Hey - look at the moron in the middle of this ...

... literally!

Read here for more about what stupidity he's trying to push the United States into this time -

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/02/24/a-dangerous-resolution/

The audio is apparently even worse. He reminds me or more than one type of person I've encountered a number of times in my career in IT - Loud, stupid, and drunk on one own's authority.

P.S. I sincerely hope that's not Patty Murray to the right of the moron whose to the right of the moron at the podium.



Overheard on a bus - 02-27-2012.

Armed forces guy (or so he claims) from Salt Lake City stands at the front of the bus when I got on (it was full).

As bus went onto I-5, we could see Mount Rainier in the distance.

Guy asks bus driver if that's the mountain that blew back in the 80's. Driver (female) says it's not.

At first I thought that'd be the end of it, given there are signs that say not to interfere with the bus driver while they are driving.

Boy was I wrong.

No, instead she says she's never seen it so bright like it was today, but not as pleasant as the mountains in ... guess where?

No really ... guess where?

Why, Salt Lake City of fucking course!

Well this starts Armed Forces guy and Bus Driver gal in a long and drawn-out conversation on a number of topics which they relate to the whole bus for the duration of I-5 -

• It's just not as beautfiul here as it is in Utah
• They each are the rocks of their families
• Snow is just crummy here
• Both can't wait to get back to Utah, but their spouses won't let them because they are each from the areas (oh what assholes)

Fortunately for the rest of the passengers, this guy got off on the 2nd stop after the bus got off I-5. Unfortunately for the readers of this blog, this conversation will for ever be remembered, as part of this series - yay all of you.

Close to 1 trillion dollars USD spent on our military.

The official 2012 Defense budget of $530 billion, and just a shade under that for 2013, leaves out an enormous amount of defense-related government spending. According to a recent piece in The Atlantic, when you add in, oh, the cost of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our spending on nuclear weapons development (relegated to the Department of Energy budget), Homeland Security, veterans' medical care (inadequate as it is, but rising), military aid to allies ($3 billion to Israel, for instance), and interest on the military's portion of the debt (projected to be $63.7 billion in 2013), our defense spending almost doubles, to $986.1 billion in 2012 and $994.3 billion in 2013.

In the last 13 years, according to Business Insider, U.S. military spending has increased 113 percent. We spend more on the military than the next 15 biggest military spenders combined - and more than all 50 states spend, in total, on health, education, welfare and safety. In 2007, some $11 billion was simply written off as "lost" in Iraq, the Business Insider story notes.

Read about it here - http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13342

Wow this really makes me sad - RIP Gary Carter.

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

I had no idea he was ill. This is what happens when you lose sight of things on the Internet.

Thank you for providing many hours of enjoyment in watching you hit home runs, throw people out at 2nd (and 1st and 3rd base) and be the positive spark the Montreal Expos had during their best times.

You will be missed.

Why do I get the feeling ...

... this isn't going to end well for us?

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2012-02-22/news/hanford-s-toxic-avengers/

Read the first part here -

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2011-10-19/news/hanford-s-nuclear-option/

This is the price we all will pay for America's race to become the first nuclear power.

Gee you think this guy's a fucking idiot?

Proof that the oilsands in Alberta, Canada will only fuck up the planet permanently AND make people say stupid things in of all places, a climate summit forum -

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/02/17/428375/canadian-minister-promotes-tar-sands-at-climate-summit/?mobile=nc

Canadian Minister Promotes Tar Sands At Climate Summit


" Kent also pushed Clinton to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which alone would add five billion tons of greenhouse pollution to the atmosphere over its lifetime" 

I wish this were an Onion article ...

... kind of like this one ... http://www.theonion.com/articles/michael-bay-signs-50m-deal-to-fuck-up-thundercats,2702/.

Sadly, it's not - http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-wrath-titans-director-290554.

Yes. That Michael Bay.

Another element of my younger years is going to be destroyed.

2012 US Elections, Super PACs, the less-than-1%, and democracy ...

... all in one -

http://www.demos.org/publication/auctioning-democracy-rise-super-pacs-and-2012-election

"Super PACs represent much of what is wrong with American democracy rolled neatly into one package. They are tools that powerful special interests and a tiny privileged minority can use to work their will by drowning out the voices of ordinary Americans in a sea of (sometimes secret) cash."

This what happens when non-people (i.e. corporations) along with wealthy individuals are allowed to corrupt the political system, by using the one tool they have more than anyone else - money.

Here's the gem of gem paragraphs -

"Raising and spending money directly is not exactly the same as having money raised and spent on one’s behalf. But, as Newt Gingrich’s lifeline from Sheldon Adelson and Stephen Colbert’s stinging satire have so compellingly demonstrated in recent weeks, lax FEC regulations have virtually collapsed the distinction.


This means that Americans who can afford to give thousands of dollars to political candidates or Super PACs that support them are more likely to see candidates who share their views on the key issues of the day win office and assume positions of power.

This is the influence of money on elections, rather than on politicians."

Democracy in the United States of America has been reduced to -

money=power

Download the report and read it for yourself - here.

Decline of the American Empire.

Or as Noam Chomsky puts it - The Imperial Way. Read it.

Quote of the day - 02-12-2012.

Regarding global warming and the key difference between those who know it's a clear danger to us and everything on the planet, and those who continue to deny its existence ...

Courtesy ofThe Mound of Sound (aka The Disaffected Lib); emphasis mine -

It should be a given that anthropogenic global warming is a question of science. It involves geology, hydrology, physics, math, biology, zoology, atmospherics, chemistry - all that stuff you probably hated in high school. It's a scientific question, plain and simple, albeit the question itself is complex and challenging. Ever since man stopped sharing caves with dinosaurs, you know - six thousand years ago, we have focused on separating wheat from chaff. This often involved a scientific technique - trial and error. Over centuries this sort of approach evolved into what we today call the "scientific method." I look into a question. I run a bunch of tests. I record results (data). From the data I draw conclusions, even theories sometimes. Then I present my findings, my genius to my adoring and worshipful colleagues. Now, to be taken seriously, I must also reveal my research, how I came to be such a genius. I must do this so that others can replicate my research and come up with their own data that will confirm or refute my conclusions. It's called "peer review." Consider it the opposite of bluffing.

The climate science community works on the scientific method. But what of the denialist community? If they're right, the easiest and surest avenue for them is also the scientific method. Take the research, take the supporting data and simply show where it's wrong. Blow holes in it. That's the easiest and surest way but only if they genuinely believe the science is wrong. If this really is a hoax it'll unravel like a three-dollar sweater. But they don't have any interest in the scientific method. No, they're happier with something remarkably akin to the "legal method."

This is also the reason why I can never associate with the right-wing, libertarian, or conservative movement or belief. I've never found them to really ever be grounded in any principal associated with facts, or evaluating any notion with the scientific method.

Who's really dumber?

Those of a conservative leaning, as demonstrated in this paper -

• Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater PrejudiceThrough Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact (h/t to Alternet, and BuzzFlash)

or ... those liberals and non-conservatives who give in to conservatives on pretty much any issue?

To put it another way ... as the Alternet article states -

"The conceptual stupidities of conservatism are matched by the strategic stupidities of liberalism."

The United States of Monsanto.

At least soon to be -

http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/ex-monsanto-lawyer-clarence-thomas-to-hear-major-monsanto-case/

Holy fucking crap!

Quite a comparison ...

Source: http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/02/09/because-america-loves-dogs-more-than-europe/



I wonder how the folks in Haditha feel about this?

Proof positive why the Drug Wars in the US were an abject failure for its society.

The only winners were law enforcement, in how they duped public officials into diverting more public funds to them based on arrests, raids and the sort.

Case in point -

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/777164/nypd_marijuana_crusade_led_to_cops_killing_a_teenager_in_the_bronx/#paragraph3

Serious? Was it necessary that this person be killed? And what did that really accomplish?

Well this is interesting.

National Lawyers Guild calls for dismissal of charges against Bradley Manning




National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls for the dismissal of all charges against Bradley Manning. The Army announced on Friday that Manning will face a general court martial for allegedly leaking classified information about U.S. policy and practices relating to, among other things, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NLG President David Gespass, said, “Manning’s prosecution is calculated to distract us from the real problem, that the U.S. government is once again hiding from the public proof of crimes committed in our name.”

Manning is a U.S. Army soldier accused of transferring classified data to his personal computer and sending it to the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. He faces 22 charges including “aiding the enemy,” a capital offense.

Kathleen Gilberd, executive director of the NLG’s Military Law Task Force (MLTF) said, “Manning is being prosecuted for patriotic acts akin to the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. His prosecution highlights both the way that military proceedings subvert fundamental due process rights and the dangers of government secrecy to a free society.”

Netflix's salvation - original content?

Perhaps so, given how it's obvious that the content companies (media conglomerates) have been trying to figure out a way to get in bed with the content delivery companies (phone and cable) for some time, all the while stifing innovation by Netflix -

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/the-online-video-wars-are-getting-interesting.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Reminds me a lot about what happened to Vonage -

You have the cable-oriented assholes on one side - Verizon and Coinstar (i.e. Redbox)

On the other side - Amoron (Amazon).

Some people just got it.

In a day and age where pretty much every musical act tunes their songs down to perform them live, it's good that some folks can still pull off their hits live, and in some cases, sound even better.

Case in point - Peter Schilling (the song Major Tom)

1983 -



2010 -

It's really the futility of all war.

If there's one thing humanity can show to any other existing species out there in the universe that can demonstrate we are worth engaging with, it's the basic skill to overcome the instinctive need for violence.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/166080/futility-afghan-war

From commenter 'JTMcPhee' -

"...  We kill some of them, so they kill some of us, so we kill some more of them, so they kill some of us, so we kill some other ones over there, so they kill some of us ..."

Somehow I don't think we're there, or will get there anytime soon.

Classic from The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/congressman-hurt-to-discover-lobbyist-not-really-h,27253/

WASHINGTON—According to Capitol Hill sources, Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL) came to the painful realization this week that agribusiness lobbyist Stephen Fischer, who had been kind and generous toward him for months and had often met up with him for drinks after work, was not, in fact, his friend.

It's frightening how close to reality that is.

How sad how far the Montreal Canadiens have fallen -

as of Saturday, February 04, 2012 1:16 AM.


Division Conference League Eastern

Rank Team GP W L OT PTS GF GA Home Away Last 10 Streak

1 NY Rangers 49 32 12 5 69 136 100 15-5-2 17-7-3 6-3-1 Won 1

2 Boston 49 32 15 2 66 175 108 17-8-2 15-7-0 5-4-1 Lost 1

3 Florida 50 24 15 11 59 128 139 13-5-7 11-10-4 4-3-3 Won 2

4 Philadelphia 50 30 14 6 66 167 145 12-7-4 18-7-2 6-2-2 Won 1

5 Pittsburgh 51 29 18 4 62 157 132 15-7-2 14-11-2 8-2-0 Lost 1

6 Ottawa 54 27 20 7 61 161 166 14-9-2 13-11-5 4-5-1 OT 1

7 New Jersey 50 28 19 3 59 138 142 14-9-2 14-10-1 6-3-1 Won 2

8 Toronto 51 26 19 6 58 156 152 15-8-4 11-11-2 5-4-1 Won 1



9 Washington 50 26 20 4 56 141 145 18-6-1 8-14-3 5-3-2 Lost 1

10 Winnipeg 53 24 23 6 54 129 147 15-8-2 9-15-4 4-5-1 Lost 1

11 Tampa Bay 50 22 23 5 49 141 170 14-7-2 8-16-3 5-3-2 OT 1

12 NY Islanders 50 21 22 7 49 122 146 11-11-4 10-11-3 6-3-1 Won 2

13 Buffalo 51 21 24 6 48 122 151 11-9-6 10-15-0 3-6-1 OT 1

14 Montreal 51 19 23 9 47 134 142 9-10-7 10-13-2 3-5-2 Lost 2

15 Carolina 53 19 25 9 47 135 164 13-12-3 6-13-6 5-3-2 Won 1

It's been more than 30 years, and they've still never replaced Guy LaFleur's scoring ability.

"You know how naive you sound...senators and presidents don't have men killed."

Not only was it true before that phrase was uttered naively by Kay Adams in The Godfather, but it's still quite true, right through 2011 -

http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/Anwar%20Al-Aulaqi

On September 30, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) jointly carried out the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen born in New Mexico, using missiles fired from unmanned drones in Yemen. A second U.S. citizen, Samir Khan, was killed in the same attack. Two weeks later, Anwar al-Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman, a 16-year-old U.S. citizen born in Colorado, was killed in another U.S. drone strike elsewhere in Yemen. The administration has not adequately explained the legal basis for these strikes, and it has not explained the factual basis, either.

More here - http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2011/10/03/drone-assassinations-hurt-the-u-s-more-than-they-help-us/

As a bonus, check out the right-wingers and their classless comments in the last link.

Michael Corleone was right - "Oh, who's being naive, Kay?"

An interesting commentary about America, Wealth, and Equality.

Take a look -

http://crooksandliars.com/mike-lux/great-debate-america-and-equality

Let's hope this never finds its way ...

... to the Stuff White People Like blog ...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/02/01/bc-canadian-nazis-exposed.html

The names of dozens of alleged white supremacists in Canada are contained in files leaked by computer hackers in Europe intent on exposing hate movements, CBC News has learned.
The alleged white supremacists' names were revealed earlier this month by members of a loose-knit group of hackers called Anonymous on a website called nazi-leaks.net, which is now offline.
In addition to emails and secret websites and blogs, the hackers uncovered photographs of children giving Nazi salutes at a gathering in Missouri, confidential legal documents and displays of Hitler tattoos.