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October 31, 2007
For The Farterland!
Maybe he powered the Hindenburg
It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitler’s curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. As a stressed-out dictator, the agonizing digestive attacks would occur after most meals: Albert Speer recalled that the Führer, ashen-faced, would leap up from the dinner table and disappear to his room.
(h/t to Insta...I think)
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:01 PM | Comments (3)
Not Being an Economist, STILL
...I don't think this is exactly a recessionary number.
U.S. economy grows at 3.9% pace in third quarterThe U.S. economy shook off the worst housing downturn in a generation to grow at a 3.9% annual pace in third quarter, the best performance in six quarters, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday.
Make that 'numberS'.
...Despite rising worries about commodity prices, the GDP price index, the broadest measure of price changes in the economy, rose just 0.8% annualized, matching a nine-year low.
So whence the continual drumbeat of doom?
...A total of 8% of Americans say that the national economy is getting better, 18% say it is staying the same, and 69% say the national economy is getting worse.
I don't get it. More...
...Consumers, whose spending is an important ingredient for the economy’s good health, actually rediscovered their appetite to spend in the third quarter. Their spending rose at a 3 percent pace, a considerable improvement from the second quarter’s rather weak 1.4 percent growth rate.One of the reasons why people are continuing to spend is because the nation’s employment climate has managed to stay fairly sturdy despite all the problems facing the economy. Job creation perked up in September and wages grew solidly. The unemployment rate crept up to 4.7 percent but that is still low by historical standards.
Wage and job gains have served as shock absorbers for some of the negative forces of an ailing housing market, weaker home prices and more restrictive credit.
We're doomed. Has no one asked a Democrat to explain the numbers? I haven't heard anyone yet. They just prattle on and on and the media buys it, if not out and out does their own spinning, while guys like Larry Kudlow are called cranks/Bush apologists. Or worse.
Thanks to this, Charlie Rangel will get handed the chance to screw Joe Taxpayer in a year and won't, as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman says,
"....even have the goddam common courtesy to give him a reach-around."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:43 AM | Comments (4)
The MOST WONDERFUL Day of the Year
...is here!
_____goateestyle.jpg)
Have a GREAT one!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:32 AM | Comments (3)
October 30, 2007
For Marines
...one of Charlie Rangel's concerns 5 years ago...
...Service in our nation's armed forces is no longer a common experience. A disproportionate number of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent.
...haven't proved to be true. In fact, quite the opposite.
Marines Begin to Reverse Sharp Drop in Black RecruitsThe proportion of Marine Corp recruits who are African American jumped by 40 percent over the last 12 months, halting a seven-year slide that has worried service leaders.
A 'SEVEN-year' slide ~ that predates 9/11 if my math is correct. The astonishing thing are the casualty figures in the article...
...Of 969 Marines who have died in Iraq, 39 were African American and 139 Hispanic. Hispanics comprise 18 percent of enlisted Marines today up from 15 percent when the Iraq war began.
Wow.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:24 AM | Comments (3)
Schwinn???
I thought you said schwing
A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.Robert Stewart was discovered in his room by two cleaners at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr, south west Scotland, in October last year.
On Wednesday Mr Stewart admitted to sexual breach of the peace in Ayr Sheriff Court, where depute fiscal Gail Davidson described how he had been found by the hostel workers.
No way.
Way.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:59 AM | Comments (6)
October 29, 2007
Funny, I Thought He* Drove...
a Subaru
Police in Zululand say they seized two cows and two goats found squashed into the back of a tiny Fiat Uno....Police chased one overloaded Fiat Uno into the night, after receiving a tip-off at around 0300.
The driver abandoned the car after he realised he was being followed and ran off into the bushes.
All the seats except the driver's had been taken out and the cows and goats loaded in their place
Looks like He* had to cancel a party a few weeks ago, too
The authorities say in another instance the rustlers managed to cram two cows and seven goats into a Toyota Tazz before being pulled over.
These poor creatures who escaped His* clutches will get the help they need
Police said they hoped these animals would be given a trauma debriefing - but did not elaborate on what that would entail.
Oh, I'd guess a barbecue will be involved.
*The name has been left out to protect our Dear Friend.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:06 PM | Comments (6)
Good! This Drudge Headline...
Forecasters Blow It, Again: '07 Hurricane season may rank as most 'inactive' in 30 years......is okay by me in WHAT it says, just not HOW it says it. I want Dr. Grey and all the weather guys doing their damndest based on what their knowledge and the weather patterns are telling them. If it turns out to be too much, who cares? We are at least prepared for if it turns out to be right..or worse. Woe unto us if they get cautious and second-guess themselves, giving us a false sense of safety. People will always do a bit less than is called for to prepare ~ it's human nature.
Addendum: If, for two years in a row now, the very BEST that climatology has to offer ~ from universities and research centers to government entities with their satellites and reams of data gathering ~ have significantly misread the auguries and Delphi-like, issued predictions of coming disaster that were nowhere near the eventual outcome (in otherwords: BLEW IT), how ~ HOW ~ using those same technologies, observations and data streams ~ do the Global Warming necromancies rise to the level of INFALLIBILITY for our future? If it's green in GREENland again, how can you tell it wasn't meant to be?
You're damn right we're the Anti-Al Gore blog. Because he can't answer that question.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:44 AM | Comments (7)
Maybe These Guys Haven't Got the Message Yet
“Young people now have a lot of possibilities for the future.”ACK!! No, No , NO! It's doom, we' re DOOMED DOOMED doomdedy doomdoomdoomed!!! More evidence of the apolcalypse...
Its four oldest trees — in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 — are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at their tops, as if someone had glued on fresh needles.“The old ones, they’re having a second youth,” said Mr. Bjerge, 78, who has watched the forest, called Qanasiassat, come to life, in fits and starts, since planting most of the trees in it 50 years ago. He beamed like a proud grandson. “They’re growing again.”
Talk about a mixed frickin' message... As for 'Greenland' just being real estate hype...
...Greenland, a self-governing province of Denmark, was settled by the pugilistic Viking Erik the Red in the 10th century, after his murderous ways got him ejected from Iceland. Legend has it that he called it Greenland as a way to entice others to join him, and, in fact, it was.It was relatively green then, with forests and fertile soil, and the Vikings grew crops and raised sheep for hundreds of years.
Until frozen over during the Little Ice Age, which incoveniently for the farmers, came out of nowhere. Got damn cold. I love how they say they're growing AGAIN. Things have to have been green and hospitable ONCE for them to do it AGAIN, n'est pas? And the Greenlanders they talk to are positively giddy about turning the southern part of the island into a self sustaining agri-belt.
Al Gore may be having a cow about glaciers but in Narsarsauq they're on the phone ordering from the Burpee catalogue. "Shit howdy! FRESH beefsteaks next year!"
The one thing that's bugging me and needs further explanation is polar bears. Assuming that the pack ice retreated the same way it has now when Greenland turned...um...green, WHAT did the polar bears do? I mean there HAD to have been polar bears lumbering around, stealing sheep or something. They adapted then, right?
Common sense ~ they HAD to have or there wouldn't be any here now. We'd be digging their frozen, partialy thawed, retch inducing corpses out of permafrost otherwise: fodder for Discovery Channel's "Raise the Frozen Carcass ~ Look at Those Tiny Gonads (the technical term)" series. Somebody needs to ask one what he remembers. I'll let Bingley do that ~ he's the people person out of the three of us.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM | Comments (2)
No "Blood For Oil"...
But what about "Blood for Eleanor"? Read the remarkable story of the Marine Crusader refers to below, Mitchell Paige.
Semper Fi, Marine.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:58 AM | Comments (1)
GI Joe, a real world hero?
Posted by Crusader at 06:33 AM | Comments (5)
October 28, 2007
I Just flew In From Brazil
...and boy are my arms tired.
So I'm fixing up a nice steak and some Bingley Rabe™.
Oh, and drinking a bottle of this
Guaranteed jet-lag cure.
In case you're wondering, there's plenty of coffee in Brazil
and jaboticabas are the weirdest damn trees, period
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:28 PM | Comments (3)
"No WAY!!!"
Way.
|
If something done two times is 'twice', what's it called when it's done FIFTEEN?
SI says it's a "Lateralapalooza", whatever the technical term turns out to be. I'd agree.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:16 PM | Comments (6)
October 26, 2007
"To Kill a Mockingbird"
UPDATE: I am gobschmacked. It is local BLACK leaders who want the word replaced!!
Can you believe it? If ever there was a paean to human decency, it's this play.
There is ignorance. And there is IGNORANCE.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:00 PM | Comments (3)
Probably Not...
"I don't know if we can really understand their experience by wearing the hijab just one day," she said.LGF reports that, in an apparent attempt to bring the everyday life of a Muslim woman to some fragile minded college co-eds, they've scheduled a day of dress-up. Obviously, while it's difficult to replicate the REAL attitudes of the predominant Islamic world, I have a few easy recommendations that require little in the way of props or expensive overhead.
1) ROCKS: Cheap and easy to fling. The discriminating stoner (leaving out the toking variety) would know exactly which shape goes the furthest or makes the most satisfying thump or crunch or crack on contact. Now, you ARE allowed to grovel on the ground and attempt to cover yourself with however much your hands will shield, but it's gonna be a mess eventually, especially if there are lots of male attendees.
2) FLEXIBLE LARGE BLACK HEFTY BAG: Why stop at hajib when you can have the whole burqua burqua thing going on for mere pennies. Slice a couple openings for peepholes and you're on your way to burqua babe-dom. I believe these also come with a...
3) HEFTY ULTRA FLEX DRAWSTRING: ...saving time and money when your male relatives go on a mercy killing rampage because your brother boinked the neighbor's goat/daughter and ~ good old Islam ~ SOMEBODY'S gotta pay for that shit. If they slice you into little pieces, you're already in the bag. If they've only got enough time to choke the life out of you, they can use the drawstring, keeping with the 'easy clean-up' theme because...? You guessed it. You're already in the bag.
4) DULCET TONED HOLY MAN: These are available online by the bushel load.
You can get tapes of ugly, rotted toothed clergy saying almost anything you heart desires ~ from calling you 'cat meat' (does not include the 'P' word) to railing against Israel to explaining the mundane regulations surrounding WHUDU. Lotsa choices, lotsa imams. Start slowly, because if you get the one who's into stoning, lashes and beheadings right off, you don't leave yourself much chance to further your knowledge.
And you've only got a day.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:44 PM | Comments (3)
Anything I Can Do
...to support the global economy. If it means supporting our southern neighbors, so be it.
Vina Concha y Toro S.A. VCO, Chile's largest producer and exporter of premium wines, reports results for the third quarter 2007, ended September 30.Net income for the quarter increased 96.1%...
Of course, it doesn't hurt when a 1.5L bottle is $6.50. Then there's a 10% case discount making the Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 85/15 bottle an VERY affordable $5.85 each, not to mention no sales tax at the base package store. And the icing on the cake?
It's a damn fine slurp.
Free trade isn't free, but it's sometimes affordable.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:00 PM
October 25, 2007
There Are Words in This Life That Have a Visceral Thrust
Words that, in the proper context and the proper place, can open eyes and touch lives. Are meant to. Vile epithets meant to teach a moral lesson that transcends the time frame of the work it appears in. So what happens when political correctness tries to smother an American classic? When political correctness tries to tidy up the ugly sentiments expressed so eloquently in order to move hearts and right wrongs ~ to stare hatred and ignorance in the face?
Well, it becomes "To Kill a Mockingbird"...without 'nigger'.
Controversy Over Actual Words In " To Kill A Mockingbird"...It's a story about racial injustice during the great depression.
In the story, the "N" word is often used describing African Americans.
School leaders feel the message of the story is the same without using the "N" word.
A pivotal moment from the play...
Scout: Atticus, do you defend niggers?
Atticus Finch: [startled] Don't say 'nigger,' Scout.
Scout: I didn't say it... Cecil Jacobs did; that's why I had to fight him.
Atticus Finch: [sternly] Scout, I don't want you fightin'!
Scout: I had to, Atticus, he...
Atticus Finch: I don't care what the reasons are: I forbid you to fight...
Atticus Finch: There are some things that you're not old enough to understand just yet. There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man.
Scout: If you shouldn't be defending him, then why are you doing it?
Atticus Finch: For a number of reasons. The main one is that if I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again.
[he puts his arm around her]
Atticus Finch: You're gonna hear some ugly talk about this in school. But I want you to promise me one thing: That you won't get into fights over it, no matter what they say to you.
...loses it's punch at the very beginning. There's no need for Atticus to display revulsion when the substitute vile word pops out of Scout's mouth, nor any need to sternly correct her. So why waste his breath on the rest?
Or Bob Ewell's twisted visage ~ his malicious maw saying that word over and over, flung like the filthy spittle that eventually finds its way to Atticus' cheek. Use the substitute word and...the audience wonders what all the fuss about. Ewell's innate, monstrous inhumanity ~ the tangible baseness of his character ~ is stunted. As written, no one wants to be Bob Ewell! No one leaving the theater wants to be seen as a Bob Ewell. That's the power of Harper Lee's writing. But Bob Ewell with her words tidied up for modern, delicate ears?
He's just another cranky guy in overalls.
Who spits.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:10 PM | Comments (7)
I Cannot Confirm the Existence of Such a Contest
...but I can sure agree with the expressed sentiment.
The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year’s term: Political Correctness.
“Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end”.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:30 PM | Comments (2)
"I'm Certain That They Were Just Taking Food and Water..."
"...that regular Americans just would not consume."Touché!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:51 PM | Comments (1)
Someone Found Us Whilst Researching This Most Foul of Manufactured Substances
spoiled miracle whip...and it got me to wondering.
How would you know?
I mean, it already stinks and tastes like sh*t.
I guess if it starts to eat through yer Cracker, there's cause fer some concern...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:36 PM | Comments (2)
October 24, 2007
Gnashing My Teeth
Insta linked to this and comments hadn't really been completely partisan hack-ups. Then I read Bill Bradley's comment:
Bill Bradley* : Jeff, or should I say, dorsai, and I do catch the reference, you're trying to flip Katrina into an anti-Democrat thing. As the saying goes, lotsa luck.Obviously the local Democratic leadership was incompetent.
And obviously the Bush Administration screwed up. As my friends who worked in the White House acknowledge.
That's not so hard, is it?
Oh, the other reason why Florida and Mississippi had an easier time of it.
They didn't get the brunt of the hurricane.**
Oct 24, 2007 03:02 PM
I saw red and responded:
"They didn't get the brunt of the hurricane."Are you joking? Surely you are. Have you even driven on US 90? My God, they were blown ~ BLOWN ~ off the map from Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, and Gulfport to Biloxi. Whatever points you try to score on the administration, deserved or otherwise, don't you DARE try to minimalize the enormity of the destruction AT LANDFALL ~ FORTY FEET of WATER ~ that occurred in MS. New Orleans suffered the AFTERMATH ~ the flooding AFTERWARDS.
Once it brushed over the lower tip of Louisiana (maybe you ought to check THOSE pictures, too) Mississippi BORE the BRUNT.
I'm gobschmacked.
Oct 24, 2007 03:13 PM
The esteemed Mr. Bradley deigned to correct me thusly:
Bill Bradley : Well, "tree hugging sister," and isn't this turning into a waste of my time, I've not only seen pictures, I've run video of the hurricane hitting Gulfport, Mississippi right here on NWN.Oct 24, 2007 03:18 PM
I have manners:
tree hugging sister : Well, "Mr. Bradley", I'd then have to suppose our disagreement is semantics: depends on what your definition of "brunt" is. I read it in the M-W sense: the principal force, shock, or stress. In effect the utter destruction wrought by the storm surge/hurricane winds immediately. New Orleans has born the greater cost as an end result, which is, indeed, the second M-W definition."...and isn't this turning into a waste of my time..."
How awful for you. I stand chastised and haven't called anyone a savage or worn my Bush button like some battling partisans above. Apologies.
Oct 24, 2007 03:39 PM
He showed Gulfport tape right there on his bloggedy blog blog, so he KNOWS. Got me there, my churlish chum. Otherwise known as:
"Katrina: I SAW the Movie"
Damn. And ouch!
Bill Bradley : ... Incidentally, "tree hugging sister" with the anti-Al Gore blog, my name is a real name. It doesn't go inside quotation marks.
Apologies again.
tree hugging sister : I was tweaking you. Cheeky, eh? Apologies again. Especially since you haven't "fake name" anyone else you've answered with a nom de plume. I took exception.An ANTI-GORE blog?! Oh good Lord no, we're not as one note as that! Please. We skewer everyone ~ it's a point of honor not to toe a political line. Gore just makes better faces.
Oct 24, 2007 03:59 PM
* yes, THAT Bill Bradley
**emphasis mine
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:22 PM | Comments (4)
Utter Coolness
An HMX bird just went over the house at 200-250 feet.
We waved.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:16 PM | Comments (2)
Squirm, Baby, Squirm!
... The documents appear to expose that once the veracity of Beauchamp's diaries were called into question, and an Army investigation ensued, THE NEW REPUBLIC has failed to publicly account for publishing slanderous falsehoods about the U.S. military in a time of war.
SMOKin'!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:39 PM | Comments (3)
Beside Myself With Glee Upon Reading This
...At one point, Governor Schwarzenegger cut off Shipman's pleas for negative assessments of the effort by grabbing her arm. He bluntly scolded,Oh, yes."Trust me when I tell you, you're looking for a mistake and you won't find it because it's all good news, as much as you maybe hate it, but it's good news."
More, please.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:08 PM | Comments (7)
Are You Allowed to Actually Say 'BREAST'
...to these misogynistic assholes*?
US First Lady Laura Bush arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday, her third stop in a Middle East tour aimed at promoting awareness of breast cancer and restoring Washington's image in the region.Bush's plane landed at an air base north of Kuwait City, where she was received by Education Minister Nuriya al-Sebih, the only female member of the cabinet.
I was thinking how droll the whole campaign is ~ chattering at people who don't allow women to be SEEN (Period!) by doctors and who don't allow women to BE doctors, so maybe something could be seen. Makes diagnosis damn near impossible.
As far as the protests about 'why DOESN'T she SAY something', I think her outfit says it all, frankly.
A vision of American 'BITE me' in an uncovered head, perfect make-up and PANTS suit. You'll remember the notable suck-up who wasn't as courageous.
*Anything who can CHOOSE whether or not to wear a caftan while their women are FORCED to wear a carpet.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:43 AM | Comments (12)
October 23, 2007
The Newsweek Cover
...With ISLAMIC RAGE BOY front and center?
major dad saw him first.
UPDATE: Hmmm...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:55 PM | Comments (10)
Cheesy, I Know, But Hey...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM
500,000 People Now
The pictures on the live feed from the NBC affiliate are mesmerizing, horrifying and spectacular ~ fire showers raining down against a black sky, or molten pillars thrusting skywards against the darkness. Lord.
Plus interviews with evacuees at Qualcomm ~ to a one, calm and saying ~ like the little fellow they just interviewed ~ "Thanks. It's amazing. We have everything we need."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:38 AM | Comments (7)
October 22, 2007
Oh, San Diego...
En fuego. 250,000 evacuated so far and more to come, including my cousins who are trying to figure out how to get to Qualcom Stadium. My aunt in Carlsbad is frantic. Not only is she worried about the kids and their family not being able to make it north, my uncle (Col. USMC/Ret) took off this morning to teach a tax class to Marines getting out at Miramar MCAS. I-15 is closed and I-5 is now a parking lot. Sometimes that Irish stubborness works against you...
Live feed from the NBC affiliate.
It's staggering.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)
October 21, 2007
Whoa...DUDE!
You wanna 'splain this to us?
"nightfly is a clapton album"
Or not, if you feel it's intrusive.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:03 PM | Comments (2)
In Spite of Everything They Threw at Him
...Bobby Jindal is the new governor of Louisiana.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal became the nation's youngest governor and the first nonwhite to hold post in Louisiana since Reconstruction when he carried more than half the vote to defeat 11 opponents.Jindal, the Republican 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, had 53 percent with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. It was more than enough to win Saturday's election outright and avoid a Nov. 17 runoff.
"My mom and dad came to this country in pursuit of the American dream. And guess what happened. They found the American Dream to be alive and well right here in Louisiana," he said to cheers and applause at his victory party.
It looks like he blew the Democrats out of the water. Not surprising considering the filthy stunts they pulled, but heartening considering Louisiana's recent, self induced political travails. I hope he can get something rolling.
Congrats and good luck!
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:05 AM | Comments (9)
October 19, 2007
Pardon My Skepticism and Wet Blanketness a la SkylaEr
...on the eve of their first World Series ever, BUT...I hope they turn this down.
Rockies aim to trademark ‘Rocktober’
Slogan describes club's run to National League Wild Card, World Series
Exposing my ancient roots to derision, I have to protest. In the early/mid '80's, "Rocktober" was a big part of the KROQ/KLOS ~but especially~ KMET ('The MIGHTY Met') SoCal FM experience for us ~ stuck in traffic on the 405 heading home, or jettin' out to Newport Beach or Balboa on the weekends.
It's not a Rockies original. So print your t-shirts, fellas, but leave the memories alone.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:20 PM | Comments (9)
A Programming Note
FOX To Air Controversial Documentary on IslamA controversial film that PBS axed from its documentary series about the post-Sept. 11 world will be broadcast for the first time nationwide this week by the FOX News Channel.
The documentary, originally titled "Islam vs. Islamists," was produced by ABG Films with $675,000 in public funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It was originally slated to run earlier this year as part of PBS' "America at a Crossroads" series.
The film follows moderate Muslims who have challenged the "Islamists" who espouse a more radical view of their religion. The film shows the Islamists advocating, among other things, the imposition of Sharia law on Muslims in the West, the stoning of women who commit adultery, and even violence and terrorism.
"Islam vs. Islamists" will be seen in its entirety as part of an all-new FOX News Channel special. The 90-minute FOX program, called "Inside Islam: Faith vs. Fanatics," includes interviews with "Islam vs. Islamists" director and producer Martyn Burke and executive producer Frank Gaffney. It will be broadcast at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 20.
Might as well, since we've already paid for it.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:10 AM | Comments (5)
Horror In Pakistan
Damn Presbyterians
KARACHI, Pakistan - A top provincial security official said Friday that the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida-linked, pro-Taliban warlord based near the Afghan border.President Gen. Pervez Musharraf labeled the attack part of a "conspiracy against democracy," reaching out to the former prime minister with whom he is trying to forge a pro-U.S., anti-militant alliance.
The "signature at the blast site and the modus operandi" suggested the involvement of militants linked to warlord Baitullah Mehsud and al-Qaida, said Ghulam Muhammad Mohtarem, the head security official in the province where Mehsud is based.
...Officials at six hospitals in Karachi reported 136 dead and around 250 wounded, making it one of the deadliest bombings in Pakistan's history.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:52 AM
October 18, 2007
I've Joined PETA
You too can join here.
You know you want to.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 PM | Comments (4)
'Don't Know Why There's No Sun Up in the Sky...'
I do. Stormy weather. Downtown Bangla-cola.
We've been pretty popular on CNN today, too.
Now, back to poppin' 'ludes.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:07 PM | Comments (2)
Today's Chuckle
Comes to us via our naughty friend Theo Spark
A U.S. Marine squad was marching north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state. The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road. I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable, lowlife scumbag who got what he deserved, and he yelled back that Ted Kennedy is a fat, good-for-nothing, left wing liberal drunk who doesn't know how to drive.Then I said that Osama Bin Ladin dresses and acts like a frigid,mean-spirited lesbian! He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well, so does Hillary Clinton!"
And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:07 AM | Comments (7)
Like the Song Says: "I Want MONEY!"
"OOO! Oo-oo OOO! That's all I want!"
Law firm’s gifts to Democrats bring questions
Despite scandal, top candidates still taking donations from Milberg WeissOver the years, as it became Exhibit A for critics of shareholders’ class-action lawsuits, the law firm of Milberg Weiss often enjoyed the support of Democrats who called the suits an invaluable weapon in the universal conflict between big business and the little guy.
The Democrats, in turn, enjoyed the support of Milberg Weiss and its partners, who together contributed more than $7 million to the party’s candidates since the 1980s.
Last year, the firm was indicted on federal charges of fraud and bribery. But the political partnership has not been entirely severed...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:34 AM | Comments (2)
October 17, 2007
Estonia to Vlad:
Russia on Tuesday accused Estonia, its small Baltic Sea neighbour, of "rudeness" and violation of a United Nations maritime convention by refusing permission for a seabed survey linked to the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe.
Further diplomacy/bear wrastlin' on hold until the Russian president fulfills the remainder of his 9 week commitment to a Poughkeepsie Community Theatre 'Streetcar' revival.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:58 PM | Comments (21)
Getting All Prickly Over a Little
...Tong.
A junior trader suing one of the world's biggest hedge funds, claiming a boss forced him to take female hormones, also says he was the victim of a sexual assault at work, sources told The Post.Andrew Tong has produced "scientific evidence to corroborate the traumatic events that form the basis of his claims" against SAC Capital Management, said his lawyer, Gerry Filippatos.
(WHAT management?!?! I'm dying here...)
Hormone replacement therapy causes more kinds of trouble...
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:38 PM
I Don't Know That I'd Be So Quick to Action
...in poison dart land.
Amazon: Activists Surrounded by LoggersHundreds of loggers and angry residents have surrounded eight Greenpeace members who tried to leave an Amazon town with a scorched tree trunk for an exhibit on global warming, the environmental group said Wednesday.
The activists are holed up in the makeshift headquarters of the federal environmental agency in the town of Castelo dos Sonhos, Greenpeace campaigner Andre Muggiati said.
"They are still surrounded and the situation is tense,"he said by telephone.
It's like messin' with Sasquatch. You don't do it.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:28 PM | Comments (2)
October 16, 2007
Don't Mess With Hill...
Ayatollah you so
Hillary Clinton today moved to secure her position as the most hawkish Democrat in the 2008 presidential race, saying she would consider the use of force to compel Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.In an article for Foreign Affairs magazine intended as a blueprint for the foreign policy of a future Clinton White House, the Democratic frontrunner argues that Iran poses a long term strategic challenge to American and its allies, and that it must not be permitted to build or acquire nuclear weapons.
..."True statesmanship requires that we engage with our adversaries, not for the sake of talking but because robust diplomacy is a prerequisite to achieving our aims."
She says she would even consider offering incentives to Iran in return for a pledge to disarm. However, she sets out a series of stringent conditions that are virtually identical to current White House policy.
Here's my "incentive": if you build centrifuges we will blow them up.
Hill has always been the most hawkish of the Dems; her domestic agenda will be horrible but she's the only one of them that I think I could trust to defend us. She's much more decisive than Bill ever could be.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:59 AM | Comments (6)
October 14, 2007
Peace
...be with you.
...And leave us remember three statements our Nobel Prize winning former Vice President-cum-almost-President Al Gore once said after shaking hands and shaking the trees at a Buddhist temple fund-raiser: 1) It wasn't a fund-raiser, it was a "community outreach event." 2) It wasn't a fund-raiser, it was just "finance-related." 3) It wasn't a fund-raiser, it was a "donor-maintenance meeting."
I'd forgotten what a prize Al...
...really is.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:49 PM | Comments (2)
Oh Man
Damn. Damn. Chris Muir lost his sister Friday ~ to colon cancer, if I can read her blog correctly through the tears. It hits home in a peculiar way when you see your birth year on a memorial page, especially when the girl at the keyboard looks so vital. So alive. Bingley and I lost a vibrant, feisty, IRISHY aunt to colon cancer. Tore us up. And she had been the fruit/vegetable/athletic one of all the 6 siblings. It's a scourge. An almost completely preventable scourge. And I don't think we start checking for it soon enough.
Stephen Green asks that we send love and, if I could figure out how, I would. If someone has an email for Chris, let us know, eh?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:54 PM | Comments (1)
Oh, Fer Chrissakes
Take a frickin' picture, jackass.
Adlee Bruner’s fishing story is about the big one that didn’t get away.Bruner and five friends headed out Saturday morning on a charter boat, hoping to catch some grouper to enter in the annual Destin Fishing Rodeo.
Instead, Bruner landed a gargantuan 844.4-pound mako shark, setting a new record for the decades-old tournament.
The money quote...
...“Ninety-nine percent of the time we catch sharks and let them go. (But) it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Blech. It's easy to be a catch and release afficianado. Until the BIG one...the schmaybe once in every twentieth person's lifetime... comes along, which SHOULD leave one in a moral quandary. ('Should' being the operative word.)
Thank goodness he got his trophy so no one else would have to wrestle with the choice.
But seein' as how old shark was 844.4 pounds...maybe someone else had made a different decision...a coupla hundred pounds...and decades ago.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:41 PM | Comments (4)
October 13, 2007
How Awful to Be Hounded...Have Your World Upset
...by an 'unfounded claim'.
A former Duke University men’s lacrosse coach has sued the university after resigning earlier this year under the pressure of allegations that three of his players raped a stripper, school officials said Friday.Mike Pressler’s lawsuit apparently stems from a financial settlement the school reached earlier this year with Pressler, although school officials did not give details.
“Mr. Pressler, aided by his attorney, reached a fair and final financial agreement with Duke University in the spring of 2007,” Pamela Bernard, Duke’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. “We are disappointed that he is now trying to undo that agreement with an unfounded claim against Duke."
Ah. Irony so dee-licious, I could eat a bowl full.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:19 AM | Comments (4)
October 12, 2007
That SUCKING Sound You Hear
...is the A[ss- kissing] P[ornographers] workin' Gorezilla over tag-team fashion.
Nobel Vindication for Gore, ScientistsFor years, former Vice President Al Gore and a host of climate scientists were belittled and, worst of all, ignored for their message about how dire global warming is.
... Gore, who learned of his award from watching the live TV announcement—hearing his name amid the Norwegian—was not celebratory Friday. His tone was somber. He spoke beside his wife, Tipper, and four Stanford University climate scientists who were co-authors of the international climate report. Outside the building, schoolchildren held a sign saying, "Thank you Al."
For years, there was little thanks.
Pity the poor pudgiferous prophet ~ crying in the wilderness, naked and mewling for succor.
Cry me a wet hankie. Why do I ALWAYS find this revolting drivel right before dinner?
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:35 PM | Comments (6)
The Marines Want to Take Over the Afghanistan Show
Marines Press to Remove Their Forces From IraqLetting a MAGTF do it's thing would be an interesting demonstration of what they're designed to do to begin with. For those unfamiliar with the Marine Corps air/ground doctrine, it is a mighty thing.The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send Marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials.
The idea by the Marine Corps commandant would effectively leave the Iraq war in the hands of the Army while giving the Marines a prominent new role in Afghanistan, under overall NATO command.
The Marine Air Ground Task Force is the Marine Corps’ principle organization for conducting missions across the spectrum of military operations. MAGTFs provide combatant commanders or joint task force commanders with scalable, versatile expeditionary forces able to respond to a broad range of crisis and conflict situations. They are balanced, combined-arms force packages containing organic command, ground, aviation, and sustainment elements.A single commander leads and co-ordinates this combined-arms team from peacetime training through deployment. MAGTF teams live and train together,further increasing their cohesion and fighting power.
Marines bring EVERYTHING they need to operate with them, as well as the supplies to keep going. Marine Air is already in place and operating when the ground pounders call a strike in.
I was heartened by this paragraph...
...It is not clear whether the Army would support the idea. But some officials sympathetic to the Army said that such a realignment would help ease some pressure on the Army, by allowing it to shift forces from Afghanistan into Iraq, and by simplifying planning for future troop rotations.
...because of a disturbing policy that has kept me and major dad pissed off beyond all reckoning. Something we've spoken personally to outraged parents about. And we've yet to see anyone address it or write about it. Watching the Honor Rolls on news programs (as it does on The News Hour on PBS) that run when they've pictures and names of the fallen, you may have noticed the odd E-1 to E-3/4 Navy or Air Force casualty. One would normally think 'Dang! This isn't a naval war! Must be a corpsman or something.' But it's not.
It's some junior enlisted Navy or Air Force reservist who's been called up...to fill Army billets on convoys, security duties, in supply...whatever hole the Army can plug an untrained body into. And they have minimal combat training.
And we think that's wrong.
As is what is happening within reserve units who finally get home...
Army Denies Guard Members Education BenefitsMore than 1,000 members of the Minnesota National Guard who returned from Iraq this summer have been denied full education benefits under the GI Bill.
All the soldiers served nearly two years in Iraq, but half were told they served only 729 days, one day short of qualifying for full education benefits.
That would be a unit with a happy taste in its mouth, I'd say.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:37 PM | Comments (4)
A Little Unintended Hilarity in Today's Dreary Wal-Mart Line
The bigger calenders speak for their licentious selves...
The smaller desktops scattered above them?
The spiral bound version of this...
Praying for the souls of oglers? Praying for deliverance?
Or praying for the delivery of something worth ogling?
I report, you decide.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:14 PM | Comments (4)
The Nobel Peace Prize To Gore
Oh Jimminny H Christmas on a pogo stick, what has he actually done to deserve this?
(CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming."An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary featuring Al Gore, won two Academy Awards this year.
Gore said he was "deeply honored," adding that "the climate crisis is not a political issue it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," according to a written statement.
The former vice president said he would donate his half of the $1.5 million prize to The Alliance for Climate Protection, a U.S. organization founded by Gore that aims to persuade people to cut emissions and reduce global warming.
During its announcement, the Nobel committee cited the winners "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
As my Bride and I were discussing last night, the US Military and specifically the task force headed by the USS Abraham Lincoln have done a hell of a lot more to provide peace and humanitarian assistance in a real way to impoverished people than Globe-Tromping Gorezilla and his "Cannes-Do" lifestyle ever has.
This award has completed its slide into total irrelevance and political feel-goodery. It is a blatant attempt to influence the next US election cycle. Luckily, the good people of the United States are far more interested in the Britney Spears than they are Nobel laureates.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 AM | Comments (16)
October 11, 2007
If You Read One Thing Today
Make it this. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is someone we need to listen to.
Thanks to Hot Air.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:33 PM | Comments (2)
October 09, 2007
"Clarence Thomas Has a Right to Be Angry"
Many Americans have a blind spot when it comes to black conservatives. They don't have the foggiest idea what makes these people tick.And they blew their chance to learn more during the October 1991 confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Instead, there were those who tried to destroy someone who dared to think for himself.
... As Thomas recalls in his book, he felt compelled in 1986 to take issue with an article by the journalist Hodding Carter that accused President Reagan of reviving racism in America. Carter responded by comparing Thomas, a Southerner, to "those chicken-eating preachers who gladly parroted the segregationists line in exchange for a few crumbs from the white man's table" and said Thomas was "one of the few left in captivity."
Thomas correctly described that language as "nakedly racist." It was also awfully presumptuous for a white man to lecture a black man about racism, just because one is a liberal and the other a conservative. And yet, Thomas laments, not a single civil rights leader rose to say anything about it.
Whew. I'll bet he's getting some letters.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:16 PM | Comments (2)
The Peril Of The Cascade Consensus
A very surprising article in today's Pravda on the way herd mentality and public fear of rebuke, and frankly very sloppy and lazy 'research', led to widely praised "consensus" that was, well, wrong
In 1988, the surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, proclaimed ice cream to a be public-health menace right up there with cigarettes. Alluding to his office’s famous 1964 report on the perils of smoking, Dr. Koop announced that the American diet was a problem of “comparable” magnitude, chiefly because of the high-fat foods that were causing coronary heart disease and other deadly ailments.He introduced his report with these words: “The depth of the science base underlying its findings is even more impressive than that for tobacco and health in 1964.”
That was a ludicrous statement, as Gary Taubes demonstrates in his new book meticulously debunking diet myths, “Good Calories, Bad Calories” (Knopf, 2007). The notion that fatty foods shorten your life began as a hypothesis based on dubious assumptions and data; when scientists tried to confirm it they failed repeatedly. The evidence against Häagen-Dazs was nothing like the evidence against Marlboros.
The article describes quite clearly how this came to be, and how the 'researchers' all either relied on one flawed report or simply caved in to peer/media pressure.
I found it exceedingly interesting that the author never even hints at the 800 pound Gorezilla in the room, as instructive as this story is relative to the current Global Warming climate.
(h/t Insta)
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:18 AM | Comments (2)
Today Is...
If you know any Bolivians buy them lunch today, and thank them.
(thanks to Val, FFOT God)
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:20 AM
Dear Vicente
I've got one question for you: is it racist to lock your house?
NEW YORK - Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Monday that the United States is letting racism dictate its policies, especially when it comes to immigration."The xenophobics, the racists, those who feel they are a superior race ... they are deciding the future of this nation," he said, without naming names, in an interview with The Associated Press.
..."To be so repressive isn't democractic or free ... to be putting up fences, chasing Mexicans, that isn't right," Fox said. "The U.S. needs better answers than repression, weapons and violence."
I'm assuming that Vincente, as well as all the other Open Borderistas don't lock their houses, right? I mean, how could they be so oppressive and discriminatory as to exclude anyone from their living room who wants to walk in, right?
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:33 AM | Comments (4)
October 08, 2007
After All These Years, When I See Him Kick That Leg Behind His Head...
...in those tights...I still just melt. GAH-RROOWWLLLLLL.
That is all.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:04 PM | Comments (4)
Chill Out
I love a logical, calm discussion.
All eyes are on Greenland's melting glaciers as alarm about global warming spreads. This year, delegations of U.S. and European politicians have made pilgrimages to the fastest-moving glacier at Ilulissat, where they declare that they see climate change unfolding before their eyes.Curiously, something that's rarely mentioned is that temperatures in Greenland were higher in 1941 than they are today. Or that melt rates around Ilulissat were faster in the early part of the past century, according to a new study. And while the delegations first fly into Kangerlussuaq, about 100 miles to the south, they all change planes to go straight to Ilulissat -- perhaps because the Kangerlussuaq glacier is inconveniently growing.
A Swill salute to Powerline.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 AM | Comments (7)
They Said We'd Become A Theocracy If Bush Were Re-Elected
And by god they were right!
During the nearly two hour service that featured a rock band and hip-hop dancers, Obama shared the floor with the church's pastor, Ron Carpenter. The senator from Illinois asked the multiracial crowd of nearly 4,000 people to keep him and his family in their prayers, and said he hoped to be "an instrument of God.""Sometimes this is a difficult road being in politics," Obama said. "Sometimes you can become fearful, sometimes you can become vain, sometimes you can seek power just for power's sake instead of because you want to do service to God. I just want all of you to pray that I can be an instrument of God in the same way that Pastor Ron and all of you are instruments of God."
He finished his brief remarks by saying, "We're going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth."
Now, imagine the hue and cry if Chimpy McVangelist had said these things.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:11 AM | Comments (3)
October 07, 2007
This Is Your Monet
This is your Monet on drunks...
Museum intruders damage Monet painting
Drunken vandals punch hole in ‘Le Pont d’Argenteuil’Intruders, apparently drunk, broke into the Orsay Museum, getting in by a back door, and punched a hole in a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, "Le Pont d'Argenteuil."
If I'm underwriting the insurance policies for the Orsay's priceless masterpieces, I think I'm now kinda curious exactly what their 'security' safeguards are. Especially as it seems any drunk staggering along from a street fair can wander in if they luck into the right door.
...The intruders tried to force open other doors before succeeding at a back door, "even though it had big bolts," she said. The painting hung on the ground floor with other Impressionist masterpieces.
Ooooo! BIG bolts.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:46 PM | Comments (2)
October 05, 2007
If It Pains You to Remember...
...the way we were...
Tryphorgetin
Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:05 PM | Comments (8)
This Is Your Head
This is your head on potatoes
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Customs officers discovered nearly 10.5 ounces of ecstasy tablets hidden inside a Mr. Potato Head toy sent to Australia from Ireland, the agency said Thursday.
Upon opening the parcel, the officers were greeted with the smiling face of the popular children's toy, which features a potato-like head and removable facial features. But when they removed a panel from the back of the toy, the officers found 10.34 ounces of ecstasy in a plastic bag.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:41 AM | Comments (6)
Oh Goody
The bird flu is mutating
NEW YORK - The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday.The changes are worrying, said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," said Kawaoka, who led the study.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:08 AM | Comments (5)
October 04, 2007
Wow.
I mean, who knew?
A daring ambush of bombs and gunfire left Poland's ambassador pinned down in a burning vehicle today before being pulled to safety and airlifted in a rescue mission by the embattled security firm Blackwater USA. At least three people were killed, including a Polish bodyguard.The attack — apparently well planned in one of Baghdad's most secure neighborhoods — raised questions about whether it sought to punish Poland for its contributions to the U.S.-led military force in Iraq. But Poland's prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said his nation would not retreat "in the face of terrorists."
...Poland, a staunch U.S. ally, contributed combat troops to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has since led a multinational division south of Baghdad. About 900 Polish troops remain in the country training Iraqi personnel; 21 Poles have died during the conflict.
Bravo, Poland. And we thank you.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:15 AM | Comments (3)
This Is Where It Gets Ridiculous
Halloween ISN'T religious, unless you're...well...into Samhain rituals. That would be about.0000002 percent of the population.
Parents in Oak Lawn sounded off Tuesday night about what they see as an assault on traditional American celebrations. At issue is whether Halloween and Christmas celebrations are insensitive to school children who are Muslim.
Ask any fundamentalist Christian in our redneck o' the woods~ they lose their minds over it EVERY frickin' year, trying to equate it to devil worship, with which it has JACK (o-lantern) to do. And why they write pitiful, bombastic bullsh*t letters to our local rag. Screeching screeds about having to explain these horrible, terrifying decorations that heathen merchants put out earlier every year to their frightened/confused/under assault from demon forces young-uns. ("Mommy!!! It's a pumpkin?!? What would Jesus DO...?!?!?!?" See how stupid it sounds?) I guess maybe it's too cold to stand outside McGuire's waving bibles and shrieking threats about hell, so they turn to tamer assaults. Which is ALSO why they get shot down time after time. Halloween's secular, it's FUN, it's boatloads of scary make believe. It's...
The MOST WONDERFUL Time of the Year!!
Fight about Christmas if you have to have a religious throwdown ~ it, at least, has those connotations. But be forewarned. Much to the dismay of traditionalists everywhere, Christmas has also become a day, a SEASON, for the masses, however many fights rage over keeping the 'reason for the season'. In my humble, tree worshipping view, if ever Christ's vision was fully realized, it's by the arbitrarily selected December 25th. How we spend the weeks surrounding it, how we treat our fellow man during it, how we feel during the close of autumn and in the sparkling birth of winter. We feel good. We feel disposed to kindness and bon homie, be we black, orange, green, white, purple, Jew, Baptist, Catholic, agnostic, Druid or whatever, and wherever our origins If we're here, we feel good. 'Can't help yourself' feel good. I don't see that same sense of inclusion permeate the very air at any other time of year, in any other religion or any other celebration.
We feel good. When Ramadan, Eid or insert-Islamic-ritual-of-your-choice has that same effect on EVERYone, we'll discuss it. So far I haven't seen any evidence they want to share the love.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (4)
Blair's Law In Action Yet Again
Yes, I'm talking about Tim's brilliant universal rule: "the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force."
Here's the latest proof of it
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk. ADVERTISEMENTTired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.
That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.
...Harry Watson, director of the Center For the Study of the American South and a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it was a surprise to see The Middlebury Institute conferring with the League of the South, "an organization that's associated with a cause that many of us associate with the preservation of slavery."
He said the unlikely partnering "represents the far left and far right of American politics coming together."
If this doesn't get Tim a Nobel nomination...
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:51 AM | Comments (1)
October 03, 2007
More on everyday life in Zimbabwe.......
From Cathy Buckle's blog, how would you like this plumbing bill?
A geyser in my roof burst this week and when the plumbers got it out the original price was hand written in marker pen on the side of the tank alongside a dated sticker from the shop where it had been purchased. The date stamp was from a local hardware store and was machine printed: "02. 2000" was still legible. The price, written in clear red letters was one thousand, nine hundred and eighty five dollars. The plumbers gave me a quote to repair the geyser by welding the numerous leaking joints, flushing the sludge which had gathered (thanks to our filthy and very intermittent local water supply) and reinstalling the tank. The quote was for twenty six million dollars. To replace the geyser with a new one, the plumbers quote, before labour, was for one hundred and twenty million dollars. In just seven years the price had gone from under two thousand dollars to 120 million dollars - which, in reality is actually 120 billion dollars because 3 zeroes were slashed from our currency a year ago.
At least you can get a plumber, unlike trying to get anything to eat, I suppose.
Posted by Crusader at 04:26 PM | Comments (7)
Hurrah!
They'll be back!
Wallace and Gromit are to return in a half-hour television adventure - the first since 1995's A Close Shave.Aardman Animations has announced that the cheese-loving inventor and his loyal dog will star in Trouble at' Mill - to screen on BBC One in late 2008.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:00 AM
October 02, 2007
Overheard On 'Millionaire'
...just this second (as I was drying my hands to change the channel):
Meredith: How many planets in our solar system have one syllable names?
[Pregnant pause as male contestant ponders]
[ponders ponders ponders]
Contestant: I can only think of two right now. Mars and Venus.
Lucky thing for him the audience was on top of that one.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:44 PM | Comments (9)
A Dust Bowl Hell Hole
...of his own making.
Ringed by a clutch of Zimbabwean soldiers clicking automatic weapons, Charles Lock handed over the keys to his farm and drove off his land for the last time.Scores of white farmers, the last survivors of President Robert Mugabe's land grab, and thousands of their black workers are going through similar agonies.
They now face the final deadline. As from today, any white farmer still on his land will be deemed to be trespassing on state property.
Once the Garden of Africa, all their natural resources are staggering against the ropes now.
.
..The GOZ is attempting to offset this by encouraging investment from China and other Asian nations.
...who aren't as offended by tyrants and dictators, not to mention only being in it for what they can pull OUT of the country, vice build IN it.
...The economic decline has resulted in renewed shortages of food, fuel, electricity, and other critical imports. A once-thriving industrial sector is suffering. Forty-eight formal businesses closed in 2004, bringing the number of closures to 350 since 2002. The official unemployment rate of over 70% excludes hundreds of thousands of former farm workers who were internally displaced by the GOZ's fast-track land reform program.Zimbabwe's once robust social services continue to collapse due to the economic crisis, the AIDS epidemic and the extraordinary brain drain. Over the past five years an estimated 25% of the population has left Zimbabwe in search of economic opportunities and political protection. Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world, with a prevalence rate of 24.6% among the adult population. Life expectancy dropped from 61 years in 1990 to 34 years in 2003; infant mortality is 76 per 1,000 live births; and under-five child mortality is 123 per 1,000 live births.
I'll revisit one of my favorite quotes from "Dark Star Safari":
Even the kindly winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Reverend Desmond Tutu, had said,"The man is bonkers."
Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:16 PM | Comments (3)
Junkmen for Jesus, Cooks for the Koran, Tellers for the Torah?
...Making some provisions for worship, like providing an empty room for Bible study at work, for example, isn’t entirely new, Saunders explains. What’s new, he adds, is the magnitude of worker requests:"Now people are saying I don’t want to do my job because it doesn’t fit in with my faith practice."
So find a job that suits you to begin with. Now there's a concept.
I wonder if an application had boxes that asked, "Do your peculiar religious practices preclude you from performing ANY function within the confines of this company? If you check 'yes', EXPLAIN/CLARIFY. Does it require you have extraordinary access/accomodation to a separate area/unscheduled breaks for purposes of worship during your shift? If you check 'yes', EXPLAIN/CLARIFY", would be legal. I know you can't discriminate on the BASIS of religion, but you sure should be able to call the shots if said religion sweeps its way onto your showroom/retail/production floor and disrupts the whole enterprise. And I believe an employer is entitled to know that there is something said prospective employee believes which will shortly have said employer dealing with chaos, mad customers and talking to the EEOC, while his formerly hardworking regular employees are now pissed off and looking for something for them. (Like belonging to the Church of Nicotiana Virginianus, for instance. That was always the Marine Corps scam for undeserved breaks.)
..."Religions have become more prominent in how they want freedom to be expressed in the workplace, and we have a ‘what’s in it for me’ kind of thing."
If you want to run your little Christian bookstore and play that God AWFUL music, so be it. It's clearly identified as such, any prospective employee has an idea what's required/tolerated and it's also clearly my right not to enter. But if I hire you to work the line at What-a-Burger and it's time for the bacon chicken sandwich promotion, which you then tell me is unclean and you're not touching it or any surface that might have interacted with the pork fat...well.
I think the employee should have the problem.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:30 AM | Comments (3)
Dhimma Bells, Dhimma Bells
It's Dhimmitude time in the city
Oak Lawn Schools May Cancel Holiday Traditions School District To Discuss Possible Cancellation Or Renaming Of Holiday Celebrations(CBS) OAK LAWN, Ill. A southwest suburban school district has taken action, responding to the concerns of a parent who is Arabic.
But now, as CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, other parents are angry that traditional school holidays will be renamed or even eliminated.
"That does not represent all the Muslims, all of the Arabs at that school," said Qais Nofel, the father of a student in Ridgeland School District 122.
There was some heated discussion between parents outside Columbus Manor Elementary School in Oak Lawn on Friday. The thought of no more traditional holiday celebrations has many parents really upset.
For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.
It's not our country any more.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:30 AM | Comments (3)
October 01, 2007
The Perfect Costume to Express Your Non-Dhimmi-ness
Cover all your offensive bases and kill two birds with ONE unclean stone.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:30 PM | Comments (2)
Geesh, Rudy, It's About Time
Look who's going to Philly for some Whiz
WASHINGTON (CNN) – It's almost a necessity for any presidential candidate who swings through Philadelphia — making a stop at one of the city's famous cheesesteak shops.But the landmark Philly restaurant former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani plans to stop at later Monday is also famous for another reason: its controversial 'Please speak English' sign.
Joe Vento, the owner of Geno's Steaks, sparked controversy last year when he put up a sign at his store proclaiming, "This is America. When Ordering Please Speak English."
As always, your Swilling hosts are cutting edge trend mongers.
Ummmmmm, tasty.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:24 PM
Normally I Equate Jim Cramer With O'Reilly
You know ~ the loud, blowhard, run-everybody-over-with-your-mouth type. ("Okay. So the shark bit off your leg and you swam to shore. Then what?")
This time Cramer brought some heat on himself that's completely undeserved, but I sure understand why they're pissed. The truth usually sucks at any given point, but when it's spoken with no apology on national TV? By God, that's more than...the National Association of Realtors should have to take.
Cramer on Homes
Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)
"Pellicula in Interrete Vulgate de Coitu Paridis"
...is probably one entry they could have left out and no one would judge them harshly.
...For those who think Latin means Cicero's orations, caveat emptor. "We're using an ancient language, but we're writing on a computer, not papyrus," says Josh Rocchio, a graduate student and one of the most active editors. "There isn't anything that doesn't belong in Vicipaedia. You can write about Julius Caesar, or you can write about blue cheese."
ALWAYS one of my favorite subjects. The concept is a complete hoot.
Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:04 AM | Comments (3)
I Just Happened To Catch
...the Clarence Thomas on 60 Minutes last night. I thought it was excellent and he came across quite well. The best thing on him I've ever seen.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:40 AM
Speaking Of Nunzilla...
She may have taken her vows with Our Lady of the Blessed Pugilist
A convent in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows, press reports said Sunday.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:29 AM
Step Right Up And Beat The Mets
While this isn't as awful as the Yankees post-season collapse against the Red Sox a few years ago this was much more painful to watch, a month-long choke of epic proportions.
Glavine's 'effort' yesterday summed up the Met's September.
Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:19 AM | Comments (2)