Blind Faith: Rhetoric and outright lies trump facts

Good Day World!

If a conservative pundit says the sky is falling…his followers will look up and wait patiently for it to come down.

They don’t need proof, or facts, to follow the brand.

I recently got into a discussion with some Tea Baggers on Twitter about a doctored photo that purported to show Ambassador Stephens tortured body.

The person who posted it shall remain anonymous here (I don’t want to attack any individual). We’re talking about blind faith here.

The response, when I alerted her to the fact it wasn’t actually Ambassador Stephens, was swift and venomous. She personally attacked me; calling me stupid because I didn’t know the ambassador was raped! (Funny on how she seemed fixated on the rape part – titillating to her perhaps?)

Then the floodgates opened and it was a field day for extremists on Twitter. They piled on with nasty tweets, but NOT ONE would give any proof of their ridiculous claims.

I countered by posted facts: 

Fact Check: Is a story about Ambassador Stevens' death in Benghazi really written by a cousin who knows what happened?

UPDATED: Chris Stevens Torture Photo – Not Chris Stevens

It wasn’t long before the conservative drones drifted away to heckle someone else.

Facts to conservatives are like sunlight to vampires. Or, Kryptonite to Superman, when you have blind faith.

Facts are not what drives people with blind faith – it’s hatred toward an individual, or institution. Let me repeat that – it’s unreasoning hatred that drives people to believe in lies.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Republicans pledge to impeach Clinton if she’s elected

Good Day World!

You want to know how crazy conservatives are getting nowadays?

Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks promised to try and depose Clinton on "day one" of her hypothetical presidency.

So, do they know she’s going to win despite what opposition they’re fielding against her? That sounds pretty pessimistic. And, slightly crazed with fear.

It’s hard to blame them however. Right now it looks like Donald Trump may be their candidate. Now that is pathetic. Even the die-hard extremists realize a real estate mogul and reality star is far from qualified to be the next President of the United States.

The GOP is in complete disarray. Hard-liners have run Boehner out and Paul Ryan is looking to take his place. But he has a big problem; a minority group of loony tune Republicans – with unusual clout – want him to shut the government down until they get their demands.

Who let the nuts out anyway? How can the Republican party move forward when part of their ranks are riding around in a clown car urging chaos to get their way?

Trey Gowdy and his doodies tried to hurt Clinton’s chances of being elected by conducting a witch hunt – also called the Benghazi hearing – but that attempt backfired.

Now the world knows it was a partisan effort to discredit Clinton.

But that won’t stop the crazies. The only thing that will stop them is if they’re not re-elected. Perhaps after the damage they’ve done to the GOP it’ll be payback time at the polls and the clowns will be sent packing!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

  

USA Schools: More common sense needed and less rules

                                             Good Day World!

I don't believe in insane, overzealous rules that try to drain every drop of fun out of childhood and regulate a child's every move with more rigidity than the Marines.

That's just what it seems some schools are trying to do, however.

In a sad day for lunchboxes everywhere, a school has taken pretty drastic action against one it deems to be against its dress code. Wonder Woman is too violent according to authorities.

Most of the rules stem from one-off incidents.

Rather than dealing with those on an individual basis, schools have a tendency these days to swoop in with new rules and regulations. The result is a ridiculous set of rules that do nothing but needlessly punish students and sometimes even do more harm than good. For example:

In a ridiculously overzealous and inappropriate move, a teacher in New York has started seriously limiting her students' bathroom access. And by seriously limit, I mean they only are allowed three bathroom passes a week. Three!

Students in some New York prep schools are flat out banned from even announcing that they got into any college in person or via social media like Facebook.

I could go on forever with examples, but I think you have the idea: our schools need to lighten up and use more common sense instead of stupid rules that leave parents scratching their heads.

Are their stupid rules at your kids school? Care to share?

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

 

 

Time to ‘Man Up’ and to Admit I’m a Straight Male

Good Day World!

In the spirit of fairness, I’m coming out as a straight male.

Inspired by other recent stories about people coming out I decided it would be appropriate to announce my sexuality. This decision didn’t come lightly.

I talked to family and friends to get their advise, and was encouraged that they were all so supportive. After all, when was the last time you heard about a straight male coming out?

We just never make the news. Unlike other genders/persuasions, we are ignored in the mainstream news, and social media trends. Unlike:

World champion skier Gus Kenworthy, who won a silver medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, who recently has come out as gay.

Or, the revelation that Bruce Jenner came out as a transgender male and changed his name to Caitlyn.

Or, when Robin Roberts (Good Morning America anchor) came out as a lesbian at the very tail end of 2013.

On behalf of straight males everywhere, I would like someone more famous than I (that’s not hard) to step forward and “man up” about his sexual preferences so that straight guys everywhere can feel the love!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Bengazi Hearing A Waste of Everyone’s Time: But It’ll Help Get Clinton Elected President

Call it the Benghazi hearing, or the Benghazi persecution.

Same thing.

No one with half of a brain can come away from listening to those tedious hours of testimony without understanding it was all about attacking Hillary Clinton like a group of vicious toddlers.

If you watched the trial hearing, like I did for 11 hours, it was as apparent as glass.

Not one important piece of information was revealed from the partisan questioning – like a magician’s sudden appearance of a white rabbit leaving the viewing audience gasping with wonder.

Insults flew from one side of the aisle to the other like raw meat for the press. I thought Gowdy and Cummings were going to duke it our for a moment. (Good theater there).

Every Republican on the committee treated Clinton like a criminal (did you see Jim Jordan’s face?) and made little, or no attempt, at being civil. Some were outwardly hostile, rudely interrupting her answers.

Probably for their constituents benefit – “Hey! Look at me. I dissed Hillary.”

But as the hours withered away during this pathetic partisan onslaught – one thing became clear…Trey Gowdy and company came off looking like a bunch of delinquent children throwing erasers at the teacher!

Facts are hard for Republicans to accept, especially when they have an agenda to make sure Clinton doesn’t get elected president of the United States.

One thing I’m confident about, after millions of Americans have viewed this kangaroo court they going to be pissed that they paid 4.7 million dollars for nothing more a partisan persecution.

The upside, of course, is this kangaroo court is going to get Clinton elected president. Mark my words.

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

 

GOP vs Trump: ‘Are You Ready to Rumble?’

Good Day World!

In the past, Republicans have trusted a Hollywood entertainer/actor, Ronald Reagan, enough to make him president. To many Republicans he’s still considered the very personification of conservatism.

But these days the Republican establishment is turning it’s back on another Hollywood entertainer/reality show host, Donald Trump. Apparently they don’t think he has the right stuff to sit in the Oval Office.

Plus, they’re getting tired of being made clowns of by Trump. It’s been like a Turkey Shoot as The Donald verbally tears apart his competition. Jeb Bush has been like a deer caught in the headlights every time he tries to exchange words with Trump.

Enter former South Carolina Republican Party chair Katon Dawson (a former member of The Whites Only Club). Just call him the Trump Killer. He’s out to ruin the reality star before next year’s election.

Dawson is busy forming a Super PAC devoted to attacking Trump’s credibility and ability to lead the country. He’s got his hand out for donations from establishment Republicans who are getting increasingly uneasy about Trump’s popularity.

Dawson is getting help from another source that fears Trump.

The head of the Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group, told the Washington Examiner this week it is also trying to raise millions to fund some kind of broader effort to defeat the real estate mogul. The group already spent $1 million in ads this summer arguing that he is not a true conservative.

Does anyone think Trump would take all of this sitting down?

Trump Campaign Reportedly Threatened To Sue Washington Post Over Super PAC Story

As Michael Buffer so often says, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Underestimate elderly people at your own risk

Photo -Elderly woman fights off attacker by grabbing his balls and squeezing them!

Good Day World!

In some circles my age, 65, is considered elderly. I’m actually pretty spry for a an old guy.

Which leads me to today’s topic – don’t underestimate old people, they can surprise you.

How, you ask? (I’m glad you did)

* When a teen armed with two large knives threatened his young chess students, 75-year-old Army veteran James Vernon sprang into action. He kicked the guy’s ass!

* Ruth Lampe isn't letting her age slow her down. The 102-year-old volunteer got her high school diploma recently… after cooking a meal for a senior center.

* 93-year-old Louise Edlen had been waving to passing students for years. See how she teaches kids compassion.

* Unstoppable 100-year-old works 6 days a week. This woman is amazing!

* Would be robber fended off by 95-year-old WW II veteran who used his cane.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

A Look at Big Feet… Not Bigfoot !

"Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.”

-Sherlock Holmes

                                       Good Day World!

Some of my earliest memories were people telling me that I had big feet.

“Look at those big boats” my father often commented. “Don’t worry,” he’d say, “You’ll grow into them.”

Or, my siblings calling me “Frog,” because I had “big flippers.”

I now know that I got a bad rap back then.

Those supposedly big feet of mine ended up being a size 11 extra wide. Not very impressive by today’s standards. Two of my three sons have bigger feet than I do. One of my grandsons has a size 12 extra wide.

And, just look at some of the professional athletes today. Shaq O’Neil, and every center in professional basketball, have gunboats that start around size 16.

But if you want to talk about really big feet – world class examples – then you have to see Jeison Orlando Rodríguez Hernandez’s massive foundations!  Hernandez, who lives in Venezuela, has feet measuring nearly 16 inches each and his shoes are size 26.

That’s big enough to be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest feet.The previous record was held by Sultan Kösen, his feet measuring 14 inches.

We should all be proud of our feet. Without their foundation we’d be crawling. I agree with Leonardo da Vinci who said, “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Investigations Agree: No Corporation in the World Has Done More Damage to the Earth Than Exxon

Good Day World!

No matter where you live on this planet, you’ve been affected (one way or another) by the misdeeds of Exxon.

In the last three weeks, two separate teams of journalists—the Pulitzer-prize winning reporters at the website Inside Climate News and another crew composed of Los Angeles Times veterans and up-and-comers at the Columbia Journalism School—have begun publishing the results of a pair of independent investigations into ExxonMobil.

Though they draw on completely different archives, leaked documents and interviews with ex-employees, they reach the same damning conclusion:

Exxon knew all that there was to know about climate change decades ago and instead of alerting the rest of us denied the science and obstructed the politics of global warming.

To be specific

I don’t know how that makes you feel, but it angers me. Monumental greed has led to nearly irreversible climate damage.

Exxon management knew what was happening and even circulated internal memos admitting that “human-induced climate change” was taking it’s toll on the planet.

I have one question for all the governments in the world…

When are you going to put Exxon out of business and try all of it’s mangement team for crimes against humanity?

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

Oh Snap! Fox commentor arrested for lying and fraud

Good Day World!

It’s an open secret that Faux Fox News is not the place to go if you’re looking for credible reporting.

Here’s the latest example of the quality of commenters it hires:

Wayne Simmons, a 62-year-old who lives in Annapolis, Maryland, was arrested by federal authorities following his indictment by a federal grand jury for allegedly committing major fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.

Simmons has been interviewed by Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto and has appeared on "Fox & Friends." He has discussed a wide range of issues on the network, including CIA interrogation techniques and, ironically, a former CIA official found guilty on fraud charges.

Simmons claims to have worked for the CIA from 1973 to 2000, and "used that false claim in an attempt to obtain government security clearances and work as a defense contractor, including at one point successfully getting deployed overseas as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel," according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The question is, doesn’t Fox vet it’s people for at least a modicum of truth?

Federal prosecutors say that Simmons had a "significant criminal history, including convictions for a crime of violence and firearms offenses, and is believed to have had an ongoing association with firearms notwithstanding those felony convictions.”

Another faux pas for Fox…another day in the “Spin Zone” for the Republican Party.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Silence is Golden in World’s Quietest Room

“I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down…”

-Buffalo Springfield

Microsoft File Photo

                                          Good Day World!

In our noisy world the lack of sound can be golden.

You might think that a library reading room or well-insulated basement is a quiet place, but compared to the anechoic chamber in Microsoft's audio lab, they're about as quiet as a jumbo jet.

The chamber, housed in Building 87 on the company's Redmond, Washington, campus, was recently verified by (who else?) Guinness as being the quietest place in the entire world, reaching an eardrum-bending -20.3 decibels. (Source)

Microsoft and others use chambers like this to test equipment for noise levels, to provide a perfectly silent environment for training voice recognition, and so on.

You can learn more about sound ratings and the B87 anechoic chamber at Microsoft's website.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

If I had a hammer, I’d…

“If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land…”

-Peter,Paul, & Mary

Good Day World!

Marvel Comic fans know all about the Norse Thunder God, Thor.

His hammer – Mjolnir – can not be picked up by just anyone. They have to be worthy – like Thor. As far as I know, the hammer has never found someone else worthy enough to fling it…but that’s another subject.

Enter…Allen Pan, aka Sufficiently Advanced on YouTube, who decided to replicate Mjolnir. The guy is an electrical engineer and pretty darn clever!

He used powerful magnets, and a microwave oven transformer electromagnet in the head. This creates a very strong magnetic pull, strong enough that the hammer, when placed on a metal surface (that can't be lifted, such as a locked manhole cover), feels too heavy to lift.

So how does Pan lift it?

The handle is attached to a capacitive touch sensor, which in turn is attached to an Arduino Pro Mini and a solid state relay, which serves as a switching device. As soon as someone grasps the handle, the electromagnets switch on, attaching the hammer to the metal surface.

The hammer can be turned off via a fingerprint sensor keyed to Pan's thumbprint. When Pan grasps the hammer, the magnets switch on. When he moves his thumb over the sensor, it switches off again, allowing Pan to lift the hammer.

Apparently Pan has a sense of humor and took his hammer to Venice Beach, California, and put it on a manhole and challenged people to pick it up.

All Pan has to do now is harness lightning (it shouldn’t be a problem for an electrical engineer) and train his hammer to come back to him when he throws it!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Why lower gas prices this year will hurt millions of Americans next year

                                     Good Day World!

Lower gas prices this year has been good news for the American consumer.

But, those low gas prices are going to take an unexpected toll on over 70 million people, more than one-fifth of the nation's population, next year.

Why?

The main reason for no benefit increases next year for millions of people is…believe it, or not, low gas prices.

By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. This year, because gas prices have dropped, no one will get a cost of living increase in 2016.

It’s Official: No COLA in 2016

That affects retirees, disabled workers, and spouses with children, who get Social Security benefits.

That also goes for 4 million disabled veterans, 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor. (Source)

It seems ironic to me that when something good happens for consumers in this country, it comes with a caveat.  

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Pass the Burrito Challenge and Get 10% of a Mexican Restaurant

                                      Good Day World!

Although I have no experience in the restaurant industry, I’m thinking about becoming a partner with Don Chingon, a restaurant in Brooklyn.

Yawn, right?

Not so fast. You could do the same thing, if you wanted. It’d help if you had a huge appetite.

All you have to do is eat a 30-lb burrito and drink a ghost pepper margarita in under an hour and you’ll own 10% of Don Chingon’s Mexican restaurant.

BTW – no bathroom breaks or discharge of bodily fluids allowed during that hour. The restaurant also will not accept responsibility for illness or death incurred while participating in the challenge.

You should also know why George Shea, a partner in the International Federation of Competitive Eating, calls the contest a "great PR stunt." He’s sure no one on the planet can meet that challenge.

Perhaps not… but, I’d try if there wasn’t a $150 entry fee!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Meet Florida’s Candidate for US Senate: He plans on Starting a 2nd Civil War!

Good Day World!

So, you thought Donald Trump was a crazy political candidate. You haven’t seen anything yet.

Meet, Augustus Sol Invictus, an Independent running for a US Senate seat in Florida. He believes he was born to start a 2nd Civil War in America.

Even Trump can’t top that thought. 

Invictus has repeatedly vowed that it is his destiny to start a second civil war in America.

In a 2013 memo to his colleagues, he wrote, “I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War, I would begin it myself.” (Source)

Trump’s campaign slogan of Make America Great Again may be misleading, but when you take a look at Invictus’s campaign logo you’ll find yourself blinking in disbelief. It’s nearly identical to that of Benito Mussolini’s. He also likes to display swastikas in his published campaign materials.

Crazy enough for you?

But wait! There’s more: He has expressed support for a eugenics program, which would sterilize, euthanize or forcibly abort 'the weakest, the least intelligent, and the most diseased.”

If that doesn’t convince you he’s a true Loony Tune, the US Senate hopeful has admitted that he sacrificed a live goat and drank its blood. He’s a Pagan by the way.

FYI: Invictus has a frequently asked questions section on his website .

Sound’s like the Republican and Democratic candidates in Florida seeking senate offices are really going to have a challenge for the “crazy vote” in that state.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Whatever you do, don’t say…

Good Day World!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Who was chasing me? You're slow as ***!" like this DUI suspect did after claiming his dog was driving his car.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I left town because Hollywood Star-Wackers were hunting me,” and expect authorities to forget you committed a felony and had been hiding for five years when you got caught crossing the Canadian border into Vermont – like actor Randy Quaid did!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Just give me some (expletive) bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese." A University of Connecticut student faces criminal charges over a confrontation with a campus food court manager who wouldn't let him buy macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeno peppers.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “Officer, come over to my house quick. I’m too high on marijuana!” like one 22-year old Youngstown, Ohio, man did recently and not expect to be the butt of jokes for the rest of your natural life! 

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I’m a federal agent and I need a free pass to catch a fugitive at this event (Comic Con in Salt Lake City),” and actually just be a dweeb trying to scam a freebie.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “There’s a bomb here,” at your workplace just so you can get fired. There’s got to be an easier way!

Time for me to walk on down the road…  

Why the mainstream media didn’t cover report showing 78% of Americans against Citizens United decision

Good Day World!

Americans are sick of the corporate masters that rule them.

Skepticism of corporate power is what the American Revolution - or at least the event that sparked it - was all about, which makes the latest polling about money in politics anything but surprising.

According to Bloomberg Politics, a full 78 percent of Americans think we should overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that opened up our election process to floods of corporate money. This isn't, by the way, a situation where a bunch of Democrats are tipping the scales.

Money in politics often gets painted in the media as "liberal" or "progressive" issue, but this new Bloomberg poll shows that Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly oppose Citizens United.

Eighty-three percent of Democrats want to overturn it, as do 80 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of self-declared independents.

The ever-more-concentrated corporate media really don't want to discuss Citizens United or the public's overwhelming desire to overturn it. In fact, even though our TV networks have spent hours breaking down every single Donald Trump poll, they've so far completely ignored that amazing Bloomberg study on opposition to Citizens United. And I mean completely ignored.

Maybe there's a good justifiable, journalistic reason for this. Maybe the fact that Americans hate Citizens United is so obvious that the mainstream media don't think it was worth reporting on.

But it's doubtful.

The big open secret about Citizens United is that the mainstream corporate media support it. More money in politics means more money spent on elections ads, which, of course, means more money for the corporations that run the major news networks.

But luckily, the American people are figuring out what's up. If the rise of Bernie Sanders is any indication, they're more than ready to take part in another political revolution against corporate power - just like the one that founded this country 239 years ago. (read the full version here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Peto's Paradox: Why Don’t Elephants and Whales Get Cancer As Much As Smaller Animals?

                                    Good Day World!

Researchers have long wondered why Cancer is much less common in elephants than in humans, even though the big beasts' bodies have many more cells.

PETO’s PARADOX

Peto's paradox refers to the fact that large animals including elephants and whales, have comparatively low cancer rates even though they have many more cells than smaller species.

STUDY RESULTS SHOW PROMISE

Elephants' cells contain 40 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene called p53, two teams of scientists report. Humans have just two - one from each parent. The gene helps damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.

The findings aren't proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists could try to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

A Perfect Storm of Islamophobia Hitting This Weekend

                                      Good Day World!

I usually don’t pay attention to hate rallies – there’s too many these days – but I’m having a hard time ignoring one in my backyard!

My hometown of Medford, Oregon has joined 21 other cities across the USA (see map here) in protesting Muslims “Global Rally for Humanity.”

Self-described “Patriots” have brought weapons to protest outside Muslim worship centers today.

A perfect storm of Islamophobia is hitting the nation thanks to one so-called patriot from Arizona. 

According to the Center for New Community, the protests are the brainchild of Phoenix anti-Muslim activist Jon Ritzheimer, who made headlines in May by organizing an armed protest outside a Phoenix-area mosque.

Ritzheimer also has a history of issuing ugly threats, including his threat to arrest Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow for having voted in favor of President Obama’s arms deal with Iran. Even his fellow militiamen from Michigan disavowed that one.

Preparing for the worst

The Council for Islamic-American Relations issued an advisory urging mosque-goers to be careful and take safety precautions this weekend. 

These protests are a sad footnote in American history, and proof that this country does not guarantee religious freedom for everyone. Intolerance is the password for today’s protests.

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

 

 

Gowdy’s Vendetta Against Hillary Exposed, But Continues

                                        Good Day World!

There isn’t anything Trey Gowdy wouldn’t do to make sure Hillary Clinton is not elected president.

No big deal you say…there’s plenty of other conservatives that are making it a mission to derail Clinton’s campaign.

True. But none of them are so blatantly using taxpayer money to fund their vendetta against Hillary Clinton like Trey Gowdy is. He’s had the gall to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of his political plans to discredit Hillary - instead of really trying to get to the bottom of what happen in the Benghazi incident where four Americans died.

Gowdy, as House Select Committee on Benghazi chairman, has unabashedly directed all efforts towards targeting Hillary.  Gowdy’s name, image, and position has been used to solicit political donations by Stop Hillary PAC, which describes itself as “created for one reason only—to ensure Hillary Clinton never becomes President of the United States.

Gowdy has not held any of the hearings on his schedule (he initially had an investigative plan that set out monthly hearings  with all the different agencies involved in preparing for and responding to the attacks in Benghazi, including the State Department, the Defense Department, and the Intelligence Community).

The only hearing actually scheduled thus far however, is with Hillary Clinton.

The Committee has never held even one public hearing with anyone from the Department of Defense. Why?

The Committee was given an unlimited, taxpayer-funded budget, and it has now spent more than $4.6 million in one of the longest and least productive investigations in congressional history—focused on Clinton.

The Committee is being used by Republican fundraisers to attack Clinton.The Committee’s attacks were described by the conservative PAC America Rising as a taxpayer-funded political activity. 

Gowdy’s approach has been criticized even by conservative commentators who fear that it will forever be plagued by allegations of unfairness, and politics if this investigation is dragged into 2016. (full article source)

They should be concerned because Gowdy isn’t going to end his vendetta until after the elections.

Time for me to walk on down the road…