2012: End of year thoughts.

Okay.

I admit it. I procrastinated and didn't really think of much to write, and now we're only a few hours away from 2013, and there won't be much thought or insight to what I say here and now.

Oh well. Aren't I quite the motherfucker?

So instead I'll give you something a little shall we say different.

2012 was all-and-all a mixed bag for me.

• The country dodged a bullet here in America somewhat by once again choosing the lesser of two evils in the recent election.

• I made zero progress in my career. Okay let me re-phrase that - I made strides in building on last year's accomplishments to achieve more and be more respected (which unlike last year, I take great pride in), but none of that translated into any kind of increase in compensation or level or title increase or promotion. Yay me and my family.

• I did make some contacts on a number of initiatives and learned a whole lot. However I still need to put it all together and deliver something which really gets the impact I'm looking for.

• I played a couple of shows where it's clear I should either put on a wig or a mask cause people really don't need to see how fucking stupid I really look. I think as I get older I'm going to ignore all the ugly looks, as well as the ones who point and laugh.

• A couple of financial disasters and ongoing mental health problems continue to plague me. It's not a fun thing when pretty much every day I leave the house in a state of anger, and returns home automatically be put in a foul mood, yet it's not the day away that causes it.

• I did complete writing another rock album. That's two in the last two years.

• I did manage a year of finding a fairly good muscle-building workout that takes only 10-15 minutes a day and doesn't involve using free weights. Although I'm not completely happy with the way I look, I can honestly say I look and feel a lot stronger and fit than when I was in college.

I'd like to say older and wiser, but really just older I suppose. I'll elaborate more on (as opposed to moron) this along with some planned changes for blogging in 2013 in one of my first posts in the New Year.

Take care and see you in a few.

Why the NRA comments are irrelevant.

Yeah, see how the NRA views everything in a child-like way? Good guys and bad guys and all that crap?

What a reaction to a horrible act.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/21/coming-drone-attack-america

Combine the drones with weapons, facial recognition technology, and GPS, and effectively the Iron Triangle can override every right US Constituion citizens have.

Of course there's no 'loaded gun'. But it's still election fraud.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/12/11/pol-elections-calls-court-case-council-canadians.html

You wonder why the CBC fails to call it such.

Oh ... you don't think so?

"But Shrybman on Tuesday walked the court through documents he says support the applicants' allegation that there was a campaign to suppress votes and that it benefited the Conservative Party.


The most recent — and possibly most important — documents are two production orders seeking phone records for Shaw and Videotron customers. They show that Elections Canada is looking into complaints in 56 ridings. The documents were released at the end of last month."

Amazing how it all benefits one political party?

Amazing how that party is now in power?

Amazing how they don't call it what it is - election fraud?

Posting is gonna be light the rest of the year.

It turns out I reached my quota of 260 posts a little while ago.

So expect there won't be too many more the rest of the month.

Don't worry SoG readers, I'll be back before the end of the year with some thoughts.

Gangs in my home?

You don't say?

Took them this long to figure this out?

See? The Israeli right-wing doesn't want peace.

"The first act of Operation Pillar of Defense was to murder Ahmed Jabari. Aluf Benn, editor of the newspaper Haaretz, describes him as Israel’s “subcontractor” and “border guard” in Gaza, who enforced relative quiet there for more than five years.

The pretext for the assassination was that during these five years Jabari had been creating a Hamas military force, with missiles from Iran. A more credible reason was provided by Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin, who had been involved in direct negotiations with Jabari for years, including plans for the eventual release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Baskin reports that hours before he was assassinated, Jabari “received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip.”

A truce was then in place, called by Hamas on Nov. 12. Israel apparently exploited the truce, Reuters reports, directing attention to the Syrian border in the hope that Hamas leaders would relax their guard and be easier to assassinate."

Courtesy Noam Chomsky and Alternet (and thank you Mound of Sound).

The Israeli right-wing want things unstable. It's by design. Keep them (the Palestinians) barely alive till they eventually die off or give up and leave.

Of course the problem the Israeli right wing has is that the rest of world knows that they (and not the residence of Gaza) are the bullies. Those nasty videos and photos of dead males and females (old, young, and in-between) they cannot censor or block on the Internet.

Genocide. Apartheid. Terror. War. They are all the same in their drive for destruction based on hate, revenge, bloodlust, you name it.

Portrait of an asshole driver.

This guy and his co-hort cut me off as I was crossing the street on 27-NOV-2012. They turned right without batting an eye lash, but I managed to get a picture of them. I think I wrote down the license plate, and once I dig that up, I'll put it in the Dangerous Driver section shortly.

Palestinians one step closer to having a nation of their own.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/30/us-palestinians-statehood-idUSBRE8AR0EG20121130

Can you imagine if they actually got their state finally?

Why I'd bet they'd be attacked almost immediately and declared dangerous and a bunch of terrorists by the United States and others who really aren't interested in peace and justice, but rather to keep things as they are, because it allows the right-wing elements to remain firmly in control, and to keep people divided, bitter, angry, and constantly full of hate and desire to continue to make war.

Some things don't really change, even after 65 years.

The thing I find fucking hypocritcal about the atypical right-wing responses (""The Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed save that the prospects of a durable peace have only receded,", "hostile and poisonous," ) isn't the level of projection, but the lack of reason as to what's stalling 'talks'.

It's right in the article. I'll even put it in big bright letters.

"Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world. "

Gee, you think talking to someone who breaks into your house and start building their own inside of it makes you want to talk peace? But that's where things are.

And yet, the Palestinian response has been both clear and careful -

"As long as the Israelis are not committing atrocities, are not building settlements, are not violating international law, then we don't see any reason to go anywhere,"

Response to 'There's Only One Position and It's Filled'

http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2012/11/theres-only-one-position-and-its-filled.html

http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2012/11/theres-only-one-position-and-its-filled.html?showComment=1354230496810#c6081806411711463217

Best way to think of Harper is - he’s Canada Dubya.


To right-wingers in America, George W. Bush represented the intersection of the movement’s three major areas – the foreign policy chickenhawks, the Evangelical Christians, and the corporate oligarchy (aka the establishment). That Bush through his personal life, or via his families’ political connections was able to unite all three of these under the banner of the Republican Party was Karl Rove’s third greatest political success (number 1 and 2 being getting Dubya installed into the White House via fixing numbers in the US Supreme Court, and Diebold). In many ways, Dubya represented the ultimate version of Nixon, Reagan and his father all put together. Combine that with controlling Congress and the Supreme Court and it’s clear to see - that was great for the right-wing. It was a complete disaster for everyone else on the planet. The untold damage these actions have caused throughout the world – we might never recover from.

The reason why the Republicans have not had someone in office as President since 2009 is largely because the establishment has come to the conclusion that the rest of us already came to in 2001, having someone like that in authority is disastrous for their existence.

Harper is the next generation version of Mulroney in that he’s been able to unite several factions across the right - the old factions of the Reform Party (which I think have many common intersections of beliefs not too dissimilar to the manufactured Tea Party movement in America), the Canadian corporate establishment, and just enough people still disenchanted with the Liberal Party via the Sponsorship Scandal to hold onto office. One key difference between Mulroney and Harper was that the former neutralized the Pequistes by integrating them into the party and making a lot of broken promises, while the latter simply have them scatter into irrelevant parties like the BQ, and now the NDP such that their influence is negligible.

What you’re seeing with the NDP and Liberals today, is exactly what happened to the Democratic Party during Dubya’s years in office – that is believed that because of his win, they needed to pander to the right-wing viewpoint/interests and subsequently abandon any left-leaning or progressive view. What ends up happening is – the establishment decides that it’s better to have real right-winger in office than a pretend one under the belief that the former will be more successful. This is where I think Canada is now.

In time, the Democrats learned that being a right-winger was fucking up the country, and rather than pander to that, it’d be better to pander to everyone else.

Since 2009, the biggest problem in America has been that because the corporate establishment has so much control over so many aspects of society, real progress beyond that is more or less held back.

What’s really needed both here and in Canada is a way for someone or a movement to really get people’s attention beyond a means the establishment can control. I’ve said it before – the only way any real progress is going to be made towards addressing society’s problems (be it local through global) is a movement that operates and reaches people to act beyond the establishment’s outlets of control. How to create such a movement that gets people to act but itself be neither co-opted by the establishment, nor corrupted to become something twisted and evil, is the question I ponder.

Torturing to get a confession is more like it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9705953/WikiLeaks-Bradley-Manning-to-testify-he-has-been-punished-enough.html

RIP Marvin Miller: 1917-2012.

If there is ever a situation where this whole Hall of Fame crap is exposed for the crap it really is, it's the fact that an institution that exist to recognize and celebrate those who made a significant impact fails to still yet even acknowledge Marvin Miller's contributions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Miller

Where ever he is today, I'm sure he doesn't give fuck either way. That's what I respect most.

Sometimes in life ...

... it's often not that we as people don't understand.

It's that often we don't want to accept. Case in point -

http://www.alternet.org/environment/great-environmental-crisis-no-one-talks-about?akid=9719.1084699.zAESRt&rd=1&src=newsletter749897&t=18&paging=off (thanks Buzzflash).

The Great Environmental Crisis No One Talks About

The young people we might have expected to lead the defense of nature have less and less to do with it.

 

"We don’t have to disparage the indoor world, which has its own rich ecosystem, to lament children’s disconnection from the outdoor world. But the experiences the two spheres offer are entirely different. There is no substitute for what takes place outdoors; not least because the greatest joys of nature are unscripted. The thought that most of our children will never swim among phosphorescent plankton at night, will never be startled by a salmon leaping, a dolphin breaching, the stoop of a peregrine, the rustle of a grass snake is almost as sad as the thought that their children might not have the opportunity.
The remarkable collapse of children’s engagement with nature – which is even faster than the collapse of the natural world – is recorded in Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, and in a report published recently by the National Trust. Since the 1970s the area in which children may roam without supervision has decreased by almost 90%(8)."

Can you imagine - admitting that we're conciously not wanting to deal with things like global warming and the subsequent collapse of our societies so much so that we don't want our children to know, or even be exposed to it.

And yet, that is exactly what we as people are doing.

GMO list?

http://shiftfrequency.com/comprehensive-list-of-gmo-products/
http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/cfs-shoppers-guide.pdf

Try printing out those 20 pages and carry them to the store. Or this -

Baby Food
Nabisco
(Phillip Morris)
Arrowroot Teething Biscuits
Infant formula Carnation Infant Formulas
(Nestle)
AlSoy
Good Start
Follow-Up
Follow-Up Soy
Enfamil Infant Formulas
(Mead Johnson)
Enfamil with Iron
Enfamil Low Iron
Enfamil A.R.
Enfamil Nutramigen
Enfamil Lacto Free
Enfamil 22
Enfamil Next step (soy and milk-based varieties)
Enfamil Pro-Soybee
Isomil Infant Formulas
(Abbot Labs)
Isomil Soy
Isomil Soy for Diarrhea
Similac
(Abbot Labs)
Similac Lactose Free
Similac with Iron
Similac Low Iron
Similac Alimentum
Baking
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
baking mixes
Aunt Jemima
(Quaker)
Complete Pancake & Waffle Mix
Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix
Cornbread Mix
Easy Mix Coffee Cake
Betty Crocker
(General Mills)
Pie Crust Mix
Original Pancake Mix
Complete Pancake Mix
Buttermilk Complete Pancake Mix
Muffin Mixes
Banana Nut
Lemon Poppy Seed
Blueberry
Wild Blueberry
Chocolate Chip
Apple Streusel
Quick Bread Mixes Banana
Cinnamon Streusel
Lemon Poppy Seed
Cranberry Orange
Gingerbread
Cookie Mixes Chocolate Chip
Double Chocolate Chunk
Sugar
Peanut Butter
Bisquik
(Betty Crocker/General Mills)
Original
Reduced Fat
Shake ‘n Pour Pancake Mix
Shake ‘n Pour Buttermilk Pancake Mix
Shake ‘n Pour Blueberry Pancake Mix
Duncan Hines
(Aurora Foods)
Muffin Mixes
Kellogg’s All-Bran Apple Cinnamon
Kellogg’s All-Bran Blueberry
Blueberry
Blueberry Crumb
Chocolate Chip
Hungry Jack
(Pillsbury)
Buttermilk Pancake Mix
Extra Light & Fluffy Pancake Mix (all varieties)
Jiffy
Corn Muffin Mix
Blueberry Muffin Mix
Raspberry Muffin Mix
Pie Crust Mix
Mrs. Butterworths
(Aurora Foods)
Complete Pancake Mix
Buttermilk Pancake Mix
Pepperidge Farms
(Campbell’s)
Buttermilk Pancake Mix
Pillsbury
Quick Bread & Muffin Mixes
Blueberry
Chocolate Chip
Banana
Cranberry
Lemon Poppyseed
Nut
Hot Roll Mix
Gingerbread
baking needs
Bakers
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Unsweetened Chocolate
Semi-Sweet Chocolate
German Sweet Chocolate
White Chocolate
Hershey’s
Semi-Sweet Baking Chips
Milk Chocolate Chips
Mini Kisses
Nestle
Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Milk Chocolate Chips
White Chocolate
Butterscotch Chips
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bars
Bread
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Holsum
(Interstate Bakeries)
Holsum Thin Sliced
Roman Meal
12 Grain
Round Top
Home Pride
Buttertop White
Buttertop Wheat
Pepperidge Farms
(Campbell’s)
Cinnamon Swirl
Light Oatmeal
Light Wheat
100% Whole Wheat
Hearty Slices
7 Grain
9 Grain
Crunchy Oat
Whole Wheat
Light Side
Oatmeal
Wheat
7 Grain
Soft Dinner Rolls
Club Rolls
Sandwich Buns
Hoagie Rolls
Thomas’
(Bestfoods)
English Muffins Original
Cinnamon Raisin
Honey Wheat
Oat Bran
Blueberry
Maple French Toast
Toast-r-Cakes Blueberry
Toast-r-Cakes Corn Muffins
Wonder
(Interstate Bakeries)
White Sandwich Bread
Country Grain
Buttermilk
Thin Sandwich
Light Wheat
100% Stoneground Wheat
Fat Free Multigrain
Premium Potato
Beefsteak Rye
Wonder Hamburger Buns
Breakfast
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
breakfast bars
Kellogg’s
Pop Tarts
(all varieties)
Pop Tarts Snack Stix
(all)
Nutri-Grain Bars
(all)
Nutri-Grain Fruit Filled Squares
(all)
Nutri-Grain Twists
(all)
Fruit-Full Squares
(all)
Nabisco
(Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Fruit & Grain Bars
(all varieties)
Nature Valley
(General Mills)
Oats & Honey Granola Bars
Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Cinnamon Granola Bars
Pillsbury
(General Mills)
Toaster Scrambles & Strudels
(all varieties)
Quaker
Chewy Granola Bars
(all varieties)
Fruit & Oatmeal Bars
(all varieties)
waffles
Aunt Jemima Frozen Waffles
Buttermilk
Blueberry
Eggo Frozen Waffles
(Kellogg’s)
Homestyle
Buttermilk
Nutri-Grain Whole Wheat
Nutri-Grain Multi Grain
Cinnamon Toast
Blueberry
Strawberry
Apple Cinnamon
Banana Bread
Hungry Jack Frozen Waffles
(Pillsbury/General Mills)
Homestyle
Buttermilk
Cereal
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
General Mills
Cheerios
Wheaties
Total
Corn Chex
Lucky Charms
Trix
Kix
Golden Grahams
Cinnamon Grahams
Count Chocula
Honey Nut Chex
Frosted Cheerios
Apple Cinnamon Cheerios
Multi-Grain Cheerios
Frosted Wheaties
Brown Sugar & Oat Total
Basic 4
Reeses Puffs
French Toast Crunch
Kellogg’s
Frosted Flakes
Corn Flakes
Special K
Raisin Bran
Rice Krispies
Corn Pops
Product 19
Smacks
Froot Loops
Marshmallow Blasted Fruit Loops
Apple Jacks
Crispix
Smart Start
All-Bran
Complete Wheat Bran
Complete Oat Bran
Just Right Fruit & Nut
Honey Crunch Corn Flakes
Raisin Bran Crunch
Cracklin’ Oat Bran
Country Inn Specialties
(all varieties)
Mothers Cereals
(Quaker)
Toasted Oat Bran
Peanut Butter Bumpers
Groovy Grahams
Harvest Oat Flakes
Harvest Oat Flakes w/Apples & Almonds
Honey Round Ups
Post
(Kraft-Phillip Morris)
Raisin Bran
Bran Flakes
Grape Nut Flakes
Grape Nut O’s
Fruit & Fibre date, raisin and walnut
Fruit & Fibre peach, raisin and almond
Honey Bunch of Oats
Honey Nut Shredded Wheat
Honey Comb
Golden Crisp
Waffle Crisp
Cocoa Pebbles
Cinna-Crunch Pebbles
Fruity Pebbles
Alpha-Bits
Post Selects Cranberry Almond
Post Selects Banana Nut Crunch
Post Selects Blueberry Morning
Post Selects Great Grains
Quaker
Life
Cinnamon Life
100% Natural Granola
Toasted Oatmeal
Toasted Oatmeal Honey Nut
Oat Bran
Cap’n Crunch
Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch
Cap’n Crunch Crunchling Berries
Chocolate
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
candy
Cadbury
(Cadbury/Hershey’s)
Mounds
Almond Joy
York Peppermint Patty
Dairy Milk
Roast Almond
Fruit & Nut
Hershey’s
Kit-Kat
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Mr. Goodbar
Special Dark
Milk Chocolate
Kisses
Symphony
Kraft
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Toblerone
(all varieties)
Mars
M&M
(all varieties)
Snickers
Three Musketeers
Milky Way
Twix
Nestle
Crunch
Milk Chocolate
Chunky
Butterfinger
100 Grand
drink mixes and dessert toppings
Carnation
(Nestle)
Hot Cocoa Mixes:
Rich Chocolate
Double Chocolate
Milk Chocolate
Marshmallow Madness
Mini Marshmallow
No Sugar
Hershey’s
Chocolate Syrup
Special Dark Chocolate Syrup
Strawberry Syrup
Nestle
Nesquik
Strawberry Nesquik
Swiss Miss
(ConAgra)
Hot Cocoa Mixes:
Chocolate Sensation
Milk Chocolate
Marshmallow Lovers
Marshmallow Lovers Fat Free
No Sugar Added
Condiments
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Del Monte
(Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Ketchup
Heinz
Ketchup
(regular & no salt)
Chili Sauce
Cocktail Sauce
Heinz 57 Steak Sauce
Hellman’s
(Bestfoods)
Real Mayonnaise
Light Mayonnaise
Low-Fat Mayonnaise
Hunt’s
(ConAgra)
Ketchup
(regular & no salt)
KC Masterpiece
(Clorox)
Original BBQ sauce
Garlic & Herb Marinade
Honey Teriyaki Marinade
Kraft
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Miracle Whip
(all varieties)
Kraft Mayonnaise
(all)
Thick & Spicy BBQ sauces
(all varieties)
Char Grill BBQ sauce
Honey Hickory BBQ sauce
Nabisco
(Nabiso/Phillip Morris)
A-1 Steak Sauce
Open Pit
(Vlasic/Campbells)
BBQ sauces
(all)
salsa
Chi-Chi’s
(Hormel)
Fiesta Salsa
(all varieties)
Old El Paso
(Pillsbury)
Thick & Chunky Salsa
Garden Pepper Salsa
Taco Sauce
Picante Sauce
Ortega
(Nestle)
Taco Sauce
Salsa Prima Homestyle
Salsa Prima Roasted Garlic
Salsa Prima 3 Bell Pepper
Thick & Chunky Salsa
Pace
(Campbells)
Chunky Salsa
Picante Sauce
Tostitos Salsa
(Frito-Lay/Pepsi)
All Natural
All Natural Thick & Chunky
Roasted Garlic
Restaurant Style
Cookies
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Delicious Brands
(Parmalat)
Animal Crackers
Ginger Snaps
Fig Bars
Oatmeal
Sugar-Free Duplex
Honey Grahams
Cinnamon Grahams
Fat Free Vanilla Wafers
English Toffee Heath Cookies
Butterfinger Cookies
Skippy Peanut Butter Cookies
Famous Amos
(Keebler/Flowers Industries)
Chocolate Chip
Oatmeal Raisin
Chocolate Sandwich
Peanut Butter Sandwich
Vanilla Sandwich
Oatmeal Macaroon Sandwich
Frookies
(Delicious Brands/Parmalat)
Peanut Butter Chunk
Chocolate Chip
Double Chocolate
Frookwich Vanilla
Frookwich Chocolate
Frookwich Peanut Butter
Frookwich Lemon
Funky Monkeys Chocolate
Ginger Snaps
Lemon Wafers
Keebler
(Keebler/Flowers Industries)
Chips Deluxe
Sandies
E.L. Fudge
Soft Batch Chocolate Chip
Golden Vanilla Wafers
Droxies
Vienna Fingers
Fudge Shoppe Fudge Stripes
Fudge Shoppe Double Fudge & Caramel
Fudge Shoppe Fudge Stix
Fudge Shoppe Peanut Butter Fudge Stix
Country Style Oatmeal
Graham Originals
Graham Cinnamon Crisp
Graham Chocolate
Graham Honey Low Fat
Crème Filled Wafers
Chocolate Filled Wafers
Nabisco (Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Oreo
(all varieties)
Chips Ahoy!
(all varieties)
Fig Newtons
(and all Newtons varities)
Lorna Doone
Nutter Butters
Barnum Animal Crackers
Nilla Wafers
Nilla Chocolate Wafers
Pecanz Shortbread
Family Favorites Oatmeal
Famous Wafers
Fudge Covered Mystic Sticks
Honey Maid Graham Crackers
Honey Maid Cinnamon Grahams
Honey Maid Chocolate Grahams
Honey Maid Oatmeal Crunch
Teddy Grahams
Teddy Grahams Cinnamon
Teddy Grahams Chocolate
Teddy Grahams Chocolate Chips
Café Cremes Vanilla
Café Crème Cappuccino
Pepperidge Farm
(Campbell’s)
Milano
Mint Milano
Chessmen
Bordeaux
Brussels
Geneva
Chocolate Chip
Lemon Nut
Shortbread
Sugar
Ginger Men
Raspberry Chantilly
Strawberry Verona
Chocolate Mocha Salzburg
Chocolate Chunk Chesapeake
Chocolate Chunk Nantucket
Chocolate Chunk Sausalito
Oatmeal Raisin Soft Baked
Sesame Street
(Keebler)
Cookie Monster
Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Sandwich
Vanilla Sandwich
Cookie Pals
Honey Grahams
Cinnamon Grahams
Frosted Grahams
Snack Wells
(Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Devil’s Food
Golden Devil’s Food
Mint Crème
Coconut Crème
Chocolate Sandwich
Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter Chip
Double Chocolate Chip
Crackers
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Keebler
(Keebler/Flowers Industries)
Town House
Club
Munch ‘Ems
(all varieties)
Wheatables
Zesta Saltines
Toasteds
(Wheat, Onion, Sesame & Butter Crisps)
Snax Stix
(Wheat, Cheddar & original)
Harvest Bakery
(Multigrain, Butter, Corn Bread)
Nabisco
(Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Ritz
(all varieties)
Wheat Thins
(all)
Wheatsworth
Triscuits
Waverly
Sociables
Better Cheddars
Premium Saltines
(all)
Ritz Snack Mix
(all)
Vegetable Flavor Crisps
Swiss Cheese Flavor Crisps
Cheese Nips
(all)
Uneeda Biscuits
Pepperidge Farm
(Campbell’s)
Butter Thins
Hearty Wheat
Cracker Trio
Cracker Quartet
Three Cheese Snack Stix
Sesame Snack Stix
Pumpernickel Snack Stix
Goldfish
(original, cheddar, parmesan, pizza, pretzel)
Goldfish Snack Mix
(all)
Red Oval Farms
(Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Stoned Wheat Thins
(all varieties)
Crisp ‘N Light Sourdough Rye
Crisp ‘N Light Wheat
Sunshine
(Flowers Industries)
Cheeze-It
(original & reduced fat)
Cheeze-It White Cheddar
Cheeze-It Party Mix
Krispy Original Saltines
Frozen Dinners
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Banquet
(ConAgra)
Pot Pies
(all varieties)
Fried Chicken
Salisbury Steak
Chicken Nugget Meal
Pepperoni Pizza Meal
Budget Gourmet
(Heinz)
Roast Beef Supreme
Beef Stroganoff
Three Cheese Lasagne
Chicken Oriental & Vegeatble
Fettuccini Primavera
Green Giant
(Pillsbury)
Rice Pilaf with Chicken Flavored Sauce
Rice Medley with Beef Flavored Sauce
Primavera Pasta
Pasta Accents Creamy Cheddar
Create-a-Meals Parmesan Herb Chicken
Cheesy Pasta and Vegetable
Beef Noodle
Sweet & Sour
Mushroom Wine Chicken
Healthy Choice
(ConAgra)
Stuffed Pasta Shells
Chicken Parmagiana
Country Breaded Chicken
Roast Chicken Breast
Beef Pot Roast
Chicken & Corn Bread
Cheese & Chicken Tortellini
Lemon Pepper Fish
Shrimp & Vegetable
Macaroni & Cheese
Kid Cuisine
(ConAgra)
Chicken Nugget Meal
Fried Chicken
Taco Roll Up
Corn Dog
Cheese Pizza
Fish Stix
Macaroni & Cheese
Lean Cuisine
(Stouffer’s/Nestle)
Skillet Sensations Chicken & Vegetable
Broccoli & Beef
Homestyle Beef
Teriyaki Chicken
Chicken Alfredo
Garlic Chicken
Roast Turkey
Hearty Portions Chicken Florentine
Beef Stroganoff
Cheese & Spinach Manicotti
Salisbury Steak
Café Classics Baked Fish
Baked Chicken
Chicken a L’Orange
Chicken Parmesan
Meatloaf with Whipped Potatoes
Everyday Favorites Chicken Fettuccini
Chicken Pie
Angel Hair Pasta
Three Bean Chili with Rice
Macaroni & Cheese
Marie Callenders
(ConAgra)
Chicken Pot Pie
Lasagna & Meat Sauce
Turkey & Gravy
Meat Loaf & Gravy
Country Fried Chicken & Gravy
Fettuccini with Broccoli & Cheddar
Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes
Country Fried Pork Chop with Gravy
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Ore-Ida Frozen Potatoes
(Heinz)
Fast Fries
Steak fries
Zesties
Shoestrings
Hash Browns
Tater Tots
Potato Wedges
Crispy Crunchies
Rosetto Frozen Pasta
(Heinz)
Cheese Ravioli
Beef Ravioli
Italian Sausage Ravioli
Eight Cheese Stuffed Shells
Eight Cheese Broccoli Stuffed Shells
Stouffer’s
(Nestle)
Family Style Favorites Macaroni & Cheese
Stuffed Peppers
Broccoli au Gratin
Meat Loaf in Gravy
Green Bean & Mushroom Casserole
Homestyle Meatloaf
Salisbury Steak
Chicken Breast in Gravy
Hearty Portions Salisbury Steak
Chicken Fettucini
Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes
Chicken Pot Pie
Swanson
(Vlasic/Campbells)
Meat Loaf
Fish & Chips
Salisbury Steak
Chicken Nuggets
Hungry Man Fried Chicken
Roast Chicken
Fisherman’s Platter
Pork Rib
Voila!
(Bird’s Eye/Agri-Link Foods)
Chicken Voila! Alfredo
Chicken Voila! Garlic
Chicken Voila! Pesto
Chicken Voila! Three Cheese
Steak Voila! Beef Sirloin
Shrimp Voila! Garlic
Weight Watchers
(Heinz)
Smart Ones Fiesta Chicken
Basil Chicken
Ravioli Florentine
Fajita Chicken
Roasted Vegetable Primavera

Energy Bars And Drinks
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
energy bars
Power Bar
(Nestle)
Oatmeal Raisin
Apple Cinnamon
Peanut Butter
Vanilla Crisp
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Mocha
Banana
Wild Berry
Harvest Bars Apple Crisp
Blueberry
Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Strawberry
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
Drink Mixes
Carnation Instant Breakfast Mix
(Nestle)
Creamy Milk Chocolate
Classic Chocolate
French Vanilla
Strawberry
Café Mocha
heat and serve meals
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Chef Boyardee
(ConAgra)
Beefaroni
Macaroni & Cheese
Mini Ravioli
ABC’s & 123′s
Dinty Moore
(Hormel)
Beef Stew
Turkey Stew
Chicken & Dumplings
Hormel
Chili with Beans
Chili No Beans
Vegetarian Chili with Beans
Kids’ Kitchen
(Hormel)
Spaghetti Rings with Meatballs
Macaroni & Cheese
Pizza Wedges with 3 Cheese
Franco-American
(Campbell’s)
Spaghetti O’s
Mini Ravioli
Power Rangers Pasta in Sauce
Meat and Dairy Alternatives
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
meat alternatives
Loma Linda
(Worthington/Kellogg’s*)
Meatless Chik Nuggest
Morningstar
(Worthington/Kellogg’s*)
Harvest Burger
Better ‘n Burgers
Garden Veggie Patties
Grillers Burgers
Black Bean Burger
Chicken Patties
Natural Touch
(Worthington/Kellogg’s*)
Garden Vegetable Pattie
Black Bean Burger
Okra Pattie
Lentil Rice Loaf
Nine Bean Loaf
Worthington
(Worthington/Kellogg’s*)
Vegetarian Burger
Savory Slices
dairy alternatives
Nutra Blend Soy Beverage
(Bestfoods)
Original
Vanilla
Apple
Orange
*A company letter states that they are in the process of converting to non-genetically modified “proteins” in all products.
Meal Mixes And Sauce Packets
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Betty Crocker
(General Mills)
Garden Vegetable Pilaf
Creamy Herb Risotto
Garlic Alfredo Fettuccini
Bowl Appetit Cheddar Broccoli
Macaroni & Cheese
Pasta Alfredo
Knorr
(Bestfoods)
Mushroom Risotto Italian Rice
Broccoli au Gratin Risotto
Vegetable Primavera Risotto
Risotto Milanese
Original Pilf
Chicken Pilaf
Rotini with 4 Cheese
Bow Tie Pasta with Chicken & Vegetable
Penne with Sun-Dried Tomato
Fettuccini with Alfredo
Classic Sauce Packets Hollandaise
Béarnaise
White
Brown
Lemon Herb
Mushroom Brown
Onion
Roasted Chicken
Roasted Pork
Roasted Turkey
Pasta Sauce Packets Alfredo
Four Cheese
Carbonara
Pesto
Garlic Herb
Lipton
(Unilever)
Rice & Sauce Packets Chicken Broccoli
Cheddar Broccoli
Beef Flavor
Spanish
Chicken Flavor
Creamy Chicken
Mushroom
Sizzle & Stir Skillet Supers Lemon Garlic Chicken & Rice
Spanish Chicken & Rice
Herb Chicken & Bowties
Cheddar Chicken & Shells
Near East
(Quaker)
Spicy Tomato Pasta Mix
Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil Pasta Mix
Falafel Mix
Lentil Pilaf
Couscous
Tomato Lentil
Parmesan
Toasted Pinenut
Herb Chicken
Broccoli & Cheese
Curry
Pasta Roni
(Quaker)
Fettuccini Alfredo
Garlic Alfredo
Angel Hair Pasta with Herbs
Angel Hair Pasta with Parmesan Cheese
Angel Hair Pasta with Tomato Parmesan
Angel Hair Pasta Primavera
Garlic & Olive Oil with Vermicelli
Rice-a-Roni
(Quaker)
Rice Pilaf
Beef
Chicken
Fried Rice
Chicken & Broccoli
Long Grain & Wild Rice
Broccoli au Gratin
Uncle Ben’s
(Mars)
Long Grain & Wild Rice
(Original & with Garlic)
Brown & Wild Rice Mushroom
Country Inn Mexican Fiesta
Country Inn Oriental Fried Rice
Country Inn Chicken & Vegetable
Country Inn Chicken & Broccoli
Natural Select Chicken & Herb
Natural Select Tomato & Basil
Chef’s Recipe Chicken & Vegetable Pilaf
Chef’s Recipe Beans & Rice
Chef’s Recipe Broccoli Rice
Frozen Pizza
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Celeste
(Aurora Foods)
Supreme
Pepperoni
Vegetable
Four Cheese
Deluxe
Cheese
Tombstone
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Pepperoni
Supreme
Sausage & Pepperoni
Extra Cheese
Stuffed Crust
Three Cheese
Totino’s
(Pillsbury)
Crisp Crust
Pepperoni
Combination
Snack Foods
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Act II Microwave Popcorn
(ConAgra)
Butter
Extreme Butter
Corn on the Cob
Frito-Lay*
(PepsiCo)
Lays Potato Chips
(all varieties)
Ruffles Potato Chips
(all)
Doritos Corn Chips
(all)
Tostitos Corn Chips
(all)
Fritos Corn Chips
(all)
Cheetos
(all)
Rold Gold Pretzels
(all)
Cracker Jack Popcorn
Healthy Choice Microwave Popcorn
(ConAgra)
Organic Corn
(soy/canola oils)
Mothers Corn Cakes
(Quaker)
Butter Pop
Orville Redenbacher Microwave Popcorn
(ConAgra)
Original
Homestyle
Butter
Smart Pop
Pour Over
Orville Redenbacher Popcorn Cakes
Chocolate
Caramel
Orville Redenbacher Mini Popcorn Cakes
Butter
Peanut Caramel
Chocolate Peanut
Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn
(Betty Crocker/General Mills)
Natural
Homestyle
Jumbo Pop
Extra Butter
Light
94% Fat Free Butter
Pringles
(Procter & Gamble)
Original
Low Fat
Pizza-licious
Sour Cream & Onion
Salt & Vinegar
Cheezeums
Quaker Rice Cakes
Peanut Butter
Chocolate Crunch
Cinnamon Streusel
Mini
Chocolate
Ranch
Sour Cream & Onion
Apple Cinnamon
Caramel Corn
Quaker Corn Cakes
White Cheddar
Caramel Corn
Strawberry Crunch
Caramel Chocolate Chip
*Frito has informed its corn and potato suppliers that the company wishes to avoid GE crops, but acknowledges that canola or other oils and ingredients in its products may be from GE sources.
Soda And Juice Drinks
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
sodas
Coca Cola
Coca Cola
Sprite
Cherry Coke
Barq’s Root Beer
Minute Maid Orange
Minute Maid Grape
Surge
Ultra
PepsiCo
Pepsi
Slice
Wild Cherry Pepsi
Mug Root Beer
Mountain Dew
Cadbury/Schweppes
7-Up
Dr. Pepper
A & W Root Beer
Sunkist Orange
Schweppes Ginger Ale
juice drinks
Capri Sun juices
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Red Berry
Surfer Cooler
Splash Cooler
Wild Cherry
Strawberry Kiwi
Fruit Punch
Pacific Cooler
Strawberry
Orange
Grape
Fruitopia
(Coca Cola)
Grape Beyond
Berry Lemonade
Fruit Integration
Kiwiberry Ruckus
Strawberry Passion
Tremendously Tangerine
Fruit Works
(PepsiCo)
Strawberry Melon
Peach Papaya
Pink Lemonade
Apple Raspberry
Gatorade
(Quaker)
Lemon Lime
Orange
Fruitpunch
Fierce Grape
Frost Riptide Rush
Hawaiian Punch
(Procter & Gamble)
Tropical Fruit
Grape Geyser
Fruit Juicy Red
Strawberry Surfin
Hi-C
(Coca Cola)
Pink Lemonade
Watermelon Rapids
Boppin’ Berry
Tropical Punch
Smashin’ Wildberry
Blue Cooler
Blue Moon Berry
Orange
Cherry
Kool Aid
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Blastin’ Berry Cherry
Bluemoon Berry
Kickin’ Kiwi Lime
Tropical Punch
Wild Berry Tea
Ocean Spray
Cranberry Juice Cocktail
Cranapple
CranGrape
CranRaspberry
CranStrawberry
CranMango
Squeeze It
(Betty Crocker/General Mills)
Rockin’ Red Puncher
Chucklin’ Cherry
Mystery 2000
Sunny Delight
(Procter & Gamble)
Sunny Delight Original
Sunny Delight With Calcium Citrus Punch
Sunny Delight California Style Citrus Punch
Tang juices
(Kraft/Phillip Morris)
Orange Uproar
Fruit Frenzy
Berry Panic
Tropicana Twisters
(PepsiCo)
Grape Berry
Apple Raspberry Blackberry
Cherry Berry
Cranberry Raspberry Strawberry
Pink Grapefruit
Tropical Strawberry
Orange Cranberry
Orange Strawberry Banana
V-8
(Campbells)
V8 Tomato Juices
(all varieties)
Strawberry Kiwi
Strawberry Banana
Fruit Medley
Berry Blend
Citrus Blend
Apple Medley
Tropical Blend
Island Blend
Soup
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Campbell’s
Tomato
Chicken Noodle
Cream of Chicken
Cream of Mushroom
Cream of Celery
Cream of Broccoli
Cheddar Cheese
Green Pea
Healthy Request Chicken Noodle
Cream of Chicken
Cream of Mushroom
Cream of Celery
Campbell’s Select Roasted Chicken with Rice
Grilled Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes
Chicken Rice
Vegetable Beef
Chunky Beef with Rice
Hearty Chicken & Vegetable
Pepper Steak
Baked Potato with Steak & Cheese
New England Clam Chowder
Soup to Go Chicken Noodle
Chicken Rice
Garden Vegetable
Vegetable Beef & Rice
Simply Home Chicken Noodle
Chicken Rice
Garden Vegetable
Vegetable Beef with Pasta
Healthy Choice
(ConAgra)
Country Vegetable
Fiesta Chicken
Bean & Pasta
Chicken Noodle
Chicken with Rice
Minestrone
Pepperidge Farms
(Campbell’s)
Corn Chowder
Lobster Bisque
Chicken & Wild Rice
New England Clam Chowder
Crab Soup
Progresso
(Pillsbury)
Tomato Basil
Chicken Noodle
Chicken & Wild Rice
Chicken Barley
Lentil
New England Clam Chowder
Zesty Herb Tomato
Roasted Chicken with Rotini
Fat Free Minestrone
Fat Free Chicken Noodle
Fat Free Lentil
Fat Free Roast Chicken
Tomatoes And Sauces
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS
Del Monte
(Nabisco/Phillip Morris)
Tomato Sauce
Five Brothers Pasta Sauces
(Lipton/Unilever)
Summer Vegetable
Five Cheese
Roasted Garlic & Onion
Tomato & Basil
Healthy Choice Pasta Sauces
(ConAgra)
Traditional
Garlic & Herb
Sun-Dried Tomato & Herb
Hunts
(ConAgra)
Traditional Spaghetti Sauce
Four Cheese Spaghetti Sauce
Tomato Sauce
Tomato Paste
Prego Pasta Sauces
(Campbells)
Tomato, Basil & Garlic
Fresh Mushroom
Ricotta Parmesan
Meat Flavored
Roasted Garlic & Herb
Three Cheese
Mini-Meatball
Chicken with Parmesan
Ragu Sauces (Lipton/Unilever)
Old World Traditional
Old World with Meat
Old World Marinara
Old World with Mushrooms
Ragu Robusto Parmesan & Romano
Ragu Robusto Roasted Garlic
Ragu Robusto Sweet Italian Sausage
Ragu Robusto Six Cheese
Ragu Robusto Tomato, Olive Oil & Garlic
Ragu Robusto Classic Italian Meat
Chunky Garden Style Super Garlic
Chunky Garden Style Garden Combo
Chunky Garden Style Tomato, Garlic & Onion
Chunky Garden Style Tomato, Basil & Italian Cheese
Pizza Quick Traditional

Source: Govtslaves.Info.

Seriously, we're fucked.

'fiscal cliff'=gutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/6-reasons-fiscal-cliff-scam?akid=9711.1084699.GCdckT&rd=1&src=newsletter748976&t=5&paging=off

6 Reasons the Fiscal Cliff is a Scam

The so-called "fiscal cliff" is a mechanism for rolling back Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"...policy-making by hostage-taking, timed for the lame duck session, a contrived crisis, the plain idea now unfolding was to force a stampede. "

Hey Americans - Want Rupert Murdoch to control both your newspaper and your Internet access for you?

If not, then click here to do something about it - Don't Let Murdoch Gobble Up More Media in Your Town.

Elmo RIP?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/kevin-clash-resigns-elmo-sex-allegations_n_2165663.html

Much as I hate Elmo and what the whole phenomenon did to thoroughly mess up Sesame Street, I sincerely hope Kevin Clash is innocent.

Names

Why is it some people have to fuck up their kids lives by giving them stupid names?

Or worse, why do people think it's okay to give themselves stupid nicknames?

Calling oneself after an animal I find quite moronic.

Case in point - women who are named Catherine (or Katherine) who go by the name 'Cat' or 'Kat'.

New flash - It's isn't cute or smart, or cool. It sounds stupid to name (or nickname) oneself after a domesticated animal. I wonder if people name their kids 'Gerbil' or 'Hamster'? Or do people find it cool to call themselves 'Iguana'?

I mean really - why? Do you want your kids to be beaten up at school? I'm not saying it's right, but let's face it, oftentimes kids can be extremely cruel.

It's also a reminder to me that I possess no supernatural powers in that if I did, I'd rename all people who call themselves 'Cat' or 'Kat' to something less idiotic.

Granted there are worse things I suppose - naming one after a body of water ('Brook', 'River'), a state ('April', 'May', 'June'), or better still - women who use men's names (Michael, yes I've heard that one), a day of the week ('Wednesday', 'Thursday').

Beating up on Gaza for not getting way with Iran ...

Israeli right-wing leader fears upcoming re-election loss - beats up on Gaza as temper tantrum for losing out in backing Mittens, and over wanting to bomb Iran.

http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/israel_escalates_gaza_attack_with_assassination

I'm certainly no supporter of Hamas. And one can debate whether they are the right group to lead a nation. But it's the Palestinian residents of Gaza who are paying the price for this nutcase's rage and fear.

And as always, the US and other nation-states will stand by and do nothing to stop the continuing ethnic cleansing and apartheid regime. Because the Palestinians don't have oil, money, precious metals, or any other valuable items.

They simply exist where the Israeli right-wing doesn't want them.

Decks Cleared?

"Between the outcome of the election and the departure of Petraeus, President Obama now has the chance to take full control of his foreign policy. The neocons also find themselves sitting on the outside looking in more so than at any time since the 1970s when they emerged as a group of hawkish ex-Democrats and embittered ex-Leftists who defected to Ronald Reagan."

One can only hope.

Read more here - http://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/14/the-neocons-waterloo/

Talk about being nutty.

http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/20/orlnews/os-husband-run-over-obama-20121112/10

Cops: Woman angered by Obama re-election runs over husband for not voting


The comments are truly priceless.

The cost associated with not testing software ...

... in this case can cost one an election. Or at least it appears to have been somewhat of a case for Mittens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orca
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/inside-team-romneys-whale-of-an-it-meltdown/

Oh and for those idiots who still believe that automation can replace a person when it comes to testing, there's this gem -

"But Orca turned out to be toothless, thanks to a series of deployment blunders and network and system failures. While the system was stress-tested using automated testing tools, users received little or no advance training on the system. Crucially, there was no dry run to test how Orca would perform over the public Internet."

Gee you'd think before going live with the system in action, you'd want to you know ... see what it's actually doing before going live. Thus -

"Throughout the day, the Orca Web page was repeatedly inaccessible. It remains unclear whether the issue was server load or a lack of available bandwidth, but the result was the same: Orca had not been tested under real-world conditions and repeatedly failed when it was needed the most."

This is what you get -

Robert X. Cringely, writing in InfoWorld, concluded that "Everything in the Orca rollout went great, except for a failure to do any quality assurance, proof its documentation, or beta test in the seven months from conception to implementation. Whoever was behind Orca apparently also failed to hire a competent Web designer, anticipate server loads, beef up its bandwidth, or notify its ISP to expect a bump in traffic."[13] Sean Gallagher of Ars Technica commented that the key failure was the dependency on automated testing rigs, which "can't show what the system's performance will look like to the end user. And whatever testing environment Romney's campaign team and IT consultants used, it wasn't one that mimicked the conditions of Election Day. As a result, Orca's launch on Election Day was essentially a beta test of the software – not something most IT organizations would do in such a high-stakes environment.“[2]

Priceless comment from Kani-

"You're telling me that software without QA turns out to be garbage? Unheard of!"

HHOF class of 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012/11/12/sp-nhl-hockey-hall-of-fame-rings-bure-oates-sundin-sakic.html

Sakic - yes (about fucking time)

The rest I can go sort of either way on the rest.

WA state to follow in CA's Prop 37 supporters' footsteps.

Yay -

http://www.labelitwa.org

On offering advice to right-wingers ...

Here's one.

All well and good.

However I think a better thing to focus on should all be pushing the President on the things that ultimately affect us all - http://vultcult.blogspot.com/2012/11/three-things-obama-should-focus-on.html.

Super-Earth?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/11/08/super-earth.html

"An international team of astronomers has discovered what they are calling a new “super-Earth,” which is seven times the size of Earth and has the right conditions to support life.


Called HD40307g, the new planet exists in a zone of a nearby star and is part of a six-planet system."

Three things Obama should focus on.

Now that his second term is secured, these are what I think are the most pressing things that require immediate attention.

1. Stopping global warming. Hint - it affects us all. Obama should make the US the leaders in figuring this out.

2. Settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This involves a viable path to statehood for the Palestinians, security for the Israelis, and peace for both.

3. Enacting a 2nd Bill of Rights for Americans - including universal health coverage.

If he got these three things done, he'd be a true hero, and quite likely the greatest US President ever.

Prop 37 - post-mortem?

Officially as of this writing all the numbers aren't in, but overall it's not trending well.

Why you may ask? Well here's why -

Donor Amount

Monsanto $8,112,867

E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co. $5,400,000

Pepsico, Inc. $2,145,400

Grocery Manufacturers Association $2,002,000

DOW Agrisciences $2,000,000

Bayer Cropscience $2,000,000

BASF Plant Science $2,000,000

Syngenta Corporation $2,000,000

Kraft Foods Global $1,950,500

Coca-Cola North America $1,700,500

Nestle USA $1,315,600

Conagra Foods $1,176,700

General Mills $1,135,300

Kellogg Company $790,000

Smithfield Foods $683,900

Del Monte Foods $674,100

Campbell's Soup $500,000

Heinz Foods $500,000

Hershey Company $493,900

The J.M. Smucker Company $485,000

Bimbo Bakeries $422,900

Ocean Spray Cranberries $387,100

Mars Food North America $376,650

Council for Biotechnology Information $375,000

Hormel Foods $374,300

Unilever $372,100

Bumble Bee Foods $368,500

Sara Lee $343,600

Kraft Food Group $304,500

Pinnacle Foods $266,100

Dean Foods Company $253,950

Biotechnology Industry Organization $252,000

Bunge North America $248,600

McCormick & Company $248,200

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company $237,664

Abbott Nutrition $234,500

Cargill, Inc. $226,846

Rich Products Corporation $225,537

Flowers Foods $182,000

Dole Packaged Foods $171,261

Knouse Foods Cooperative $164,731

Other food companies who contributed to the "no" campaign (but with checks of less than $150,000) included Sunny Delight Beverages, McCain Foods, Tree Top, Idahoan Foods, Richelieu Foods, Land O'Lakes, Hillshire Brands, Morton Salt, Clorox, Goya de Puerto Rico, Sargento and Godiva Chocolatier.

Think they spent enough? Think they were afraid? Yet look how close it came.

While they might be celebrating on the outside, you can bet that deep down they're waiting to see if supporters of Prop 37 are going to simply give up and pack it in.

If they do, then these corporations will indeed win, and we'll all lose. Perhaps that's something the Prop 37 supporters should think about, given how close the result was.

Perhaps they should consider this as merely a setback on the path to victory - and consider to try again.

It certainly seems this way.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/undecided-voter-pretty-sure-hes-some-kind-of-idiot,30229/

Undecided Voter Pretty Sure He’s Some Kind Of Idiot


November 5, 2012
ISSUE 48•45
More News


A message to all American citizens - vote. It can make a difference.

Reactions - how different we all are.

Some of react one way to news.

Then some others react like this -

http://www.theonion.com/articles/weird-couple-has-greatest-sex-of-their-lives-after,30191/

Weird Couple Has Greatest Sex Of Their Lives After Announcement Of Disney-LucasFilm Merger

Global Warming and Hurricane Sandy - connection?

Damn fucking right - a systematic one -

"Global warming systemically caused the huge and ferocious Hurricane Sandy. And consequently, it systemically caused all the loss of life, material damage, and economic loss of Hurricane Sandy. Global warming heated the water of the Gulf and Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in greatly increased energy and water vapor in the air above the water.  When that happens, extremely energetic and wet storms occur more frequently and ferociously. These systemic effects of global warming came together to produce the ferocity and magnitude of Hurricane Sandy. "

Read more here and do something about it -

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17606-global-warming-systemically-caused-hurricane-sandy

Somehow I don't thinking cutting funding for FEMA today seems like a good idea ...

.... unless you're Mittens.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/us-election-blog/2012/10/romneys-big-storm-killing-off-fema.html

Priceless commenter from 'The Tragically Flip' -

"It's not even just a matter of rich states helping poor states (though that matters), but take a small state like Rhode Island - it is easy to imagine a disaster that simply swamps the state's emergency personnel. What is it supposed to do without a Federal relief agency to turn to? Is there any plausible scenario in which 2005 Lousiana could have handled Katrina on its own?


This is part of the whole point of being a nation. 50 mini-Femas can be individually overwhelmed and without a unifying coordinating body (eg the US Federal government) to bring in resources from unafflicted areas, any one disaster could be unrecoverable.

And for any conservatives who somehow think 50 mini-femas makes some kind of sense, explain to the class why the US should not have 50 mini militaries instead of a federal one? Why does New York have to subsidize the defence of South Carolina? Why should Iowa pay a dime for the Navy, it has no coasts!

Obviously the economies of scale make sense. A unified US Military is far more effective than 50 state militaries would be. Same goes for FEMA.."

Note - anything involving Bill Kristol is bad for America, and the world.

Case in point -

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17605-romney-s-return-of-the-project-for-the-new-american-century-which-brought-us-iraq-war

Let's hope Americans are smarter that than and dodge a bullet and avoid these people like the plague.

Janice Weingarten's concern for Brian Johnson ...

... is touching.

 http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-hope-the-guy-who-got-knocked-out-by-the-american,30107/

Classic line -

"As far as I’m concerned, the phrase “safety first” ain’t noise pollution. No, sir. To me, it makes good, good sense."

Brian, if you're out there, please read the article in the link above.

Chasing Ice - a film worth seeing.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/10/18/documentaries-we-like-chasing-ice/

Voter fraud - Mittens style.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/meat-loaf-voter-fraud-687451

Shit Loaf indeed.

Just the thought of this guy singing America the Beautiful makes me want to throw up.

ElectoralVote

This was the site I followed back in 2004, and 2008 for pretty accurate US Election results projection -

http://electoral-vote.com/

Pono - interesting to follow its development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pono_(audio_format)

Perhaps this will do something to address the stupidity of the Loudness War.

This guy's opinion indicates there will be challenges.

Can I make a suggestion ...

... to all pundits, commenters, and all morons in the media (traditional and otherwise) and similar ilk?

Please, PLEASE stop uttering the term 'fact-check'. That is a stupid term.

Facts are statements have been confirmed to be correct. They do not need to be checked because they have already been done so and repeatedly such that it's now a standard. Or as defined  -

A fact (derived from the Latin factum) is something that has really occurred or is actually the case. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be proven to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable experiments.


A fact that suddenly needs to be 'checked' is not a fact, but merely just a statement. And people who utter this often times put themselves by their statements as the sudden arbiter of reality and all things fact, when if what's being said is a fact, it doesn't need to be checked.

Next time you hear someone rambling on and on about fact-checking, likely they're a moron.

Fucking right he's a cheater ... and those who believed in him are the victims.

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/10/19/lance-armstrong-conned-america/

Gotta love the comment -

"So what, exactly, was Armstrong supposed to do? Say "Yes, I took drugs, because that is the only way to compete as a professional athlete"? Or be the best cyclist of his age yet struggle to finish in the top 20 for a moral victory? He told the lie his sport and the public demanded--the same lie thousands of athlete tell, or would if asked."

Gotta love the attitude - win at all costs, even if it means cheating and lying. Cause that's actually winning to this guy.

Well gee, if he couldn't compete fairly, then that makes cheating ok? And so what if he played fair and didn't win?

It may have just been a 'moral victory', but at least it would've been an honest one.

Newsweek to shut down print version.

Selling moronicism since 1933. At least the print side of it is going away.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/newsweek-will-cease-print-publication-at-end-of-year/

A book everyone should be reading.

I know I am -

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/books/the-end-of-loser-liberalism

Cheating to win ... so sad.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/10/06/did-romney-cheat-during-debate-by-smuggling-in-notes/

Hey Radio Noon ...

... I think rather than asking the question of whether people in Montreal 'they still have confidence in Montreal's police force; what they should be asking is did anyone ever have confidence in the to begin with.

Frankly everyone should rather question the effectiveness of  a police officer who openly harasses people, who never actually end up being charged.

Ah police brutality at its best -



Yeah, suspended., but held accountable?  Montreal Police know how to protect their own from the law.

I don't forget Allen Gossett and his killing of Anthony Griffin. I'm sure Griffin's family doesn't forget either.

I-1240 - a retarded attempt to pubicly fund charter schools in WA state.

Never mind the fact that charter schools have been repeatedly proven to be a failure at the notion that competition is good in the public education system ...

Never mind that they are likely unconstitutional in the State of Washington ...

Look who's funding the initiative - people who are involved in private education and are in control of large corporations and institutes with no public accountability.

Well so much for that dream.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=407309

Well there's always next year. People might criticize them for not starting Strasburg, but I think they are thinking about his and the team's future - which with Gonzalez, Harper along with Zimmerman and LaRoche, should make for a solid team for a number of years.

Amazing how that new playoff rule benefits the one team with lowest amount of wins. That same team that beat Atlanta with that controversial play.

Kind of like that team in the American League that always seems to get the right call at the right time.

Just saying ...

Nice.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/ben-roethlisberger-wears-pink-armband-to-support-l,29847/

Ben Roethlisberger Wears Pink Armband To Support Labia Awareness

Jerry Weinberg's blog

http://secretsofconsulting.blogspot.co.nz/

I've been a big fan of Jerry's writing (there's so much of it, and so much more to learn) for some time, and am only now just beginning to understand a lot of it.

That's because Jerry is one of those people who possess that rare gift of explaining things of varying complexity in the most straightforward manner possible, and without making the student feel like an idiot. Rather they not only learn something, but feel and realize they've learned something often very useful and in-turn feel better about themselves.

Great teachers can do that. It's one thing to know a lot -  however explaining and describing that to others takes a lot of skill in terms of language, communication, knowledge, patience, and empathy.

Perhaps one day I'll get to meet Jerry in person and learn something from him directly.

For now, I'm content and honored to find his blog, pick up his many books when possible, and simply listen to the man.

In honor of Columbus Day

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html

Courtesy of Howard Zinn (thanks for the tip Buzzflash!).

Dubya - always a failure and the cheat we always knew.

Thanks to (once again) the establishment media doing their best to prevent a story from gaining traction among the voters.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2012

Imagine what the country would've been like with four less years of those liars, cheaters and failures.

Not a good sign for the NHL

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=406758

Yay Expos ... I mean Nationals!

http://www.nesn.com/2012/09/washington-nationals-claim-playoff-berth-reaffirming-heartbreak-of-montreal-expos-demise.html

12 more wins in the playoff and volia! World Series time!

What a sad story

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11896-the-life-and-death-of-an-australian-hero-whose-skin-was-the-wrong-color

I know the feeling of being the wrong color. I can only hope I don't end up like this.

Finally someone else out there sees the Nolan Batman film series for what it really it

Drivel.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/batm-a09.shtml

Boycott Discovery Channel.

http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/10/01/viewer-discretion-advised-discovery-channel-to/190235

Isn't great how cable networks are facilitating drivel from this draft-dodger and coward?

Yeah, big man standing with a gun - what a big man he isn't.

Note to cable companies - this is exactly why I don't pay for your products and services. I refuse to pay for shit like this, and all the stuff that passes for 'news' from cable networks. I'm not into the high fructose corn syrup-y saccarine view of things you coat your hatred shit with and air to your customers.

Tobin tax has some key new supporters.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/09/28/europe-tobin-tax-transactions.html

Germany, France pitch Tobin tax on financial transactions

Sounds interesting ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax

A Tobin tax, suggested by Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin, was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. The tax is intended to put a penalty on short-term financial round-trip excursions into another currency.

Outtakes

Some performing artists often take time to sculpt their songs one instrument, and one vocal, and one note, and one beat at a time.

While others literally just bang it out on the fly.

Some like to figure out nuances and take different directions, and explore every possible chord change, effect, sound, and frankly overdub this shit out of things.

And then there are those who can write and rock a whole song with literally just four chords.

Case in point -



I seriously think he could've released it with no guitar soloing, but then again, he's the Boss.

Even ex-Cold War adversaries get the evils of GMO.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/russia-suspends-import-use-of-genetically-modified-corn-20120925-00065

Will anyone in the US? It certainly seems so currently.

List of companies against California Prop 37.

http://www.dailypaul.com/256053/list-of-companies-against-gmo-labeling-prop-37-california-right-to-know-act

Interesting to see the list of foods that are in reality frakenfoods.

It's amazing how much of these products are in every pantry and fridge in America.


This Prop 37 is a big deal, because labelling will force the American consumer to question the label's meaning; something these food companies would rather not answer. And it'll enable people to see just how much their food is really frakenfood.

An election race I'm following.

http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?id=WA08&cycle=2012

Bill Nye puts fairytale factory makers in their place.

It's sad that if you look up the AP article, you can see the right-wing attempting to give these fairytale factory morons equal space in the article to reply, as if they actually have some sort of rational response.

In many ways, it shows how the AP and other corporate media really truly view their readers. They try to pass themselves off as the arbiters of objectivity, when in reality they're both giving space to crap, while all the while giving themselves the appearance of just housing an honest debate.

Bull fucking shit - they're just framing a controversy to just sell their article. Or to put it another way, sell the controversy, which oddly enough is the same methodology these fairytale factory people use to try and inject their make-believe into science classes all over America.

You tell 'em Bill!

Overheard on a bus - 09-21-2012.

Asian-looking American female who frankly looked like she had too much plastic surgery (or perhaps not enough) got on the bus before it got to the highway. She was talking to her friend who has on the worst, most unreal wig imaginable ...

... and she just would not shut the fuck up.

Non-stop, and at loud volume the whole back of the bus got to hear endless earfuls of mindless giggles, stupidity, moronicism, idiocy, and just plain poor grammar.

"OMG!!"

"I have the worst life!!!!"

"I'm like so much better than them!!!! HEE HEE HEE!!!"

"They're such a fail!!!"


The only time she ever stopped was when her fat wig-wearing friend got off the bus.

Unfortunately for me, there was no celebration or rest for me. I had to get off at the next stop.

The Pickler didn't get the memo.

Barring a right-wing attempt to steal the election via illegal means, Romney's campaign is done, no matter how many right-wing-infused articles are written up in the AP -

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&q=Nedra+Pickler&oq=Nedra+Pickler&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i400.8143.11107.0.11216.13.3.0.10.10.0.125.359.0j3.3.0...0.0...1ac.1.CvgEOaRr2jA

It's amusing to me that when you search in the browser for the word 'gaffe' from that link, that word is (as of this writing) missing from pretty much all of the 'articles' she writes.

Oh, and yes, I'm talking about that Nedra Pickler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedra_Pickler#Accusations_of_poor_reporting


In her coverage of the 2004 presidential race, Pickler acknowledged having misquoted Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.[8] In June 2004, an article by Pickler on higher education costs was criticized by the Columbia Journalism Review for accepting Bush advisor Steve Schmidt's criticism of John Kerry as fact without evaluating the accuracy of Schmidt's claim, which CJR found to be misleading.[9]

On March 27, 2007, Pickler wrote that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (who had declared his candidacy February 10) had "delivered no policy speeches and provided few details about how he would lead the country" in his campaign up to that point.[10] On July 8, 2008, Pickler wrote an analysis saying that the presumptive presidential nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, had opposite stances on the policy goal of balancing the federal budget by the end of the next presidential term (January 2013).[11] Pickler was criticized for the article in the Columbia Journalism Review.[12]

Yeah it's over for him.

The Onion really has it down -

http://www.theonion.com/articles/now-that-my-campaign-is-over-id-like-to-talk-to-yo%2c29611/

Now That My Campaign Is Over, I'd Like To Talk To You All About The Church Of Latter-Day Saints




http://www.theonion.com/articles/romney-apologizes-to-nations-150-million-starving,29603/

Romney Apologizes To Nation's 150 Million 'Starving, Filthy Beggars'

I remember this story from grade school.

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pyle&book=wonder&story=boots

HOW BOOTS BEFOOLED THE KING

The ugly stench of double-standards.

http://www.avoiceformen.com/mens-rights/activism/feminists-on-the-attack-in-vancouver/
http://masculism.ca/blog/a-shit-load-of-misandry-and-stupidity/

Can't help but wonder why the assault on the safety officer went unaddressed.

It seriously feels this way

http://www.theonion.com/articles/20th-century-fox-greenlights-united-93-vs-predator,29522/

20th Century Fox Green-Lights 'United 93 vs. Predator'

NPI demonstrates why no one should take anything the Seattle Times says as fact.

Seriously, we only get the weekend edition for the ads. The rest we will try to save as fireplace kindling; it's not worth using even as toilet paper.

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2012/09/lets-put-washingtons-history-of-public-votes-on-supermajority-requirements-in-full-context.html

"Proponents of I-1185 use every opportunity they get to claim that voters have been consistently and overwhelmingly supportive of supermajority vote requirements on revenue-raising bills. But that’s not just not true.


As I have documented in this post, they are inflating the number of times that voters have said yes to these schemes, and they are not acknowledging that voters have also rejected supermajority vote schemes.

The Seattle Times, which likes to constantly remind us that it has won Pulitzer Prizes for investigative reporting, does not provide any of this context in today’s article about I-1185, which is very unfortunate. They claim to strive for objective, neutral reporting. But Andrew Garber’s story simply leaves too much important information out to meet our definition of objective or fair."

But what does one expect from a corporate media outlet? They are towing the establishment line, facts and reality be damned.

Hey there! The GWOT was really about oil after all!

http://whowhatwhy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/AFG_mineral_map_44.jpg http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/09/10/the-real-reason-for-the-afghan-war/

And yet again, the American corporate media fails to inform the public about this -

"The failure to pose this question is significant because the pretense of a “recent discovery” serves only to justify staying in Afghanistan now that the troops are already there—while ignoring the extent to which imperial-style resource grabs are the real drivers of foreign policy and wars, worldwide.


As long as we continue to dance around that issue, we will remain mired in disaster of both a financial and mortal nature. As long as we fail to tote up who are the principal winners and losers then we fail to understand what is going on."

Gee I wish Wikipedia was around when I was a kid.

Think of all the things I could've learned. Like this -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_slang

Quite a list. I feel like such a perv.

Oh look! The backbone-free Harper government doing the American right-wing's bidding ...

Canada closes embassy in Iran, expels Iranian diplomats.

Hmm ... looks like this is coming true after all. -


http://vultcult.blogspot.com/2012/03/president-obama-real-right-wing.html

Guess I won't be heading back to Montreal to live anytime soon.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/story/2012/09/05/pq-pauline-marois-victory-speech.html

A perspective on global warming that didn't occur to me.

And yet, it's so obvious. Before we end up getting scorched off the face of the Earth or drown in a flood, we'll probably first starve -

Unlike most climate worriers, it's not the melting glaciers that keep me up at night. It's rain. Hot air holds more water. As the average temperature increases, we can expect more clouds but less rainfall in all but the highest and lowest latitudes, as the atmosphere holds on to more of the available water. If we keep doing nothing, and the most likely climate change predictions hold true, the regular rains we depend on to grow our food will become more and more erratic. Let the planet's average temperatures rise by more than seven degrees, and we can expect a new desert in the United States extending from Kansas to California to form by the end of this century, joined by new deserts across Eurasia and the other breadbaskets of the world. We might still have rain in Seattle—but nothing to eat. Human civilization dies in this scenario, just like it would after a nuclear holocaust.

Read more here - http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/its-time-to-freak-out-about-climate-change/Content?oid=14657581

In a democracy, the lack of choice election candidates results in demise.

Case in point - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebecvotes2012/story/2012/09/03/quebec-election-analysis-lynne-robson-pq-marois-final-sprint.html

People usually vote for the status-quo, or what they believe is a change in scenery, which often is the previous status quo.

That's what you're seeing here. Quebec residents are poised to elect a party that believes in restrictions in what and how you speak, and where you do so. And this party believe in such restrictions more for younger people (like college- and university-bound and far younger) because they believe it's the only way to save their culture and way of life.

It's funny but I left Canada many years back because I felt was Quebec was on its way to imploding. Today in this day and age where dialog, content, heck slices of culture are available on just about any device, and with whomever one chooses, to then try and return to a previous way of life by trying to 'legislate' people back to a prevous millenium, is far more ridiculous to me now than it was back then.

More than 10 years after 9/11, and what has Shrub's GWOT gotten the US?

This - US suspends Afghan police training.

More stuff you won't see reported much in the US corporate media. If anything, the lack of reporting as the news filters through will once again trump the actual story.

New Frakenfood coming to your grocery isle near you, without warning.

Ah the end of summer, school is back in, the crops to be harvested ... sounds nice ...?

Yeah, no.

http://naturalsociety.com/6-new-gmo-crops-soon-hit-dinner-table/#ixzz258DwRijC (thanks Buzzflash!)


•Dow 2,4-D and Glufosinate Tolerant Soybean - Since the US first began using GM crops, our herbicide usage has been boosted by 300 million pounds, despite claims by biotech behemoths that other plants like weeds would not grow resistant to glyphosate – commonly known as RoundUp. And now, we have “superweeds.” Of course, biotech (and seemingly the USDA) doesn’t care, and they plan on adding the 2,4-D herbicide and dicamba (see number 4) to the list. Take action here.

•Syngenta Corn Rootworm Resistant Corn - Plenty of nations have banned Syngenta’s GM Bt crops—but not the US. This type of corn produces its own pesticides and kills all bugs, good or bad, which also means livestock can get sick from eating it. Research says that 80% of pregnant women have Bt toxins in their blood. Take action here.

•Okanagan Non-Browning Apple - Conventional apples are covered in pesticides. That’s why we buy organic, but Okanagan has produced the first GM apple. Take action against genetically modified apples right here.

•Monsanto Dicamba Tolerant Soybean - Take action here.

•Dow 2,4-D, Dlyphosate and Glufosinate Tolerant Soybean - Take action here.

•Genective Glyphosate Tolerant Corn

No doubt the American corporate media misinforms the public on this? You bet.

I seriously wonder if there is anything now that can be done ...

about this.

"In a sane world, progressives would see global warming as their dominant concern.   It eclipses reproductive rights, gender equality, the lot for it determines whether our world will remain capable of sustaining any civilization and not just in Africa or equatorial regions.  Climate change will be the defining factor for the world our children and our grandchildren will inherit.  We are writing their future today and it's being written indelibly."

I lower my head and shake it - I couldn't say it better or more succinctly. Any yet, can't I do more? Why can't I do something about it?

New word of the day - Glocalisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glocalization

Glocalisation (or glocalization) is a portmanteau word of globalization and localization. By definition, the term “glocal” refers to the individual, group, division, unit, organization, and community which is willing and able to “think globally and act locally.”


It is a term that was invented in order to emphasize that the globalization of a product is more likely to succeed when the product or service is adapted specifically to each locality or culture it is marketed in. The term combines the word globalization with localization. (An earlier term for globalization in terms of product preparedness for international marketing is internationalization.)

And worse it gets.

"Yesterday, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that the Arctic sea ice cover was at its lowest level since the satellite record began in 1979. Earlier this month Australian scientists found concrete evidence of “very unusual warming” over the last hundred years in Antarctica. And in July, 97 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet melted, an event that received little coverage in the American news media."

Read more here - http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/11708-record-ice-melt-in-arctic-other-alarming-events-have-scientists-gravely-concerned-about-climate-crisis

Gotta love this Republican Party platform ...

... of 1956!

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/08/26/1956-republican-party-platform/

Why we will fail.

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/08/26/more-neglect-for-americas-poor/#comment-113098

That's because for many of us it's a bitter reality, as opposed to politicians where it's nothing more than a convenient issue that can be brought up when needed and ignored when no longer useful.

It's not useful when the people these politicians are trying to reach would rather be entertained with pictures of Chavril.

RIP - Neil Armstrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apollo_astronauts_who_walked_on_the_Moon

We'll miss you, but we'll never forget you and the Apollo 11 mission. It certainly was a giant leap for mankind.