means every man for himself.

Call it Ayn Rand’s stark, anti-governmental dream come true, a vision that last week turned into a nightmare for Gene Cranick, a rurual homeowner in Obion County, Tennessee. Cranick hadn’t forked over $75 for the subscription fire protection service offered to the county’s rural residents, so when firefighters came out to the scene, they just stood there, with their equipment on the trucks, while Cranick’s house burned to the ground.

According to the local NBC TV affiliate, Cranick “said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning.”

Driver cuts off suspect in California kidnap case

This scum was sloppy and got caught. It’s scary to think about how child predators are so prevalent in our society today.

The captured girl in this case was lucky a good Samaritan recognized the truck she was taken in and ran the driver off the road. Of course, there was some luck involved when no one was hurt during that quick maneuver.

Police: 8-year-old escapes from captor after good Samaritan's quick thinking

“An 8-year-old girl who was abducted while playing outside a Fresno home escaped from her captor Tuesday morning after a driver cut off the suspect's vehicle, police said.

Elisa Cardenas was found in Fresno about 11 hours after she disappeared around 8:30 p.m. Monday, triggering a statewide Amber Alert. Police arrested Gregorio Gonzalez, 24 (pictured here), of Fresno.”

How long can state governments stand plump pensions, double-dipping, boffo bonuses?

State and local government budgets are by all accounts in dire straits.

Last year, collectively, they faced a $100 billion budget shortfall.  After 12 months of belt tightening, emergency aid, layoffs and tax hikes, things are even worse. 

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a report this year that the gap could be $140 billion. And last week, respected analyst Meredith Whitney suggested that state governments will collapse unless the federal government offers a trillion-dollar bailout  that will rival the bank bailout of 2008.

 And yet, across America, many government workers are getting rich off taxpayer-funded salaries. City managers get free luxury cars, firefighters get half-million-dollar lump payments and, in California, one city worker is being paid $500,000 annually during retirement.  In New York state, $100,000 salaries can’t be called rich, but at a time when unemployment remains near 10 percent, there are 99,000 state and local workers bringing home six figure salaries.

1. Phoenix – double-dipping top cop

Two frequent causes of outsized government worker pay are so-called “double-dipping” and lump sum retirement payouts due to banked sick time, vacation and other benefits. In the case of Phoenix top cop Jack Harris (pictured above), we have both.

Go here to see more examples.