oh Come ON!-those news anchors are so funny-April Fools..right? UFO's Expected at Royal Wedding...A foot of snow coming my way...They found the

Cobra!!! (There was a Cobra loose in NYC?)


I guess I am awake (I think) here's the story about the aliens possible appearance at the wedding

gotta love those huffpo comments (or are they AOLer's now?)

"Of course UFOs will have to show up. Or how else are the rest of the Reptoid Royal Family going to get here?! Duh

"Ever heard of reptilian aliens? They're like the long lost cousins of republicans"
(Me thinks I'm a gonna double up on the melatonin tonight)

Sweat, I mean Sweeeet Dreams...

A different perspective?

Does might really make right?
Looking at us through other eyes.

People were being oppressed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein; in Afghanistan under the Taliban; in Libya under Gadaffi, Khadaffi, Kuhdaffi (whatever). Same goes for Serbia under Milošević. (Palestinians, Bahrainians, etc don't count for some "slick" or religious reason!)
Their “organizations” evidently threatened” our way of life and our moral codes (or maybe our business interests?). "We need to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here"… so our American Government (those we elected to do OUR bidding) took it upon themselves to do something to save those "people" oppressed by their governments.

Let’s do a 180, shall we?

You are a political person of importance in China, or Russia. Very important!

You see the American people being robbed and financially exploited by terrorist Banksters and Wall Street and you see collusion with these terrorists by the American Government.

You see American Business Terrorism being spread throughout the world.

You see people in America losing homes to unscrupulous lenders (like in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan...purportedly by American Business interests, uh huh!) and nothing being done by the American Government to help the people.

You see common people in America being denied health care; being denied food; being denied the freedom to live their own lives by oppressive laws created and existing laws modified by their government while the rich and powerful rape the wages of those beneath them.

You learn that individual leaders of some American States are allowing poor people to starve or die in order that their comrades make [more] money and the American Government does nothing to stop them.

You learn that in American elections there have been questions (and possibly illegalities) involving election fraud by special businesses making the actual count of ballots suspicious and possibly allowing the candidates these special interests want in office. It's possible the candidates the people prefer may not be getting the actual votes they cast thanks to a corrupt system. Are Americans being oppressed by business and is it allowed by the American Government?

You learn that the (supposedly democratically) elected leaders of America are not doing what the majority of the people want, rather they are acting in the interests of only one facet (business) over the general public.

You learn that corrupt government officials are not being prosecuted for their committed crimes, rather they are being rewarded for their involvement in crimes against the America People. But...You learn that people of no political or business standing ARE being prosecuted, unfairly treated and even imprisoned for significantly lesser infractions.

You learn that the laws of the land which have stood for over 200 years do not pertain to all, only to the poor and lower classes or those who question the actions of the government or business. Further, you learn the Government chooses to ignore a written constitution granting specific rights to the American People in order to further its own and business interests at the expense of the American People.

You are concerned that the flow of goods from America to your country could suffer in quantity and quality and affect your country financially if the American Government increases prices to placate their business greed; something you can’t afford.

You learn that the loans to America by your government may not be paid back which could cause economic strife for your country and people.

You learn that American Business and government treats women worse than men and that some religions are harassed for their beliefs even though the American Constitution grants the right to worship as Americans please.

You learn that a large faction of American politicians, news people, business leaders and fringe groups engage in deception and outright lies to further the goals of government and business.

It appears to you, your government and your country the American People are being oppressed by a ruthless dictatorial regime which could affect the economic welfare of your country and its people.


The question now is:

Do you urge your fellow politicians to convince your leader or government to decide it’s in their best interest to impose economic or military sanctions or especially take a military position and/or military action against America to save or free the oppressed American People? Is it ethically or morally correct? There appears to be no question of immoral, unethical and even illegal treatment of the American People by their government.

Are you prepared to sacrifice current and future finances and the economy of your country and people to right the wrongs committed on Americans by their corrupt government and possibly cause the same hardships to your country the American Government has inflicted on its own people?

Should your country become a World Police Organization? Do you have the right, any right, to make the American Government, its leaders and President change its ways or how it treats its own people?

Should you convince a coalition of the rest of the world to join you in this undertaking, take unilateral action or just send the American Government a "sternly worded letter"?

Should you worry about the legality…or morality?

Do you want your country to become what America has become?

kwikkeebit*

Has anyone thunk the reason so many Potential Republican Candidates act like rejects who couldn't make it on "Jaywalking" is because the Right Wing Leaders (Luntz and Limbaugh more than likely) already selected their candidate unbeknownst to the general public and newsreader flocks and just wants the country to be so nauseated by 2012 with the Bachmann's, Gingriches, et.al. that they'll automatically support this Republican Backroom Pick sprung on them during the Three Ring Republican Convention Circus?

*kwikkeebit- Something more meaningful than a tweet but a tad longer, less involved than a "Facial Network" social post or typical blog and only involves one topic at a time but allows longer responses. Not to be confused with kwikkeebyte which is somewhat longer or anitteebit which is even shorter than a tweet!

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

http://feww.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/japan-nuclear-emergency-update-28-march/

Japan’s nuclear watchdog has reported that the level of radiation detected near reactor 2 was 1,000 millisieverts an hour (100,000 millirems per hour).

Japan’s nuclear safety officials have since confirmed that the radiation inside Reactor 2 was caused by a partial meltdown of fuel rods.

TEPCO says the radiation in Reactor 2, which was earlier reported at 10 million times the normal, was actually 100,000 the operating level.

Meanwhile, Japan’s nuclear safety agency has dismissed as unreliable a report by Greenpeace that radiation levels of up to 10 microsieverts per hour had been detected 40 km (25 miles) NW of the nuclear plant.

Fukushima NPP. Workers are seen outside the heavily damaged Reactor 4 on March 22, 2011. Photo by TEPCO, via Reuters.

What is a lethal dose of radiation from a single Exposure?

Studies of the 1945 atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki show that 100 percent of victims whose bodies were exposed to 600,000 millirems (6,000 mSv) died from radiation. About 50 percent of victims who received 450,000 millirems (4,500 mSv) of radiation also died.

(Note: Rem is a unit of ionizing radiation equal to the amount that produces the same damage to humans as one roentgen of high-voltage x-rays. Source: MIT)

1 rem = 10 mSv (1 Sv = 100 rem)

Background Radiation in millirems per year (mrem/yr)

• Average background radiation (US): 300
• Higher altitudes (eg. Denver): 400

“Safe Levels” of Radiation (U.S.)

Limits above natural background radiation levels (average 300 millirems per year) and medical radiation:

• Occupation Limit: Maximum of 5,000 (the limit for a worker using radiation)
• Average Natural Background: 300

[Note: Lifetime cumulative exposure should be limited to a person's age multiplied by 1,000 millirems, e.g., a 70-year-old person, 70,000 millirems.]

Adults

• Max single dose for an adult: 3,000
• Annual total dose: 5,000

Under 18

• Max single dose for a person aged under 18 years: 300 millirems (whole body equivalent)
• Annual total exposure: 500

Fetal Exposure

• Maximum limit for fetal exposure during gestation period: 50 millirems per month above background levels

Medical

• Single Chest X-ray (the whole body equivalent): 2 millirem

Air Travel

• Coast-to-coast US round trip flight: 12 millirems

Megaquake and Tsunami Death Toll

The latest death released by the authorities put the number of dead at just over 11,000, with about 17,400 people missing.

White Canes for America!

GOP Candidate Cattle Call - Moooo!

Yeehaw! Git along thar, little dawgies!

It's time to take a peek at the current herd of people who either want to run for the GOP Presidential nomination, or are thinking about it, or are getting a lot of face time on FOX while Sean Hannity masturbates all over himself.

Let's begin, and kindly remember that these are my own observations. As a Republican, I may be asked to choose one of these people. I'll do it in alphabetical order.

Michelle Bachmann: Sweet Unholy Cthulhu, this person makes Sarah Palin sound like a lineal descendant of Goethe. I once stated that Palin lowered the collective IQ every time she opened her mouth; Bachmann tosses it into the toilet and jumps up and down on it. She appeals to the Tea Party, which goes to show how much anti-intellectualism has grown in this country.

Haley Barbour: The Governor of the poorest state in the Union, and he obviously likes it that way. Notable for heading up a lobbying group that supported nasty people like Qaddaffy Duck back when supporting him was fashionable. Also notable for trying to paper over Mississippi's hideous record on civil rights from back in the day.

John Bolton: The Mustache from Hell is trying to pass himself off as the reincarnation of Bismarck. The Iron Chancellor would rip you to shreds, Johnny-mop. Your idea of foreign policy is to bomb Iran. Trouble in Yemen? Bomb Iran. Drug smugglers in Mexico? Bomb Iran. You're a one-note song, just like Tom Tancredo, and you'll last about as long.

Herman Cain: Who? Oh yeah. So far he's the only African-American in the field, and I don't expect him to last long. Since the glowing heart of the GOP is basically in the Old South and the Midwest, I don't anticipate him getting any traction.

Mitch Daniels: Midwestern Governor, and one of the guys whose attempts at breaking unions is driving his rating numbers into the sewer. He might end up having a tenure in state office about as long as The Half-Term Governor's was.

Newton Gingrich: Newt is an example of what passes for "family values" in the modern GOP. A serial adulterer who piously tries to explain his randy nature away by saying that a) he's now a Catholic and therefore forgiven, and/or b) his adultery was spurred on by the fact he loves America so much. If he loves America so much, America had better watch out - he plans on screwing her, then dumping her for a younger, prettier country if things go bad.

Mike Huckabee: The Priest-Governor of Arkansas is playing stupid-coy right now, but his early poll numbers look halfway decent so he might take another stab at the White House. However, the fact that he's still ordained makes him instantly suspect.

John Huntsman: Former Ambassador, Mormon and apart from that, I know nothing about him other than he's probably not going to win anything.

Fred Karger: Gay rights advocate and Reagan adviser. The first thing will almost certainly guarantee that he won't win anything (other than the Leather Daddy vote).

Sarah Palin: Since we're talking about The Shrilla from Wasilla, she recently did a tour of India and Israel in an attempt to give herself some foreign policy chops. It didn't go very well; she pissed off the Chinese a tad, one of her speaking engagements in India was a bit of a flop, and she was barred from entering Bethlehem because her staff didn't do all the required paperwork. Some are saying that she won't run, and I'm inclined to agree - she's making more money hawking trashy books and running her yap than she'd make as President.

Rand Paul: Self-certified eye doctor. Hates abortion, civil rights and the 14th Amendment. Tea Party darling. Might win a few things if he can learn to keep his mouth shut.

Ron Paul: Has about the same amount as smarts and self-restraint as his idiot son. Makes noises like a Randite Libertarian, which not only makes him suspect, but anathema. Rand says that he won't run against his father, so how about a father/son team? Paul and Paul in 2012 - that's a prospect to make the Potomac burn like the Biblical Lake of Fire, isn't it?

Tim Pawlenty: Former Governor of Minnesota, I think, and the kind of fellow who makes even the people who listen to Prairie Home Companion nod off. You recall how Erwin Rommel was called 'The Desert Fox?' Your epithet is 'The Insurance Salesman,' Timmy. You make Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver look like real stem-winders.

Willard "Mitt" Romney: Mittens has a problem, and it's not the fact he's Mormon (which makes him suspect in the eyes of many members of the "Christian Right"). His biggest problem is that the mandate section of the Affordable Care Law is identical to a similar bit of Massachusetts' health care law, which Romney not only signed, but still supports. Mittens, you are going to have trouble with the Tea Party people - you know, the ones in Medicare-subsidized motorized wheelchairs who insist that the government stay away from their health care.

Rick Santorum: Former Senator from Pennsylvania and famously took a miscarried fetus home with him to let his kids meet their quondam brother. The Urban Dictionary website has an entry on him - his last name stands for something naughty. He's a moron, and it shows.

Donald Trump: Oy flipping vey, what a deal he's selling here. Fabulously rich, but is it enough to buy the Presidency? He's certainly got all the narcissism and delusions of grandeur necessary to be a modern politician, plus the Slave Media love him to tiny bits. Speaking of tiny bits, he's also a serial adulterer like Gingrich, a full-class Birther and able to spread a smooth layer of bullshit. I can see a theme of his campaign speeches: "Vote for a Rich Man - The Poor Man's Friend." The Tea Party will lick the soles of his designer shoes.

So there you have it. Depressing, isn't it? Not an Eisenhower, Goldwater, or even a Nixon among them.

Bums, scrubs and culls, the lot of them.

Is this the best my Party can do?

Obligatory (Saturday) Sex Post - WARNING! NSFW!

A Cautionary Public Service Message.

Reactor Core At Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant May Have Been Breached

may have?

The story from Huffpo is here


and a comment I stumbled upon discussing whether or not we are being told what is REALLY happening over there --

rich misty 10 minutes ago (4:49 AM)
5132 Fans
http://a8. sphotos.ak .fbcdn.net /hphotos-a k-snc6/190 747_210237 838992542_ 1633377870 15881_9582 49_7944759 _n.jpg

Source: US 7th Fleet/Face book posted at 6:43 PM, March 23, 2011

My eyes do not lie to me, and I am intelligen t enough to know what I am seeing.

btw, has anyone been reading about LFTR? Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor -- and how SAFE NUCLEAR DOES EXIST and that China is leading the way with thorium??? Let's ask MIT!

OBEY'S ANGLES Vs. 40 Lipsticked Virgins / The Women Running the War in Lybia

40 Lipsticked Virgins: Gadhafi's Best Bet for Survival




(Doh! wrong pic)



I've been hearing some of the talking heads on cable speak about how the+women+got+us+into+this+war+with+libya




From what I can gather, here are Obama's "top three" whimen in charge, based upon the goog

Hillary


Samantha


and Susan




I picked this link to catch up with what's going on. At the time of my google search above, the results lead me to believe this is being promulgated by the right. Maybe I should say, at the moment it's being discussed more (in a negative way) by the right.

There's a fourth woman involved here that didn't make it in the top 3 and

SHE'S the one running the show...

Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, Operation Odyssey Dawn Joint Force Air Component Commander


(Then-Brig. Gen. Margaret Woodward escorts former President George W. Bush to his plane on the last day of his presidency / Air Force photo by Bobby Jones)

"It was a spectacular display of airmenship watching this coalition come together the way it did to execute the first air strikes on behalf of the Libyan people," said Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, Operation Odyssey Dawn Joint Force Air Component Commander, shortly after bombing began over Libya last Saturday. "Our bombers and fighters performed magnificently and we are fully behind protecting the innocent Libyan citizens while ensuring the safety of coalition aircraft."

You go girls!

I remember going off on my kids one day right after 9/11 when the massive hunt for Osama bin Laden ('member him?) was going on. They were looking for some item in the house -- I got the usual call: "Mom do you know where _____________is, we can't find it" . I must have been PMSing or Perimenopausaling at the time. I freaked out on them. "Did you look everywhere?" yes "Did you look UNDER everything?" yes "It's not just going to pop out in front of you -- you REALLY have to look" but we really really did look. I came downstairs and found it in a nanosecond and thought to myself, ya know..... if they REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to find bin Laden, they should airdrop a fleet of pre, peri and postmenopausal mommies on the ground and I bet we could locate him in under 48 hours!

Empiricism

I regret that noted journalist and cynic H. L. Mencken may have been quite right when he wrote, "In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican."

However, I am a Republican, so it is with some regret that I share with you the following, compiled by joelgp over at DailyKos:

*********

The empirical evidence below shows just how deeply republican states have damaged this great country. Check it out and let me know what you think:

Conservatism is bad for middle-class income

10 poorest states with the lowest median household income

State Income
Montana $40,627
Tennessee $40,315
Kentucky $39,372
Louisiana $39,337
Alabama $38,783
Oklahoma $38,770
Arkansas $36,599
West Virginia $35,059
Mississippi $34,473

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conservatism is bad for your health:

States with worst health-care systems:

39 Texas
40 Arkansas
41 Kentucky
42 West Virginia
43 Georgia
44 Tennessee
45 Nevada
46 South Carolina
47 Louisiana
48 Alabama
49 Oklahoma
50 Mississippi

Source: Forbes

Republicans don't care about improving the lives of average Americans.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Conservatism is bad for your marriages.

States with the highest divorce rates:

1. Nevada
2. Arkansas
3. Wyoming
4. Idaho
5. West Virgina
6. Kentucky
7. Oklahoma
8. Alaska
9. Florida
10. Maine

Source: HuffPo

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Conservatism is bad for teenage pregnancy rates:

States ranked by rates of live births among women age 15-19 (births per thousand):

1. Mississippi (71)
2. Texas (69)
3. Arizona (67)
4. Arkansas (66)
5. New Mexico (66)
6. Georgia (63)
7. Louisiana (62)
8. Nevada (61)
9. Alabama (61)
10. Oklahoma (60

Source: Women's Issues

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conservatism is bad for education

States with the fewest college graduates:

1. Arkansas
2. West Virginia
3. Nevada
4. New Mexico
5. Oklahoma
6. Alaska
7. Arizona
8. Texas
9. Tennessee
10. Mississippi

Source: HuffPo

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conservatism is bad for news information:
TV outlet with the most ignorant viewers.

"Study: Fox News Viewers “Most Misinformed” Of All News Consumers

"Researchers at the University of Maryland have released a study of news viewers entitled, “Misinformation and the 2010 Election” (.pdf) and found news viewers often get the wrong idea on major stories, and–according to the study–Fox News viewers are the “most misinformed” of them all."

Source: Mediaite (although I can draw this conclusion solely from observing those around me).

*********

So there you have it; Hypotheses, evidence with sources.

The conclusion?

Mencken was unfortunately/sadly/horrifically ... right.

Elizabeth Taylor, DBE: 1932-2011

Elizabeth Taylor, Dame of the British Empire, American actress and one of the last of the great movie divas of her age, died of congestive heart failure.

Why do I see her entering the afterlife like this?

The Supermoon Hype and Bad Astronomy

by blondesense Liz


I have it on good authority (contact me for details) that the perigee moon was closer to the earth on December 12, 2oo8 at 356,575 km, than it was this past Saturday night. The "supermoon" hype was started by an astrologer named Richard Nolle who included this in a press release. Not only did the media and dozens of websites pick up on this, but the NASA website Spaceweather.com picked it up as well as the US Naval Observatory.

Why didn't government astronomers do their own research rather than rely on a pseudo-scientist? It has since been pointed out to them that they were promoting incorrect information.

Space.com was informed about this problem and replied to the columnist who pointed it out that they cannot stop using the term "supermoon" now.

This culture of anti-intellectualism stinks.

Congress has left the building...

They are off again this upcoming week.


And I thought the school year calendar was undemanding -- take a look at how hard our elected officials work:


2011 recess schedule

2010 recess schedule

How many weeks do you worker bees get off for vacation? Maybe two?

I think we should all call in sick and tired for the next week -- storm all of the congressional offices, and get some REAL work done.

Spring Has Sprung!

BREAKING: US Cruise Missiles, French Warplanes Strike in Libya

(Picture courtesy of the crazy people at Wonkette.)


A day after UN Security Council Resolution 1973 was announced, NATO upped the ante on the side of the opposition to Colonel Muammar al-Qaddaffyduck's regime.

French Rafale warplanes struck at targets on the approaches to Benghazi, supported by cruise missiles launched from US submarines (the US have dignified it with the name Operation Odyssey Dawn).

Danish F-16 attack aircraft are being moved to a US airbase in Italy for operations across the Mediterranean, and the French are moving the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle into the area.

Hearing about that made me wonder if the French have managed to correct the de Gaulle's manifold engineering problems.

Anyway, we have begun intervention in Libya. So far, it's only cruise missiles. I expect Predator drones soon.

Happy SuperMoon!

I'm hoping for clear skies at dusk here on the east coast. Should be a spectacular moon rise - I've been staking out a viewing spot all week.

Has anyone been reading astrologer Richard Nolle's (he coined the term 'supermoon') predictions? He caught my attention last month when I was looking into March's full moon info. I decided to get going on my "deep pantry" after reading a few articles. It certainly makes you wonder. Nothing wrong with being prepared.

Here is a recent update from his site

SuperMoon is a word I coined in a 1979 article for Dell Publishing Company's HOROSCOPE magazine, describing a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit. In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth. At any new or full moon, Earth and Moon and Sun are all in a line: Earth is in the middle in the full moon alignment, while the new moon happens with Moon in the middle. This coming together in an alignment is technically termed a syzygy. Sometimes - from a few times to a half-dozen times in a given year - these alignments also happen when the Moon is in its perigee, or closest approach to Earth. Astronomers call this very special alignment a perigee-syzygy. I call it a SuperMoon – which is a whole lot easier on the tongue. (My most recent print article on this subject appeared in the October-November 2007 issue of The Mountain Astrologer.)

SuperMoons are noteworthy for their close association with extreme tidal forces working in what astrologers of old used to call the sublunary world: the atmosphere, crust and oceans of our home planet - including ourselves, of course. From extreme coastal tides to severe storms to powerful earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the entire natural world surges and spasms under the sway of the SuperMoon alignment - within three days either way of the exact syzygy, as a general rule. SuperMoon solar eclipses tend to have a wider sphere of impact, extending roughly a week before and after the actual event. And other lunarextremes (of declination, for example) can extend the geocosmic stress window by a day or two here and there in any case.

Here's another article from biguniverse: Will March 19th SuperMoon Trigger Natural Disasters?

and one from universetoday: SuperMoon? or SuperHype?

AND this (seriously tongue in cheek) piece From Alexandra Petri I blame the SuperMoon


Speaking of the moon and tides -- can't leave out this barking moonbat...

I'll tell you why [religion is] not a scam," he said. "In my opinion -- alright? Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that. You can't explain why the tide goes in."
~Bill O'Reilly





(Reddit user texacer)



(Reddit user awesomethunderbolt)

I'm going with the idea that the moon is an alien webcam and that our friends from outer space will be swooping in anytime now to move planet earth's orbit out of the path of Planet X which might be heading our way. Of course, they won't be telling us what the WISE telescope has found out about this Planet X/Nemesis/Nibiru/Tyche/Hercolubes...thing -- not yet anyway...

Happy Trails!

From the Change of Pace Department

Meet Bernyce.

"Under a Cloud in California"

" It was yesterday when the madness really hit home.

"It had been after three days of scanning the internet with an ad-hoc network of fellow journalists, researchers, friends and activists--reading poorly translated Asian news, emails from nuclear experts, and, out of obligation, American puff pieces mostly meant to preserve the power of the Nuclear lobby and lull the public into a terrified stupor--that I got the phone call.

“I don’t want to alarm you,” my friend who also lives in the San Francisco area told me. “But I just got a call from a friend, and he has family in the military, and he was just told that the military is evacuating personnel and their families from California, and keeping it classified. It’s not confirmed, and I don’t want to post a rumor. What should we do?”

Find out what Charles Shaw did at Reality Sandwich.

A must read post from Les Visible @ smokingmirrors...THE THINGS THAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU'RE RIDING OUT HERE

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

‘May the scent on the wind remind you of the long forgotten dreams of an earlier search”.

The latest and most ominous news is that they have had to abandon the Fukushima nuclear plant because of a surge in radiation and the danger to workers. The Japanese are fleeing Tokyo but I cannot get any idea on the numbers. This is what Jack Welch is up to lately. Some of us are curious about what runs through the mind of Mr. Irascible. Is there anything that can make you stop and think about what you are doing in the moment?

I see the world is in full dress protocol and that means it is important and impressive and the mufti and the military presence enhance the dimensions of this reality TV theater of the absurd, in all the venues where it is playing, moving from theater to theater, person to person, country to country; revolution sweeps across the Middle East and nuclear radiation is a condiment on your Caesar Salad, here at the Ides of March.

Let’s go back to; what are you doing at the moment? What are you thinking? If you missed the link in contemporary Jack Welch; where is he these days? This grants a mindset into that and then you check the pedigree of the source for the article and you get an idea of whatever ‘shuffle off to Buffalo’, misdirect, pose and dispense, watered down with pure pervasiveness of chipmunk chatter on global, radioactive dead log, cut down by Weyerhaeuser and maybe... maybe... you see that the real problem in the world is that we have let bad people do what they wanted to do, in exchange for the illusion of a life filled with promises that turned out to be lies. It appears that Jack and G.E. and all the rest have been operating under an umbrella company called Lies R Us. ...continue reading here

(lots of links)

A Little Chuckle

Agence France Presse reports that the bomb squad was called out to a post office in the Russian town of Petrozavodsk, up in the northwest of the country.

A suspicious parcel was emitting a ticking sound.

After a few tense moments, the package was opened to reveal that a vibrator that had inadvertently gotten switched on.

New rule: When you send sex toys by post, take the danged batteries out, okay?

Tsunami, Before and After

Check out this link, courtesy of the New York Times. It has before-and-after satellite photos of selected areas struck by the earthquake and tsunami that bashed the northeastern part of the Japanese island of Honshu back on the 14th.

One hates to use the adjective "Biblical" when describing this disaster, which is still unfolding as the Fukushima nuclear plant is still posing major problems. Aftershocks continue, and it's taking a major bite out of the global economy.

If you don't think things can get worse, hang on to your hats, kids.

Drink, Drink, Drink...*

*From the "Student Prince" ~ 1954 - Mario Lanza singing.



First off, an apology for the length of this unedited article, and thanks to the PG for the article but those in areas affected by the "Godsend" of unlimited "cheap" natural gas through Marcellus Shale Drilling should read this. As should ANYONE who lives downstream from ANY waste water treatment plant that specializes in treating the effluent of the Fracking Process.
After you read it, if you had ideas that the glorious find of trillions of cubic feet of new natural gas would either make it cheaper or provide for longer lasting energy, ask yourself...would you rather have cheap gas or safe drinking water?
Oh, and by the way, the water provider in my area has already told our local government that to meet standards of "purity" by eliminating this problem, they will have to raise the cost of water distribution 3 to 5 times! That amount nearly offsets any saving in natural gas for consumers which the drillers, 75% of whom are from out of state and the companies who now do NOT have to pay taxes on the natural gas the take from Pa. say will provide for years of "clean natural gas."
I'll drink to that...but only water imported from some other country.




Bromide: A concern in drilling wastewater
Sunday, March 13, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Ballooning bromide concentrations in the region's rivers, occurring as Marcellus Shale wastewater discharges increase, is a much bigger worry than the risk of high radiation levels, public water suppliers say.
Unlike radiation, which so far has shown up at scary levels only in Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing wastewater sampling done at wellheads, the spike in salty bromides in Western Pennsylvania's rivers and creeks has already put some public water suppliers into violation of federal safe drinking water standards.
Others, like the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, haven't exceeded those limits but have been pushed up against them. Some have had to change the way they treat water.
Bromide is a salty substance commonly found in seawater. It was once used in sedatives and headache remedies like Bromo-Seltzer until it was withdrawn because of concerns about toxicity. When it shows up at elevated levels in freshwater, it is due to human activities. The problem isn't so much the bromide in the river but what happens when that river water is treated to become drinking water.
Bromide facilitates formation of brominated trihalomethanes, also known as THMs, when it is exposed to disinfectant processes in water treatment plants. THMs are volatile organic liquid compounds.
Studies show a link between ingestion of and exposure to THMs and several types of cancer and birth defects.
"Our biggest concerns are about bromide, which has become a problem over the last six months or so," said Stanley States, water quality manager with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, which draws water from the Allegheny River for its 400,000 customers. "Trihalomethanes are strictly regulated because of the health risks. We've seen levels that are threatening the standards."
The federal safe drinking water standard for THMs is 80 micrograms per cubic liter, and removing them from finished drinking water is difficult. Keeping bromide levels in raw water sources low is a much easier way to address the problem.
Mr. States said the elevated bromide levels in the river could be coming from municipal sewage treatment plants and brine treatment plants handling Marcellus Shale drilling and hydrofracking wastewater or from discharges by coal-fired power plants water discharges. He said four municipal sewage facilities and four brine treatment plants are handling and discharging Marcellus Shale wastewater upriver from Pittsburgh's drinking water intake pipe in Aspinwall.
"Something's changed and it could possibly be related to the treating of Marcellus Shale drilling wastewater," Mr. States said. "There will be a lot more Marcellus Shale wells operating in the region before there are a whole lot less and our concern is in providing safe drinking water. We're not anti-Marcellus Shale. We're anti-bromide."
Problem through the region
Pittsburgh is not alone. The Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority issued a notice to its customers in January informing them of the bromide problem and said it was necessary to change its water treatment methods to stay in compliance with state and federal drinking water standards.
"Due to the sudden increase in bromide concentration in the Allegheny River, all water suppliers are beginning to have a problem controlling this trihalomethane formation," the authority wrote on its Web page. "All water purveyors on the Allegheny River System are working together to try and find out the source of the elevated bromide levels."
Mr. States said a study is under way on the Allegheny River and its tributaries to identify sources of bromide in the river.
The Department of Environmental Protection is participating in that river sampling study and another in the Monongahela River watershed.
Katy Gresh, a DEP spokeswoman, said the department plans to order the industrial brine plants, sewage treatment facilities and coal-powered power plants on the rivers to conduct sampling at their discharge pipes.
"We will get and review those results," Ms. Gresh said. "If we can control the largest contributors, that will help solve the problem."
Jeanne VanBriesen, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of civil and environmental engineering, said testing there showed an unusual spike in bromide levels in July and August. Although they've tapered a bit since then, they remain higher than normal, said Ms. VanBriesen, who has been studying water quality in the Monongahela River since fall 2009.
She said the two biggest sources of bromide in the watershed are Marcellus wastewater from sewage treatment facilities and wastewater from new smokestack scrubbers at coal-fired power plants. The plants cannot remove the bromide in wastewater.
Bromide levels vary in discharges from both sources, but bromide is generally found at higher concentrations in Marcellus wastewater.
"It's difficult to make a definitive statement about where it's all coming from, but we do know it's going into our drinking water treatment plants and affecting the treatment of our water," Ms. VanBriesen said. "The most logical way to fix that is to reduce the amount of bromide in the rivers and creeks."
Millions of gallons
Marcellus Shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations use an average of 4 million gallons of water to drill and "frack" each well. The drilling industry says it recycles approximately 70 percent of the wastewater from its well fracking operations, but millions of gallons are still funneled through 11 sewage treatment facilities and five brine treatment plants, then discharged into the state's rivers and streams.
Together, the eight facilities on the Allegheny and its tributaries are allowed to discharge an average of 1.5 million gallons of Marcellus drilling wastewater and hydraulic fracturing fluid a day, according to state Department of Environmental Protection records. Marcellus discharges from three treatment facilities on the Monongahela River total 185,000 gallons a day. Another 650,000 gallons a day flow into the Ohio and its tributaries.
Drilling companies and the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an advocacy and lobbying organization representing most of the companies doing shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania, said the industry isn't to blame for higher bromide levels.
"When you look at the amount of Marcellus Shale wastewater that is being discharged it's low" compared to the river flows, said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources. "So those [bromide] increases are not an impact of Marcellus Shale." Range Resources recycled 90 percent of its wastewater last year and has set a goal of 100 percent for 2011.
"We certainly see this as a non-Marcellus issue," said Steve Forde, a shale coalition spokesman, who cited a 2010 U.S. Geological Survey study that noted higher bromide levels nationwide, especially in urban areas. "Road salt use has been identified as one of the culprits for that."
Ms. VanBriesen said that's not likely because road salt contains more chloride and little bromide, and her water testing didn't find a corresponding spike in chloride levels. Plus the bromide spike in the rivers first occurred in the summer.
"So to implicate road salt, well, I wouldn't buy that," she said. "The bromide spike happened in July and August when you wouldn't be applying road salt. So that wasn't a factor."
Changing treatment process
Whatever the origin of the bromide spike, Jerry Schulte, manager of source water protection for the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, said bromide is "absolutely an issue" for water treatment plants.
"We've identified bromide as a compound of concern," Mr. Schulte said, adding that ORSANCO's triennial review of pollution control standards in April will focus on developing a new, first-time standard for bromide in the watershed.
Discharges of bromides and bromide levels in rivers or streams are not now regulated by ORSANCO or by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Josephine brine treatment facility, also known as Franklin Brine, on Blacklick Creek in the Allegheny's watershed, discharges an average of 120,000 gallons a day of Marcellus wastewater that, at peak levels, contains high concentrations of bromide, chlorides and total dissolved solids, according to sampling done by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities.
"There's pretty high bromide going into the creek. Certainly it is a public health threat," said Conrad Dan Volz, director of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities. "And to remove brominated THMs, that's going to break the bank for public water systems."
Water treatment plants can get around the bromide problem by changing their treatment methods -- substituting chloramines for the chlorides they normally use in the disinfection process. That's what the Wilkinsburg-Penn water authority did.
The chloramines produce different, less toxic, treatment byproducts, but those can produce other problems, including causing lead and copper to leach out of old water pipelines and into drinking water as happened in Washington, D.C., when it made such a switch in 2000.
Ms. VanBriesen said water utilities making such a change can add phosphate to their finished water to prevent lead from leaching out of the pipes.
Another way to avoid THMs, she said, is to change the way water utilities mix, aerate and store their finished water, and a number of suppliers are considering that.
One water treatment facility that has had problems with keeping THM concentrations in finished water below the 80 parts per billion federal standard is Beaver Falls, in Beaver County, which was required to notify its 50,000 customers in 22 municipalities of the problem for the first three quarters of 2010.
The authority changed its treatment methods, from chlorine to chloramines, which don't form THMs, at a cost of approximately $15,000 last year. That allowed the water supplier to meet the standard for the last three months of the year, said Jim Riggio, general manager of the water system.
Although testing done by the state DEP hasn't been able to pinpoint a cause of the higher bromide levels in the Beaver River, Mr. Riggio said they coincided with upriver discharges of treated Marcellus Shale fracking wastewater.
"We went from non-detectable levels of bromide to increased levels a couple of years ago," Mr. Riggio said. "When I see the whole frack water thing taking off and the same time we start to have problems, well, until you can tell me different, that's what I assume it is. And it seems like a lot of the water suppliers on the Beaver and Mon rivers had similar problems to what we did."

The dumbing down of America's Youth is beginning with the Corporate Right's Selected Minions...

How is dictatorially cutting the Education Funding of America's Schools any different from burning books? Both produce the same result:
a nation of mindless followers!

Is it..."The End of the World as We Know It?"

Update:
New URL for Al-Jazeera live blog

...with O-pologies to R.E.M.

The "nukyular" problem in Japan gets more interesting all the time. Could it meltdown? Could it be OK?
Here's a url that sheds some more info on the situation. Especially click the link to the Al-Jazzera Live Blog.

I wonder how long it will take the Coal Spinners in this country to start promoting ads about the "safe" uses of "clean" coal - you know...the methane explosions, cave-in, black lung myths? All, of course, being much safer than turning "Murikans" into mindless toads! (Hmmm? Isn't that statement repetitively redundant? lol!)

Let's see...which way do the prevailing winds blow from Japan? Hmmm? Maybe Sarah better cover the porch where she watches Russia with some of Tom Ridge's Plastic and Duct Tape. The Aurora Borealis won't be the only thing glowing in Alaska...and that glow will make a lasting impression even down here, sooner than you can say nukyular! But don't fret, those of you who have never seen it. If it's half as bad as the talk (and that may mean many times worse than Three Mile Island), all us here in the good ol' Corporate States of "Murika' will get to see it up close and very personal.
Watch for the CEOs, Banksters, most politicians and Evangelicals all decide to take extended vacations over the next month - somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere! I guess this is one of the possible reasons why Georgie Boy and Heartless Dick bought all that land in Paraguay.

Or things will be just peachy and we'll all forget about the dangers involved!
Have a nice day!

Domo Arigato Mr. Capitalist and to all who believe in "Clean, Safe, Nukyular Energy!"

Me? I'll be spending my tyme..."On the Beach!"

Bradley Manning for President

You say you want a revolution?

Karl Rove’s dream is almost true. Very soon now, we’ll have a one party government. If by government you mean Corporations deciding how you and your children will live the next 50 years (if you can survive), then you indeed are getting what you wanted...if you weren't concerned enough to learn about the issues and if you didn't vote. And judging by the outcome of the 2010 mid-term election, most of the Left stayed home and watched Soap Operas, American Idol, Jerry Springer and People’s Court.
When Republicans take control of the Senate and the White House in 2012, and they will thanks to American apathy and computer election fraud, the last American Revolution will finally end.
You didn’t know there was a revolution? Have you paid attention to any source but the Main Stream Media since 2001? Evidently not.
Make no mistake. While those on both sides in the general population talked of “revolution” since “W” stole the 2001 election, the Corporations of the former United States of America have quietly conducted their own revolution. And they did it without guns or bullets or violence. They did it by buying politicians; politicians who changed or circumvented or discarded with impunity already established laws.
The revolution is nearly over. It won’t even end with a whimper thanks to the spineless Democratic Politicians and apathetic Americans. Hell, most Americans won't even realize there's been a revolution until the shit finally hits them and sadly, most think it never will (I got mine, you get yours).
When one of these Democratic Politicians accepts his thirty pieces of silver to vote against what the majority of the people want and in favor of Corporations, he or she is no longer a Democrat. Start calling them what they really are: Corporatons. It’s interesting that an online dictionary’s second definition of a politician is:
“a seeker or holder of public office, who is more concerned about winning favor or retaining power than about maintaining principles."
The Democrats and our current president have finally succumbed to the addiction the Republicans have main-lined for years - personal greed.
First it was the “Patriot Act” to protect us from Muslims (ironic title there, eh…Patriot!) by “temporarily” removing “some” of our freedoms. (Temporary. new definition. See Obama, 2010)
Some Democrats (along with most of the general population) stood silently while the First and Fourth Amendments were made obsolete under the lies of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and now Obama.
Those Democrats and our current president stood silently, or in many cases aided Republicans and Corporations while the Republican MINORITY of 2006-2010, with the help of a quisling president gave in to everything Republican businesses wanted.
They and our current president stood by silently, or in many cases aided Republicans and Corporations while trillions of tax payer dollars went to fund obscene bonuses in the name of bailouts for banks “Too Big to Fail” for those who caused the economic downfall of the last 10 years.
They and our current president stood by silently, or in many cases aided Republicans and Corporations while Americans watched their savings, their retirement funds, their pensions turned over to the Vermin of Wall Street and American Bankers.
They and our current president stood by silently, or in many cases aided Republicans and Corporations while Americans watched their health care costs skyrocket and treatment vanish.
These sorry excuses for Democrats sat by quietly while Bush/Cheney and the Rovian Republicans seated radical, lying Right Wing Crazies on the Supreme Court. Then they sheepishly accepted the ruling that allowed Corporations to become de-facto citizens of the United States capable of funding Republicans with unlimited finances to win elections without the requirement of adhering to laws.
They aided the Corporations in approving laws that allowed American Jobs to be outsourced to foreign countries; they allowed tax breaks to these same Corporations for sending jobs overseas.
They and especially our current president stood silently by and allowed those who corrupted the government, those who engaged in criminal activity, those who profited from their illegal activities to get off scot-free. And they continue to sit silent while an American Soldier who possibly showed the world how a lying group of criminals has run this country for 10 years is treated worse than any World War II Nazi POW.
They are still standing silently by while Republican Governors destroy unions, decimate medical care, reduce education and inflict hardships on a population that they say must sacrifice so that the wealthy become wealthier.
They and our current president continue to lie about social security being a problem. They continue, with their silence to allow America's seniors to try to exist in poverty so the wealthy can enjoy their lives.
They allow white men to decide in the name of religion how and what women can do with their bodies. Don't kid yourselves, there's no other way to justify other than with religion that a man can tell someone else's wife what she can do with her body. I imagine one of the reasons Republicans want to eliminate contraceptive techniques so much is they really must not like the feel of latex when screwing the public.
Maybe the worst of the Democrat's (and Pseudo Democrat's) stupidity was their support and continued support of two illegal wars, without which we would not be in this situation. They know what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan was wrong, yet they allow flag wavers and bible totting evangelicals from the Right to influence their actions; actions they take because they are more afraid of losing their Political Jobs and the greed that goes along than they are in doing what is right.
They’ve had chance after chance to do the right thing, yet when final decisions are made, they inevitably side with Corporations (thanks to heavily greased palms) and the Radical Right (only Gawd knows why - because supposedly, unless you're Reverend Ike, you can't buy your way into Heaven) against the will of the majority of their constituents.
They stand silently by and allow Corporations to pollute the earth because they say there's no proof Global Warming exists yet they quote a 2000 year old piece of fiction that has less proof of existence.
The Blue Dog Democrats and indeed, the majority of today’s Democrats (there are couple of exceptions) are quite reminiscent of the Vichy Government. If you’re not familiar with that term, it would expand your mind and views of the current Democrats AND our current president to Google it. Then perhaps, you can tell me how they are NOT alike.
The list of things done and not done by these Democratic Money Addicts is long and you should be familiar with most of them. In a sense, they joined in helping do what Jefferson Davis, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Nikita Krushchev couldn’t do. But those men were puny thinkers compared to the Corporatists and Corporate Collaborators, those “Americans for Hire” who sell their American souls to find loop holes in anything that could aid and abet business however unethical.
Blue Dog Democrats, who their constituents thought were acting in the best interests of the people, are little more than the junkies and addicts of the back alleys, except they get their highs from corporation cash. Their addiction continues to grow.
We’re losing freedoms that were our rights under a "Damn Piece of Paper" that the Republicans want destroyed while these craven Democrats continue to shoot more Corporate Heroin.
What is so incredible is much of this was done these last 4 years with a Democratic Majority in Congress then with a Democratic (or so we were to believe) President.
Imagine if you will, what would have happened in 2008 and what WILL happen if the Republicans take control of the House, Senate and Presidency in 2012 with the help of Corporations.
Won’t happen, you say? Looking at the financial “sustenance abuse” the Democrats now are enjoying, would you like to chance putting your life savings on that? Would you like to bet your and your children’s future on that? Oh, never mind. You already did.
The real terrorists are the Corporations with their legal staffs aided by Congressional Low-Life Democrats who really are pretty much worse than the drug addicts of the world. Eventually, drug addicts overdose and die. These manure sucking Democrats will live on much longer. And when they do leave the Political scene, a thousand other money addicted Democrats will be waiting to replace them.
Corporations didn’t need to fire a shot.
The Revolution IS over.
America and Americans lost.

Rep. Peter King (R is for Racist) - NY

No Drama Llamas Alert!

The Word for Wisconsin Republican is Wanker

In the biggest travesty of government and the shabbiest political trick since the 2003 AUMF, the Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate managed to ramrod through a ban on collective bargaining rights for the state's public service unions.

Here is how they done it:

Working so fast that the bill had little time to be properly reported, a committee severed the union-fucking from the rest of the budget bill, which gave the lie to Governor Wanker's - er, Walker's - assertions that castrating the unions was essential to balancing the state budget. Standing alone, the collective bargaining strip only needed a simple majority to pass, which it did, 18-1.

No Democrats required.

No Democracy required, either.

Probably unlawful, too.

Needless to say, people raised a howl, and efforts to recall six GOP state satraps and their odious Koch-sucker of a governor are proceeding.

What Are You Giving Up?

Memento, homo, quia pulvis est . . . Remember, Man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return . . .

Tuesday was Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday.

Which means that yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of the forty days of Lent.

Which means you'll see otherwise serious people strolling bout with smudges of ash on their foreheads, and much talk of penance and Giving Things Up.

I like to play along, at times, so most years I give up my relatives for Lent.

This year, though, I think I'll give up something I actually like, so I'll give up beef liver for Lent.

Ahh, beef liver, cut into thick steaks, washed and soaked in milk to kill the strong taste, then dredged in a light dusting of flour and sauteed in rendered bacon fat, then served with crisp bacon and caramelized onions . . .

Sorry. I digress.

What might you give up for Lent this year?

The easy to understand screwing of the American People!

From AmericanProgress.com


If this doesn't piss you off, you're a wealthy Republican and have no feelings about others, unless they're wealthy, too.
Show this to your Republican friends and O-pologists.

Click to really piss you off!

UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS!!!

UNEMPLOYMENT IS DOWN TO 8.9%!!!


Woohoo!

Time to celebrate! It's only taken 2 fucking years for the wonderful people of the Obama Administration to completely undo the bullshit and unemployment the Bush Administration caused in 8 years.

At this rate we'll be at 8% unemployment by 2011...and less than 7% by election time 2012! Who'd a thunk it? Great planning. Whoopie! Way to go Barry!

Now let's show some good ol' Amurikan Bipartisan ship and all get behind the Republicans and Tea Partisans and Blue Dogs and Barry and Timmy and Hanky and Johnny and get rid of those nasty things we all know are causing unemployment, such as:

Laws Overturning Job Outsourcing
Social Security
Unions
Health Care for the Lazy
Medicare
Medicaid
Public Education
Abortion
Planned Parenthood
Contraception
High Taxes on Big Business
Women's Rights
Minority Voters
Immigrants of all types
Low Fuel Prices
Low Income Housing
LIHEAP
Too much Regulation on Banks
Too much Regulation on Wall Street
Incandescent Bulb Advocates
Tree Huggers and Environmentalist
Climate Change Supporters
National Public Radio, Television and the Arts
The other 20 some Amendments

Maybe in Khruschev's "We will bury you" speech,
he didn't spell "BURY" correctly. Either that or he was way ahead of his time.

Resetting the Bar

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, by an 8-1 margin, that the egregiously hateful, despicable and downright awful entity known as the "Westboro Baptist Church" has First Amendment protection for its homophobic rhetoric and its unspeakably evil penchant for picketing military funerals while waving signs reading God Hates Fags.

Well, maybe so. It's nice to see where the bar is set.

The Revved-Up Phred Phelps and his ricket-ridden, milky, gammy-handed family of things (seriously, Phred, you really shouldn't let relatives screw, you know?) aren't dead, which surprises me.

So ...

God hates Scott Walker, the Koch-sucking union hating Governor of Wisconsin.

God hates John Boehner, the orange skinned cocksucker who'd sell his own mother to a Port Said pimp if it'd help his golf game or line his pockets.

God hates Lindsey Graham, the prissy pussy-ass cracker motherfucker who wants people to believe he's a macho man, but is in actuality a mincing nancy boy.

God hates Glenn Beck, which is why Glenn is getting so incoherent that his rants don't even qualify as Beat poetry anymore. It's more like the ravings I've come to associate with people experiencing prolonged hallucinogen binges.

God hates Rush Limbaugh, or Rush might lose weight, lay off the drugs and stop jerking his micropenis to pictures of naked Caribbean boys.

God hates Ann Coulter, or he'd fulfill her dreams by increasing her weight and finding her a proper conservative man to treat her the way she wants to be treated - by beating her every time she dares open her mouth, and by keeping her in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant.

God hates John McCain, or he wouldn't have saddled him with Sarah Palin.

Life goes on...

It's been two years since Blackdog left us. Those of you who didn't know him missed a great guy. Here's a repost of a bit of sentiment I penned back then.
Miss ya guy!


It’s a cold, frosty morning as I sit at the old computer. For some reason, it’s difficult to see the screen real well, as it’s as difficult to type the words.
We lost a friend yesterday. A friend left us much too soon, even for all the problems he endured.
It shouldn’t be that hard to write about someone you never met in person yet I knew Brad maybe better than some people I see and have seen every day for over 50 years. Damn screen keeps blurring. Maybe I’ll get it checked.
We had many, probably a few hundred phone conversations over the last few years. They were always friendly; he was always upbeat even though I knew that wasn’t the case. To let on wasn’t what he wanted.
If many of you enjoyed his special way of writing about life, he spoke the same gentle way. Oh, he had harsh words for some that he felt deserved them but never wished harm to any, well any harm that his nine iron wouldn’t do...in a joking way.
He loved talking about the area he lived in; fishing, some relatives, some old times. I got to know a great deal about the history of the area around his town. I could picture, through his verbal paintings an old house built during the Civil War he remembered so fondly. Or the place where the town of Little Rock got its name, or so he told me; the Cyprus trees on a special lake he liked.
He used to tell me stories of his life working in California and living in the desert. We exchanged tales of that dry life and laughed about events that were all too similar to each of us.
He loved his dogs, especially Woof. He told me that Woof seemed to “understand” things. We never went beyond that. There goes that blur again. Really need to correct that; maybe in a week or so...
We talked about the possibility of getting together this year to meet face to face and he seemed hopeful even though I knew better.
Brad’s gone, now. I met him online, talked with him hundreds of times by phone, never knew what he looked like, yet he was probably a closer friend than many others I have and had.
53 is much too young today to leave this world.
Brad “blackdog” Turner – truly one of the finest kind I knew.

BIG NATURAL GAS FIND in LEVIATHAN AREA.."Perhaps after all, on the matter of energy, Moses deserves greater navigational credit"

(Here's a closer look from menasborders: Noble Energy's new find draws attention to eastern Mediterranean borders)


Did anybody hear about this? I completely missed this - Isn't this a huge deal?? I guess I've been too busy dealing with the aftermath of the ice dams in our gutters for the past few months.

Israelis have always lamented that Moses led the ancient Israelites to the one patch of land in the Middle East bereft of energy resources. It turns out the sea offered more promise. At the end of December, a huge natural gas discovery was confirmed in the Eastern Mediterranean inside Israel’s territorial waters. ......The Leviathan field, discovered by a consortium led by Houston-based Noble Energy, is the world’s largest offshore gas find in the past decade and vaults Israel into the ranks of the largest gas reserve holders in the world. (There are some indications that Leviathan might contain a world-scale oil deposit as well.)

Despite some drawbacks and more details to be worked out, there’s no mistaking the fact that the Leviathan find represents a landmark event in the history of the state of Israel. Perhaps after all, on the matter of energy, Moses deserves greater navigational credit.

oh Weekly WEAKLY STANDARD...

Let's check in at PRAVDA... Why is the Leviathan Deposit Referred to as "Israeli"? "Sounds like the groundwork is being laid for some huge war."

and...


From Green Prophet:

Leviathan Gas Discovery Could be The Mother of All Resource Curses

Today’s announcement from Noble Energy of its gigantic Leviathan gas find in disputed territory will exacerbate tensions in region

Nobel Energy ? - High 93 Low 56 (missed out on that one)

Good news today for Nobel Energy of Houston...
Noble Energy Inc. won the first U.S. deep-water drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since BP Plc’s oil spill 10 months ago, and regulators said they expect to approve more applications.


Leviathan aka the Hellmouth Gatekeeper...

The whale-monster Leviathan (translated from Hebrew, Job 41:1, "wreathed animal") has been equated with this description, although this is hard to confirm in the earliest appearances. However in The Whale, an Old English poem from the Exeter Book, the mouth of Hell is compared to a whale's mouth, though somewhat indirectly:
The whale has another trick: when he is hungry, he opens his mouth and a sweet smell comes out. The fish are tricked by the smell and they enter into his mouth. Suddenly the whale’s jaws close. Likewise, any man who lets himself be tricked by a sweet smell and led to sin will go into hell, opened by the devil — if he has followed the pleasures of the body and not those of the spirit. When the devil has brought them to hell, he clashes together the jaws, the gates of hell. No one can get out from them, just as no fish can escape from the mouth of the whale.[8]

Dylan Ratigan interviews Ray Kurzweil 3/1/11...THE MOST compelling teevee chat I've ever heard

It's all about AI -- Singularity -- THE FUTURE (?) the Transcendent Man documentary (2009 - how'd we miss that?), and much more. (GREAT read on WISDOM OF THE CROWDS from Singular University)

Why are we even having any discussions about Wisconsin? What are all these teacher's roles going to be in 20 years? Or anyone's for that matter...




Can't Beat 'em Join 'em

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Well, I guess us over 50 crowd have no choice-- I guess we can't beat 'em.

Time to invest in that ROBOT INSURANCE FROM OLD GLORY INSURANCE...




because "they eat old people's medicine for food"





TIME MAGAZINE -- 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal


Hey - maybe I should look on the bright side here-- We can kiss our 'social security' 401's Pensions et. al goodbye anyways -- so -- In a few years, for a small fee (?), I can download a virtual waterfront retirement home app! We can go anywhere the mind wants to take us!! It probably has a feature that lets you feel the warm sun and takes you for a cool dip! OH I CAN SEE THOSE SUNSETS RIGHT NOW!!!


Something to think about from hubpages: The Stupidest "Wise" Sayings Known to Man and How to Improve Them

Double-Edged Sword


or, Double-Ended Sword

Frank Buckles, 2/1/1901 - 2/27/2011

Our last veteran of the Great War has finally mustered out.

***

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

- from For the Fallen, by Laurence Binyon

Paloma Faith -- singing "Upside Down"

I hope to hear her over the Clear Channel's in my area -- Those Brits sure crank out some of the best pop muzak!

Watchin people scurry by rushing to and fro
Oh this world is such a crazy place it's all about the go go go

Sometimes life can taste so sweet When you slow it down
You start to see the world a little differently When you turn it upside down

I don't care
I'm half way there
And I'm just soaking up the magic in the air

I tell you what
What I have found
That I'm no fool
I'm just upside down

I'm jonesin' for some good music --anything good out there?