Thursday, March 3, 2011

U.S. will do anything for oil,including making alliances with dicators

Mike Keefe / Denver Post, Politicalcartoons.com

Warning: This story may prove frustrating for illiterates

Image: Car with sun shade

A look at some of the dumbest labels telling consumers how not to hurt themselves

“Our society doesn't think much of the average consumer.

To wit: Only a moron would try to wash her daughter in a washing machine; or shake hands with the business end of a chainsaw; or light a match to check the contents of a gas tank.

And yet manufacturers still go to laughable lengths to protect their customers from harm, bombarding them with ridiculous warning labels or stunningly obvious explanations of how their products work. Why else would a carton of eggs actually say that the product may contain eggs?”

PHOTO: The label on the inside of reflective car sun shades advises that you shouldn't drive with them in place. How could you?

 FULL STORY

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

March 2nd is the Day to Pay Homage to Banana Cream Pie…

 Remember good old Soupy Sales? He was the King of Pie Throwing in his day. And speaking of pies…

Today is Banana Cream Pie Day so go to the nearest bakery or supermarket and buy one in order to properly celebrate.

I know…it’s kinda late to be posting this but I just couldn’t let such a noteworthy day pass by without commenting.

Good night…

Guest Op-Ed: Meghan Daum describes ‘A Feeding frenzy’

It's natural to resist change, but the astonishingly ugly attacks from the GOP and the 'tea party' on Michelle Obama's anti-obesity effort lack any logic, reflecting our deeply divisive political times.

Excerpt:

“Certain members of the GOP — and, from the looks of it, the entire "tea party" — have decided that the first lady's Let's Move campaign, which seeks to fight obesity by improving school lunch programs, increasing focus on physical education and giving poor people better access to healthful foods, is an example of government intrusion and even a socialist plot.


Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann accused

Obama of trying to implement a "nanny state." Sarah Palin gave her a ribbing on her reality show when, while searching for s'mores ingredients for a camping trip, she said, "This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who the other day said we shouldn't have dessert."
Oh, and then there's that paragon of physical fitness,
Rush Limbaugh, who suggested last week that the first lady "does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue."


What's going on here (besides the last gasps of an increasingly irrelevant radio blowhard) obviously has nothing to do with keeping kids from being obese. Surely even the most obtuse tea partyers know deep down that Michelle Obama is not planning to force-feed you vegetables and hijack your desserts any more than
Laura Bush, who advocated for reading, was interested in foisting books on people and carting away their televisions. Instead, Republicans are turning a patently apolitical issue into an opportunity to bash the president, suggesting that the first lady has wasted tax dollars with her campaign and that the president's budget proposal, which includes adding $1 billion a year for the next 10 years to fund children's nutrition programs, will ruin the nation because it caters to her elitist whims. (Does anyone remember that Nancy Reagan's anti-drug campaign "Just Say No" coincided with $1.7 billion in funding to fight the growing drug problem?)”Meghan Daum                                             Read the Whole Column

After 7 month investigation Manning faces 22 new charges, possible the death penalty

Image: Bradley Manning

All I can say is GOOD. I’ve heard a number of lame arguments why he shouldn’t be tried and NOT ONE makes sense. This clown stole military information and should pay the price!

As for him directly giving it to WikiLeaks, that’s neither here nor there. The fact is those military secrets wouldn’t have become public if he wouldn’t have stole them and gave them to whomever.

I don’t think the death penalty is the answer however. Just lock the sorry bastard up for life. He’ll probably pen a best seller for anarchists, but that money will be needed to keep his fellow prisoners from putting him in the “barrel” every day!

Excerpt:   

Following an intensive seven-month investigation, the Army on Wednesday filed 22 additional charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of illegally downloading tens of thousands of classified U.S. military and State Department documents that were then publicly released by WikiLeaks, military officials tell NBC News.

The most serious of the new charges is "aiding the enemy," a capital offense which carries a potential death sentence. Pentagon and military officials say some of the classified information released by WikiLeaks contained the names of informants and others who had cooperated with U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, endangering their lives. 

According to the officials, the U.S. military rounded up many of those named and brought them into their bases for protection. But, according to one military official, "We didn't get them all."  Military officials tell NBC News a small number of them still have not been found.” FULL STORY

Assault rifle used in U.S. agent's killing in Mexico traced to Texas

Funeral

Once again, there’s proof that cartels are buying AK-47s in the states, but does the NRA admit this?

Right now, thanks to the NRA, a person can walk into a gun shop and buy two semi-automatic rifles a month, until the cows (lobbyists) come home!

What kind of person needs to purchase 24 semi-automatic rifles every year? I’ll tell you; someone who is selling those rifles to the first bidder (and they don’t care who the bidder is). Until weapons become really difficult for the cartels to get, they will continue to come across the border and buy weapons wherever they feel like it. For those of you who have never heard of “straw dogs” they are people who are legitimate buying weapons for people who aren’t. Simple. happens every damn day thanks to the NRA!

“U.S. authorities say one of three men they arrested this week purchased an AK-47 at a Texas gun shop that was used in the attack last month that killed a Border Patrol agent and wounded his partner.” FULL STORY

Pallbearers carry the casket of ICE agent Jaime Jorge Zapata, who was shot and killed in Mexico on Feb. 15. (Delcia Lopez / Associated Press / February 22, 2011 

I can’t believe the Supreme Court ruled Anti-gay funeral protests OK

Image: Members of the Westboro Baptist Church picket in front of the Supreme Court on Oct. 6, 2010.

What would happen if American al Qaeda followers were demonstrating against the Pentagon’s tactics against them worldwide?

Would that be okay? I’m thoroughly disgusted with our Supreme Court. I thought it hit an all-time low when the justices declared corporations had the same rights as individual citizens.

But, Hell No! Where has common sense gone? When is enough…enough? This decision allows a hate group to threaten gay and lesbian’s very existence in this country… while they advocate DEATH for them!

I know many journalists in America were concerned about First Amendment Rights being watered down if the judges ruled against Phelps and his crazed family and followers. However, these great legal minds that are supposed to be interrupting cases that challenge the Constitution don’t seem to have a lick of sense. There could have been a better outcome than this. Forget about trying to get money from the Phelps psychos and look at the real-world effect they are having on innocent Americans who can’t bury their war dead in peace.

Yes, I’m a veteran, and that makes me somewhat bias. That’s why I’m blowing off steam here. That doesn’t mean that the Supreme Court did the right thing. I honestly feel they dropped the ball again. The Phelps Hate Club isn’t demonstrating for the right to vote, or over some human rights violations committed against them. They are taking advantage of a system that can be exploited by legal minds who have no idea what it’s like living in the real world – instead of their Ivory Towers.

What a sad day this is. 

“The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount attention-getting, anti-gay protests outside military funerals.”

Full Story

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Why do we believe in electrons, but not in fairies?

By Benjamin Kuipers

“No one has directly observed either electrons or fairies. Both of them are theoretical constructs, useful to explain observations that might be difficult to explain otherwise. The "theory of fairies" can actually explain more things than the "theory of electrons". So why do we believe in electrons, but not in fairies?

Is the issue a political one, where the "electron" fans got the upper hand in the nineteenth century, so by the twentieth century the "fairy" fans were a scorned and persecuted minority? Or, have we proved for sure that fairies don't exist?

No, to both. The real difference is that for electrons, we have accumulated a set of quite narrow and specific rules about how electrons will behave under various circumstances. Those rules let us make very specific predictions about electron behavior, and about the observations that will result. If those predictions don't come true, we know that either we didn't set up the circumstances correctly, or there is something wrong with the rules. But over many decades, we have repeatedly fixed problems with the rules, so we can now make really good predictions about electrons, especially in certain highly contrived circumstances (i.e., circuits).

Fairies are much more free. A fairy does what it decides to do. We haven't been able to find any useful rules for predicting how a fairy will behave under particular circumstances, or even for telling when a fairy has been involved in a particular observation. (At least I don't know of any such rules. I stand ready for correction on this.) Over many, many decades, it has not been possible for people to try out pretty-good sets of fairy-prediction rules, find out where they make mistakes, and replace them with better sets of rules.”

Read The Rest here

Health Alert: E. coli found on 50 percent of shopping carts

Image: shopping carts

This is one of those things that I almost wish I didn’t know about; shopping carts carrying infectious bacteria. Yuck! The researchers said that the carts were worst than the bathrooms in the supermarkets! Now, that’s bad.

Apparently no one routinely cleans and disinfects shopping carts. Now I have to worry about salmonella and campylobacter bacteria attacking my grandchildren when I take them to the market or other type of store with shopping carts.

Excerpt:

 “Every day, parents blithely drop their toddlers into the baskets of shopping carts, never giving a moment’s thought to who might have had their hands on the handle last. Preliminary results from a new study show that may be a mistake.

Researchers from the University of Arizona swabbed shopping cart handles in four states looking for bacterial contamination. Of the 85 carts examined, 72 percent turned out to have a marker for fecal bacteria.”  Full Story

Monday, February 28, 2011

Parting shot…where the heck was this photo taken?

Steenbhm

I was Stumbling around the web and found this stunning shot. Problem is, there was NO information about it. Do you have any idea where it was taken? Please share if you do.

Guest Opinion: Ted McLaughlin, ‘The (Un) Fairness of Income Tax’

Does this seem fair to you? Is there any justification for someone making over a million dollars a year to pay a smaller tax rate than those making less than $170,00 a year (many of them making far less than that)?

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Statistics are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Internal Revenue Service.

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The richest Americans make most (or all) of their income from interest income or stock gains.

That means they pay the Capital Gains Tax (15%) instead of Income Tax (about 35% in their bracket).

This must be changed. The Capital Gains Tax should be raised to equal the Income Tax, or eliminated and the rich forced to pay their tax in the Income Tax system. Continuing this system of taxation is unfair to most Americans.”                                                                                           Link to original post

Trump's Lowest Grift Ever Saved for Holy Week

This is a story about how the devil's puppet, aka Donald Trump, mocked Christianity by selling a book combining the Bible, the Constitu...