Leo's Stuff

Music stuff

2012-02-13T09:24:00.000-06:00

Watched Grammy's last night. Was a really good show from a performance aspect. Springsteen, Bruno Mars, Foo Fighters, Beatle Paul (along with Joe Walsh) all sounded just fantastic. I liked the Glen Campbell tribute, too.

Not much comment about the big story in music. All I can say is, I'm not surprised, I guess. After her last aborted world tour, I wondered if something like this would be happening. The clip of her singing the Nat'l Anthem at the Superbowl in 91, I believe it was that they keep showing on the telething--that was beyond amazing. So smooth and moved in range so effortlessly. I hope that someone finds Bobby Brown and punches him in the face. Sure, it wasn't all his fault, but he was there for the decline.

On a different subject, someone who appeared to be headed the same direction half a decade ago has seemingly thrown it all off and is back in the game. Here is the evidence. Rock on, Edward:

More Grammer stuff

2012-02-13T03:00:00.000-06:00

Evidently there is some concern about the performance that Nicki Minaj did at the Grammy's last night. To be truthful, I didn't see if first time around because whenever I hear the words Nicki Minaj, I do what most people do---ignore it. So, Nicki, who has zero talents that I can discern, did a routine disrespecting Christians and/or Catholics in particular. I won't go into details, it doesn't matter.   And the Catholic League is all up in arms about it. Which doesn't take much, I will admit. All I have to say is this:

If you're a performer and you're trying to make a name for yourself by pissing off Christians, you are so lame.   It's old, and been done to death, Nicki. Christian bashing is the favorite sport of the mainstream media, so you are not going to grab any attention doing that.

If you have guts and want to be authentically 'edgy', do something to insult the Muslims.   Go on. I dare you. That's edgy, and politically incorrect and all of the things you think you want to be. You just don't have the balls to do it, truth be told.

More Grammy thoughts

2012-02-13T01:30:00.000-06:00

Read this:
Thoughts on the 54th Grammys

By Aaron Goldstein on 2.13.12 @ 12:35AM

Here are some thoughts on the 54th Grammys.
As one could imagine Whitney Houston was on the minds ofeveryone involved in the proceedings. Host LL Cool J read a prayerfor her and later in the show Jennifer Hudson sang a stirringrendition of "I Will Always Love You."
Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt also paid tribute to the recentlydeparted Etta James with their rendition of "A Sunday Kind ofLove."

Taylor Swift gave a well received performance for her song"Mean" but I would have preferred to hear more of The Civil Wars,the country-folk duo who introduced young Ms. Swift.
Tonight was a triumph for the British singer Adele who won sixGrammys and made her first public performance since having surgeryat Massachusetts General Hospital here in Boston to remove a benignpollop on her vocal cords. She sang her monster hit "Rollingin the Deep" to a warm and rapturous standing ovation.
The Beach Boys reunited with Brian Wilson and were joined byMaroon 5 and Foster the People. Wilson's vocals seemed off but MikeLove kept it together on "Good Vibrations" and the audience wassharing in them.
I also enjoyed the tribute to Glen Campbell. The Band Perry,a trio with which I was heretofore unfamiliar, performed awonderful version of "Gentle on My Mind" while Blake Shelton didjustice to "Southern Nights" before Campbell sang "RhinestoneCowboy." While the effects of his Alzheimers is apparent, the mancan still sing and I'm glad he's going out on his own terms. I willbe seeing him in concert when he comes to Boston next week.
Stevie Wonder made a surprise appearance. After paying tributeto Whitney Houston he played a few bars of "Love Me Do" onharmonica before introducing Paul McCartney. The former Beatle sang"MyValentine", a Cole Porter like tune from his newly releasedalbum Kisses on the Bottom. Accompanying Sir Paul wasformer Eagle Joe Walsh on guitar and Diana Krall on piano.
McCartney returned at the end of the show to perform a portionof the classic Medley from Abbey Road - "Golden Slumbers","Carry That Weight" and "The End" with a little guitar help fromWalsh, Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters.
And in the end I am left with a question. We are still singingBeatles, Beach Boys and Glen Campbell songs nearly half a centuryafter they were first recorded. Will we be still be "Rolling in theDeep" a half century from now?

Great question. Maybe we will because it is from Adele, who appears that maybe she has the talent to be around longer than 3 minutes. There are very few artist right now who will have songs remembered even a decade. Name one rap or hip-hop song that anyone will play 40 years from now. Oh, maybe a novelty song or 2 might be, just like they drag up a Donna Summer or Bee Gee's song so that we remember that disco happened. But that's it. There were no 'classic' disco songs in the same vein as 'Satisfaction' by the Stones, "New York, New York" by Sinatra, or "Witchita Lineman" by Glen Campbell or a hundred others.

Instead we're force fed the Disney babes as soon as they're old enough to show skin playing their instantly forgettable factory pop crap, and some talentless people talking over a single chorus to a computerized monotonous beat that most 10 year olds could replicate. That's why the 'classic' song library won't have too many additions for the last 2 decades.

Quote of the day

2012-02-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

What's that word that you use when someone uses skin color to decide a persons character, lack of, or anything else about them? I know there is a word that people use......someone will have to remind me.

"I voted for Barack because he was black."
----Samuel L. Jackson

2012-02-10T21:13:00.001-06:00

2012-02-10T18:26:00.001-06:00

Did I mention it's Friday? Party on Wayne.

Time to get a little loose....

Test Drive

2012-02-10T16:57:00.000-06:00

So, here's a potential new logo for the band. I hand drew it, which is why it's kinda not right, but I was going for the idea, not the actual execution yet.

Any comments?

W, Buffett

2012-02-10T16:43:00.000-06:00

Follow the money and watch it flow to him after Obama's Mortgage rescue package. How big was his lotto win? $154 million. BINGO! Maybe he'll give it to his secretary. (HE'S SUCH A GOOD LIBERAL!)

Gonna get really rank, really soon

2012-02-10T11:31:00.001-06:00

Hugo Chavez, an example of the almost extinct species "socialist dick"...oops...make that "socialist dictator" has decided to put price controls in on personal care items, much as he did food and electricity last year. Of course there are major food outage in the country--meat in particular is hard to find, and you really don't want to schedule any medical operations down there, seeing as there are roving blackouts countrywide, so I'm guessing that soon that the country is going to have a collective case of bad BO.

Price caps on personal care andcleaning goods in Venezuela will go into effect in March as thegovernment prepares to publish the full list of regulated pricesfor 19 products, Vice President Elias Jaua said.
President Hugo Chavez announced the first prices of goodswhose costs were frozen late last year on state televisionyesterday, setting a price cap for deodorant made by Procter &Gamble Co. (PG) 24 percent below its previous price, and bottledwater at 46 percent lower.

I can guarantee that P&G isn't going to sell deodorant to Venezuelans at a loss. So, they will do without. Socialism is great, isn't it!

Another of those 40,000 new laws!!!!

2012-02-10T01:00:00.000-06:00

Ah, to live in California. A taste of the good life. Nice weekends at the beach, playing a little Frisbee, paying a $1000 fine.

The Board of Supervisors this week agreed to raise fines to up to $1,000 for anyone who throws a football or a Frisbee on any beach in Los Angeles County.
In passing the 37-page [!!!] ordinance on Tuesday, officials sought to outline responsibilities for law enforcement and other public agencies while also providing clarification on beach-goer activities that could potentially disrupt or even injure the public.

The updated rules now prohibit “any person to cast, toss, throw, kick or roll” any object other than a beach ball or volleyball “upon or over any beach” between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

I think Whammo has a case for toy discrimination. Either that, or they didn't pay the extortion money. I'm sure it was the 2 conservatives that are left in the state that was pushing for this, aren't you? Libtards--growing more stupid each and every thought they have.

Better living thru chemistry?

2012-02-10T00:30:00.000-06:00

Shyness and grieving are now classified as mental illnesses.

Don't worry though---those pharmaceutical companies have a pill for you. Here.

Something to look forward to

2012-02-10T00:00:00.000-06:00

The EuroWeenies are ahead of us in Moonbattery, but we'll catch up. Here's something we have to look forward to once Obamacare gets fully implemented:

Girls as young as 13 have been fitted with contraceptive implants at school without their parents knowing.
The procedure was carried out in Southampton, Hants, as part of a government initiative to drive down teenage pregnancies.
As many as nine secondary schools in the city are thought to have been involved.

Neither parents nor family doctors were consulted prior to the surgical implantation of the 4-cm devices under the skin.

The effect on underage promiscuity shouldn’t be difficult even for cognitively challenged educrats to predict.

The Here-We-Go-Again Quote of the Day

2012-02-09T01:00:00.000-06:00

Tough year for the LIPS (liberal idiot progressives). Their grand scheme to steal our money (Gorebal Warming LOL) is a worldwide joke, with only the really pathetic still hanging on to it. SO, it's time for a new plan to scare the masses. This statement ought to do it. Read it, then I'll explain what they are talking about.

"We are in the midst of the biggest public health crisis in the history of the world," declared Dr. Lustig. "And nobody even gets it. Nobody understands how important this is because they don't consider it 'public health.' They consider it 'personal responsibility.'"
--Robert H. Lustig, Laura A. Schmidt and Claire D. Brindis

What are they talking about? What is this badass thing that we are going to all die from? The Bubonic Plague? New anti-biotic resistant strain of virus? Zombies from Planet 9?

Nope. It's sugar.

Read the propaganda here.

Some of their plans are just out loud laughable. Which is why they are dangerous and need to be laughed at loudly and often now.

Whistle your own tune here

2012-02-08T16:04:00.000-06:00

Scientists stunned...STUNNED...to find out they were wrong about global warming. Again. And again.
And, oh, BTW, the gov't officials who told us what to eat via the re-vamped food pyramid about 10 years ago...they were wrong, too. So, let's let the gov't take over health care. Cause they know what's best for you, don't they. Remember DDT, and how it's so dangerous and we shouldn't use it in Africa even though it saves lives? Yeah, that's turning out to be a good decision, too. Not. Bottom line: if the gov't says do this, do that instead.

What the hell happened to him?

2012-02-08T14:00:00.002-06:00

OK. Sounds good still. Man, looks like he slept outside for the last 25 years. He has absolutely zero expression on his face. Sounds like the soundmen were kinda bashing him before he started.

This'll get your blood pumping. C'mon...turn it up.

Paul sez 'no streaming'

2012-02-08T03:00:00.000-06:00

McCartney pulled his music from services such as Rhapsody, a broader move than some of the high-profile acts who have declined to license their latest releases to stream sites recently, including Coldplay, Tom Waits and Adele.

Not only has he blocked streaming services from licensing his songs, he's decided to yank his entire music collection from streaming outlets services, according to Digital Music News (Spotify has contacted CNET to say that McCartney first removed his music from that site in 2010).

A spokeswoman for Rhapsody confirmed McCartney has indeed removed his music from that service. The Beatles, it should be noted, have never made their music available on the streaming services.

Artists have recently started complaining that these sites don't pay well enough for the use of their music. Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG and others deny that, but they also argue that their services are relatively new and that their revenue and subscribers continue to grow. Pay outs to artists will also continue to increase, they claim.
That message may have started to resonate with some acts. In October, CNET broke the news that Coldplay would not make their album "Mylo Xyloto," available via streaming services. However, according to the Rhapsody spokesperson, the album is now available for streaming.

One more note: the artists who have rejected most streaming services still seem to enjoy a good relationship with iTunes. McCartney is streaming his upcoming concert on iTunes and the Beatles iconic catalog is available there for download. Coldplay fans couldn't stream their songs from "Mylo Xyloto" when it debuted, but the album was available at iTunes.

So these music acts aren't totally anti-digital. Just selectively so.

Inevitablility?

2012-02-08T01:00:00.000-06:00

Sidetracked.....

2012-02-08T00:30:00.000-06:00

All sidelined by one ill-fated MTV "Rock Me Tonight" video where he frolics around in a pink wife beater, blowing all credibility. At least that's how he sees it. But he had a crack band, he put out great pop songs and I like it.There's som nice riffage in here:

Reading list:

2012-02-08T00:00:00.000-06:00

We got your one-world government pilot program going and it's failing miserably. Right Euro-peons?

If you haven't seen Mr. EBT, you're missing out. Hey, he's spending your money, you might as well enjoy the video. Got a good beat, can dance to it, love the line about the card actually being his sisters. Let's give it an 8, Dick.

Gov't dependence is at a height not seen since.....(c'mon, guess with me...it's not hard! When was the last time we had a president screw things up so badly? )...yep, you guessed it, Jimmah Carter. Why is it that socialist democratic presidents always trash the country with their asinine ideas (not that they are the only ones)? In 2010, for the first time ever, average spending on dependence programs per recipient exceeded the country's per-capita disposable income. Think about that for a minute. Anyone with a brain knows this is unsustainable. Any politician not proposing REAL cuts is not dealing in reality and doesn't deserve to be in office. That's the baseline for getting my vote this year. What are you willing to let them get away with? Hmm?

News flash: Playing soccer mildly increases the health of homeless men in Europe. In other news, Snickers bars mildly improve health of starving people, water in-gestation aids folks who suffer from dehydration, the earth's rotation is responsible for it being dark at night, the Pope is Catholic (until Obama gets done with him), bears crap where ever they damn well please (just like the horses in Kalona), and progressives are idiots. There's all the stuff you already knew. But those socialists in Coppenhagen had to spend tax money to find out for sure.

Call the Waterboy, this is good stuff

2012-02-07T03:00:00.000-06:00

Russian scientists ready to tap 14 million-year-old Antarctic lake, take a big drink. Here.

2012-02-07T02:30:00.000-06:00

Obama Bundlers Seeking Pardon for Iowa Bail Jumping Mexican Brother Juan Jose Pepe Rojas Cardona

February 6, 2012

By Maggie

Two American brothers, Carlos and Alberto Cardona, are Obama and Democrat National Committee fundraising bundlers. Their brother, Juan Jose, aka Pepe, is a Mexican “casino magnate” with associated murder south of our border in his profile. Pepe was charged with drug charges and fraud in the U.S. in 1994. He jumped bail in Iowa and fled back home to Mexico. Now Pepe wants to return to the U.S., and the brother bundlers have asked a former Iowa Democrat Party chairman to seek a pardon from the Iowa Governor on behalf of Pepe. No pardon so far.

The New York Times contacted the Obama campaign about the $200,000 bundled by the brothers. The DNC and the Obama campaign claim to know nothing about Pepe, the family bad seed. The $200,000 has been returned to someone – it was bundled after all, so maybe Alberto and Carlos gave it back to the donors?

The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as Pepe, jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 and disappeared, and has since been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico. A State Department cable in 2009 said he was suspected of orchestrating the assassination of a business rival and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials. Source New York

Juan is a West Liberty kid.

Bruhahaha

2012-02-07T02:00:00.000-06:00

Did you see Clint Eastwoods "Halftime in America" ad on behalf of Chrysler? This one seems to be drawing fire. A company that got bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of $1.3 billion that they admit will never be paid back launches a super-expensive commercial seemingly to extol the virtues of the current administrations policies? Is that proper use of US taxpayer dollars? Never mind that Chrysler is 58% Italian owned (Fiat).

Chrysler Is Back? Great. Then Why Hasn’t It Repaid Taxpayers the $1.3 Billion It Still Owes Them?

by Wynton Hall

Amid the controversy over Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime In America” Super Bowl commercial, a glaring question remains: if Chrysler is back on top and so strong, then why hasn’t it repaid taxpayers the $1.3 billion it still owes them?

“I was, frankly, offended by it,” said Republican strategist Karl Rove. “I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”
Already, Democrats have begun co-opting the “It’s Halftime In America” meme, and President Barack Obama’s campaign team has already signaled that “saving” Detroit and the American auto industry will be a central campaign theme in Mr. Obama’s 2012 reelection bid. Indeed, in June 2011, Mr. Obama proudly declared:

Chrysler has repaid every dime and more of what it owes American taxpayers for their support during my presidency–and it repaid that money six years ahead of schedule. And this week, we reached a deal to sell our remaining stake. That means Chrysler will be 100 percent in private hands.

The Washington Post fact checker, however, disagreed–strongly.

We take no view on whether the administration’s efforts on behalf of the automobile industry were a good or bad thing; that’s a matter for the editorial pages and eventually the historians. But we are interested in the facts the president cited to make his case.
What we found is one of the most misleading collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan.

At issue was the slippery language Mr. Obama used to calculate Chrysler’s repayment of its taxpayer-funded bailout. Mr. Obama’s numbers were based off of the $8.5 billion the federal government loaned Chrysler while he was in office and did not include the government’s prior $4 billion loan extended in the last month of President George W. Bush’s presidency, for a total bailout of $12.5 billion paid for by taxpayers. Therefore, even after the $11.2 billion the Obama Administration says it received from Chrysler, taxpayers are still left holding the bill for $1.3 billion.
Indeed, in a startling statement, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner conceded that, yes, taxpayers would never recoup the $1.3 billion, but that the decision was nonetheless wise:

We did this to save jobs. The biggest impact was in the jobs saved and the wealth preserved. We’ll get everything we can to maximize the gain and minimize the loss. We are going to lose money on the auto industry but our job is to protect the country.

Still, Mr. Geithner hailed the taxpayer boondoggle a tremendous success:

As Treasury exits its investment in Chrysler, it’s clear that President Obama’s decision to stand behind and restructure this company was the right one. Today, America’s automakers are mounting one of the most improbable turnarounds in recent history – creating new jobs and making new investments in communities across our country.

At the time, Mr. Eastwood himself criticized the automobile bailout:

We shouldn’t be bailing out the banks and car companies. If a CEO can’t figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn’t be the CEO.

As for Mr. Eastwood’s compensation for the ad, Mr. Eastwood claims that “anything they gave me for it went to charity.” Chrysler has not released figures on the total costs to design, shoot, and air the two-minute spot. However, 30-second commercials reportedly cost $3.5 million.
Mr. Eastwood also says he is “certainly not affiliated with Mr. Obama.”
However, critics are left to wonder: how could a company who has yet to repay taxpayers the $1.3 billion it loaned them afford such a lavish advertising campaign? And if, indeed, Chrysler is back on top, then why hasn’t it volunteered to repay Americans the money it still owes them?
After all, as the commercial says, “It’s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared, because this isn’t a game.”
So when can taxpayers expect Chrysler to cut them that $1.3 billion it owes them? After all, isn’t that the right thing to do?

Litigating Whales

2012-02-07T01:00:00.000-06:00

Five killer whales have been named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans. A US judge is considering a complaint by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (Peta) against SeaWorld.

It is reportedly the first time a US court has heard legal arguments over whether animals should enjoy the same constitutional protections as humans. SeaWorld's legal team said the case was a waste of time and resources.

The marine park's lawyer, Theodore Shaw, told the court in San Diego: "Neither orcas nor any other animal were included in the 'We the people'... when the Constitution was adopted."

He said that if the case were successful, it could have implications not just on how other marine parks or zoos operate, but even on the police use of sniffer dogs to detect bombs and drugs.

Peta says the killer whales are treated like slaves for being forced to live in tanks and perform daily at the SeaWorld parks in California and Florida. It is not considered likely that the whales will win their freedom, but campaigners said they were pleased the case even made it to a courtroom.

The lawsuit invokes the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which abolished "slavery or involuntary servitude" in the US. Jeffrey Kerr, the lawyer representing the five whales, said: "For the first time in our nation's history, a federal court heard arguments as to whether living, breathing, feeling beings have rights and can be enslaved simply because they happen to not have been born human.
"By any definition these orcas have been enslaved here."

Hearing the arguments for about an hour, US District Judge Jeffrey Miller raised concerns over whether animals could be represented as plaintiffs in a lawsuit. He will issue a ruling at a later date.

Peta names the five wild-captured orca plaintiffs as Tilikum and Katina, at SeaWorld Orlando; and Kasatka, Corky, and Ulises, at SeaWorld San Diego.

It is not Tilikum's first time in the media spotlight - he drowned his trainer before horrified spectators in February 2010, prompting a ban on the Florida park's employees entering the water to perform tricks with the orcas.

The same whale has also been linked to two other deaths.

VH

2012-02-07T00:30:00.000-06:00

So, the new Van Halen comes out today. So, let's go back to the beginning, shall we? Sound quality varies. Different arrangements, fun stuff. Here ya go:

Check this one out:

Coming for your guns, and religion, you clingy people

2012-02-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

WTF? So, now we're going to take over church dogma, too. So, really, I can be an atheist, and apply for the position of pastor of Your Local Baptist Church, and you can't deny me the job based upon my personal beliefs. That's what's being argued.

Unbelievably Asinine Quote of the Day:

Rev. Al Sharpton: I think that if I want to seek employment and have employment in a church but that I disagree with the dogma and theology of the church, do I have the right to be protected by law? And I think that what the Obama administration is saying that you do not have to follow the tenets of a church organization to be an employee of a church.
Scarborough: Do you think this is a good decision?
Sharpton: If we are going to have a separation of church and state, we’re going to have a separation of church and state.

Who?

2012-02-06T20:23:00.001-06:00

Won't get fooled again. Until next time.

2012-02-06T12:28:00.000-06:00

The environment minister of Northern Ireland shared some thoughts about global warming:

“I think in 20 years’ time we will look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending the billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all. Because there is now a degree of hysteria about it, fairly unformed hysteria I’ve got to say as well.
“I mean I get it in the Assembly all the time and most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about climate change, not read one book about climate change, if you asked them to explain how they believe there’s a connection between CO2 emission and the effects which they claim there’s going to be, if you ask them to explain the thought process or the modelling that is required and the assumptions behind that and how tenuous all the connections are, they wouldn’t have a clue.
“They simply get letters about it from all these lobby groups, it’s popular and therefore they go along with the flow — and that would be ok if there were no implications for it, but the implications are immense.”

IBD observed: “The first seven months averaged a sunspot count of only three and in August there were no sunspots at all — zero — something that has not occurred since 1913…in the past 1,000 years, three previous such events — what are called the Dalton, Maunder and Sporer Minimums — have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called the Little Ice Age (1500-1750).”
UPDATE — And now sea ice is back to levels of 30 years ago. Oops!

Coming Soon....

2012-02-06T03:00:00.000-06:00

You'll need an ID to buy a can of pop and a candy bar. Don't believe me? Just wait.

Sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, according to a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The researchers propose regulations such as taxing all foods and drinks that include added sugar, banning sales in or near schools and placing age limits on purchases…
In the United States, more than two-thirds of the population is overweight, and half of them are obese. About 80 percent of those who are obese will have diabetes or metabolic disorders and will have shortened lives, according to the UCSF authors of the commentary, led by Robert Lustig. And about 75 percent of U.S. health-care dollars are spent on diet-related diseases, the authors said. Worldwide, the obese now greatly outnumber the undernourished…
Lustig, a medical doctor in UCSF’s Department of Pediatrics, compares added sugar to tobacco and alcohol (coincidentally made from sugar) in that it is addictive, toxic and has a negative impact on society, thus meeting established public health criteria for regulation. Lustig advocates a consumer tax on any product with added sugar…ban the sale of sugary drinks to children under age 17 and to tighten zoning laws for the sale of sugary beverages and snacks around schools and in low-income areas

In a country where the EPA has issued an endangerment finding about a gas that is necessary for life to exist on earth, it is possible to imagine the government requiring a photo ID and a prescription to buy a bag of sugar. How life has changed in the last half century, and in many ways not for the better.

Remember folks, 40,000 new laws hit the books on Jan 1 this year. 40,000 of your rights taken away, one little one at a time. Did you know that you now need a license from the state government in Cali to operate a COPY MACHINE if you do so professionally? No lie. Look it up. Just one of the 40,000 new ways to separate you from your liberty....or money.

2012-02-06T02:00:00.000-06:00

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

Quote of the day

2012-02-06T01:30:00.000-06:00

"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution," Ginsburg said in an interview on Al Hayat television last Wednesday. "I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
---Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

People who think they are really smart are extolling South Africa's constitution because it encodes welfare in to their constitution. Of course, they don't codify work, so it won't be successful over the long run. You can claim that everyone has the 'right' to housing, but if no one wants to be a carpenter, because, let's face it, if you're guaranteed housing, food, clothing, etc, as the S.A. constitution appears to, then who the hell wants to work, except for toadies?

Nice. And she's a supreme court judge. Who evidently doesn't like the constitution she is supposed to interpret. Yeah.

2012-02-06T01:00:00.000-06:00

Super Bowl Class

2012-02-06T00:30:00.000-06:00

I think I watched almost the entire Super Bowl game last night. That doesn't usually happen--I usually get bored and wander off and do something else. That was a good game. Didn't care at all for the lip-syncing dance extravaganza that was the Madonna show. Good grief woman, act your age and put on some age appropriate clothes. No one buys you as a cheerleader for god's sake. As visually interesting as the production was, I cringed whenever Madonna was in the picture.

And of course, some dumb rapper tried to grab headlines in a pathetic attempt to further her career by the edgy flipping of the bird. Here's what's-her-name. Really, I don't know her name. Or anything about her. Other than she is misinformed. Like flipping the bird is cutting edge. Really. No, it's just vulgar and low class. That's what today's generation of entertainers lack...a little class. Sure, Jagger, Bowie, etc pushed the envelope at the time. Now, there's nothing original about it. There's no place left to go, so for goodness sakes, entertain us. Grumpy old man, out.

2012-02-04T15:59:00.000-06:00

Some day, the government is going to put out a good economic report and I’ll be able to say, “Yeah, that really is a good report.”

This isn’t that day.

Everyone, of course, would be thrilled if 243,000 jobs were actually created in the month of January. Hallelujah!

Remember, we are talking about the month when companies go into hibernation because of bad weather and temporary Christmas jobs end. Jobs aren’t created in January. They are lost.

Yet there it is in the Labor Department release yesterday — “total non-farm payrolls rose by 243,000 in January and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent.”

A lie? Political manipulation? Or maybe it’s just that most people don’t understand what they’re looking at. The answer is the latter.

Those 243,000 jobs are the total after seasonal adjustments.

The question you should be asking is, what’s the un-tampered-with number before the adjustment?

Glad you asked. The Labor Department reported a loss of 2,689,000 jobs in January.

Seasonal adjustments are intended to smooth out holiday bumps like that. But because of the depth and unusual nature of the nation’s Great Recession, those seasonal adjustments are being skewed.

Here’s how it works: In January 2010, as I said, there was an actual, unadjusted job loss of 2,858,000 jobs.

To make it simple, the government computers were expecting a bigger unadjusted loss than the 2,689,000 jobs because last January’s decline was 2,858,000.

Why weren’t there as many job losses this January?

Very likely because the weather throughout the country is a lot milder this year than during the past two Januarys.

A loss of jobs that isn’t as bad as expected turns into a job gain. Does that mean there really are 243,000 new jobs out there? Absolutely not.

Let’s say there are rumors in your company that 300 people are going to be laid off. Instead, management decides to fire just 200. Two hundred people, of course, have lost their jobs. But, adjusting it for expectations, 100 people didn’t get fired. Using this analogy, the government would say that, on an expectation-adjusted basis, 100 jobs were created.

That’s sort of what happened in the January employment report because of seasonal adjustment.

The numbers themselves shouldn’t be changed because continuity from year to year is important for comparisons. But people should be alerted when seasonal adjustments are screwing with the numbers.

Someday things will be better. Maybe even in our lifetime.

Maybe they should...

2012-02-03T00:30:00.001-06:00

....Occupy a Bathroom.

A haz-mat crew with the Charlotte Fire Department was called to 600 East Trade Street, the site of the Occupy Charlotte movement, on Tuesday morning.
City workers who had been cleaning the area noticed toilet paper on top of a storm water grate that drains into a nearby creek. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and city officials believe some protesters have been using the drain as a toilet.
“We’re looking at the environmental impact on the stream down there with the wildlife, and things like that,” said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Dulin.
“Plus the water goes downstream for other people to drink further down.”

But then again, greenies always have trouble with such things:

Students at a high school in Boca Raton, Florida, must step over rivers of urine and endure the stench of rancid waste after a plan to bring ‘green’ waterless urinals into bathrooms backfired.
School officials at Spanish River High School thought they had found an environmentally-friendly, cost-saving solution for their bathrooms when they installed Falcon Waterfree urinals in their boys bathrooms.
But with no water moving through the school’s copper pipes to flush the urine into the sewer system, the waste produced noxious gases that ate through the metal, leaving leaky pipes that allowed urine to drip into walls and flow onto floors. …
Now, the school district, which was hoping to save $100 a year in water costs for each waterless urinal, must pay $500,000 to repair the damage and replace the appliances with the traditional flush variety in four high schools.

More regs, more taxes

2012-02-03T00:30:00.000-06:00

Sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, according to a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The researchers propose regulations such as taxing all foods and drinks that include added sugar, banning sales in or near schools and placing age limits on purchases.

Of course they do.-L

It appears that I need therapy

2012-02-02T01:30:00.000-06:00

Those of you that know me might want to sit down. There. Comfy? Good. I have a confession to make. No, not that one...I'm still denying that. It's this: Theresa has a favorite entertainer. I have never seen her go bat-shiat insane over anyone but this guy will do it. And so what do I do? I oIffer to take her to one of his concerts over in Moline. Really, I know she will love, love, love it. And I will go with her because she's one hell of a wife and mother and deserves fun things.

Who will we be seeing if she decides to go? I'll give you a hint: He can't smile without you.

*sigh*

Rant of the week

2012-02-02T01:00:00.000-06:00

Do-It-Yourself Deportation
By ANTONIO ALARCÓN
Published: February 1, 2012

ONE of my happiest childhood memories is of my parents at my First Communion. But that’s because most of my memories from that time are of their being absent. They weren’t there for my elementary school graduation, or for parent-teacher conferences.

From the time I was just a baby in Mexico, I lived with my grandparents while my parents traveled to other Mexican states to find work. I was 6 in 2000 when they left for the United States. And it took five years before they had steady jobs and were able to send for me. We’ve been together in this country ever since, working to build a life. Now I am 17 and a senior in high school in New York City. But my parents have left again, this time to return to Mexico.

Last week, when asked in a debate what America should do about the 11 million undocumented immigrants living here, Mitt Romney said he favored “self-deportation.” He presented the strategy as a kinder alternative to just arresting people. Instead, he said, immigrants will “decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here.”

But really this goes along with a larger movement in states like Arizona and Alabama to pass very tough laws against immigrants in an attempt to make their lives so unbearable that they have no choice but to leave. People have called for denying work, education and even medical treatment to immigrants without documentation; many immigrants have grown afraid of even going to the store or to church.

The United States is supposed to be a great country that welcomes all kinds of people. Does Mr. Romney really think that this should be America’s solution for immigration reform?

You could say that my parents have self-deported, and that it was partly a result of their working conditions. It’s not that they couldn’t find work, but that they couldn’t find decent work. My dad collected scrap metal from all over the city, gathering copper and steel from construction sites, garbage dumps and old houses. He earned $90 a day, but there was only enough work for him to do it once or twice a week. My mom worked at a laundromat six days a week, from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m., for $70 a day.

But the main reason they had to leave was personal. I have a brother, 16, a year younger than me, still living in Mexico. He was too little to cross the border with me when I came to the United States, and as the government has cracked down on immigration in the years since, the crossing has become more expensive and much more dangerous. And there was no hope of his getting a green card, as none of us have one either. So he stayed with my grandparents, but last year my grandmother died and two weeks ago my grandfather also died. My parents were confronted with a dilemma: Leave one child alone in New York City, or leave the other alone in Mexico. They decided they had to go back to Mexico.

Now once again I am missing my parents. I know it was very difficult for them to leave me here, worrying about how I will survive because I’m studying instead of earning money working. I’m living with my uncles, but it is hard for my mother to know that I’m coming home to a table with no dinner on it, where there had been dinner before. And it’s hard for me not having my parents to talk to, not being able to ask for advice that as a teenager you need. Now that they are in Mexico, I wonder who will be at my graduation, my volleyball games or my birthday? With whom will I share my joy or my sad moments?

I know a girl named Guadalupe, whose parents have also decided to return to Mexico, because they can’t find work here and rent in New York City is very expensive. She is very smart and wants to be the first in her family to attend college, and she wants to study psychology. But even though she has lived here for years and finished high school with a 90 percent average, she, like me, does not have immigration papers, and so does not qualify for financial aid and can’t get a scholarship.

People like Guadalupe and me are staying in this country because we have faith that America will live up to its promise as a fair and just country. We hope that there will be comprehensive immigration reform, with a path to citizenship for people who have spent years living and working here. When reform happens, our families may be able to come back, and if not, at least we will be able to visit them without the risk of never being able to return to our lives here. We hope that the Dream Act — which would let undocumented immigrants who came here as children go to college and become citizens and which has stalled in Congress — will pass so that we can get an education and show that even though we are immigrants we can succeed in this country.

If, instead, the political climate gets more and more anti-immigrant, eventually some immigrants will give up hope for America and return to their home countries, like my parents did. But I don’t think this is something that our presidential candidates should encourage or be proud of.

Immigrants have made this country great. We are not looking for a free ride, but instead we are willing to work as hard as we can to show that we deserve to be here and to be treated like first-class citizens. Deportation, and “self-deportation,” will result only in dividing families and driving them into the shadows. In America, teenagers shouldn’t have to go through what I’m going through.

Antonio Alarcón is a high school student and a member of Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group. This essay was translated by Natalia Aristizabal-Betancur from the Spanish.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, where to start? Antonio doesn't question why his parents, or anyone coming from Mexico to the US wouldn't stay and try to change their laws and system of government instead of coming here and demanding that we change ours. Antonio doesn't grasp the fact, once again because he's being aided by the idiotholes here, that he SHOULD NOT BE HERE. He's complaining about laws in Arizona, but they are no different that those in HIS country. And his whining about not being able to get a scholarship or loan...I wouldn't expect to be able to go to Mexico and get a scholarship or loan, so why does he think he should be able to here? Go home....change YOUR country to be more like the US and then maybe you won't have to come here. And we're supposed to have sympathy for Guadalupe, who's parent's couldn't afford rent in New York. Hell, I can't afford rent in New York, what the hell are they doing living there?

And, it's a small detail, but if Antonio has been here since he was 11, why the hell wasn't this essay written in English (see last line of the article)?

And I know, I know...what I just wrote was heartless and insensitive and ignorant. I should support doubling of our taxes just so we can give it to as many people as can manage to sneak into the country, isn't that right. Oh, and this NEVER gets brought up: You can say that his folks were here and weren't hurting anyone...is that really true? Whose social security number are they using? Would that person think it's so cool? Would you, if it were your soc sec # being used by a couple dozen other people? Isn't that identity theft? So, they are breaking the law to come here, and they break the law just to stay here. What part of illegal should we abolish?

Cool picture

2012-02-02T00:30:00.000-06:00

Somewhere in Germany...

Cheating? or No?

2012-02-01T02:00:00.000-06:00

Backing Tracks Used In Growing Number of 'Live' Concerts
(Alan Cross)
It is the dirty secret of today's concert world. But it's really not that dirty at all. Here's why.
In the Olden Days--around the same time "real" musicians refused to use synthesizers or other electronics because "they didn't take any talent to play"-- no one would be caught dead using taped bits to augment difficult arrangements in concert.

I remember the brouhaha that broke out around Queen's Live Kllers album in 1979. "They couldn't have reproduced those vocals in concert! They must have used backing tapes! That's cheating! Worse yet, that's a fraud perpetrated on the audience! How DARE they?"

Please. Get over it. Backing tracks have been a way of life for touring musicians for ages. And I'm not talking about Britney and Madonna.
(1) Audiences pay a lot of money for concert tickets these days. They expect an appropriate spectacle with good sound, lots of lights and maybe some fire. They also expect the songs to sound just like (or very close to) what they hear on the CD or the download. That not only means backing tracks but all manner of pitch correction hardware.
(2) Yes, you could just hire enough musicians and singers to reproduce all the studio sounds in a live situation, but that's awfully, awfully expensive. Backing tracks accomplish the same thing at a fraction of the cost.
(3) In the case of older acts, voices are shot. That doesn't help when your audience is hoping and praying that the performer (and by extension, themselves) still has the same stuff they did when they were much, much younger.
You think Ozzy can still hit those high notes? Hardly. There's apparently a guy backstage with a mic who helps him through those parts. It's alleged that AC/DC couldn't change up the set list of their last world tour because "they'd have to go back into the studio to redo all the tracking." That's a quote from someone I know deep within the concert industry. How much of U2's 360 Tour was tied to programmed material? Yes, they played the vast majority of what we heard, but with a show that big and complicated, backing track assistance is a necessity.
(4) We're so far into the Age of Sampling that most people don't even give a second thought to whether portions of a performance are live or recorded. It's almost assumed that a performer uses that technology as part of his/her bag of tricks. As long as it sounds good, right?
If Van Halen comes around, I'll go see them. And I don't care of Eddie's kid sounds scarily like Michael Anthony. I just want the background vocals to "Runnin' With the Devil" to sound like it did on the 1984 tour.

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

So, where do you fall out on all of this? Me? Play it live, folks. With just a few exceptions (and I don't know what they would be at this point), screw the backing tracks. I don't go to a concert to hear it sound just like the CD, in fact, I'm pretty disappointed if it does. Heck, I could stay home and listen to the CD and save big bucks, considering what tickets are these days.

No, I want to hear some jamming, a new guitar fill here or there, an ad-libbed vocal--something to make the song more interesting and a 'one-off' performance. That's special.

What do you think?

Take some time....

2012-02-01T01:00:00.000-06:00

...out of your day to read this post. I think you'll get a kick out of it. Certainly, the former slave deserves much credit for the tone he took here....scathing just below the surface. Here's the set up:

A newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master is creating a buzz. Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting that Jourdan return to work on his farm. In the time since escaping from slavery, Anderson had become emancipated, moved to Ohio where he found paid work and was now supporting his family.

Here is his reply:

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

2012-02-01T00:30:00.000-06:00

Check out these RC planes in NYC.

Reptile problem

2012-01-31T01:30:00.000-06:00

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A burgeoning population of huge pythons — many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big — appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically — as much as 99 percent, in some cases — in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.

Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades' environmental balance in ways difficult to predict.

"The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound," said John Willson, a research scientist at Virginia Tech University and co-author of the study.

Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia, are believed to be living in the Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate. While many were apparently released by their owners, others may have escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever since.

Burmese pythons can grow to be 26 feet long and more than 200 pounds, and they have been known to swallow animals as large as alligators. They and other constrictor snakes kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it.

The National Park Service has counted 1,825 Burmese pythons that have been caught in and around Everglades National Park since 2000. Among the largest so far was a 156-pound, 16.4-foot one captured earlier this month.

For the study, researchers drove 39,000 miles along Everglades-area roads from 2003 through 2011, counting wildlife spotted along the way and comparing the results with surveys conducted on the same routes in 1996 and 1997.

The researchers found staggering declines in animal sightings: a drop of 99.3 percent among raccoons, 98.9 percent for opossums, 94.1 percent for white-tailed deer and 87.5 percent for bobcats. Along roads where python populations are believed to be smaller, declines were lower but still notable.

Rabbits and foxes, which were commonly spotted in 1996 and 1997, were not seen at all in the later counts. Researchers noted slight increases in coyotes, Florida panthers, rodents and other mammals, but discounted that finding because so few were spotted overall.

"The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park," said Michael Dorcas, a professor at Davidson College in North Carolina and lead author of the study.

Although scientists cannot definitively say the pythons are killing off the mammals, the snakes are the prime suspect. The increase in pythons coincides with the mammals' decrease, and the decline appears to grow in magnitude with the size of the snakes' population in an area. A single disease appears unlikely to be the cause since several species were affected.

The report says the effect on the overall ecosystem is hard to predict. Declines among bobcats and foxes, which eat rabbits, could be linked to pythons' feasting on rabbits. On the flip side, declines among raccoons, which eat eggs, may help some turtles, crocodiles and birds.

Scientists point with concern to what happened in Guam, where the invasive brown tree snake has killed off birds, bats and lizards that pollinated trees and flowers and dispersed seeds. That has led to declines in native trees, fish-eating birds and certain plants.

In 2010, Florida banned private ownership of Burmese pythons. Earlier this month, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a federal ban on the import of Burmese pythons and three other snakes.

Salazar said Monday that the study shows why such restrictions were needed.

"This study paints a stark picture of the real damage that Burmese pythons are causing to native wildlife and the Florida economy," he said.

___

Now, don't you feel silly for even thinking this might be true?

2012-01-31T00:30:00.001-06:00

Gloom, despair, and agony. That's what was promised. The answer, of course, was for you to give all of your money away to 'carbon exchanges' and the like. Ran by AlGore and his band of Idjits.

Brilliant!

2012-01-31T00:30:00.000-06:00

This is awesome. Someone has figured out a great way to separate idiots from their money. This is great. Folks, presenting the Museum of Non-Visible Art. Yep.

Being an art lover can turn into an expensive endeavor, but to lay down some cold hard cash on works that don’t even exist is pushing the bounds of art appreciation to its breaking point. New media aficionado Aimee Davison doesn’t quite share that same viewpoint and she used her bank account to show it, spending $10,000 on a piece of non-existent artwork from the Museum of Non-Visible Art (MONA).

The MONA project is the work of artist duo Brainard and Delia Carey, along with actor James Franco. You might remember the intrepid trio launching a Kickstarter fundraising effort for the mythical museum last month. The most expensive item available for purchase from MONA was a $10,000 work titled Fresh Air, which is now the property of Ms. Davison.

I am now selling the latest in fashionable music, the Non-Audible Orchestra. If you send me $25,000, I will send you a postcard describing what the song that you cannot hear sounds like. Next week, we're opening the Non-Eating Restaurant--get your reservations now--they're only $1000/plate. Send me your checks and I will personally call you to describe the meal that you won't eat.

People get ready

2012-01-31T00:00:00.000-06:00

(CNSNews.com) - The amount of money the federal government takes out of the U.S. economy in taxes will increase by more than 30 percent between 2012 and 2014, according to the Budget and Economic Outlook published today by the CBO.

At the same time, according to CBO, the economy will remain sluggish, partly because of higher taxes.
“In particular, between 2012 and 2014, revenues in CBO’s baseline shoot up by more than 30 percent,” said CBO, “mostly because of the recent or scheduled expirations of tax provisions, such as those that lower income tax rates and limit the reach of the alternative minimum tax (AMT), and the imposition of new taxes, fees, and fines/penalties that are scheduled to go into effect.” One of the fines would be for those not buying a health insurance policy, which is part of Obamacare.

The U.S. economy, CBO projects, will perform “below its potential” for another six years and unemployment will remain above 7 percent for another three.

Turn it up and dance a little jig....

2012-01-30T19:36:00.002-06:00

2012-01-30T06:01:00.000-06:00

2012-01-30T04:00:00.001-06:00

Love this story. ...'work hard, don't work hard--everyone gets the same. So people don't want to work'
We should make this mandatory reading for the 2nd grade. And 3rd grade. And 4th grade. And high school.

NPR reports about a contract among Chinese farmers in 1978:

There was no incentive to work hard — to go out to the fields early, to put in extra effort, Yen Jingchang says. “Work hard, don’t work hard — everyone gets the same,” he says. “So people don’t want to work.” In Xiaogang there was never enough food, and the farmers often had to go to other villages to beg. Their children were going hungry. They were desperate. So, in the winter of 1978, after another terrible harvest, they came up with an idea: Rather than farm as a collective, each family would get to farm its own plot of land. If a family grew a lot of food, that family could keep some of the harvest…

Despite the risks, they decided they had to try this experiment — and to write it down as a formal contract, so everyone would be bound to it. By the light of an oil lamp, Yen Hongchang wrote out the contract. The farmers agreed to divide up the land among the families. Each family agreed to turn over some of what they grew to the government, and to the collective. And, crucially, the farmers agreed that families that grew enough food would get to keep some for themselves. The contract also recognized the risks the farmers were taking. If any of the farmers were sent to prison or executed, it said, the others in the group would care for their children until age 18…
by changing the economic rules — by saying, you get to keep some of what you grow — everything changed. At the end of the season, they had an enormous harvest: more, Yen Hongchang says, than in the previous five years combined. That huge harvest gave them away…
fortunately for Mr. Yen and the other farmers, at this moment in history, there were powerful people in the Communist Party who wanted to change China’s economy. Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who would go on to create China’s modern economy, was just coming to power. So instead of executing the Xiaogang farmers, the Chinese leaders ultimately decided to hold them up as a model. Within a few years, farms all over China adopted the principles in that secret document. People could own what they grew. The government launched other economic reforms, and China’s economy started to grow like crazy. Since 1978, something like 500 million people have risen out of poverty in China.

In 1623 William Bradford figured out the same thing after the Pilgrims spent two years on their communal farms: “they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could…so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number…and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious…The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability.”
It is of note that terrible hardships preceded the discovery of simple truths. In the case of China, tens of millions of people died over decades in service of Mao’s utopian fantasies. In Plymouth it took them three hard years to figure out how to deal with the freeloaders. Small wonder that in our world today, ideas that have lived off a lazy prosperity, like green energy and global warming, are having some problems of their own.

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-06:00

Good interview with Joe Walsh. Here.

Sample quote:
“I sure did. I just decided I better get with it. After all, it is the digital age. Back when it was all analog, we used to go in the studio, and studios had knobs. We used to turn knobs and say, let’s see what this does. Now, we have a mouse. We [the members of the Eagles] spend hours yelling at our computers. My son comes in and he says, Dad, you’re really stupid.”

Twit

2012-01-30T02:30:00.000-06:00

When Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting flew from the UK to America, they were detained upon arrival, reports The Sun.

The offense? Some poorly-received tweets. Bryan had tweeted about "diggin' Marilyn Monroe up" and that he would "go and destroy America."

When the two arrived, they were questioned for five hours and held in cells for 12 hours before being put on a flight home, despite Bryan attempting to explain that "destroy" is British slang for "partying."

They were even searched for shovels, as the agents suspected Bunting would act as lookout while Bryan dug up the grave. "It's almost funny now but at the time it was really scary," Bryan told The Sun. "The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist."

A healthy reminder to watch what you tweet. Bryan's Twitter account is now private.

But what do I know, I'm white

2012-01-30T01:00:00.000-06:00

This makes my head hurt. Love the quotes "Maybe they will give us more jobs, more opportunities for black people." I was evidently under the impression that everyone makes their own opportunities instead of waiting for handout. But, duh, that's not what this country is about anymore. It's 'what can my country do for me'.

Angry at the rich? It's a moving target....

2012-01-30T00:30:00.000-06:00

The “rich” in America are not a monolithic, unchanging class. A study by Thomas A. Garrett, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, found that less than half of people in the top 1 percent in 1996 were still there in 2005. Such mobility is hardly surprising: A business school student, for instance, may have little money and high debts, but nine years later he or she could be earning a big Wall Street salary and bonus.

Mobility is not limited to the top-earning households. A study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that nearly half of the families in the lowest fifth of income earners in 2001 had moved up within six years. Over the same period, more than a third of those in the highest fifth of income-earners had moved down. Certainly, there are people such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who are ensconced in the top tier, but far more common are people who are rich for short periods.

The real income problem in this country is not a question of who is rich, but rather of who is poor. Among the bottom fifth of income earners, many people, especially men, stay there their whole lives. Low education and unwed motherhood only exacerbate poverty, which is particularly acute among racial minorities. Brookings Institution economist Scott Winshiphas argued that two-thirds of black children in America experience a level of poverty that only 6 percent of white children will ever see, calling it a “national tragedy.

Making the poor more economically mobile has nothing to do with taxing the rich and everything to do with finding and implementing ways to encourage parental marriage, teach the poor marketable skills and induce them to join the legitimate workforce. It is easy to suppose that raising taxes on the rich would provide more money to help the poor. But the problem facing the poor is not too little money, but too few skills and opportunities to advance themselves.

Spiking the Ball

2012-01-29T17:25:00.000-06:00

From now on, whenever anyone mentions global warming, or climate change in relation to global warming, know that you are dealing with an idiot. The real data is in...and we're headed for a mini-ice age. Snowmobile dealers ought to do well.

Read it.

2012-01-29T11:31:00.001-06:00

Fast and Furious

2012-01-27T02:30:00.000-06:00

Just like Watergate, except F&F has a dead body. And it was actually about something, not a cover-up of a bungled break in. This is a cover up that caused a murder, well, hundreds if you count the number of Mexicans killed by guns that the US gov't supplied them. When will the press care? Never. What should happen? Well for starters, Eric Holder should be fired and indited for manslaughter. Then Obama, should it come out that he knew or authorized it, should be impeached and indited for manslaughter. Or at least have to take a looooong timeout.
Ask Uncle Ted. He says it correctly.

2012-01-27T02:00:00.000-06:00

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced his second bio-fuels loan guarantee in a week, revealing that the Agriculture Department (USDA) is slated to loan an Oregon biorefinery $232.5 million for a project expected to create 65 jobs and support 38 others.

“This project and others like it will help to establish a domestic advanced biofuels industry that will create jobs here at home and open new markets in the Pacific Northwest and across America,” Vilsack said in a statement.
Last week, USDA appoved a conditional $25 million loan guarantee for an Iowa project expected to create 38 jobs. Combined, the two projects create 103 new jobs at a cost of $257.5 million — or, $2.5 million per job.

Friday

2012-01-27T01:30:00.000-06:00

Let me tell ya folks, the job is heating up. Can't go into details, but suffice it to say that the bigger a organization is, the more questionable it's decisions get to be. I'm playing damage control.

Hey, it's the end of the week. Got any big weekend plans? Not much here.

Coming soon

2012-01-27T01:00:00.000-06:00

To a TV near you, it's the new sitcom "Mr. and Mrs. Crankypants".

Made me smile this morning

2012-01-26T01:30:00.000-06:00

This is how you do it:

The rest of the story

2012-01-26T01:00:00.001-06:00

Despite Unfair Tax Burden, Warren Buffett's Secretary Was Just Able To Buy A Second Home

Despite a heavy tax burden, Warren Buffett’s secretary (Obama's poster child for tax victims of the rich) last year was able to purchase a second home in Arizona, a residence complete with a swimming pool and a “professional PGA putting green,” according to real estate records.

Debra Bosanek, 55, and her husband Gerald bought the in Surprise, a city outside Phoenix. The Bosaneks paid $144,000 for the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath property (the purchase was financed, in part, by a $115,200 mortgage).

The principal Bosanek residence is in Bellevue, Nebraska, several miles from Buffett’s corporate headquarters in Omaha. The couple’s , built in 2000, also has four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. But the modest property, which Sarpy County assessors last year valued at $217,716, offers no outdoor amenities for swimmers or golfers.

Bosanek, who last night attended the State of the Union speech, has become the face of President Barack Obama’s so-called Buffett Rule, which contends that the secretary of a wealthy individual should not pay a higher tax rate than their boss.

Her salary has been estimated at north of $200K/yr.

Globalization headaches

2012-01-26T01:00:00.000-06:00

Wage balance. Heard that phrase before? No, you haven't, probably, but it's going to be your children's biggest obstacle to continue the uniquely American tradition of having one generation do 'better' then the previous (usually gauged by material acquisition).

At issue is globalization and what it means for labor and wage costs around the world. American workers, indeed, most Western workers, have been paid at a premium compared to the rest of the world's labor force for decades. And it was justified given the productivity of the US labor force. Now the rest of the world is catching up to us. India and China, for instance, are full of a fledgling and growing middle class willing to work for 1/3 of the wages of the average US worker. And as companies expand to offer goods and services across the globe, it makes more sense to source products locally.

What's it mean. Stagnation for us. Flatline wages (unless you work for the government, then you'll get 3-8% a year) until the rest of the world catches up. American workers still hold a huge productivity edge, but it's decreasing each year.

In a related story, your iPad and iPhone take a human toll on those making them. Here's a pretty good article, even though it comes from the NYT, about factory and living conditions. Let me state up front though, that although conditions are sometimes harsh, the alternatives for most of these people is to not have a job at all. That's not to defend conditions there at all, but it is what it is.

Heck, it all makes sense now.

2012-01-26T00:30:00.000-06:00

Good news and bad regarding Keystone XL. Obama is not sacrificing our economic security and tens of thousands of jobs on behalf of screwballs like Robert Redford and Daryl Hannah after all. He’s doing it on behalf of zillionaire crony fake socialist Warren Buffett:

Warren Buffett’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC is among U.S. and Canadian railroads that stand to benefit from the Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline permit. With modest expansion, railroads can handle all new oil produced in western Canada through 2030, according to an analysis of the Keystone proposal by the U.S. State Department.

Going by rail instead of pipeline would cost more and produce more of the greenhouse emissions libs pretend are hazardous, and might not prevent Canada, which needs a reliable buyer, from selling the oil to China instead. But being part of the 1% of the 1% of the 1% who are rich enough and corrupt enough to benefit from socialism, the tax-evading higher taxes advocate Buffett is an important guy to please. Like the crooks at Solyndra, he was a big supporter of Obama in 2008.

Really?

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

Righties are always accusing the lefties, particularly the Obamacle, of harming the United States on purpose. Cooler heads usually dismiss this charge as being a pipe bomb, thrown for political purposes.

Lately, though, a majority of people that I chat with--heck--most people with 2 brain cells that actually still connect have enough brain power to determine that rejecting the Keystone pipeline is nothing less than pure partisan politics bordering on treason--there is not a legit reason not to do it. Environmental concerns are bullshit. Name the last major pipeline incident in the United States. Come on. I'll wait. No. Name ANY major pipeline disaster. Anywhere.

*crickets chirping....Jeopardy music playing....pictures of the seasons changing*

Thought so. Couldn't. Here. I'll help you. Here's a map of all of the major pipelines in the US.

So. Where have the trouble spots been? The major ecological disasters? Hmm. That dog just doesn't hunt. Candidate Obamessiah told us, to our faces, that energy costs would rise because of what he would do. He wasn't lying at all. And now to support him, some have to attack Canada. Yeah, let's get upset with Canada, because they want to sell us oil, in fact, would prefer to sell it to us than the ChiComs, whom are more than happy to take it and think that we are complete fools . You tell me. Which side is he on? Yours?

While I'm bitching, and you're reading...the other thing that got me thinking last night was this: During the ~~Class Warfare Rally~~ State of the Union address, Obama had a guest up with his family, you know, up in the crowd. That position is customarily reserved for true American hero's. The 'jump in the freezing river to save plane crash victims' hero, or the walking wounded war hero.

Obama chose to have Warren Buffet's secretary. Why? So he could point out that she pays a higher income tax rate than her boss. Which is ludicrous. Emmie pays a higher rate than Buffet. I do. So do you. Buffets income is $1/year. That's his salary...that's what he pays income tax on. One freaking dollar. The rest of his money is all capital gains and shielded in trusts. Bottom line: why the hell drag up his secretary? Is she eating Ramen noodles every night? Down to beans and weenies? If so, doesn't that reflect on Buffet badly? She's no victim, yet she's being held up as one--so that YOU feel like a victim, too, and demand that the rich pay MORE. You know who the rich are? Yeah. You are, my pal. Don't kid yourselves. 'More' mean higher effect tax rates for you and I, and the rich still keep their sheltered tax breaks, don't kid yourself.

And the money from more taxes? Yeah, that goes into a slush fund for kickbacks to campaign donors.

I'm done. Thanks for indulging me. And if you've made it this far, what the hell is wrong with you? : )

2012-01-25T02:30:00.000-06:00

WTF

2012-01-25T01:00:00.000-06:00

Love the 'crumbling bridges and roads line'. He spent $1 TRILLION dollars giving our money to his environmental whacko campaign donors, but couldn't manage to get the bridges and roads fixed.

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

2012-01-24T17:51:00.000-06:00

This will wake you up......and probably make you cry, too. Nice girl.

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

Straight to DVD

2012-01-24T12:25:00.002-06:00

A film inspired by the 1981 KISS concept album "(Music From) The Elder" may be coming to the big screen.

The album was intended to be the soundtrack to a movie — a movie which, due to the relative commercial failure of the album, was never made.

30 years after the album's original release, U.K.-based writer, musician and independent filmmaker Seb Hunter has announced plans to produce a "post-apocalyptic road movie" based on '(Music From) The Elder'", with production slated to begin this summer. more on this story

Why the US will never manufacture iPhones

2012-01-24T11:56:00.000-06:00

Well, this is interesting. Just puts into perspective how backwards we are here in comparison to the some of the rest of the world....

Here's the news.

The Ominous Red Light

2012-01-24T01:30:00.000-06:00

East Orange, New Jersey to beam suspects of future criminal activity with flashy, hi-tech police surveillance equipment

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
January 23, 2012

In a glowing review of the rising prevalence of high-tech big brother surveillance gadgets in police force use, the Associated Press reports that East Orange, New Jersey plans to cut crime by highlighting suspects with a red-beamed spotlight– before any crime is committed– a “pre-crime” deterrent to be mounted on nearby street lights or other fixtures.

According to the report, police officers monitor hundreds of video feeds from across the city and opt to brand would-be criminals with a red glow if they believe they are about to engage in a crime, such as a street corner mugging.

“Whereas London has talking cameras, we’re about to deploy light projecting cameras, better known as light-based intervention systems.” said William Robinson, Police Chief for East Orange. He added, “The message to criminals is, we’re observing you, the police are recording you, and the police are responding.”
As Robinson mentioned, other “pre-crime” measures have been deployed both in the UK and United States, as well as other countries. Talking cameras in the UK bark orders at ‘anti-social’ offenders, while the Homeland Stasi here has partnered with Intellistreets to release “smart” street lights capable of saving energy while monitoring & recording citizens, as well as displaying government-mandated emergency alerts on digital banners.

Now “pre-crime” spotlights that bathe surveillance targets in a criminally-branded red color will help complete the circle of preemptive suspicion.

But that’s just one flashy feature in a rash of new high-tech solutions provided to the crime-ridden city under federal grant money. In East Orange, and probably a locale near you, too, everyone is a “pre-crime” suspect until proven innocent. Officer squad cars also scan the license plates of every single vehicle they pass, checking them against a variety of lists– from terrorist monitor lists, to unpaid parking tickets, warrants and more. Officers can then pull over vehicles that match watch lists, even if the driver has committed no violations to draw attention from the patrol vehicle.

So, here is where we are...

2012-01-23T02:00:00.000-06:00

Oh bloody hell. Really? I cannot believe the level that the race-baiter industry will stoop to. Ok, folks, go review the clip below. I know, I just posted it the other day. But start paying attention at 2:45. Juan Williams asks Newt a racially charged question. See if you can find the racism in the first 5 words of Newt's response. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Did you find it? No? Look again. Surely you saw it there. What? Well, if you weren't such a racist yourself you would have noticed that Newt called Juan by his first name. Racist. Yep, he said it in a racist way. Don't believe me? Here. Geraldo says that it was racist. And here so does Chris Matthews. Google it. There are at least 8 newswire stories about it. Not a big Newt fan....he's narcissistic and that whole sitting on the couch with Nancy Pelosi talking about global warming was enough to make me gag. Don't get me wrong. I'll crawl over broken glass to vote for this statist politician if the choice is between him and Obama. But I'll hold my nose doing it.

So, we learned in the debate that Republicans are racist. That's the takeaway. Now the real question is: why the hell do they keep putting themselves in debates with loony moderators?

Interesting

2012-01-23T01:00:00.000-06:00

Too complicated to report

January 14th, 2012

IBD:

According to the BLS, the “labor force participation rate” — the ratio of the number of people either working or looking for work compared with the entire working-age population — is now 64%, down from 65.7% when the recession ended in June 2009. That’s the lowest level since women began entering the workforce in far greater numbers several decades ago. If you adjust for this drop, the unemployment rate would be close to 11%, instead of the official 8.5%.

Of course this has been the case for a long time now. Imagine how the media would be reporting unemployment, and indeed, will be reporting unemployment, if the White House changes hands this year.

Q

2012-01-22T10:53:00.002-06:00

What's faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than silent 'e', and more powerful than a diesel train?

Queen, 1977
Holy mother of mercy, they are moving...and I think I got dizzy during the solo break.

Wash. Post....yep, he's an idiot.

2012-01-20T13:10:00.000-06:00

Rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it…environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills… Consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder. Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the United States, could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil. Finally, Obama’s decision forgoes all the project’s jobs. There’s some dispute over the magnitude. Project sponsor TransCanada claims 20,000, split between construction (13,000) and manufacturing (7,000) of everything from pumps to control equipment. Apparently, this refers to “job years,” meaning one job for one year. If so, the actual number of jobs would be about half that spread over two years. Whatever the figure, it’s in the thousands and important in a country hungering for work. And Keystone XL is precisely the sort of infrastructure project that Obama claims to favor. The big winners are the Chinese. They must be celebrating their good fortune and wondering how the crazy Americans could repudiate such a huge supply of nearby energy.

I'm formally endorsing.....

2012-01-19T20:06:00.000-06:00

VH Unplugged

2012-01-19T02:00:00.000-06:00

Here ya go fans. An acoustic 'You Really Got Me'. Dave has lost tons of range on his vocals. Not surprising, I guess.

2012-01-18T08:52:00.000-06:00

January 18, 2012

'Habits of the Heart' and a rescued cat in Iowa City

David Pau

A cat stuck up a tree in Iowa City captivated residents during its miserable four-day ordeal -- clinging to a 30-foot-high branch over a residential street.

On Monday, the cat was rescued -- but not by city employees. It was two civic-minded volunteers who finally got the cat down, after borrowing a bucket-lift from a public-spirited local business.

The mini-drama's happy ending served as a parable about civic action verses government inaction in a story making headlines across the Midwest.

The cat, a female tabby, was first spotted on a branch last Thursday evening in the parking lot of Lasansky Gallery. Gallery employees reported getting numerous visits by passers-by calling attention to the hapless feline. A college town, Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa.

The local media quickly picked up the story, stirring up public sympathy for the feline. While most people fretted over its well being, residents living near the cat grew increasingly annoyed over its howling. The racket kept them awake at night and annoyed their pets. Most everybody, it seemed, was frustrated over the city's inability to get the cat down. The story about the hapless feline was one of the most popular in the online edition of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, a daily newspaper.

Local officials quickly gave up on rescuing the cat, following an aborted attempt by an animal control officer aided by city firefighters and a forestry crew. After that, officials said the tabby should be left alone: It would come down on its own, they advised.

It never did.

Accordingly, residents grew increasingly alarmed. Some were upset over a fire official's claim that rescuing the cat would put firefighters in danger and tie up city resources.

Residents didn't buy it -- especially the part about the cat being able to take care of itself. "There's no reason she'd stay up in the tree and freeze if she could get down on her own," resident Arlene Donnelly told the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

On Monday afternoon, two men finally decided enough was enough. Borrowing a bucket-lift from a local business, they went out and rescued the cat -- defying a sign posted below the tree by animal control. It warned people to leave the cat alone and noted it had bitten two would-be rescuers.

"(The cat) was pretty wiped out," Jeff Waite told the Gazette of his 20-minute rescue effort with Michael Matthess.

Waite called the rescue a "spooky" experience, saying that because he and Matthess each weigh 200-plus pounds, the bucket-lift was shaking as the squirming cat was grabbed by the scruff of the neck. Other than that, the rescue went smoothly.

The cat is now resting comfortably in an Iowa City animal shelter. "She's kind of like a little local celebrity right now," Willa Hamilton, an animal services officer, told the Gazette. The feline may be a feral, she added.

"Habits of the heart" was how French social theorist Alexis de Tocqueville described America's singularly unique virtues -- including the virtues of civic engagement and volunteerism. Both were on display in Iowa City this week, as two men with a borrowed bucket-lift accomplished in 20 minutes what city officials had been unable to do in four days.

2012-01-18T04:30:00.001-06:00

It's been pointed out on the interwebby that at least 4 of the songs on the 'new' Van Halen release have been around for a while. Here is the song that contains quite a bit of the riffage from the first single "Tattoo". Interesting to see how things evolved.

Here's an early version of 'Hang Em High' off of the Diver Down album.

Presidential Nonsense

2012-01-18T04:30:00.000-06:00

by Walter Williams

Last week, President Barack Obama, at a Capital Hilton fundraising event, told the crowd, “We can’t go back to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics.” Throughout my professional career as an economist, I’ve never come across the theory of “you’re-on-your-own economics.” I’m guessing what the president means by — and finds offensive in — “you’re-on-your-own economics” is that it’s a system in which people are held responsible for their actions, that they take risks and must live with the results, that people can’t force others to pay for their mistakes, and that they can’t live at the expense of other people.

President Obama’s vision was shared by our Pilgrim Fathers of the Plymouth Colony in modern-day Massachusetts. They established a communist system. They all farmed together, and whatever they produced was put in a common storehouse. A certain amount of food was rationed to each person regardless of his contribution to the work. Many Pilgrims complained that they were too weak from hunger to do their share of the work. As deeply religious as the Pilgrims were, they took to stealing from one another. Gov. William Bradford, writing his history of the colony in “Of Plymouth Plantation,” said, “So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue, the next year also if not some way prevented.”

In 1623, after much debate, a new system was set up, in which every family was assigned a parcel of land, and whatever they produced belonged to the family. Gov. Bradford then observed, “The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.” After Gov. Bradford’s establishment of what Obama calls “you’re-on-your-own economics,” harvests were so bountiful that Bradford is credited with establishing what we now call Thanksgiving.

There are several seemingly immutable, hard-wired characteristics about humans that socialists, liberals and progressives find difficult to deal with and would like to change. People tend to work harder and produce more when they own what they produce. Property is better cared for when it is privately owned. People love to exchange, what Adam Smith called a “propensity to truck (and) barter.” To suppress these characteristics requires brute force.

President Obama also told the Washington Hilton crowd that “we are not a country that was built on the idea of survival of the fittest.” Obama is not by himself, but “survival of the fittest” is one of the greatest misunderstandings of Charles Darwin’s pathbreaking work “On the Origin of Species.” When Obama and most other people use the expression “survival of the fittest,” they suggest that a bunch of people or animals are competing with one another and the strongest, smartest or cleverest survives. That’s not what Darwin and evolutionary biologists have in mind. Instead, what they have in mind is that those who survive have characteristics that make them better-equipped to survive and hence reproduce themselves in a particular environment. They are not laying waste to their competitors.

Let’s try a few survival of the fittest questions. Which companies do you think should survive and expand, those that can meet the changing wants of their customers in a least-cost fashion or those that cannot do so? If the means of communication become cheaper through fax machines, the Internet and telephones, should subsidies be expended to help the U.S. Postal Service survive? Years ago, typing was done on a mechanical typewriter; milk was delivered to doorsteps via horse and wagon; slide rules were used to make calculations. Should any of these products and practices have survived, or was it OK for natural selection to consign them to the dustbin of history?

Try cornering the president or his supporters, and ask them whether they believe government should ensure that the unfit survive and rather than “you’re-on-your-own economics” there should be “you’re-on-somebody-else economics.”

How to speak clearly

2012-01-18T03:00:00.000-06:00

Don't get me wrong. Really have no use for Newt at all. He has been the problem as much as anyone. BUT...his instincts are usually correct. This IS the correct answer to this racially-tinged gotcha question by tool Juan Williams. He gets a standing 'O' for his answer...watch the whole 4 minutes.

Of course, since you cannot logically deny that what Newt said is the truth, you have to attack the messenger. This is the best that Obama-thrill-up-his-leg Chris Matthews could come up with:

Chris Matthews Accuses Newt Gingrich Of Racially Charged Use Of The Name ‘Juan’

Matthews’ comments came during an appearance on Andrea Mitchell Reports in which he discussed the tone in yesterday’s all white audience (pay attention folks---they just got away with a zinger--the audience was NOT all white). Matthews accused Rick Perry of using terms bordering on “succession” when he talked about the South Carolina people’s “war” with the government. However, the focus was on Gingrich and Williams and particularly Williams’ first name. While Matthews agreed with a lot of what Gingrich said, he argued that this was a coded message to the crowd.

“That use of the name ‘Juan,’ the way he did it. You can’t argue these things. You either see them or you don’t. It’s just the way he did that. I sensed a little applause when he said ‘Let me help you’ when he answered the Juan question. It’s in the eye of the beholder. And, by the way, calling someone a racist is the worst way to get them to stop being racist because everyone gets defensive. … So it’s stupid to say it but, honestly, if you notice it, you sort of ought to blow the whistle. Because there is a dog whistle going on here.”

When all else fails....make up some charge totally unrelated to the conversation so biased that there is no response that is appropriate other than 'you fucking moron', which of course, you can't say on television.

And he'll ignore his own panels recomendations, again

2012-01-18T01:30:00.000-06:00

President Obama’s jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil and gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines. “[W]e should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” states the year-end report released Tuesday by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The report does not specifically mention the Keystone XL pipeline, but it endorses moving forward quickly with projects that “deliver electricity and fuel,” including pipelines.

“The Council recognizes the important safety and environmental concerns surrounding these types of projects, but now more than ever, the jobs and economic and energy security benefits of these energy projects require us to tackle the issues head-on and to expeditiously, though cautiously, move forward on projects that can support hundreds of thousands of jobs,” the report says.

Of course, on the heels of that, we hear that our dipshit of a president is going to say 'no' to the Keystone XL pipeline...even though rejection means that Canadian oil will be heading to China vs the US. Folks, as recently as last year I used to think it was ridiculous to think that any President of the US would willfully hurt the country. Now--not so much. Obama is a deliberate menace to the US. There I said it.

All of a sudden, it ain't cool....

2012-01-18T01:00:00.001-06:00

You might have heard. Beyonce and Jay-Z had a baby girl. Congrats and all that. And it seems that daddy has had a realization....he doesn't ever want anyone referring to his little girl as a bitch. Oh, heck, it was fine before--he was spewing the word left and right in his music. I guess referring to other people's daughters as bitches (and really, if you think about it, he was also referring to his wife) is just fine. But, oh no, we're getting religion when it comes to his baby girl.

So, Jay-Z, thanks for growing up, finally, it's nice that you could join the adults. Here's the details, including a poem that he wrote about it. I'm sure you'll want to read it. And get ready. The legacy that you are leaving in pop culture almost guarantees that your little angel will be referred to as a bitch. Count on it. And thanks. I have a daughter too.

2012-01-18T01:00:00.000-06:00

Once again the idiots among us willfully fail to distinguish between the real and the unreal, as police state style gun laws are applied even to toys in the People’s Republic of New York:

The owner of a discount store in Brooklyn says the city is holding him up for $30,000 in fines he can’t afford — all because he stocked six toy sheriff sets that included plastic guns.
And now the .44-caliber fines for the orange-tipped, obvious fakes are forcing him to close for good.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Khaled Mohamed, 23, manager of 99¢ Target in Flatlands, which has been ordered to pay a staggering $5,000 fine for each gun offered for sale — the maximum under the law.

Sure it makes sense, once you understand that the objective of authoritarian liberal regimes is to make it impossible to earn a living through non-coercive economic activities. Only when the last 99¢ store has been fined into bankruptcy can we at last enter into moonbat utopia.
Congratulations to the Bloomberg regime on subjecting another capitalist exploiter to The People’s justice. Don’t worry about Mohemed; he can always sign up for welfare.

Pretext enough to destroy a business in NYC.

Rats.

2012-01-17T01:00:00.000-06:00

The District of Columbia is well endowed with rats.

In addition to those infesting the White House and Capitol Hill, the city is literally overran with them. Why? Rats are a protected species:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel.

Cuccinelli said D.C.’s new rat law — the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 is “crazier than fiction” because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a “wildlife rehabilitator” as part of their relocation process. The law does not allow pest control professionals “to kill the dang rats,” Cuccinelli told CNSNews.com.

“They have to capture them — then capture them in families. [Not sure] how you’re going to figure that out with rats. And then you have to relocate them. That brings us to Virginia. Now, if you don’t relocate them about 25 miles away, according to experts, rodents will find their way back. Well, an easy way to solve that problem is to cross a river, and what’s on the other side of the river? Virginia."

Hi , we are from the Government….

2012-01-16T08:56:00.000-06:00

Hi , we are from the Government….

Not to be redundant...

2012-01-13T20:26:00.001-06:00

But I found this soon after then one below. Same song. And the only redeeming thing about the Stones performance is Mick Taylor. But he alone makes this one worth watching. Be patient until the chorus. Then behold how the guitar should be played. He was amazing.

It's the traveling Keithburys

2012-01-13T20:13:00.001-06:00

Duke Tumatoe

2012-01-13T18:57:00.000-06:00

Don't know if this is with the All Star Frogs or not...but this is a treat.

POST 6000

2012-01-13T18:24:00.000-06:00

And I've lost my head evidently.

So, I've been hanging out at the house tonight by myself--the girls both have plans. So far, I've alerted the entire north side of town to that fact by cranking up both of the amps that I have here at the house to about 6 running thru the stereo chorus stompbox. That was refreshing. Had to stretch the fingies a bit since we are playing tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, I jumped into Spotify to find some old tunes to listen to...typed in 1972, and I got this. Ahh...remember before their whimpy era? I love early REO Speedwagon. Here's a prime example:

And then there is this old favorite...especially because it's pre-Kevin Cronin.

Hard Barney Alert

2012-01-13T15:13:00.000-06:00

Hey folks, get out from under the snow and come over to KT's in Keswick tomorrow night for a winter thaw-it-out party. We realize it hasn't been froze all that long, since it was in the 50's this week, but what the heck. I bet they're serving up those yummy gin buckets, too.

So, c'mon...get out of the house. We'll fire up the tunes around 9.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot.....you can follow us on Twitter. Just hit the button up there under 'Leo's Stuff'. You know what to do......

Happy Friday.....

2012-01-13T04:30:00.000-06:00

Quote of the day, Standing 'O' edition

2012-01-13T01:30:00.000-06:00

“Seven young people, somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, on a Tuesday night, a school night, are out in a car going to somewhere to have a fight with some other teenager. That is completely insane, it is irresponsible. Parents have to know where their children are and what they are doing. Their little butts should have either been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing some homework, not out in a car, not in some other neighborhood, and not up to this kind of nonsense. I’m not your mom and I’m not your dad. We cannot completely legislate, or by policy, make people responsible for their children.”
----Philly mayor Michael Nutter after a shooting spree that left 3 teens deadPHILADELPHIA

(CBS) – Following a shooting Tuesday night in the Juniata section of the city that left three teens dead (see related story), Mayor Michael Nutter had strong words for the shooter, calling him “a dog.”

The outraged mayor also had strong words for the parents of Philadelphia’s youth, telling them “not to act like idiots and a–holes.”

While Nutter says he is gratified about the quick arrest in the multiple shooting, he is fuming that the victims were out on Tuesday night apparently looking for trouble. And he blames their parents.“Seven young people, somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, on a Tuesday night, a school night, are out in a car going to somewhere to have a fight with some other teenager. That is completely insane, it is irresponsible. Parents have to know where their children are and what they are doing,” the mayor said.“Their little butts should have either been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing some homework,” Nutter added. “Not out in a car, not in some other neighborhood, and not up to this kind of nonsense. I’m not your mom and I’m not your dad. We cannot completely legislate, or by policy, make people responsible for their children.”

Meanwhile, Eyewitness News has learned the suspect in the shooting, Axel Barreto, has a lengthy criminal record, including at least seven arrests since 2000, mostly for drugs. But on Saint Patrick’s Day 2004, court records show Barreto was arrested for illegally possessing a gun, but those weapons charges didn’t stick.Authorities say police chased Barreto down after he was seen acting suspicious on what they considered a known drug corner. They found him in possession of marijuana but also with a gun, which was illegal because he was already a convicted felon according to Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams.

Nutter pleaded with teens who know the victims to avoid any retaliatory acts. “It is not going to work out well for any of you,” the mayor said.“The least you can do is know where the hell your kids are, in the daytime, in the nighttime, or at any time during the week or on the weekends. That’s the minimum we should ask and expect from our parents. You want to have kids? Take care of them.”

2012-01-13T01:00:00.001-06:00

1:37 PM, JAN 13, 2012 • BY DANIEL HALPER

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, sends THE WEEKLY STANDARD an email commenting on the Marines' video, and has given us permission to publish it.

“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

More moonbattery...

2012-01-13T01:00:00.000-06:00

When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Sure it makes sense. The reason our liberal overlords mandate the use of flaky technology that isn’t even available is that their objective, as stated plainly by Obama before he was elected, is to cause energy prices to skyrocket. For once a politician is fulfilling his promise.

Quote of the day

2012-01-12T12:31:00.001-06:00

“The first bill I signed — a bill that said that we’re going to have equal pay for equal work because I want my daughters treated the same way as my sons.”
----President Barrack Obama

Ummmm....so, the president has some other kids we don't know about....evidently. I wonder which of the 57 states they live in. Does Michelle know?

Case in point:

2012-01-12T06:28:00.000-06:00

Here is a prime example of what happens when you let the progressives, or socialist (as they hate to be called) run things. From Moonbattery:

Living in a country run completely by moonbats such as Greece has its advantages. For example, you can receive disability pay for being a pedophile or pyromaniac. Also, you can run up massive debts with no intention of repaying them, and stick the taxpayers of Germany and the USA with the bill. But there are disadvantages too, as Greeks discover when they try to buy medicine:

Mina Mavrou, who runs a pharmacy in a middle-class Athens suburb, spends hours each day pleading with drugmakers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients. Life-saving drugs such as Sanofi (SAN)’s blood-thinner Clexane and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK)’s asthma inhaler Flixotide often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need. … The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. … The financial crisis is brewing a “Greek tragedy” of slowing access to medical care and worsening outcomes for patients…
One major cause is the Greek government, which sets prices for medicines. As part of an effort to cut its own costs, Greece has mandated lower drug prices in the past year. That has fed a secondary market, drug manufacturers contend, as wholesalers sell their shipments outside the country at higher prices than they can get within Greece.
Strained government finances only make matters worse. Wholesalers and pharmacists say the system suffers from a lack of liquidity, as public insurers delay payments to pharmacies, which in turn can’t pay suppliers on time. …
Payment can take three months to up to a year, pharmacists said. Some are turning to patients to pay up front.

So much for using Big Government to force someone else to pay for your medicine. The free market provides people with the goods and services they need. Socialism does not. Progressives/Democrats/Liberals in this country are never asked the question "Why would we want to go down that path when it is certain to end in disaster" But of course, the elephant in Europe's bedroom won't be acknowledged by our own press or if it is, it doesn't call out the root cause or our own idiot politicians (of both parties) desire to do the same to America. Thankfully, more and more Americans are seeing the light every day. Self-described liberals are on the wane. It won't be a politician that saves America....it'll be Americans. Again.

Back to reality

2012-01-11T15:55:00.001-06:00

Hey, if we believe the weather folks, we're going to have some winter. It's 57 degrees right now and they tell me that come midnght, it'll be like 20 and blowing snow..some 3-6 inches worth. Oh well, it was wonderful while it lasted!

Here's something to get you thru:

As if we didn't already know this

2012-01-11T08:02:00.001-06:00

The moonbats live in our schools. I would think with all of the attention paid to things like asbestos and mold in the schools, we'd worry occasionally when these insidious creatures pop up and spew their crap all over the classroom.

Case in point: As reported in The Blaze, an incident was uncovered "at Woodbrook Elementary School in Virginia in which third-grade students performed (and school officials claim wrote) a song titled, "Part of the 99" as part of a "Kid Pan Alley" performance in October."

Some people have it all
But they still don't think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They're not content
Never satisfied
Yes -- they're the 1 percent

I used to be one of the 1 percent
I worked all the time
Never saw my family
Couldn't make life rhyme
Then the bubble burst
It really, really hurt
I lost my money
Lost my pride
Lost my home
Now I'm part of the 99

Some people have it all
But they still don't think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They're not content
Never satisfied
Yes -- they're the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I'm satisfied
'Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn't need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don't need to be first
'Cause I've got my friends
Here by my side
Don't need it all
I'm so happy to be part of the 99

Yeah. 3rd graders wrote that. Sure they did. How about once we have them sing about hard work, getting good grades, and having ambition in life?

There. Grumpy old man has checked in for the day.

Tebow 3:16

2012-01-10T12:16:00.000-06:00

You'd think that the Tim Tebow story couldn't get any more bananas? It's not just that Tebow transformed himself into a legitimate passer in the playoffs....the guy who's renowned for writing John 3:16 on his eye black just happened to throw for 316 yards on Sunday in the Broncos win.

Tebow completed 10 passes. That means he averaged 31.6 yards per pass. His final pass was to Thomas who just happens to have been born on Christmas Day.

Oh and this: the Steelers-Broncos game was the most-watched wild-card game since 1988. In the final quarter-hour, the overnight rating was 31.6. As it turns out, the lone interception thrown in the game on Sunday night came from Pittsburg. What down and distance were involved when he threw it? Third and 16. Of course.

Coincidence? Prolly.....but I won't bet against them anytime soon.

One of those 40K new laws....

2012-01-10T06:28:00.000-06:00

A new Illinois state law requires those who buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances to provide photo identification and sign a log…The law came about after two Illinois women were burned by acid attacks back in 2008.

One of the women later admitted to burning herself with acid, but the law was still pushed through…so, because of one random crime where acid was used to burn a victim, thousands of people will be forced to show identification when they purchase drain cleaners, and countless hours of business time will be spent filling out, maintaining and monitoring the government mandated forms associated with each purchase.

Go, go government!!!!

Well, here it is.

2012-01-10T05:42:00.001-06:00

What do you think?

Leo's Stuff

Music stuff

More Grammer stuff

More Grammy thoughts

Quote of the day

Test Drive

W, Buffett

Gonna get really rank, really soon

Another of those 40,000 new laws!!!!

Better living thru chemistry?

Something to look forward to

The Here-We-Go-Again Quote of the Day

*Whistle your own tune here*

What the hell happened to him?

Paul sez 'no streaming'

Inevitablility?

Sidetracked.....

Reading list:

Call the Waterboy, this is good stuff

Obama Bundlers Seeking Pardon for Iowa Bail Jumping Mexican Brother Juan Jose Pepe Rojas Cardona

Bruhahaha

Chrysler Is Back? Great. Then Why Hasn’t It Repaid Taxpayers the $1.3 Billion It Still Owes Them?

Litigating Whales

VH

Coming for your guns, and religion, you clingy people

Who?

Won't get fooled again. Until next time.

Coming Soon....

Quote of the day

Super Bowl Class

Maybe they should...

More regs, more taxes

It appears that I need therapy

Rant of the week

Cool picture

Cheating? or No?

Take some time....

Reptile problem

Now, don't you feel silly for even thinking this might be true?

Brilliant!

People get ready

Turn it up and dance a little jig....

Twit

But what do I know, I'm white

Angry at the rich? It's a moving target....

Spiking the Ball

Fast and Furious

Friday

Coming soon

Made me smile this morning

The rest of the story

Despite Unfair Tax Burden, Warren Buffett's Secretary Was Just Able To Buy A Second Home

Globalization headaches

Heck, it all makes sense now.

Really?

WTF

Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence

Straight to DVD

Why the US will never manufacture iPhones

The Ominous Red Light

So, here is where we are...

Interesting

Too complicated to report

Q

Wash. Post....yep, he's an idiot.

I'm formally endorsing.....

VH Unplugged

'Habits of the Heart' and a rescued cat in Iowa City

Presidential Nonsense

How to speak clearly

Chris Matthews Accuses Newt Gingrich Of Racially Charged Use Of The Name ‘Juan’

And he'll ignore his own panels recomendations, again

All of a sudden, it ain't cool....

Rats.

Hi , we are from the Government….

Not to be redundant...

It's the traveling Keithburys

Duke Tumatoe

POST 6000

Hard Barney Alert

Whistle your own tune here