Anyone seen the tar covered beaches in Florida?

Not here on the news. Maybe in Florida?

Check out all the YouTube videos of the tar sheets that have washed up on beaches. Why is the media silent?

Watch

UPDATE: It gets worse Gulf beaches hit as distant hurricane pushes oil

Want Beautiful Kids?

by Blondesense Liz

BeautifulPeople.com Launches 'Virtual Sperm and Egg Bank'

excerpt:
If you want to be a parent, Parissa Mobasher believes you owe your offspring three things: love, the best education you can provide and good genes.

BeautifulPeople.com has launched a "Virtual Sperm and Egg Bank."

That's why, as a member of BeautifulPeople.com, a dating site exclusively for attractive people, she's joined the company's most recent venture, a "virtual sperm and egg bank for people who want to have beautiful babies."

"I know it sounds really shallow in the context of BeautifulPeople, but if you look at human nature, the initial attraction is the exterior," the 42-year-old Londoner said. "It's that extra edge in life."

As a single woman, she said she's potentially open to finding a suitable sperm donor on what the company called its fertility introduction service. And if she chooses against having children of her own, Mobasher said she'd seriously consider giving her eggs to someone else -- especially given the strength of her own genetic endowment.

hmmm interesting. I'd go for smart first.

Most "terrorists" suck at what they do

by blondesense liz

I've noticed it and you've noticed it. Save for a few doozies, it appears that the foot soldiers trained in "terrorist camps" are bumbling idiots. Kind of makes you wonder how anyone pulled off 9/11.

The Case for Calling Them Nitwits
BY DANIEL BYMAN AND CHRISTINE FAIR at The Atlantic

They blow each other up by mistake. They bungle even simple schemes. They get intimate with cows and donkeys. Our terrorist enemies trade on the perception that they’re well trained and religiously devout, but in fact, many are fools and perverts who are far less organized and sophisticated than we imagine. Can being more realistic about who our foes actually are help us stop the truly dangerous ones?

read on....

Gooooooaaaaaaaaaaaalllllll!

What would you ask Newt?

by blondesense liz

Newt's going around the country promoting his new book To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine for Regnery Press Press (a most dubious publisher).

Please read the nonsense from the inside flap:

America on the Brink

The Obama administration is conspiring to transform America. They want to remake our America—of free enterprise, faith, and personal freedom—into their America—of endless bureaucracy, secularism, and state control—despite overwhelming opposition from the American people.How is this possible? How has the Obama team succeeded in adopting widely despised policies like the massive stimulus bill and the healthcare takeover? How could such a radical president and his congressional leaders get elected and then take a center-right country in a socialist direction bitterly opposed by most Americans? Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has the answer: the Left have built a secular-socialist machine out of corruption, lust for power, and sheer ruthlessness, and are using it to steamroll over the will of the people. In this book, Gingrich reveals:

* How the secular-socialist machine gained power through deception and outright lies
* How the machine shuts the American people out of the legislative process
* Why some of our most powerful leaders seek to banish religion from public life
* How the machine uses taxpayer money to pay off its supporters and punish its opponents
* How we can replace, not reform, Obama’s socialist programs

Exposing the mortal threat now facing America, To Save America offers concrete strategies for dismantling the machine and replacing it with policies and institutions that work. But we must act fast, Gingrich warns, or our children will inherit a secular, socialist America transformed beyond recognition.

It's pretty obvious from the assertions on the book flap that he's describing what conservatives have been doing all along- deception, lies, shutting people out of the legislative process, using tax money to pay supporters....

And what's this about our children inheriting a secular, socialist America? Where? When? How? I was hoping I was going to inherit that kind of country and thought we were pretty close. Now our kids are totally screwed and will be lucky to earn minimum wage jobs out of college and lucky to get any health care benefits.

I want to ask him exactly what is so socialist about Obama when it's clear that he is firmly right of center. He answers to corporate interests before human interest. How is that socialist? Throwing the taxpayers a bone here and there isn't exactly going to ruin the country financially. Perhaps bailing out corporations and invading countries that can't pay us back is a bigger threat to our financial security. no? How about hiring someone who knows something about economics to run the treasury?

I want to tell him that I'm an actual liberal, with very Jesus-Christian leanings, who gives a hoot about my fellow humans, who supports public education and the right to practice whatever religion anyone wants to practice as long as they don't shove it down my throat. If I don't think Obama is a liberal or a socialist at all, What does that make me?

I am indeed fiscally conservative and surely wouldn't vote to piss away tax payer money to make CEO's rich on bogus wars. I wouldn't cut taxes during wartime. duh. That's fiscally irresponsible. I'd use the tax money to create jobs for the citizens who in turn would pay taxes back to the government, buy more stuff and keep the economy going. People would open factories and make quality items for consumers. We wouldn't be beholden to commie countries like China... oh no, no, no, no, no.

How is allowing corporations to not pay taxes conservative? How is not regulating corporations conservative? How can we treat them as persons and yet not make them pay taxes like actual persons do?

What is socialist about America actually?

The America I grew up in gave people from any background the opportunity to rise above their roots. I don't see those opportunities anymore and it's surely not the fault of a socialist machine. What socialist machine? If this were a socialist country, the mood would be pretty good around here, I'd say.

We've gone backwards.


If you had the opportunity to say something to him on his book tour... what would you say? I am taking suggestions.



.

Whistling Past the Graveyard, Redux

What's new from the Graveyard of Empires?

Well, the big news right now is the fact that our general running the show in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is probably regretting he opened his fat fucking mouth. See, Stanley made the mistake of running his yap for the microphones in an interview of Rolling Stone.

Some people will do anything to get on the cover:



So McChrystal is in the Oval Office, called onto the carpet by a President who is described as "furious." According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (the law under which the military operates), the General is guilty of insubordination, a court-martial offense. Whether he'll be fired, broken to the ranks or allowed to resign remains to be seen - although our client ruler in Kabul, Hamid Karzai, has expressed his support for McChrystal.

No doubt those law-and-order types, the GOP, are foursquare behind the President in enforcing military discipline and the chain of command ... oh yeah, right. Never mind.

Meanwhile, a report surfaced that we, the taxpaying citizens of the United States are - gasp! - paying money to the Taliban! Paying the Bad Guys in dollars!

The news this morning acted all aghast at this revelation, while I shrugged and said, "It's old news."

And it is - I cited The Nation article in this post back in November.

We are (indirectly) paying Danegeld - routing money through "independent contractors" who in turn pay off the local warlords and Taliban in exchange for securing our supply lines - and anyone who's ever paid extortion money will tell you that the amount never goes down. There's no child or family or senior discount, either.

So, what do we do?

Simple.

Get the hell out of there.

Private McChrystal can have the honor of being the last soldier to walk out of the country.

Ooh! What they meant to say!!!

During a serious outdoor grilling over the weekend, the conversation turned to music. We talked about oldies (since we're so old) and listened to some of the young bucks tell us that today's music was the bomb!
That may be but when we asked some of these young'uns why the need for obscenity, not necessarily profanity, they gave the time old answer of "It's the times." The discussion didn't go much further about that but a corollary came up; suggestive music.
It was generally agreed upon that today's music was anything but suggestive. Rather it is explicit. We decided to try to name (sexually) suggestive songs but not the overtly obscene of rap. It was difficult for us oldsters to come up with any of today's songs and we were surprised to find the youthful group also had similar trouble with "their music."
So we started listing some of the songs we grew up with that we thought were sexually suggestive without using obscenities or profanity.
Here's the challenge. Can you suggest songs from the past, not rap, that are in your opinion sexually suggestive?
Here's a list of some we ancients came up with.


Afternoon Delight – Starland Vocal Band
Lollipop - Chordettes
My ding-a-ling – Chuck Berry
Physical - ONJ
Yummy yummy yummy I got love in my tummy – 1910 Fruitgum Company
Secret Lovers – Atlantic Star
Stay a While – The Bells
This Night Won’t Last Forever – Bill Labounty
The Time of My Life – Medley and Warnes
Make It With You – Bread
Do That To Me One More Time – Captain & Tennille
Nobody Does It Better – Carly Simon
I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King
Behind Closed Doors – Charlie Rich
Back Door Man – The Doors
Touch Me – The Doors
I Want to Know What Love Is – Foreigner
All the Way – Frank Sinatra
Lady Will Power – Gary Puckett
Young Girl – Gary Puckett
Don’t Pull Your Love – Hamilton, Joe, Frank & Reynolds
Somebody to Love – Jefferson Airplane
Lola – The Kinks
Whole Lotta Love – Led Zeppelin
Lightning Strikes – Lou Christie
Fever – Peggy Lee
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
Longfellow Serenade – Neil Diamond
Don’t Forbid Me – Pat Boone
Slow Hand – Pointer Sisters
Fire – pointer Sisters
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles
Help Yourself – Tom Jones

And maybe the most suggestive of our generation;

Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus - Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg

Think of any others, especially those of you who grew up in the 80s and 90s?

Texas: I love the smell of irony in the morning

by blondesense liz


Texas' governor Rick Perry may be inadvertently putting off the planned obsolescence of the critical thinking skills of young Texans. There's hope that a few more students will be accepted into universities outside of the state.

The state can't afford to buy their new far right, historically inaccurate and scientifically incorrect text books. Perry refused Federal aid. This blonde wonders if the tax payers in Texas realize that they deserve Federal aid to help their state even though some of it would go to dumbing down the next generation.

The Board that approved the stunningly backward thinking curriculum for the state is so upset that students may continue to be exposed to such heresies as evolution, they are desperately trying to secure funding for science book supplements which will be available to students from grades 5 through to high school. Stay tuned.

Frid...Uh, make that SUNday obligatory sex post:

Scientists try to prove that women manipulate men with noises during sex

Offered Without Comment

"The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Is Making A Lot Of People Really Sick"

...is rapidly turning into a public health disaster of frightening proportions.

...the state of Louisiana announced that 71 cases of oil spill-related illnesses had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals...

...more than 75 oil spill disaster workers have already been treated for mysterious symptoms.

SICK


"This is the way the world ends;
"Is the BP Gusher Unstoppable?"
Not with a bang, but a whimper."

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Reform bill changed at the last minute.


The Senate in its less than finite wisdom caved to someone (?) and changed the bill that would help reform the finance racket, er, industry. It seems at the proverbial last minute, language was changed to make it nearly impossible for common investors to vote for the CEO and Boards of Directors unless they owned AT LEAST 5 percent of stock.
As is mentioned in the article, virtually no common shareholder has that kind of percentage. Therefor, the only ones who can vote for a CEO or put members on a board are probably the ultra wealthy or are already board members. Dodd (asshole - Ct.) changed the wording in response to pressure from an unnamed source. More than likely the source was a janitor in the White House!


(head still intact!)

Effects of the oil spill

People are getting sick working on the cleanup and also those living near the polluted areas.
BP doesn’t want workers to wear respirators or hazmet suits because it’s bad for publicity according to Keith Olbermann, MSNBC 6-15-2010.
OK. If it’s safe, then let’s get the families of the executives, investors, lobbyists and politicians who believe there’s no health problem to those who help in the cleanup. Hell, just let them stand along the beaches and watch.
BUT…
They can’t wear respirators or protective suits, but BP can provide styrofoam enclosed dinners for them..
Sure, that'll happen.
Just like the Right Wing Chickenhawks during the Iraq War; they're too busy having bake sales or stuffing envelopes or installing ribbons on SUVs.



Tonight, Obama said…nothing.

Side note to Saborlas:
You wrote this to me:

//one of these days, Obama's gonna do something you wholeheartedly approve of and your head's gonna explode

I think it’ll be intact until at least January 2013, maybe longer.

"Changing Perspectives..."

"Perhaps PTB discussions have encircled the idea we are wising up, and that the only way to maintain hegemony is big war, and stripping us of our money, and taking our freedoms away? My friends echoed this hullabaloo in many urgent ways: "They have raped us of a better standard of living!" "They have poisoned our food!" "They have laid waste our Earth!" "They have profited from making us fat, drunk, and stupid and dumping pharmies in our children's blood!" "They have turned our land from cooperative spirit to infighting at every level of possible gain." My formerly "conservative" friends are now of the mind that now that we-the-people have had enough, and that the PTB must now kill and enslave us so they can stay in power and prevent the light of the truth from shining on their mis-deeds. This is anger folks, and that ancient perpsective, coming from right-wingers here, is a major shift in the bedrock of the American political landscape if it is widespread. I really want to know how widespread such thinking is becoming."

Read it all HERE.

Poser for the day...

With the interesting Democratic Primary in South Carolina being won(?) by Alvin Greene, a man with no money, less experience than the Shriller from Wasilla, no campaigning, no views on the world, no meetings, no staff, a seemingly quite limited vocabulary, and a questionable background, this poses the inevitable question:

Who is more qualified to be in public office and why
(the Presidency doesn't count...yet):

Sarah Palin

or

Alvin Greene


Please limit your responses to 140 words of less so Sarah doesn't lose concentration while looking at her hand or that it doesn't tax Alvin's Campaign Staff reading them over and over to him.

Feel Good Moment

Media Matters has posted up a short, down-and-dirty critique of Glenn Beck's new 'book' The Overton Window. I must confess I haven't read anything of Beck's oeuvre, but if it's anything like his verbal spewings I think it'll be regarded as the biggest piece of shit since The Turner Diaries.

But you want to know something?

I published three science fiction novels, and after reading the excerpts posted on Media Matters, I don't feel like such a complete asshole any longer.

In fact, I love my work, and encourage you to read it and buy it!

The Chronicles of the Race trilogy:
Fastoshi: Chronicles
Morshrarthi: Interactions
'Atshnegjir: Rebirth

Get 'em all!

Now We'll Never Leave

The New York Times is reporting that vast mineral resources have been found in Afghanistan - estimated at nearly a trillion dollars.

No oil, though, but apparently oodles of gold, lithium and copper. Lithium and copper, by the way, are essentials in making the little electronic gewgaws that we Westerners crave.

(Lithium can also be used in making a hydrogen bomb, but let's not think about that, okay?)

As the title suggests, now that we know there's something more exportable in the Graveyard of Empires than troublemakers and opium, we have even more incentive than ever to stay in Afghanistan. More troops, more money, with the constant bleating from the pundits and Slave Media that we can't afford to let these resources fall into the wrong hands.

Such as China, Russia, or Iran.

But look on the bright side!

If we practice the tried-and-true West Virginia mining techniques in Afghanistan, there soon won't be any mountains for the Taliban to hide in!

With apologies to Sesame Street.

One of these things is a lot like the other;
One of these things is kinda the same.
Can you tell which one is a lot like the other,
Before I finish my song?

In the late 70s and early 80s, American Steel manufacturers, independently of course, decided they could make more money by closing their plants in the east, laying off the union workers and relocating to the mid west and south. They also sought new agreements with the new cities and lower wages with the local unions in exchange for the extortion of moving into those cities. Thousands of steel workers lost decent paying jobs with good benefits because American Business was greedy.
It would have been somewhat acceptable if the cost of the products that used steel lowered because the new plants saved the Steel Bosses money. The move might have made sense. But they didn’t save consumer any money. Instead business that relied on steel increased their prices. Windfall capitalism at its best.
What about the lost jobs? Well, with a bit of an outcry, Congress in its finite wisdom created something to try to placate those who lost their jobs. They offered retraining. Whoppie! But most of the retraining resulted in positions that didn’t pay as well as those the workers formerly held. Not only that but many of the newly trained clerks and typists and stock boys and girls had substantially reduced medical and retirement benefits. But business had its plan and was moving full speed ahead. Steel moved west and the rust belt was born.
Then St. Ronnie screwed the Air Traffic Controllers to break their union. Worked real well. Business got on board. Hundreds of workers lost decent paying jobs and were replaced with employees the businesses wouldn’t hire because they didn’t qualify…then. But after Ronnie killed the union, competence? No problem. Money saved by business. Did prices go down? Nope. Did profits go up? Greed is good!
The steel workers and controllers who lost their jobs created a domino effect on their communities. Small businesses that depended on those workers went under. Whole communities suffered. Did business care? Nope. Did the champions of small business, the Republican Party, care? Nope.
Now we have a situation in the Gulf created by BP. Although it probably wasn’t intentional, BP’s incompetence makes it no accident. If you drive 80 mph through town and know you have no brakes, when you hit something or someone, it’s no accident. Same with the lack of safety BP instilled in its work.
Thousands of workers will lose their livelihood because of BP’s incompetence and greed. I’m sure there will be some sort of compensation for those workers, maybe along the line of what Republicans call welfare. Oh, they won’t refer to it that way at first but after a couple of years when most of those fishermen can’t find jobs and have to apply for assistance, the Right will again complain that they just don’t want to work.
Barry will set up some kind of retraining for these people since fishing will undoubtedly take at least a couple of weeks to get going again. (That’s sarcasm for the reality impaired.)
Will these retrained people get jobs that were as sustaining as their old ones? If you believe that, you can buy that bridge in New York.
No, what will probably happen is a tremendous reliance on IMPORTED seafood. Seafood from companies owned by American Business in countries that pay less than pennies per hour to those who toil in jobs worse than slaves but still the Americans will charges top dollar for shrimp, crab, lobster, etc. Guess who benefits from BP’s accident? Yep! American business. Guess who suffers?
Now Barry is talking about making BP pay for everything. But what is everything? 80 billion, 100 billion 150 billion goes to where? The families? Probably some, but most will never reach those who need it. Can you say Katrina?
Imagine you’re a Congress Ass and all of a sudden 150 billion you didn’t expect is available. Of course you HAVE to spend some on those poor, affected people. But we’ve seen time and again what happens to Congressional priorities when extra money is available. Don’t you have a bridge to build in your district? How about that new Post Office that just has to be built and named after you? How much would you like to bet that most of the money from BP, IF BP ever does pay, is installed in some scheme by Congress Fools to make it look like it will benefit the people of the Gulf but will be managed by, gee, third party financial wiz’s? And not just local wizzers, but those on Wall Street since they “have the know-how.” I’m sure Timmy and Benny and Larry will be more than helpful in setting something up…along with The Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats.
The money that MAY come from BP will be made to look like a godsend by the complicit media. But I’ll bet a shiny new Reagan dime most will go to big business.
Tell me I’m wrong.

Just for a hot Saturday Night...

BS from BO

Here's the link. The original didn't take.

From Scarecrow at firedoglake.com:

(Snip)

But it wasn’t just the usual White House coward spouting off. Today, when reporters asked Press Secretary Gibbs whether the anonymous coward spoke for the White House, instead of saying the idiot would be found and fired — as any rational President would do even he cared only for his own political success — Gibbs essentially said yes, the White House endorsed the underlying message: unions and others unhappy with corporate Democrats should not be working to replace them.

Oh really? Well, screw you and your anti-democratic views, White House.

So let’s see. In just the last year, the White House has managed not merely to ignore and disappoint but often gone out of its way to mislead, lie to and betray liberals/progressives, labor unions, teachers, Hispanics, gays/lesbians, anti-war groups, dedicated environmentalists, respected pro-employment/pro-growth Nobel economists, climate scientists, financial reformers, defenders of Medicare and Social Security, mainstreet populists, women’s rights advocates, defenders of public interest regulation, alternative energy/efficiency supporters and even scarecrows.

In case you don’t recognize the list, that’s the core, the heart, the brains and the foot soldiers of the Democratic Party.

It would appear that Karl Rove finally got his dream of a one party nation. Who'd have thought a Faux Democrat would bring it to fruition?

If your minions make statements like this and you don't correct it immediately, there's no other presumption than you agree with it. And if you agree with it, you have betrayed those who voted for you.

This is the one thing that separates us from the Republicans; that we don't have to blindly agree and follow what leadership says. Maybe the Reich expects that. America, at least the America I gave much for, shouldn't.

BS from BO? You betcha! He IS responsible for the people he chose to speak for him.

Quote of the Day (from Labrys' blog)

Author: Labrys
Stolen from a friend’s email sig line.

"Religion is an insult to human dignity.
With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion." -
Steven Weinberg

Utah to Use Firing Squad on Inmate

by blondesense liz

An inmate requested the firing squad in Utah and he's gonna get it. Lethal injection is deemed much more humane. Whatever. I don't know.

This is how it will play out:

After Gardner is allowed the customary last meal and visitors, prison guards will strip search him and give him a dark-colored prison jumpsuit to wear to the 20-by-24-foot execution chamber.

Inside, Gardner will be strapped into a winged, black metal chair with a mesh seat that was built for Taylor's execution. A metal tray beneath the chair is designed to collect any blood that runs from the executed prisoner's body.

For Taylor's execution, sandbags were stacked behind the chair to catch any stray bullets.

Aside from staff, as many as 25 individuals may witness the execution from three observation rooms that surround the execution chamber, according to the department memo. The witnesses include relatives of the victims, representatives for the state, news media and individuals selected by Gardner.

Once the witnesses are in place, the prison warden will open the curtains on the observation room windows. Gardner will be asked for any last words.

Then, after a final check for a stay with the Utah attorney general's office, comes the order to the executioners, who fire from a distance of about 25 feet.

The gunmen stand behind a wall cut with a gunport, their rifles bench-rested to assure accuracy, DeLand said.

The guns are handed out randomly to the officers. One will be loaded with a blank, so no one will know who fired the fatal shot. By law, the identities of those selected for the firing squad remain secret.

What if you're selected to be in the firing squad and you don't want the gig?

He doesn't know whose ass to kick?

Anyone have some suggestions?


Click to enlarge

"Israel: UN Security Council ignoring basic precepts of justice"

The United Nations Security Council has once more demonstrated its irrelevance -- and incompetence.

This week, Israel massacres a few boatloads of humanitarian aid volunteers on their way to deliver medicines, food, and building materials, in an act of blatant piracy and terrorism in international waters.

In inimitable style, the UN Security Council calls for Israel to investigate itself, and report back about what they did.

No criminal investigation, such as Kosovo received for its war crimes, not even an independent inquiry, but a Washington-backed whitewash by the perpetrators of the most heinous crime imaginable: an attack on unarmed humanitarian volunteers conducting an aid mission.

Read the REST and try not to puke.

The Future?

This is by no means an exhaustive treatise.
Let’s examine the ramifications of BP’s “little accident.” Even if no more escapes, estimates of 500,000 to one million gallons of crude oil are now in the Gulf heading to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama on its way to Florida, around and up the East Coast into the North Atlantic. Some will continue to Britain (irony there!) and the North Sea, a significant amount turning south toward Spain with an alarming amount continuing toward Africa but with most heading back across the north coast of South America endangering the island paradises in the Caribbean before returning to the western Gulf to start again.

So many things will be affected both directly and indirectly that only time will enumerate them all. We’ll start with the fishing industry in the Gulf.
I’m not going to spout figures since there’s no way of knowing how many people will lose their livelihood because of BP. The direct impact of this effect on fishing will be a shortage of seafood from the Gulf. Much of that is consumed by those living and visiting the Gulf, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.
With the immense reduction of seafood from the Gulf, distributors have two choices; import seafood from the West and East Coast at higher prices or close up because it’ll be too expensive to supply the affected areas in the long run. Either way, prices will rise atrociously. Direct result of no supply will be unemployment first in the fishing industry then the food service industry. Once those people lose their jobs and consequently have no money to inject into the local economy, other businesses will begin to suffer. If people don’t spend money, businesses fail. What a novel concept.
With more people out of work, those lucky enough may be able to collect unemployment to get them some relief fro a while. But as we’ve all seen the last year, health insurance will be a thing of the past for them since most will not be able to afford health care and basic living expenses. Lifestyles will change drastically. Mortgage payments will stop, banks will increase interest and families will lose homes. Business vultures will buy up the homes for pennies on the dollar and with tax breaks hope to keep them long enough to make a killing when the economy turns around. (Will anyone live that long?)
Another industry that will succumb to BP’s “little accident” is the tourist industry. A substantial number of people in the coastal south depend on tourists from elsewhere spending money. But what would induce people to come to beaches covered in oil; beaches with dead fish and birds. The result will only be more business failures and more layoffs and the domino effect will grow.
An incidental suffering business will be cruise lines. I don’t know how many owners of Carnival, Princess Cruises and other lines will want their investments subjected to BP’s oil accident. Nor will the tourists want to see and smell that terrible odor while sunning themselves on the decks of expensive pleasure ships.
Other businesses that don’t directly depend on fishing will continue for a while unaffected. Other oil rig workers will still get paid for their work but will soon find fewer goods available. Businesses that rely on water transportation will find the effects sooner as access to harbors and rivers becomes restricted. That’ll result in less production and layoffs because enough product can’t be produced and delivered.
All isn’t dark for all fishermen however, just those in the Gulf. The fishing fleets on the west and east coast will probably double their efforts to glean as much as possible. The businesses especially in the east and northeast will boom for a while, until the oil reaches their ranges.
All of this presumes no weather problems. More on that later.
Next time we’ll explore the last days of Florida’s Tourist industry.

Pome fer Tailgunner Tony Hayward:

May bloody piles distress your ass
And corns adorn your feet;
May crabs as big as horseturds
Crawl over your body and eat;
And when you're old and gray
And a syphalitic wreck
May your head fall through your asshole
And break your fucking neck.

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm;

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

George W. Bush on Facebook And Twitter...Or Is It?

George W. Bush on Facebook And Twitter...Or Is It?

"We based our decisions on good, sound intelligence, and the--our people are going to find out the truth. And the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind." George W. Bush, July 17 2003

Wanna Be A Catholic Priest? It's getting harder if you're gay.

by blondesense liz

One of my first classes in the Catholic seminary where I studied for a Masters in Divinity was taught by an older priest/professor/bible scholar and I just loved him. He was pretty old so I took all his classes in a row so I could learn and benefit from his years of study and wisdom. He scoffed at all the hoohah the Catholic Church made about minor things which really had no bearing on one's "salvation" or "enlightenment." He was such a rebel. Loved him.

So when I read this story in the NY TIMES, Prospective Catholic Priests Face Sexuality Hurdles, I thought of my favorite professor. At the start of one class, he told us that the new crop of seminarians were a bunch of "interior decorators." He was referring to the painstaking vignettes set up in the lobby of the magnificent castle on a fantastically expensive piece of real estate on the water. Each day, there was a fresh flower arrangement, knick knacks carefully merchandised and the Bible opened up to a specific page. It really was overkill, but it looked so lovely. I'd probably have been a part of that decorating frenzy if I was living there too.

Why am I remembering all of this? Oh yes, because as I recall, the seminarians set off my gay-dar from day one. By day two and subsequently, there was no doubt that the seminary was quite the boys club. You should have seen the gym... and the cuties working out in there. oh baby! Did I care that they were gay? Nope. Most were delightful young men who were open, friendly and willing to devote their lives to social justice and spreading love/peace/goodwill to all. The guys I spoke to during breaks or in the downstairs saloon were pretty much determined to remain celibate (despite their sexual orientation)... because naturally I asked them about that being a "lay" person myself.

Now the RCC is questioning seminarians extensively on their sexuality before accepting them into the priesthood. Many diocese' don't necessarily want homosexuals in the priesthood anymore because they are trying to weed out child molesters. It's not really fair because out of the thousands upon thousands of homosexual priests out there, only a tiny fraction of a percent are child molesters. Jobs that might bring people in contact with kids in any field can attract child molesters (teachers, coaches, etc). Nevertheless the irony is that many priests/seminary directors who are directing these inquisitions are gay themselves.

Since I am a female and the RCC hates wimmin, they won't take my advice and allow the state to prosecute those men who abuse children. If you were a child molester and knew that your illegal, subversive behavior would not be tolerated, wouldn't you be less likely to become a priest? I would think so. All the covering up over the decades made the RCC priesthood almost a safe haven for perverts. Or they could accept women into the priesthood if they weren't such misogynists... or enlist married men if they didn't think sex was so yukky... whatever.

If the RCC decides that they can no longer accept healthy, well adjusted men who happen to have a homosexual orientation, they are going to lose out on a lot of loving caring individuals to tend to the flock. Such a shame. The RCC makes no sense most of the time. I sometimes think the semen has backed up into their brains thus inhibiting rational thought.

Read the story. What do you think? There remains some sanity out there... but this witch hunt seems to be misdirected. They ought to be hunting the pigs who covered up the child abuse cases, if you ask me.

The conservative right vs science and history

by blondesense liz

I've been reading and hearing a lot since the Israeli raid on the humanitarian ship bringing supplies to Gaza. I think my favorite is the conservative pundits and John McCain who are blaming Obama and his minions directly for this... as if it was a set up. Wow.

Depending on which politician or political operative you listen to, you can hear that Israel was completely within its rights to invade a ship in international waters and open fire on the passengers who were bringing aid to the Palestinians who are being pushed out of Gaza by Israeli settlers. So many talking heads on the telly must be somehow associated with Israel because the garbage being spewed forth from their mouths couldn't mean anything else. Do you think they get paid to lie for Israel? On the other hand, sane people from sane countries are condemning Israel's actions.

Speaking conservative politicians and pundits... what's this defending BP? Are they kidding me? They deny that the environment is being destroyed, that the oil plume is spreading and condemn scientists and researchers for their educated and scholarly opinions.

It's a crazy world. What's wrong is right. What's right is wrong.

What's happening here?
Who are you going to believe: science and history vs fascist propaganda?

Jim Greer, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida who has been under criminal investigation for his financial handling of the organization, was indicted on six charges including money laundering and grand theft, state officials announced today.

Full story: Orlando Sentinel.

Is that a harelip or did somebody punch him in the mouth?