June 24, 2009

"...And I'm Really Having a Beautiful Winter."

Grace under fire personified has left us.

What a magnificent human being she was.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:44 PM | Comments (7)

June 23, 2009

Ed McMahon Has Died

Semper fi and God speed, Colonel.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:25 AM | Comments (7)

DC Metro Crash

Man, how terrible

WASHINGTON - An inbound Metro train smashed into the back of another at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others in Metro's deadliest ever subway accident.

D.C. Fire and EMS says rescue workers located three more bodies in the wreckage late Monday night. All three were declared dead at the scene.

Experts familiar with Metro's operating systems tell The Washington Post operator error and failure of the signal system likely caused the deadly crash.

To prevent trains from colliding, Metro designed a fail-safe computerized system that controls speed and breaking. If trains get too close to each other, the computers are supposed to automatically apply the brakes.

The train just smashed into the rear of the one stopped in front of it.

The operator of the train was killed; I hope she wasn't texting and didn't notice the train stopped ahead.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:52 AM | Comments (1)

June 14, 2009

It's Your Day, You Most Beautiful Thing in the World

Shine.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:24 PM | Comments (1)

June 04, 2009

14 Minutes Of Terror

Oh my gosh, what a nightmare

At 11 p.m. (10 p.m. EDT), pilot Marc Dubois sent a manual signal saying he was flying through an area of "CBs" -- black, electrically charged cumulonimbus clouds that carry violent winds and lightning.

Satellite data show that the thunderheads -- towering up to 50,000 feet -- were sending 100 mph updrafts into the jet's flight path.

"Such an updraft would lead to severe turbulence for any aircraft," AccuWeather said.

"In addition, the storms were towering up to 50,000 feet and would have been producing lightning. The Air France plane would have encountered these stormy conditions, which could have resulted in either some structural failure or electrical failure."

At 11:10 p.m., a cascade of horrific problems began.

Automatic messages relayed by the jetliner indicate the autopilot had disengaged, suggesting Dubois and his two co-pilots were trying to thread their way through the dangerous clouds manually.

A key computer system had switched to alternative power and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged.

An alarm sounded, indicating the deterioration of flight systems.

At 11:13 p.m., more automatic messages reported the failure of systems to monitor air speed, altitude and direction. Control of the main flight computer and wing spoilers also failed.

The last automatic message, at 11:14 p.m., indicated complete electrical failure and a massive loss of cabin pressure -- catastrophic events, indicating that the plane was breaking apart and plunging toward the ocean.

If there's any consolation to be found it's that at that altitude they would have fallen unconscious within 30 seconds or so once the cabin lost pressure.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:52 AM | Comments (9)

June 02, 2009

The Wine Dark Sea

Those poor poor folks

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Search planes scoured the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, looking for the remains of an Air France jetliner that disappeared in a storm with 228 people on board.

The Airbus A330 went missing on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there was little chance of finding any survivors.

France and Brazil sent military aircraft and ships to try to locate wreckage between Brazil and West Africa.

Brazilian carrier TAM said the crew of one of its planes saw "bright spots" on the surface of the ocean. But Brazil's air force said a merchant ship in the area found no signs of burning debris from the Air France jet.

Aside from some automated reports saying there were electrical failures and perhaps one saying there was a loss of pressure, there was nothing.

Horrible.

UPDATE: Some wreckage may have been found

(CNN) -- Wreckage has been found in the Atlantic Ocean that could have come from a missing Air France jet that disappeared Monday with 228 passengers and crew on board, Brazilian aviation officials said Tuesday.
Americans Anne and Michael Harris, who lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were aboard the flight.

Floating objects and seats were found 720 kilometers (447 miles) from the island of Fernando de Noronha, said Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

The search will continue but there is not enough material to officially say this is the wreckage from Flight 447, Maral said.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:02 AM | Comments (9)

May 26, 2009

Al Capone Only Got 11 Years...

Imagine serving 81 years!

Britain's longest living married couple have celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary.

Frank and Anita Milford, who live together in a nursing home in Plymouth, Devon, exchanged vows on 26 May, 1928.

Frank is 101 and Anita will be 101 next month. In February they will break the record to become the longest married couple in Britain.

Congratulations Frank and Anita!

May you have many, many more.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:25 AM | Comments (1)

May 25, 2009

Oh Damn

I cooked 18 lbs of pork butt on Friday night, had a few folks over on Saturday and we had a great time. I had lots of pictures to torment y'all with, but my the batteries on my camera died while I was transferring them over and that little detail erased all the photos. I am not amused.

So I'll leave you with some dog p0rn

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:28 PM | Comments (5)

May 22, 2009

I Need The Weekend

Lots of grilling tonight, more bbq every day following.

Oh, and lots of wine.

What are your plans?

Yeah, it's weak but I am so &*%#$@^ tired of all the sheeeet coming out of our Political Leaders these days that I just want to crawl into a hole and hide.

So I will, for the next three days.

You're welcome to join me.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:54 AM | Comments (21)

May 19, 2009

Sigh

Totally uninspired today, so I will leave you to contemplate the glory that was the Battlecruiser.

Is it the weekend yet?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:00 AM | Comments (2)

May 06, 2009

The Grapes Are A Comin'

Now if we'd only get some sun.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:28 AM | Comments (3)

May 04, 2009

I Can't Get the Freakin' Comment Thing to Post

But I wanted Will to know how very sorry we were.

Good dog, Bob.

Biggest hugs to you both.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:45 PM | Comments (1)

The Blueberries Are A Comin'

The deer can't wait...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:07 AM | Comments (10)

April 25, 2009

Lillies Marlene

Got a special delivery today from Sad Old Goth Nurseries...

Day Lillies!

Thanks Gregor!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:37 PM

April 22, 2009

I Know It's "English"

“At no time, prior to becoming incapacitated, was Serena trapped in her vehicle. She was certainly able to get out of it.

“I am driven to the conclusion that if at any time she had wanted to do so before becoming incapacitated she could have got out of the car and would not have died as a result of the fire.

“I am satisfied the fire was started because of her deliberate actions. But I am far from satisfied that at that point in time it was her clear intention that death would ensue.

“I think it is more likely than not that she failed to understand the peril she was in and the consequences of her actions.”

Really. It is.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:25 AM | Comments (4)

April 20, 2009

Why Is It...

That you can toss and turn all night, unable to sleep, until finally falling sound asleep approximately 3.5 minutes before your alarm goes off?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:09 AM | Comments (9)

April 08, 2009

It Is Currently Snowing In Lower Manhattan

I wants to kill me a certain groundhog...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:34 AM | Comments (7)

April 07, 2009

Talk About Being Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Via our bud Kae meet the Johnston family of Mermaid Beach (I think it's close to Porpoise Spit) after their drive into the hills for some hiking

A GOLD Coast family of four pulled off a miraculous mountainside escape when their vehicle was bombarded by tonnes of boulders during a massive landslide at Springbrook.

Michael and Jodie Johnston of Mermaid Beach were travelling up Springbrook Road in their Ford Territory with their young children, Tiffany, 5, and Lukas, 2, for a Sunday morning hike in the national park about 10am.

That plan took a turn for the worse when dozens of boulders, the largest weighing approximately 8 tonnes, hit the front bonnet of their car, which began sliding down a cliff face.

A rolling stone may gather no moss, but they have been known to collect a few Fords along the way.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:30 AM | Comments (4)

April 06, 2009

We Watched "Marley and Me" Last Night

Of course, the end rips your heart out and we were both in tears ~ mine were noisier. (Okay, the technical term is "blubbering"). Not just for Marley, you understand. But for Pignose and Schmacktion and Budgie...for all our puppies gone to the Rainbow Bridge and for the three we have now who, inevitably, will follow them. Dogs suck that way.

At 5 this morning, as major dad got ready for work, our cooler, less emotional heads could discuss it and I really don't think we liked the movie very much. Not that it wasn't a pleasant enough film exercise, but that ALL the parts of a beloved book ~ the parts that were so memorable and so "labbish" that one could NEVER imagine Marley's story sans them ~ weren't there.

Not one, from the very beginning of the film.

A pleasant enough film. But one that should have been titled:

"40 Year Olds Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anniston Pretend They're Twenty, Cuddle Adorably and Occasionally Yell at a Dog They've Named Marley"

I would have saved myself the $16.95 and the heartache.

If you want our copy, just email me.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:05 AM | Comments (9)

I'm Tired Today

Spent all weekend deleting spam comments...a pox on you bastards!

I also spent a good portion of it planting hostas around the back of the house; after all, I have to give the poor dog something new to pee on...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:42 AM | Comments (3)

April 02, 2009

Proof I Am Going To Burn, Part 2438

I was walking back from a meeting this afternoon when I passed by a Mitzvah Tank parked on Water Stree that looked much like this one

As I smiled and made friendly eye contact with the young Lubavitch fellow he of course eagerly asked "are you Jewish?"

To which I replied "not for over 2000 years!"

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:44 PM | Comments (4)

This is a Tad Misleading

Down on its luck: Florida Lottery mailing out coupons to boost sales

Here's what our economy is coming to: Even the Florida Lottery is handing out coupons.

What the author fails to take into account is that, as of January '09, Powerball came to Florida. Every swinging you-know-what hoping for a big payout is buying THOSE tickets instead of our old Lotto and the state gets only a fraction of the ticket price. Well, DUH, rocket men!

The lottery's a fraud anyway, perpetrated "for the children".

The billboard signs boast, like, "$80 BILLION for education since Christ was a Corporal!" And every dollar for education those tickets bring in REPLACES a dollar alotted for education, which then gets RETURNED to the general fund. The lottery hasn't supplemented JACK ~ it's been a one-for-one replacement scheme, which explains the functional illiterates in our school system and the poor $23 grand a year teachers who have to deal with them ~ while NOW worrying about getting laid off ~ for that princely salary.

Education in Florida, especially our redneck o' the woods, is a disgrace.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:19 AM | Comments (4)

March 24, 2009

You Think You're Living A Cursed Life?

You, my friend, are a rank amateur compared to Tsutomu Yamaguchi

TOKYO — A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certified "hibakusha," or radiation survivor, of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki, but has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well, city officials said.

Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said.

How does one say "Book of Job" in Japanese?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:17 AM | Comments (11)

March 12, 2009

Took A Few Days Off

It was actually rather nice: my Bride went out of town so I played Mr. Mom and I really didn't touch teh internets for about five days. I cooked a lot, baked some bread, drove Daughter all about; hell, I even vacuumed some and scrubbed a toilet (I didn't do any windows, though). And now my Bride has returned so all is right with the world.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:03 AM | Comments (8)

March 09, 2009

Why the "Bernie Madoff's" of the World Will Always Be Warm?

...Helg Sgarbi admitted to meeting BMW heiress Susanne Klatten, 46, at a spa near Innsbruck, Austria, in July 2007 and starting an affair. Using what prosecutors called a well-practiced scam, he told her that he had brought his quadriplegic daughter to the United States and convinced Klatten to give him $9 million to pay for treatment.

Because there's always a plethora of lambs for the fleecing to go along for the ride.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:11 AM | Comments (5)

March 06, 2009

What A Mess

I'm blah and downcast today. The economy is a mess, our "leadership" is thinking only of ramming through their statist agenda, they embarrass all of us by how they treat our closest ally...there's just no good news anywhere, really. So I'm just going to crawl into my cave with a case of wine this weekend.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM | Comments (15)

February 27, 2009

First They Charge You For Your "Carry On"

Now they'll charge you for what you want to off-load

Irish budget airline Ryanair has said it is considering charging passengers for using the toilet while flying.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary told the BBC that the Dublin-based carrier was looking at maybe installing a "coin slot on the toilet door".

Always dumping on the passengers...

Given the amount of liquids consumed on Ryanair flights, which tend to be drunk-a-thons, this is a really really bad idea and will lead to some...messy and rather unpleasant in-flight "incidents."

"Clean up in aisle 6..."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:29 AM | Comments (1)

February 24, 2009

Some Quick Links So You Can Get As Mad As I Am

*Houston considers paying off $3000 on people's credit cards...so they can take on much more debt and buy houses

*AIG. Remember them? The Smartest People Ever gave them $150 Billion of our money...and now AIG will declare a $60 Billion loss and may go bankrupt

*Man is shocked when balloon mortgage payment...balloons. "Victim" may lose cave.

*Professor takes brave, courageous stand as University increases her teaching load 50%...from 2 courses per year to 3.

It's Fat Tuesday, and I am so disgusted by all of this that I am going to give up my liver for Lent, starting tonight.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:58 PM | Comments (8)

February 17, 2009

Chimp Goes Ape

These things ain't pets

(CNN) -- A woman has been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a pet chimpanzee attacked her at a friend's home in Stamford, Connecticut, police said. Travis is shown in 2003, when he escaped and "wreaked havoc" on the streets of Stamford, Connecticut.

Charla Nash, 55, had just arrived at her friend Sandra Herold's house when the chimp, named Travis, jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, causing serious injuries to her face, neck and hands, according to Stamford Police Capt. Rich Conklin, who said the attack was unprovoked.

Herold had called Nash to her house to help get 14-year-old Travis back inside after he used a key to escape.

Wild animals are...wild animals.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:47 AM | Comments (11)

February 14, 2009

They Got America Through The Last Depression

I'm counting on them getting us through the next

I wonder if they can also help me focus the camera...and get the dog off the couch.

I guess I can't expect miracles from Fred and Ginger.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:33 AM | Comments (6)

February 06, 2009

Man Smokes Pot

Gets booted by Tony The Tiger

Earlier Thursday, Kellogg Co. said it will not renew Phelps' advertising contract.

"Michael's most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg," company spokeswoman Susanne Norwitz said. "His contract expires at the end of February, and we have made a decision not to extend his contract."

Norwitz said Kellogg's relationship with Phelps began with the company's support of the U.S. Olympic team. Kellogg did not renew its sponsorship of the team when it expired in December, she said.

Man smokes pot and does cocaine, well he gets elected President.

Such is life in the U S of A these days.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:12 AM | Comments (21)

February 03, 2009

Cromarty Firth, August 22nd, 2006

The wreck of H.M.S. Natal

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:58 PM

January 31, 2009

Philosophical Alaska Photo

Kids grow up so quickly.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:33 PM

January 25, 2009

I've Got Hope And Change Fever!

Well, mostly I've just had the fever. It started, oddly enough, on Tuesday night and sat right at 102 or so all of Weds, Thurs, and Fri until the happy drugs the doctor gave me kicked in. I finally feel halfway normal now and can start weening myself off of the codeine.

Blech.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 04:38 PM | Comments (7)

January 17, 2009

USAir Video

Here's some Coast Guard video from the NY Post. The NY Waterway boat is there in 4 minutes flat from the time the plane lands (if one can say 'lands' when no land was harmed during the filming of this video)

What a fantastic aligning of the planets for this rescue to work.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:23 PM

January 16, 2009

There Isn't Really Much More To Be Said

About the USAir landing in the Hudson yesterday. Simply an amazing, miraculous piece of flying aided by very calm conditions; the slightest wind and he catches a wingtip on the water and she would have cartwheeled...with dramatically different results.

I can think of 155 people who got very very drunk last night.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:09 AM | Comments (8)

December 31, 2008

Merry New Year!

There's plenty, you know!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:39 AM | Comments (13)

December 30, 2008

Brain...Won't...Work

Man, I just can't get going today.

This whole Caroline Kennedy thing is too ludicrous for words...but deliciously enjoyable to watch.

I hope the Israelis squash Hamas into...hummus.

And we are really getting a lot of Eastern European spam comments; all these Cyrillic-typefaced comments that are illegible to ignorant 'Merkuns like moi but I assume say things like "hot borscht babes are waiting to meet you."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:47 AM | Comments (8)

December 26, 2008

It's Fairly Warm Now

But last Saturday it was 20-ish degrees and we had some fresh snow

sigh....

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:16 PM | Comments (4)

December 24, 2008

A Song For Tonight

Recorded February 23rd, 1916 and still wonderful today. Pour yourself a glass of wine, turn off the lights and just listen and relax.

May your lives be filled with Peace and Love and Contentment.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:56 AM | Comments (6)

December 22, 2008

There's Really Nothing Else To Say

I'm very glad that no one was killed in that plane crash in Denver. My god, what a horrifying experience that must have been.

But I have to admit, naughty person that I am, I laughed when I read this

"We were going down the runway and it was just ... It was like we were in the air and then we weren't."

You will never read a finer summation of an aviation accident.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:18 PM | Comments (3)

December 09, 2008

There Is Something Deliciously Ironic...

Daughter had to type a paper tonight arguing that the Industrial Revolution was a Good Thing™.

So naturally the power went out.

So she typed it on a laptop.

By candlelight.

I love this country.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:58 PM | Comments (7)

December 03, 2008

This Explains A Lot

When I was just a wee lad of 2 or so one day my father left a ladder leaning up against the wall in our garage.
So, naturally, I climbed up it.

And leaned back at the top.

And pulled the ladder over.

And rode that sucker all the way as it scribed an arc across the sunlight gleaming through the windows on a glorious Jersey morn.

All the way to the concrete.

Yes, this explains a lot.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:01 PM | Comments (10)

December 02, 2008

Happy Loving Couples Make It Look So Easy

Via Tim, here's a wonderful video of Take Your Wife To Work Day, F1-style

The obvious sweet love and affection they have for each other will keep me smiling all day.

As will the new additions to my Italian vocabulary that she provides.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:29 AM | Comments (6)

November 28, 2008

Why I Love Australia, Part 437

Friends, meet David Boon

Boon achieved much fame and notoriety for consuming 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London before the victorious 1989 Ashes tour that saw Australia regain the trophy after five years of English dominance; the previous record had been held by Rod Marsh, who it is believed consumed 45 cans, although there is conjecture as to whether Marsh actually finished can #45, and some believe his attempt only equalled the record of 44 cans set by Doug Walters. Another passionate report of said record claims Boon finished 54 drinks totalling around 19.5 litres of beverages @ 5% alcohol (per 375ml serve), the majority of which consumed at such an altitude that the effects of the alcohol were doubled. Boon is often jokingly referred to as the "Keg on Legs" not only because of his legendary drinking exploits, but also for his "fireplug" build and stature, and dogged, iconoclastic batting displays.He is a unique interview guest, often giving short, clipped, amiable answers to every question.

As long as the Aussies are with us we can never fail.

Found via this Nanny State article which also contained this gem:

This is, after all, a country whose former prime minister, Robert Hawke, once held the Guinness world record for chugging beer: two and a half pints in 11 seconds.

"This feat was to endear me to some of my fellow Australians more than anything else I ever achieved," Hawke wrote of the 1955 stunt in his autobiography.

Indeed, Sir.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:43 AM | Comments (2)

There Were Only Four People On My Bus To Work This Morning

And one of them was the driver.

Argh...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:23 AM

November 07, 2008

Blech

I'm tired after all this week's stuff.

Now it's time for the important things: I've got a few cooking posts to put up, lots of cooking to do this weekend, lots of mutants to eliminate in Fallout 3, and lots of wine to drink.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:55 AM | Comments (2)

November 06, 2008

Man, I Hate This Time Change

Pitch black when I leave the house in the morning, and pitch black when I get home.

Blech.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:33 AM | Comments (6)

November 05, 2008

A Neat Story

Via Insta, she's got to be one of the last, if not the last, child of a slave still alive

Along a rural highway in central Texas sits a small white house with some cows grazing out back and a wheelchair ramp leading to the front screen door. Inside that house lives Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a slave. No one in her family, least of all Jones, thought she would live long enough to vote for the man who is to become the first black president.

Jones is the living link between the time when black men were owned as property and the time when a black man has been elected president of the United States.

...Her father was Emmanuel Alfred Roberts, who was emancipated in 1865 at the age of 12. He took the name of his last master, a farmer and rancher named Abe Roberts.

He eventually married Moriah Josephine Washington. They farmed on Alum Creek, east of Austin, and had 13 children. Amanda Jones is the sole survivor.

She remembers very little of what her father told her about slavery days.

"When he was a little boy, he herded [the master's] sheep," she says, and he protected them from mountain lions that then prowled the forests of central Texas.

A precious piece of history she is.

God bless her.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:56 AM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2008

Not That I'm Paranoid...

...but sometimes I just get this feeling that someone is watching me.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:15 PM

October 04, 2008

I Could Not Help Myself

I am weak, broken, with no will to resist.

For weeks the sounds have been running through my mind, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't drive them out.

So like a sinner before the gates of heaven I came crawling on back to you...

1977

My god, it's been that long. There was a house not far from us that played this album constantly, exceedingly loudly, with the windows open for, hell, it seemed like a solid 6 months when it first came out.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:29 PM | Comments (8)

September 30, 2008

I'm Too Saddened By This To Comment

Other than to say I Love You Guys.

And have a pint or six in your honor.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:26 AM | Comments (4)

Who Cares?

Is the title of the song quoted below, and while it may sound trite I think it's a good attitude to have: Economic tides ebb and flow; family and friends are the things that matter in life.

Obviously economic discussions dominated the family chats this weekend, so we did what we normally do: we opened up a large bottle of cheap wine. And my Bride put some Fred Astaire on the Hi-Fi. She said that if they could find the joy in life in the midst of that, then we certainly have nothing to really complain about.

Wise words, my friends.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:06 AM | Comments (5)

Let It Rain And Thunder

Let a million firms go under!
I am not concerned with
Stocks and bonds that I've been burned with.

I love you and you love me,
And that's how it will always be.
And nothing else can ever mean a thing.
Who cares what the public chatters?
Love's the only thing that matters!

Happy Birthday, Dear Daughter

("Who Cares" by George and Ira Gershwin)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:19 AM | Comments (1)

September 12, 2008

September 12th, 2008, 5:39 am, Broadway And Pine

Gotham

(special thanks to Tim for posting this for me this morning until I could get home)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:27 PM | Comments (1)

August 25, 2008

North! To A-las-ka! Part 3: Do Juneau The Way To Taku Bay?

So after spending several hours toodling around in Disenchantment Bay in front of the glacier it was time to say "aw reservoir" and start the trip to Juneau, where we were scheduled to dock at 6 am or so.

So my Bride and I sat on our balcony and enjoyed the lovely mountainous scenery as it went by

(Toto, we ain't in Jersey anymore)

when we suddenly noticed a pod of killer whales right in front of us

How insanely cool was that? And how insanely crappy is that photo? All we could see were these fins slicing and Ginsuing through the water, I rush and take 5 or 7 photos and I don't capture squat in any of them.

Now I know how all those crazy old coots at Loch Ness feel: "Really! It was there! Look at the ripples, man...the ripples!"

Anyhoo, it was a formal night on the ship, and I looked positively mahvelous in my tux. After a delicious dinner and perhaps a tad too much wine I hit the sack and conked out, only to be awoken by some rather odd noises outside of the cabin the next morning...

Where the hell did that come from? Juneau! Capital of Alaska, squaged right up against a 3000' foot 'hill'

One of the cool things about Juneau is that, as the old saying goes, "you can't get there from here," for you see there are no roads to Juneau. The only way in is by boat or plane or both

Those seaplanes are zipping about constantly in all of these cities; I assume in the city harbors there's some sort of air traffic control but the number of planes taking off seemingly at random times and in random directions in these harbors reminds one more of folks just running out of a bar and hopping on their horse and galloping off in whatever way appeals at any given moment.

Juneau's not a booming megalopolis by any stretch of the imagination; all of the buildings are both pretty low

(yes, that's our ship the Celebrity Infinity towering over the port area)

and pretty low-key as well. For example, look at this High School building from the 50s

In fact that building is the State Capitol. No tarted up, gilded domed beastie building with naked blind Greek chicks wielding swords and scales adorning the front for Alaska, my friends, no sirree!

One other thing here in insane amounts are jewelry stores. I guess it is to be expected when cruise ships disgorge up to a million passengers over the course of the summer season (and this in a city that only has 30,000 residents) but my gosh the peddling of crap is incessant

First you get assaulted with all this advice on "where to shop" by employees on the ship and then when you get off the hustlers are everywhere. It's really really annoying. I mean, obviously, I took a cruise to Juneau solely to buy charm bracelets and t-shirts.

In point of fact, I came to Juneau to do this

A helicopter ride, gleefully sucking av-gas like a ravenously growing grizzly and spewing out carbon-based waste like, er, well, a ravenously growing grizzly cub, surging higher and higher over the pristine wilderness

searching for the place to land our two helicopters so we can gallivant about. There! The Taku!

Yes, this is the one!

The Taku laughs at Gerbil Warmening and is advancing at a blistering 50 feet per year, pummeling trees in its path

and calving gorgeous blue...river bergs

and upon her we shall soon stand.

But not here

as some of those crevasses fall to a depth of 1000'. That would suck.

A lot.

Luckily, our partner in carbon effrontery has found a perfect spot

and we soon land nearby...wind down the rotors...undo our various belts and safety gizmos...and step out

My eyes tear up at the deliciously tasty irony of taking a helicopter to visit a glacier. If only the Goreacle could see me...he'd be so proud of me following in his carbon footprints

"I hereby claim this land for Pope Prius the Offset"

Parked nearby is the air cavalry

Standing on the glacier it almost seems as if it is alive. It groans. It cracks. It creaks. Fluids run out of one part into another. It releases gas. It's very still and very quiet yet moving, in both the figurative and literal senses. Another one of those amazing places that words fail to describe until you step out on that puppy yourself.

After which words will still fail to describe but you will at least understand what I mean.

Still having lots of refined ANWR Water in our tanks we decided to saddle up once again and see more glaciery goodness

This one is called the "Hole In The Wall" glacier because it spills through that gap in the mountains up top

and tumbles down the steep slope in a crackling splintery cascade of aquamarine chaos

and surrealistic flows

rising higher, back over the Taku, you can see that there is indeed some beautiful orderly pattern as the sections split and bend and get shoved through the valley they are gouging out

as we climb even higher more glaciers come into view

and I swear I hear my Bride start humming "Kashmir"

(even I have to admit the "da-da-DUH, da-da-DUH" beat fits rather well with the sound of the rotors)

whilst below us another glacier tumbles off a cliff

and suddenly there! Nestled between two glaciers and glinting like the spires of Xanadu in the bright August sun lies that playground of the stars, Stalag Camp 17

Sadly our busy social calendar didn't allow us to stop and sample its many charms.

Perhaps next time.

As we head back to Juneau the mountains drop off steeply and the glacial runoff falls in torrents down the hillside

feeding the lakes and streams that are home to the many bear and other such critters that make all these trails

The Juneau Ice Field is really only a few miles from the city and within seconds we're back over the channel with the city in view

We soon land and return to the ship for our mid-afternoon departure and overnight cruise to Ketchikan.

An hour or so later we see a glacier that wouldn't be out of place in Mordor

and a short time after that we pass 15 or so humpback whales going in the opposite direction and my Pulitzer Prize Worthy photojournalism skills once again are displayed to their fullest advantage

Oh poo.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:06 PM | Comments (4)

August 24, 2008

North! To A-las-ka! Part 2: Hubba-Hubba Hubbard Love

So we left Sitka in the early afternoon and slowly steamed our way north overnight towards the Hubbard Glacier. The next morning we got a special treat, for the day dawned warm and clear.

There she was, twenty miles ahead of us.

As we crept closer we started seeing high snowy mountains for the first time

Even from this distance the blue glacial ice was eerie

Who's the joker who put on Celine Dion?

Gulp!

The mountains surrounding the bay were a mixture of snowy crags, glacial flow, waterfalls, trees trying to maintain a grip and thousand-foot gravel slides

And the bergs kept getting bigger as we crept in

On board Infinity we had Brent Nixon, who gave daily talks on the various wildlife we might encounter and who today was narrating our approach to Hubbard. One thing he pointed out to us were these cafe au lait colored plumes in the water

It's called "glacial flour" and it is created by the weight of hundreds of feet of ice on the rock below. The pressure creates heat, which melts some of the ice and allows the glacier to 'slide' along, and the millions of tons of ice grind the rock surface into a talcum powder like substance, which flows along underneath the glacier and out eventually into the ocean. The powder is so fine that if you collected a glass of water from the bay with glacial flour in it it would take several days for it to settle out.

And still we crept closer. Now we could see where the glacier was advancing to close off Russel Fjord.

It last did that in 2002, and water rose to 45 feet above sea level behind the ice dam in the 40 mile long fjord before it broke; in 1986 the water rose to 80 feet above sea level before the dam broke loose with a tremendous volume of water.

The Hubbard is in fact advancing and they expect the chances are good that Russel Fjord will again be closed off.

The beautiful blue walls continued to rise before us, to some 300' in height...and some 400' below the water level as well

One goes to Hubbard not only for its beauty but also for its calving. 'Calving' is when gravity tears large pieces of the glacier off and they come crashing down with loud cracks and a smashing splashing roar

It takes some 400 years for the ice to travel from the origin of the glacier 75 miles away down to the sea, and its layers are slices of time

and then suddenly there's another loud 'crack'

The face of the Hubbard is something like six miles across where it meets the sea

and several other, much smaller, glaciers join it to dump into the bay

so it required careful ship handling as we closed to within a third of a mile of the Hubbard.

I can't imagine what these mountains must be like in January

The face of the glacier at times so clearly echoes the mountains of its birth

The beauty, the power...it's an over used phrase these days, but if you ever should need a definition for the word 'awesome' you need look no farther

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:51 PM | Comments (5)

North! To A-las-ka!

Vacation.

That magical word that conjures up images of endless hours stuck in traffic trying to get to the Shore, fighting with your siblings for precious square inches of backseat real estate, painful sunburns chafing under shirts that somehow aren't as soft now as they were but a few days ago, standing in long dismal lines in sweltering heat and humidity with thousands of people for a 45 second ride and wondering where the 'amusement' part of 'amusement park' comes from. Or perhaps it means going on a tour, hoping to see different cities and sights but instead mostly seeing different hotels as you endlessly pack and unpack every night at yet another new lodging...at times 'vacations' are more work than, well, work, which somehow seems to defeat the purpose.

With a cruise you get to take the hotel with you. Great in theory, but my fear has always been that once I got out to sea I would decide that it...sucked and then I'd be stuck. I've never been tempted by a Caribbean cruise. Oh sure, I've known lots of folks who have gone on them and loved them, but I find the Caribbean to be, well, boring (I also find the Caribbean by looking on a map, but that's a different thing entirely); I'm just not a sun or beach person.

I have been tempted, however, by the idea of perhaps a cruise in the Aegean amongst the Greek Isles, sniffing the vapors at Delphi, or perhaps a river cruise waltzing down the Blue Danube...or a cruise to Alaska. Ah, Alaska! That final frontier, bastion of manly man-ness, where the eagles fly free, the salmon always run and the polar bears are all sopranos. My Bride and I have always wanted to go there and when the chance appeared we booked a week-long cruise out of Seattle on the Celebrity Infinity.

As we'd never been there before, and to make sure we had no danger of missing the ship, we flew out a few days before to do some of that touristy thang, like dinner at the Space Needle. Great views

Crappy food.

There's a great museum on the Klondike Gold Rush that gives you an appreciation for the absolute hell that those folks went through, mostly for naught. The only lasting fortunes that came out of the Gold Rush were made by the people who sold the prospectors supplies, such as a fellow named John Nordstrom. There are also a hell of a lot of homeless folks and beggars in Seattle, at least in the main tourist area, a lot more than there are in New York. There are also many many stores selling a vast array of trinkety tourist crap...including little models of New Jersey Light Houses

And judging by the note of desperation in the shop owner's voice when I made the mistake of looking at that thing I can assure you that Jersey paraphernalia is not a big seller in the Pacific North West...shockingly.

So the time came for us to get on our ship, and the first thing they do to make you feel at home is conduct an evacuation drill

That bit of jolly fun out of the way it was time to say Bon Voy Agee to Seattle

and get started on the important things

The views as the ships leave Seattle and wander up the Puget Sound are lovely

especially for us East Coast types who aren't used to all this craggy mountain grandeur stuff; we thought "wow, it's so beautiful here!" Little did we know that we hadn't seen nothin' yet.

One thing that we noticed was that most of the cruise line itineraries followed more or less the same pattern, which makes sense when you realize that Friday to Friday or Saturday to Saturday cruises are the most convenient for folks. What this translates into is that there tends to be a bit of a conga line when you left a port

and when you arrive at one, as they all go to Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan at some point.

We left Seattle in glorious 85º weather on Friday and the weather got markedly cooler very quickly as we traveled north on the long sea leg to Sitka (which we wouldn't reach until Sunday morning); in fact, I woke up on Saturday to the serenade of the fog horn every three minutes

a sound which continued all day. Luckily, they started making Bloodies

at a very civilized 8 am which helped greatly in my appreciation of the view we had all day

At this point we were starting to get a little bummed, because while we knew it rained a lot here and we had seen the weather forecasts predicting basically 55º and misty rain for the entire trip we had hoped that we still had some of our magic left over from Scotland where we had an amazing 7 sunny days out of the 10 we spent there.

Sunday morning when we arrived in Sitka the fog lifted somewhat

and as the harbor pilot came aboard

we could see another ship had snuck in ahead of us

There are a bunch of neat houses scattered about on the islands

and once you take the tender ashore you are greeted by the first of many totems

Sitka has a long and important history but what I find striking is that with approximately 9,000 inhabitants it is the fourth largest city in Alaska...and it has the largest incorporated area of any city in the country at just a touch over 4,800 square miles. That's 3 times the size of Rhode Island and damn near as big as Connecticut.

Sitka's Russian Orthodox cathedral was established in 1848 and has many lovely original icons from that time

and it's still used to this day.

And next is one of those times when I get a strange feeling of connection to someone: Rev. Sheldon Jackson, 19th Century Presbyterian minister. He was born in NY state, went to Princeton Theological Seminary in NJ near where I used to live, he founded the church in Minnesota where my Bride and I were married...and he was instrumental in the creation of a college in Sitka for native students

Sadly, it closed this past June due to a lack of funds.

My Bride walked through the Sitka National Historical Park and thoroughly enjoyed the many totems placed amongst the towering spruces of the rainforest.

But by now it's time to head back to our ship

and say buh-bye to Sitka

because our overnight cruise to the Hubbard Glacier awaits!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:07 PM | Comments (4)

August 23, 2008

Here's A Clue

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:26 AM | Comments (3)

I'm Back

(not that anyone noticed I was gone)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:36 AM | Comments (6)

August 12, 2008

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today...

...(well nineteen actually) that my Bride made made me the happiest, luckiest boy in the world.

You ain't goin' nowhere, honey!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:05 PM | Comments (15)

August 11, 2008

I Think About Something Like This...

Every time I cross the Bay Bridge

The driver of a tractor-trailer was killed early yesterday in a three-vehicle crash that sent the 18-wheeler plunging into the Chesapeake Bay - the first time that a vehicle has plummeted from the bridge in its 56-year history, according to current and former officials of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.

The early morning crash left a gaping hole in the wall of the bridge, forced the all-day closure of the eastbound span and created a virtual parking lot for miles on both sides of U.S. 50 leading to the westbound span.

Oh Nelly.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:53 AM

August 09, 2008

Gosh, What A Beautiful Morning

Bright blue sky, low humidity, a perfect day to get some more staining done on the house

or...to make some Bingley Rabe for Daughter and myself as a lazy Saturday brunch

Guess which I'm doing?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:47 AM | Comments (8)

August 07, 2008

Brett The Jet

Geesh, I didn't see this one coming. $12.5 million for a 38 year old guy. Not bad.

I wonder what they'd pay for a 44 year old?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:14 AM | Comments (3)

August 05, 2008

Shelob

Well, this explains where all the small children in the neighborhood have gone...

Dang, those suckers grow big sometimes.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:45 AM | Comments (4)

Happy Birthday Crusader!

The bestest little brother I ever had.

The only little brother, too.

Not that that affected your ranking...much.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:41 AM | Comments (5)

August 02, 2008

Tree Rat Cookout

We have a big pine tree right next to the deck, and man do the tree rats love to make a mess when they eat Pine Cone on the Cob

Little bastards

We hates them.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:49 PM | Comments (7)

July 25, 2008

Would A Plastic Airbus Have Held Together?

Man, what a scary flight

Passengers on a London to Melbourne flight have described their terror after a faulty door "popped" in midair blowing a hole in the fuselage.

Qantas flight QF30, with 300 passengers and crew on board, plunged 20,000ft after the faulty door caused an "explosive" depressurisation.

The Boeing 747 had just taken off from a stopover in Hong Kong when the incident happened. As the plane dropped from 30,000ft to 10,000ft, oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.

Debra Manchester, a passenger in first class, said there was a "huge bang" and a "massive rush of wind," with debris swirling around the cabin. Mrs Manchester, a housewife from Buckinghamshire, said there was an atmosphere of chaos as passengers struggled to put their oxygen masks on.

Give me a solid, well-built metal plane over some high-falutin' composite thingy any day.

Time for some heavy drinking.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:55 AM | Comments (11)

July 24, 2008

Please Keep Nina In Your Prayers

Her Dad has passed on after a long fight.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:17 AM | Comments (1)

July 23, 2008

I Will Always

...love you.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 AM | Comments (7)

July 15, 2008

Tired, Lots Of Work To Do This Week

That is all.

Carry on.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:59 AM | Comments (2)

July 04, 2008

Friday, July 4th, 8:30 am

Well, even though my beloved Bride and Daughter are out of town I still have my responsibilities that I take seriously, and intend to discharge to the best of my ability. The deck and house need to be stained, and to that end I spent the weightier part of yesterday power washing the deck to strip off the old stain, and afterwards while it was drying in the glorious sun I stained, oh, about half of the garage side of the house.

So I awoke this morning, sadly somewhat sore and stiff, I must confess, to continue performing my duty on this most patriotic of days.

Let's see, dry stripped deck, anxiously awaiting stain

check.

Wait, what's this? A cool moistness to the pleasant zephyr descending the hillside? I cast my gaze heavenward and pray tell what do I see?

An impenetrable layer of Werhmacht Gray cloudiness as far as the eye can see! Egads!

A quick perusal of weather.com confirms my worst fear: showers all day with a thunderstorm chaser this afternoon. The Almighty has declared "Thou Shall Not Stain Today."

Oh damn!!

May you all equally enjoy the bounteous blessings of this great land, and truly appreciate the sacrifices made by those who have come before us, on this day and every day hereafter. Honor their memory and efforts by upholding the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the words of the Constitution, and shrink not from sacrifices yet to be asked of you so that your children and their heirs may yet live as you have, in the freest Republic the world has ever seen.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:40 AM | Comments (4)

June 27, 2008

TGIF

Geesh, it's been a long week.

I'm very tired and looking forward to grilling some scallops and filets tonight and having a bottle or three of shiraz with my Bride.

Hope y'all have a nice weekend planned!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:25 AM | Comments (6)

June 17, 2008

Parking, Manhattan Style

I saw this yesterday morning down by the Battery Tunnel

Aside form the very patriotic tableaux of the Red, White and Blue vehicles you have 3 cars that are literally touching each other. The white SUV is completely hemmed in by the van from behind and the little sporty thing in front. This is another one of those life lessons that people all to often forget. You know: Floss Every Day. Don't Go Drinking With Guys Who Have Been Drunk Longer Than You've Been Alive.

And Never Ever Really Piss Off A Guy Whose Car Is Twice The Size Of Yours.

When I saw this I said to myself "boy, those folks had better hope they leave before the SUV..."

They didn't. As I was riding the bus home I saw the owner get into the SUV, put it in reverse and step on it. He crunched down the nose of the van and shoved the entire thing some three feet backwards (in the process knocking over 2 motorcycles that were parked right up against

Then he drove away.

Good for him.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:55 AM | Comments (11)

June 16, 2008

The Black Widow

Once you're under her spell
Things ain't gonna end well

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) -- Police may have ignored a warning years ago that a woman with five dead spouses was trying to hire a hit man to kill one of the men, investigators in North Carolina said Monday.

Authorities charged 76-year-old Betty Neumar last month with one count of solicitation of murder in the July 1986 death of Harold Gentry.

...Neumar has been married five times since the 1950s, but each union ended with the death of her husband. Investigators are urging police elsewhere to look into those deaths.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:27 PM | Comments (2)

June 14, 2008

Friday The 13th

Every public group of people has one. Well, at least every random group of commuters into Manhattan that I've ever been a part of does. Along with Young Intense Guy and Cranky Immigrant Guy and Shriveled Old Lady there's always Chatty Old Guy.

You know the one. The slow moving guy with the bright eyes and the perpetual half-smile who always says "good morning;" who always has a story about the weather or the grandkids or a gentle kvetch about the latest fare hike or gas price. The COG helps you kill the time until the bus shows up and everyone settles in their own private Idaho for the trip into the city.

This morning was no different. SOL was trying to figure out if the $5 increase on the weekly ticket meant she should be bold and buy a monthly ticket. She should, of course, as buying four weekly tickets costs about 20% more than buying a monthly...but this would be a change, and that's something that SOLs avoid if at all possible. CIG was complaining about how hot it was at his job site, and as he's a welder on a construction project I can only imagine how hot it really gets for him.

COG arrived and worked the crowd as usual, saying his "good mornings" and "boy that breeze feels nice-s" before taking his place in line with the other five or six of us. He told SOL a story in a somewhat louder than usual voice, and it was a bit more risque than his usual offerings as well, but it was interesting none the less and the few minutes awaiting the bus passed not disagreeably.

I settled in to my usual seat against the window, CIG a few rows behind me, COG and YIG more or less catty corner across the aisle and SOL in front of them in her usual place of honor in the front row. I dozed on and off for the next few minutes as we made our last stop before the run into the city, and the bus filled with its usual assortment of construction workers and early-rising office types like myself.

As we trundled up the Parkway I kept hearing a rather loud voice...COG. It was odd. He had never done this in the six or seven weeks I'd been riding the bus with him. He was fidgeting about, kicking the seat in front of him, talking aloud to no one in particular, repeating the same story over and over, grabbing the back of his head, wincing in obvious pain and dropping the occasional F-Bomb. SOL started repeatedly asking him if he was ok, and his half muttered "yes" convinced none of us. She got the driver's attention, and he was our normal driver and thus knew COG well, and he became concerned to the point where he pulled the bus to the side of the road right past the tolls on the entrance to the Turnpike and called for State Police and an ambulance. COG was not right, not well, not at all.

Within five minutes the next bus came and took most of us, myself included, to continue on in to the city. As we exited the bus some of the other passengers offered their diagnoses to the driver: "stroke" and "brain embolism" and "cranial bleeding" were some of the phrases I heard uttered as we changed from one bus to another amidst the blank stares of those folks on the second bus who knew only that some trouble of ours had inconvenienced them. We drove off into the rising hot June sun, leaving our original driver and COG alone to face what ever demons were tormenting him on that sad Friday the 13th morning.

I never learned his name.

I hope to see him again.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:45 PM | Comments (11)

June 10, 2008

The End of Days

...is obviously at hand.

Hertz Slashes Refueling Prices: Pay Pump Prices or Less; No Need to Worry About Refilling the Tank

...Under the new program -- which goes into effect for rentals commencing July 1, 2008 at all corporate and participating licensee airport and off-airport locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas -- both the Hertz Fuel & Service Charge (FSC) and the Fuel Purchase Option (FPO) will reflect new, lower pricing bases upon the average price per gallon as set by the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) in the geographical area where the car is rented. The Hertz FSC -- for customers who don't refill the fuel tank before returning the rental vehicle and elect the option of then having Hertz refuel the vehicle -- will be based upon local market fuel prices, plus a one-time Refueling Fee of $6.99. The FPO -- for customers who elect the option to purchase a tank of gas at the outset of the rental -- will reflect local market fuel prices minus a small discount of approximately $0.15 per gallon.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:17 AM

June 06, 2008

The Greatest Horse Ever

A wonderful story from Sports Illustrated about a wonderful, magic horse. It brought many a tear to my eye and made me remember a magic spring 35 years ago.

The Derby

The Preakness
My God, the move he makes on the backstretch!

The Belmont
There's nothing to do but watch in awe.

Best of luck, Big Brown, as you strive for history tomorrow.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:21 PM | Comments (11)

May 22, 2008

So the Most Probable Culprit, Most LIKELY Suspect in $150+pb Oil Is?

Your granny. HAH! Just as I thought. And she's working a little money market mojo to pull it off.

If you're wondering why driving to work has gotten so expensive, you might want to peruse your pension fund's investments. That's because speculation by institutional investors pouring money into the commodities market may be largely to blame for spiking oil prices, according to testimony on May 20 before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.

... The explosion in the number of financial players in the energy markets has occurred particularly in the past two years -- also a period of soaring energy prices. That's why speculators are now under fire from Congress and the public as potential culprits [BusinessWeek.com, 5/15/08].

But in the hearing, Masters distinguished between traditional speculators and what he calls index speculators, or passive investors who enter the commodities markets as a long-term hedge against inflation. Commodities exchanges limit the number of positions an investor can take in the market, but Masters says the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has allowed unlimited speculation in these markets through a loophole. This so-called swaps loophole exempts investment banks like Goldman Sachs (GS) and Merrill Lynch (MER) from reporting requirements and limits on trading positions that are required of other investors. The loophole allows pension funds to enter into a swap agreement with an investment bank, which can then trade unlimited numbers of the contracts in futures markets.

Hmmm. Loopholes and little if any oversight. Sounds eerily like the recipe for a housing crash, all thanks to those sweet faced, gravel voiced queens of speculation, babes of the back room deal ~ grannies.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (5)

May 21, 2008

If It Was My Little Girl

...I'd be so proud.

Police in a Galveston County, Texas, school district have been confiscating dozens of cell phones from students after nude pictures of two junior high girls began circulating, the district superintendent said.

"Those students forwarded the images and the circle opened up and got wider and wider," Superintendent Jon Whittemore said Tuesday.

He said that it all started when two Santa Fe Junior High School students took nude photos of themselves and sent them to their boyfriends. The boyfriends forwarded the photos to others, who in turn forwarded them again, he said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:45 PM | Comments (7)

Nothin' But the Clothes on Your Back

That's what it's coming to.

American Airlines to cut capacity, charge for bags

...The company plans to charge $15 for many passengers' first checked bag starting in mid-June, an unprecedented move by a major U.S. airline as it tries to claw back more of its extra fuel costs. Rivals are considering following suit.

Fifteen bucks a pop and they'll STILL lose them. Plus, I cannot wait to see what passes for "carry-on" now.

Can you sue if somebody drops a 60 lb duffel bag on your grape that they were trying to stuff into the overhead?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:51 PM | Comments (3)

May 16, 2008

Good News, Gazers!

From now on, you don't need a subway grate...

...to peek up skirts in Florida!

An Escambia County Judge set a new legal precedent in the case of a former high school teacher charged with voyeurism.

Judge G.J. Roark ruled that upskirting a woman with a mirror in a public place, is not illegal under Florida's voyeurism statute. Pensacola Police arrested former Catholic High teacher Brian Presken when a woman accused him of looking up her skirt with a mirror at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Pensacola last summer.

No ruling yet from the judge on what happens if victims hereafter choose to kick the shit out of the asshole with the mirror vice calling police, since it follows that there should be no expectation of being safe from an ass kicking in a public place, then.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:04 PM | Comments (5)

It's As If Cruel Fate

...engineered a Salvador Dali nightmare.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:13 AM | Comments (2)

May 08, 2008

Spring!

The vineyard is growing

the bushes are flowering

and Claude wants a treat for taking a dump

ain't life grand?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:19 PM | Comments (6)

May 07, 2008

Warning ~ Sympathy Meter Pegged!

Frustrated owners try to unload their guzzlers

After paying $75 to fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck for the third time in a week, Douglas Chrystall couldn't take it anymore.

Feeling pinched at the pump, and guilty as well, Chrystall, a 39-year-old father from Wellesley, is putting ads online to sell the truck, and the family's other gas-guzzler, a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

WAAAAAA.


SUVs were, ARE and EVER WILL BE a stupid indulgence for your everyday ride.

Rare is the individual who actually needs a Ford F-150 or Toyota Tundra or Hummer or the like to haul their butts into the office, or their precious chittlins to soccer practice (Less mind actually park one efficiently enough that two other spaces aren't taken up by their behemoth...but that's a personal pet peeve.). There were plenty of efficient, safe and stylish means for the transport of you and yours (Every Dodge minivan we've rented for out-of-state shows has gotten 26+ mpg screaming along at 75+ mph and loaded to the gills with my crap. If we'd packed, say, an Excursion/Suburban instead? Hurt city.) which would have answered your needs nicely while being a responsible choice. AND one that now would have left you saying "whew!" instead of "wow!" He's not filling up any more times a week, it's just COSTING him more. Let me re-iterate:

WAAAAAAA.

Gas and oil have been on an upwards trajectory for years, so you can't claim you weren't warned. Perhaps in your self-indulgent world you didn't notice, but that's a different thing entirely. Perhaps you haven't bothered to tweak the driving you do do in your ridiculous vehicle ~ habits are hard to break ~ like combining trips vice separate rambles for every little thing?

Thankfully somebody's starting to think, though, since the gains in today's weekly crude stockpile report were pretty impressive:

According to the Dept. of Energy, crude stockpiles for the week ended May 3 rose by 5.7 million barrels. Analysts had forecast that inventories would increase by a smaller amount of 1.6 million barrels.

Almost 3 times the build that analysts had expected. Of course, in the perverse little universe we're inhabiting at the moment, that doesn't equate to falling prices ~ back into record territory right after the announcement, which has been a pretty consistent pattern as well.

Perhaps Mr. Chrystall's champagne tastes exist because he's too young to remember 1973: even-odd fill-up days, sometimes no gas at all, the regular reports from the NYC news media helicopters as they counted oil tankers off the New Jersey coast and the American public incredulous about how geo-political events were inconveniencing us. The conservation learning curve came real quick, as did the sticker shock, as did the appearance of something called "the economy car". No one had heard of a 'B210' before that and most only knew 'Datsun' as something from a bad joke. (...and the dealer said "Dat soon?")

Ah. He's probably too young, but one would think a little common sense would creep into a young guy's consciousness someway, somehow, for at least ONE of the family's vehicles. I mean, LOOK at the PICTURE in the article! Big ass show tires on fancy rims and a king cab to boot, with God knows what else motor-wise. Good Lord. What a DOOFUS. (WAAAA>>>)

Now, us? Rat ass Commando Wagon/ '87 Pathfinder (17 mpg @ 340+ K miles) for hauling my stuff, couple of older German cars (23 and 24 mpg respectively) and the everyday go-to vehicle? A '96 Camry (27 mpg). Ebola's POS (as it's fondly referred to) aka '94 MX-3 settles in around 31mpg and even our much loved little red truck of death ('85 SR-5 4X4 'yota ~ Skyler should remember it) averaged 24 mpg. (All mpg's 'around town'.) It's always been a factor for us and would have seemed irresponsible not to be. And, wouldn't you know, the ONE time the fickle finger of SUV seduction waved in my direction, I went to my boys at CarTalk and looked up the Ford Expedition. Their very first sentence of the review?

"There's no reason on EARTH for ANYBODY to own this car."

That ruined it for me. I felt guilty and dirty and cheap that I'd even considered it. WAAAAA.

I remember major dad telling Real JeffS this past January about how we thought gas should get to $4 and stay there, because that would be about the price where Americans would consciously start to conserve. Economics would force what common sense, tree hugging, Al Gore, government and technology couldn't. And it sure looks like we're coming to it.

If I were Mr. Chrystall, I sure as hell woulda dumped that truck before everyone else started rushing for the exits.

Or at least park the thing and get the last '96 Camry in town.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:21 PM | Comments (12)

When "Courage" and "Heroine" Weren't Used So Lightly

...this sweet, brave lady personified both. In the name of love.

For marrying the only man she ever loved, Mildred Loving paid a price: She was arrested, convicted and banished from her home state.

...[But] in Caroline County word spread to the commonwealth's attorney, the equivalent of a district attorney, that the two had married. He obtained a warrant for their arrests. One July night, the Lovings woke up about 2 a.m. to the see the sheriff and deputies surrounding their bed, shining flashlights and demanding to know who Mildred Loving was.

Loving explained: "I'm his wife." Richard Loving rushed to show the men their marriage certificate. The sheriff was not moved.

"That's no good here," he said.

"They told us to get up, get dressed. I couldn't believe they were taking us to jail," Loving said.

The Lovings were indicted by a county grand jury and pleaded guilty to violating the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, another version of the state's anti-miscegenation law. Judge Leon M. Bazile sentenced the couple to a year in jail but suspended the sentence for 25 years on the condition that they leave the state and not return together during that time.

To avoid jail time, the Lovings moved to Washington, D.C., but the years in exile were difficult. Loving missed her family, her friends, the rural life. In 1963, she wrote to Robert F. Kennedy, then the U.S. attorney general, and asked for his help.

Mrs. Loving died this past Friday.

We are ever so grateful to her.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:59 AM | Comments (6)

May 01, 2008

Is There Someone Out There Staring Back At Me?

Via Insta, a very interesting article from someone who really hopes we don't find evidence of life on Mars.

What could be more fascinating than discovering life that had evolved entirely independently of life here on Earth? Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we are not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos.

But I hope that our Mars probes discover nothing. It would be good news if we find Mars to be sterile. Dead rocks and lifeless sands would lift my spirit.

Conversely, if we discovered traces of some simple, extinct life-form--some bacteria, some algae--it would be bad news. If we found fossils of something more advanced, perhaps something that looked like the remnants of a trilobite or even the skeleton of a small mammal, it would be very bad news. The more complex the life-form we found, the more depressing the news would be. I would find it interesting, certainly--but a bad omen for the future of the human race.

Neat stuff, and I guess I can agree with his general theory about the "Great Filter." I find it an intriguing idea, but I'm not so sure that I'd be so tied as he is in thinking there's a specific Great Filter event. Rather, I think that given how rare life may be it seems to me more likely that there are in fact many potential Great Filter moments that could prevent life in any one given place from evolving to the point where interstellar travel/colonization becomes feasible and survival "assured."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:17 AM | Comments (26)

April 29, 2008

I'm Guessing IGA

...probably WON'T be suspending these guys. Love that right to carry law.

It could've been a typical spat between grocery store customer and manager, with the customer announcing he planned to take his business elsewhere. But then the customer drew his gun. The store manager drew his and so did the assistant manager.

If you read the whole thing, you'll see the gun toting store personnel...never fire. Amazing what a couple barrels pointing your way can accomplish all on their own.

Schmaybe it stands for "I Got Arms"? Or...

"Invaders Get Annihilated"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:17 PM | Comments (1)

Tornadoes In Virginia

It's amazing no one was killed

SUFFOLK, VA. -- The National Weather Service confirms three tornadoes touched down in central and southeastern Virginia Monday. Associated Press reports authorities say at least 200 people suffered injuries throughout the Commonwealth.

Meteorologist Bryan Jackson of the National Weather Service says the twisters hit Suffolk, Colonial Heights and Brunswick County on Monday afternoon. He described Suffolk's as a "major tornado."

(Photo by Mark Everitt)

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:53 AM

April 18, 2008

An Outbreak Of Spam-nesty?

This is really rather creepy

MINNEAPOLIS - The number of mysterious neurological illnesses among workers who processed pig brains at pork plants in three states has grown to as many as 24, and other possible cases are being evaluated, researchers said Wednesday.

Dr. Daniel Lachance, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, said there are now 18 confirmed cases among people who have worked at the Quality Pork Processors plant in Austin, Minn. That’s up from 13 cases reported as of February.

...The common thread among the affected workers is that they all worked in a part of the plants that used compressed air to blow pig brains out of skulls, Lachance said. All the plants have discontinued the practice.

The working hypothesis, he told reporters, is still that some of the brain tissue was turned into a fine mist during the process, and that the workers became exposed to it and somehow developed an autoimmune response that caused nerve damage.

“The precise mechanism by which that is occurring, we do not yet understand,” Lachance said.

Common symptoms include pain, weakness, fatigue and numbness. A unique pattern of antibodies has been found in all the patients, Lachance said.

A Spanish-language interpreter at an Austin clinic and plant nurses realized last year they were seeing a pattern of similar illnesses among the workers. The Mayo Clinic reported 12 cases to the state Health Department in November. In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the condition a name — progressive inflammatory neuropathy, or PIN.

Breathing misty pig brains can't be a lot of fun, in fact it's probably downright offal. A quick glance at the cheery Quality Pork Processors website yields this info

We are a co-packer with Hormel Foods Corporation with Hormel as our only customer. We do the slaughter, cut and conversion of fresh pork products. Located in Austin, Minnesota, we are 100 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul and 45 miles west of Rochester, Minnesota. The town of Austin has a population of approximately 23,000 people. We process (kill/cut), on average, 17,000 hogs per day and bone out over 300,000 lbs. of loins per day. QPP employs over 1,200 people.

17,000 per day. That's a lot of pig brains. I sure hope this is some sort of an allergic reaction by their nervous systems and not an indication that there's some type of "mad-swine" disease that's appearing; that would be truly frightening.

In the meantime I hope they just dispose of the whole heads until they figure out what the issue is here.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:13 PM | Comments (2)

April 16, 2008

Too Much Of A Good Thing

...can be a bad thing

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Taking antioxidants like vitamins A and E to prolong life may actually have the opposite effect, new research has found.

Taking vitamin supplements in large quanities may actually prove detrimental to your health.

A review of 67 studies involving more than 230,000 people found "no convincing evidence" that the vitamins prolonged life, the Press Association reported.

"Even more, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase mortality," according to the researchers.

However, other health specialists said the research was "flawed" and the supplements were safe to take.

The review, published by The Cochrane Collaboration, involved trials on beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium.

The experts said the studies involved different doses of each antioxidant. A total of 232,550 people were involved.

Forty-seven trials included 180,938 people and had a low risk of bias. In these trials with a low risk of bias, the "antioxidant supplements significantly increased mortality", the report's authors wrote.

When the different antioxidants were assessed separately and low risk of bias trials were included and selenium excluded, vitamin A was linked to a 16% increased risk of dying, beta-carotene to a seven percent increased risk and vitamin E to a four percent increased risk.

I always chuckle when I read these studies and they say that 'x' "increases risk of dying." Last I checked it's still 100%.

Anyhoo, I guess I'll pass on the Flinstones Chewables now and reach for the one true health tonic:

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)

April 10, 2008

Who Was It That Said Cheaters

...only hurt themselves?

Marion Jones' teammates stripped of medals

Disgraced sprinter's relay teams won 1,600, were 3rd in 400 in 2000 Games

Marion Jones’ former relay teammates paid the price Thursday for her doping offenses, losing their medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

...IOC legal adviser Francois Carrard, who assisted the disciplinary panel investigating the case, said the U.S. Olympic Committee has been ordered to return the medals.

Bitch. First her angry denials and then to sit there sniveling when FORCED to 'fess up, while still trying to play 'the victim':

...Her admission in court Friday differed from what she relayed to family and friends in a letter she sent in advance of the hearing, in which she said she used the clear in 1999 and 2000. The Post obtained a copy of the letter.

"In 1999, my track coach Trevor Graham provided me with some nutritional supplements," Jones said, according to the letter. "There is one in particular that he called 'flaxseed oil.' He advised me to take this supplement by placing a few drops under my tongue and then swallow. . . . I trusted him and never thought for one second that he would jeopardize my career, nor his own. . . . He supplied me this for the 1999 and 2000 seasons."

Makes me sick. I think steroids in base-ah-bah-roo might be treated differently if users tainted their teams' records, don't you? Give back a league pennant or two and watch what happens. And really...why is baseball ~ where the "team's" record is entirely dependent on individual performance ~ a sport where a miscreant's exposure for cheating doesn't f*ck over the rest of the team?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:50 AM | Comments (2)

This Is Precisely How We Got BeauBeau

...and why the rescue driver was crying when she handed him over to us, after the long relay from Lake Charles, LA.

'Big black dog syndrome' leaves them homeless

She said, "Oh, thank you for taking a big one!" I told her that's what we'd wanted from the beginning and why...? "Because no one wants the big ones, especially the black ones. We've got five they're going to put down this week and we can't save them."

I wouldn't have him any other way. And if I could take them all, I would.

Breaks my heart, because there's no better friend.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:41 AM | Comments (11)

April 03, 2008

I Know You've Heard It Before: "Life in the South is Slow"

But if you're not from here, I'll bet you have no clue just how 'slow' we're talking. Take one of our news stories this week, for instance. This old boy wrote the book on 'slow'.

With friend dead, man says he took a nap

A man told Santa Rosa sheriff's investigators that he found a dead friend lying in his front yard Tuesday but decided to take a nap rather than calling authorities.

William Hutson, 43, of the 1600 block of Balogh Drive in Gulf Breeze found Charles Scott Boylan's body about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Scott Haines said.

But the Sheriff's Office didn't learn a body was outside Hutson's home in Magnolia Manor until a mail carrier found it about 4 p.m.

...Hutson was arrested on a tampering with evidence charge after telling investigators he picked up a shotgun near Boylan's body, went back inside his home and went to sleep on a couch, Haines said.

Boylan, 47, of Gulf Breeze suffered a gunshot blast to the chest, but investigators are not sure how he suffered the fatal wound, Haines said.

Haines said the gun belonged to Hutson, but he didn't know how the gun ended up outside near Boylan's body.

During the 6 o' clock news, the breathless announcement of the body's discovery by the mail carrier (including mention of the gun-induced gaping chest wound) was followed by a ominously intoned:

"The Sheriff's department says the death is suspicious."

Do tell.

We all just floatin' down a lazy river...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:08 PM | Comments (4)

March 27, 2008

The Poor Little Thing Who Died During Breast Augmentation Surgery?

The girl on the left was her. 18. Bless her heart.

Judging from the picture, I would have to say her parents were out of their friggin', permissive, keep-up-with-the-other-tarts minds. You can justify giving in to your daughter all you want because she's a good kid and sterling student, but DAMN. She wants to look more like the girl on the right? And you let her?

They were out of their minds. It's inexcusable.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:14 PM | Comments (11)

Voices From The Grave

I have the complete Caruso recordings on cd, and I just love the sound of them. They've got this spooky, other-world quality about them. plus, i don't know, I just find it touching to listen to recordings where every person who performed on them is dead, as are damn near anyone who heard them perform live.

Which is why this link that Insta had up today is just too damned cool for words.

Click on the mp3 file and listen to a woman sing...in 1860.

Chilling.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:11 PM | Comments (6)

March 20, 2008

Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:53 AM

March 11, 2008

WAIT a Minute

I know things are bad, but creating a special purchasers' category strikes me as...well...bad.

...Charlotte is working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development on a program that allows firefighters, police officers and teachers to purchase foreclosed homes at 50% of their listed price.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:09 PM | Comments (4)

March 03, 2008

I Can't Imagine Being On This Plane

Well, actually, having been in the car when THS was driving in the 70s I think I can...

The second attempt went a bit better.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:54 AM | Comments (13)

February 13, 2008

Puh-Raise Jeebus

Prescription medicine ran out this morning, so now I'm drinking again!

Our long national nightmare has ended.

Shoot, I think I'll go write a calm reasoned response in the Abe Thread now.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:56 PM | Comments (5)

February 12, 2008

What the Article Fails to Mention

...is that the majority of those workers arrested were using stolen SSN's (mostly children's). Victimless crime my ass-cienda.

..."Hate is growing in our community," said Grace Resendez McCaffery of Pensacola. "The Latin community is outraged. They're seeing this community reverting to a time of intolerance of people of color. We just don't want to see that happen."

..."The government does not consider that these families come here so their children can get a better education,'' Essert said. "They come for a better life. Sometimes they just send back the father or the mother, and here are the kids without their father or mother.

"It tears my heart. A lot of them have been here for years and years, and still they cannot get citizenship."

I don't think she's going to gerner much support or sympathy with that line of reasoning. Especially since this trial conclusion made the same paper...

Restaurateur found guilty

Local restaurateur convicted on drug conspiracy charges

A jury found a 35-year-old Gulf Breeze restaurateur guilty Monday of drug conspiracy and other charges.

After six hours of deliberation, the jury found Rogelio Galvan Chavez guilty of conspiracy to possess or distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine; harboring illegal immigrants; using a cellular telephone in the commission of an unlawful act; and a firearms charge.

...Authorities from local, state and federal agencies undertook a 10-month investigation that culminated in December with accusations that Galvan Chavez presided over a network of illegal immigrants who peddled drugs and firearms throughout Northwest Florida.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:59 AM | Comments (3)

February 06, 2008

I Think It Would Have Been Far Easier to List

...what wasn't in his system.

...The cause of death was “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine,” spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a statement.

What a frickin' waste.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:58 AM | Comments (2)

Tornadoes

Gosh, how horrible.

ATKINS, Ark. - The death toll from a line deadly tornadoes that tore through the nation's midsection rose to 31 early Wednesday, as authorities prepared to go door-to door to search for more victims.

Those poor folks.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:59 AM | Comments (4)

January 29, 2008

Ah, The Kindness Of Mother Gaia

"You know, getting clubbed by Canadians doesn't sound so bad right about now..."

via Insta, an amazing series of Great White shark photos.

Nature ain't cuddly, folks.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:32 AM | Comments (7)

January 11, 2008

We've Lost a Jaunty Fellow

The grandest social climber of all time.

Well DONE, sir. And God speed you (and keep you warm.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:53 AM

January 10, 2008

My View Going Home Today

Was nowhere near as purdy as Ann Althouse's was this morning.

If I was a Philostopher I would find some deep significance in the allure of looking to the glowing City to the West over the tired one to the East...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:33 PM | Comments (5)

January 08, 2008

When You WORK for an Organization

...signed a contract that says you "can be required to serve anywhere in the world under penalty of dismissal with limited exceptions", still take your paycheck home every other week and use your bountiful benefits, you DON'T get to decide you suddenly aren't available because the CEO needs you someplace sucky. And maybe you don't agree with why, but you should have said something at the beginning and then quit out of principle...

Nearly half of U.S. diplomats unwilling to volunteer to work in Iraq say one reason for their refusal is they don't agree with the Bush administration's policies in the country, according to a survey released Tuesday.

...especially since we all know you'd be in Europe like a shot if they needed to send you there.

And if I were a colleague who volunteered to do YOUR job so the business of the United States could go forth? First off, you'd best not get promoted if you're lucky enough to remain employed. Secondly?

Dang. There just might be harsh words in the girl's room.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:55 PM | Comments (1)

December 18, 2007

Since THIS is REAL "But Alderan is Peaceful, We Have No Pants!" Stuff

For the first time astronomers have witnessed a supermassive black hole blasting its galactic neighbor with a deadly beam of energy.

The "death star galaxy," as NASA astronomers called it, could obliterate the atmospheres of planets but also trigger the birth of stars in its wake of its destructive beam. Fortunately, the cosmic violence is a safe distance from our own neck of the cosmos.

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy, at left, striking the edge of another galaxy. The image combines X-ray emissions seen by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (purple), optical and ultraviolet data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red and orange) and radio emissions from the Very Large Array and the MERLIN array (blue).

...maybe letting Hubble go blind would be a bad idea.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)

December 12, 2007

"He was a man in black, but he sure wasn’t Johnny Cash."

You know, I really hate how the word "hero" has become frankly debased in our society. Damn near everyone who does anything is called one now. Well, here's more on two folks who've earned that title in my book

Larry Bourbannais had decided after the Columbine massacre what he would do if he were ever in a similar situation, so when shots rang out in the church he attended, the heroic Vietnam veteran acted decisively.

“I promised myself after Columbine, and I told my four daughters, that if something like that every happened and I was there, I would go after the shooter, because you want to protect people,” the 59-year-old Bourbannais told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Tuesday.

Bourbannais had been in a cafeteria in the sprawling church grounds eating a hamburger on Sunday when he heard gunshots. As others fled the church in terror, Bourbannais hurried toward the shooting scene, constantly asking, “Where’s the shooter? Where’s the shooter?”

...At that point, another security guard, 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, arrived with her gun drawn. Unlike the male guard, she was using hers.

“They were engaged in a firefight. He was firing. She was firing,” Bourbannais said. “And she was completely exposed. I was in Vietnam for 14 months in combat, and it’s the bravest thing I’ve ever witnessed. She kept yelling, ‘Surrender,’ and returned fire the complete time.”

Read the whole amazing story.

Real heroes, folks.

God bless them, as he blessed the folks at that church by putting them there.

(Thanks to Lawhawk for the pointer)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:28 PM | Comments (6)

I Don't Doubt

...that he's going to catch himself some flack for this.

... Now, I don't know what it means not to have a father in your life. I'm not familiar with a mom being strung out on a crack binge. And when my parents were called to the school when there was a discipline problem, Mom and Dad didn't go off on the teacher or principal. In fact, I can still feel the pain of my elementary school principal's paddle being applied to my butt when I acted a fool. The principal could only pop me three times. Dad? He had no limit.

Bottom line: I can sit here today and celebrate them and enjoy a wonderful life because my parents were hell-bent on raising their children to do right by them, especially my dad.

We can spend all day talking about the ills afflicting urban America -- and there are plenty that are institutional -- but the decaying value of life in inner cities clearly can be traced to the exodus of fathers from the lives of so many young men. Excuses often are tossed about as to why black men leave their children (and their children's moms) to fend for themselves. But a lot of them are just sorry and refuse to accept the responsibility that comes with raising a child.

But God bless him for speaking out. The black 'leadership' waving flags during marches and protests in the news has abandoned addressing real needs in favor of corporate coercion and personal pocket lining.
If the community can learn to stand on its own again, it doesn't need them.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:51 AM | Comments (3)

December 06, 2007

If You're Like Me And Only Have $56 Million Spare Cash...

Then we're both out of luck on this stocking stuffer

NEW YORK (AFP) - A tiny and extremely rare 5,000-year-old white limestone sculpture from ancient Mesopotamia sold for 57.2 million dollars in New York on Wednesday, smashing records for both sculpture and antiquities.

The carved Guennol Lioness, measuring just over eight centimeters (3 1/4 inches) tall, was described by Sotheby's auction house as one of the last known masterworks from the dawn of civilization remaining in private hands.

Rats. Well, I guess it's back to Best Buy for me then.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:40 AM | Comments (7)

November 13, 2007

I Think The Penalty For Running

far exceeded what would have happened had he stood his ground and 'fessed up to the police

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. -- A man who allegedly was fleeing police was attacked and killed by an alligator in a pond, Local 10 reported.

Miccosukee police, assisted by Sweetwater canine units, responded to a call on the Miccosukee Indian Reservation about vehicles being broken into.

Local 10's Todd Tongen said police captured one man, but another fled on foot and dove into a retention pond. Signs warned of the danger of live alligators in the pond behind the casino and hotel.

Eyewitnesses said they were shouting to the man to swim back to shore. When the man finally spotted the alligator, eyewitnesses said he screamed but then disappeared under the water.

There's a lesson in this sad tale, folks.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:04 AM | Comments (5)

October 29, 2007

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)

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)

October 23, 2007

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 18, 2007

'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)

October 14, 2007

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)

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 01, 2007

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)

September 11, 2007

All I'm Going To Watch This Day

A red day.

But the sun rises.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:33 AM | Comments (3)

September 03, 2007

While Not a Fan of Flying

...I stand in awe of the hurricane hunters who let us know, first hand, what's happening inside these rampaging beasties. But I've never read something like this...

BECAUSE OF THE EXTREME TURBULENCE AND GROUPEL THAT THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED...THE MISSION IS BEING ABORTED AND THE AIRCRAFT IS RETURNING TO ST. CROIX.

DAMN. I believe they're referring to 'graupel', which is granular snow pellets also called 'soft hail'.

That had to be a WHALE of a ride.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:59 AM | Comments (1)

August 31, 2007

And Friday 'Food for Thought' Photos

...from our drive along US 98. Bay St. Louis, MS lost something like 85% of it's structures.

What's left of these houses are about a block and a half from the little bluff that fronts the Gulf.
There's signs of life already...

...like here at the Sycamore House, right across the street. They told major dad the water rose up to the porch, came through the front door and just washed over the floor before draining back out. It's a dynamite place to eat and will be our 'headin' outta town' stop for any future New Orleans jaunts.

But there are also the things that are missing. Things we knew about personally, like the beautiful antebellum mansions along the drive in Biloxi. Now there're just slabs overgrown with weeds. Sometimes brick or stone columns and their ornate wrought iron gates still stand...leading to nothing. And then there are the things ~ like this sign gulfside in Bay St. Louis ~ that just make you sit back...

...and say "DAMN".

UPDATE: This is the sign's 'before' shot...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:31 PM | Comments (7)

August 22, 2007

When First I Read This, My Immediate Reaction Was...

..."BULLsh*t!!" I stand corrected.

Pigeon Dung Examined in Bridge Collapse

... Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:49 PM | Comments (5)

August 20, 2007

What The...

I don't even know where to begin with this one

A woman in Australia has been killed by her pet camel after the animal apparently tried to have sex with her.

The woman was found dead at the family's sheep and cattle ranch near the town of Mitchell in Queensland.

...On Saturday the woman apparently became the object of the male camel's desire.

It knocked her to the ground, lay on top of her and displayed what the police delicately described as mating behaviour.

The poor woman. Evidently there were warning signs, though:

The camel was just 10 months old but already weighed 152kg (336lbs) and had come close to suffocating the family's pet goat on a number of occasions.

Update: In other Darwin's Law related news

BELGRADE, Serbia (Reuters) -- A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival.

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.

"There's a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage," zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters.

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:13 AM | Comments (5)

August 08, 2007

Man, Is It Pouring Here This Morning

Now where did I leave that gopherwood?

Update: Now we have a tornado warning for large parts of NYC.

Damn you Chimpy!!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:44 AM | Comments (11)

August 03, 2007

Going To The Chapel...

And 'Fly's gonna get ma-ha-harried!

Woo-Hoo!

We'll be there!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:13 AM

July 26, 2007

The 'Old Dominion'

...and 'pay-as-you-go'. Pedal to the metal in your pony car? Expect to pony up. And up.

Virginia's new $3,550 speeding ticket

Starting July 1, an array of traffic offenses, from expired licenses to speeding, come with a "civil remedial fee" attached. That means a motorist convicted of reckless driving (75 mph in a 55 zone would qualify) faces not only a fine of up to $2,500 and a year in jail, but a non-negotiable $350-a-year tax for three years. The law forbids judges from waiving or reducing the fee.

Many fees dwarf the fines. A driver who disobeys an officer's order to pull into a weigh station would be fined $35 and required to pay a $61 court processing fee. But the civil remedial fee would be $900 over three years.

Drunken driving? A fee of $1,000 a year for three years, plus fines and court costs. No insurance? That's $300 a year for three years, plus fines.

It doesn't stop there. Anyone unlucky enough to have 8 points or more on his license (reckless driving is good for 6 by itself) would pay an additional $100, plus $75 for any points over 8, up to $700 a year.

...In fact, Virginia added a fee rather than increase fines because it wanted the money to improve its roads, and revenue from fines must go to public schools**. The fees are expected to raise $200 million a year...

...One twist that has Virginia drivers enraged is that the state can't charge fees on out-of-state drivers or revoke their licenses. For now, the fees apply only to residents.

WHEW!
And I'm really shocked New Jersey didn't think of this first.

** But! BUT! The children! Legislators just screwed the CHILDREN!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:32 PM | Comments (4)

July 25, 2007

I Really LIKE This Guy!!

Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an “absurdity,” saying that evolution can coexist with faith.

The pontiff, speaking as he was concluding his holiday in northern Italy, also said that while there is much scientific proof to support evolution, the theory could not exclude a role by God.

“They are presented as alternatives that exclude each other,” the pope said. “This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.”

He said evolution did not answer all the questions: “Above all it does not answer the great philosophical question, ‘Where does everything come from?’”

Benedict also said

the human race must listen to “the voice of the Earth”

or risk destroying its very existence.

That has to be one of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. And he has perfectly articulated what I have always believed.

The miracle is not how and what we've become ~ it's how that first pulse of life on earth started.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:13 PM | Comments (3)

July 18, 2007

Well...Sorry About That, I Guess

Why wasn't anyone bemoaning the broken families left on the Mexican side of the border when Juan scuttled over the fence initially?

An estimated 1.6 million children and spouses have been separated from family members forced to leave the country under toughened 1996 immigration laws, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The separations have taken a toll on families who have sold homes, lost jobs, lost businesses or been thrown into financial turmoil, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.

The widespread impact on American families has been truly devastating, said Alison Parker, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

But that's exactly the problem. If they were AMERICAN (or even just 'LEGAL'), no one would be sending anyone anywhere.

UPDATE: Let me expand on this whole concept. Yesterday on MSNBC I saw an African American D.C. alderman or ward boss, not sure which. He was furious about a $200,000 day laborer center that had been set up to keep the illegals in one convenient place, vice scattered on this corner and that. Now, we lived across the street from one of these popular corners in Santa Ana, CA a MILLION years ago, so this problem is not new. And yes, these people are just looking for a day's wages. Granted. That sounds innocuous enough, but, until you've lived with it, most folks have no idea what really goes on, day after day. They ~ anywhere from fifteen to fifty on any given day ~ would start to wander over to the corner around sun-up, bringing their radios and maybe some tools. (The radios would be ON.) As they whiled away the hours, nature would invariably call and ~ since you didn't want to leave the area for fear of missing a cruising landscaper/construction/restaurant looking for help ~ you pissed across the street on the nearest wall. Which happened to be mine. As the day wears on and hopes of employment slim, you pool your pesos and send a buddy down to the corner bodega for whatever cervesa can be bought cheaply and in quantity. That in turn generates more urination, coupled with trash flying everywhere, the occasional violent Latin temper explosion, bored mischief making/cat calls and/or out-and-out larceny attempts. They all wander home around 4 p.m. to rest up for the redux on the morrow. I watched them racially stereotype themselves, rain or shine. Five. Days. A. Week.
For twelve years.

So here's this poor, earnest D.C. type wondering WHY ~ when there's homeless CITIZENS sleeping on the street and off-the-charts unemployment amongst the other ills of life in the District ~ WHY they're spending $200,000 of the TAXpayers' hard earned cash to make it easier for employers to hire illegals. (He might wanna double check the $200K. This article says: "Mr. Thomas has secured $500,000 in budget funding to build the center, which he hopes will connect day laborers and local residents to jobs....But it is still not clear how or whether D.C. officials will check the immigration status of workers at the proposed site.") I have to agree with him. And, if I were him, I'd do some digging in the figures they're throwing around since, in Montgomery County, Maryland, the center's cost isn't all they're forking out.

...Annually, the county spends about $200,000 on this facility and doles out about $2.3 million to CASA of Maryland, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group.

Hot DAMN! I could sure stand to be on that dole! Wonder if taxpayers know about that budget item.

UPDATE REDUX: Trust me, they were never this well mannered.

Home Intruder Found Sitting On Toilet

A startling sight greeted a Fredericksburg woman when she returned home from picking up a newspaper early Thursday, police said. A man she didn't know was sitting on her toilet. The man had apparently entered her home in the 300 block of Germania Street by cutting a screen and unlocking the door, police said.

...When she got home, she noticed that the bathroom door was closed. She opened the door and the man was sitting there.

Bledsoe said the woman asked the man a couple of questions, including "How long are you going to be?" but didn't understand the man's response because it was in Spanish.

She then told the man she was calling to police and he got up and left. The woman noticed the cut screen after the man was gone.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:38 PM | Comments (2)

July 16, 2007

Swillers Know Where We Stand on the Whole Teen Driving Thing

Lord knows we've taken our share of heat for it. But dang if parents and their late children don't keep lining up to be examples for our next futile rant.

Text messages were sent and received on a 17-year-old driver's cell phone moments before the sport utility vehicle slammed head-on into a truck, killing her and four other recent high school graduates, police said.

...Goodman's inexperience at the wheel; evidence she was driving above the speed limit at night on a winding, two-lane highway; and a succession of calls and text messages on her phone were cited Friday by Sheriff Phil Povero as possible factors in the June 28 crash in western New York.

...Routine tests ruled out alcohol as a factor in the 10 p.m. crash, and police don't suspect drug use was involved. Goodman had only a junior driver's license, making it illegal for her to be driving after 9 p.m. without supervision or to be carrying so many young passengers.

Hello. Sorry to rain on the grief parade YET again, but her parents are as culpable in this tragedy (and a good argument could be made that the other girls' parents are as well) as that young thing they gave the keys to.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:52 AM | Comments (3)

July 10, 2007

Doug Marlette

He did some great stuff.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:16 PM

July 06, 2007

Since This Happened in Our Neighborhood

...I'll blame Al Gore III for the copycat crime.

Girl charged in DUI, chase
11-year-old driver from Perdido Key in 100-mph chase in Orange Beach

An 11-year-old Perdido Key girl has been charged with driving under the influence after she led Orange Beach police on a high-speed chase.

Greg Duck, Orange Beach assistant police chief, said the Tuesday night chase — which was caught on a dashboard camera in a police cruiser — started about 10:30 p.m. in Orange Beach near the Florida line. It ended just inside the Gulf Shores city limits when the girl crashed and rolled the Chevy Monte Carlo she was driving.

I hope she didn't hit a Perdido Key Beach Mouse on her way through.
She's really in hot water then.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 AM | Comments (3)

July 04, 2007

When In the Course of Human Events

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the
positions indicated:

[Column 1]
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

[Column 2]
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

[Column 3]
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

[Column 4]
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

[Column 5]
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

[Column 6]
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Happy Fourth of July!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:02 AM | Comments (5)

July 03, 2007

While Reading a Chapter or Two Before Beddie-Bie

...a passage made me laugh. It really is so true that the more things change...

"...As yet another, Nathaniel Grubb complained in 1763 to the Pennsylvania legislature that "a pack of insignificant Scotch-Irish" was responsible for having retaliated too fiercely against a series of Indian attacks."

...the more they stay the same.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 PM | Comments (4)

June 29, 2007

Searching for Answers Friday

Dang if this one little line in the West Escambia newsbrief wasn't bugging the beejeesus out of me. I'd read it in the paper two days in a row.

The Florida Highway Patrol will conduct a roadside sobriety checkpoint between 10 p.m. today and 2 a.m. Saturday. The checkpoint will be on Sorrento Road in front of the Winn-Dixie store.

There will be approximately 25 uniformed officers participating, as well as support personnel from the Emerald Coast MADD Chapter. Other participating agencies include the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, Pensacola Police Department, Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Vehicles will be stopped to check for driver impairment and other violations.

My first thought was "WTF is MADD doing there?" So I called the Florida Highway Patrol and asked. The receptionist was very friendly until I repeated my initial question.

"Well, they're trying to get drunks off the road!"

"Yes, but they're law enforcement. They're supposed to. I was curious why MADD is mentioned. Why are they part of the checkpoint if they're not law enforcement?"

[sputter] "They're support personnel ~ they'll have coffee and water for the officers. Sometimes they set up a tent."

"Oh, that's very nice on a hot night, I'm sure. I was just curious what part they played in an official exercise. Thank you."

She was pretty disgusted that I asked, honestly. Got a tad strident with her tone when I didn't seem to capeche that MADD had a right to be in EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE.

Then, as I read more, I'm like "Bangla-cola cops? They have no jurisdiction in the county." For that matter, Santa Rosa is the next county over to the east, so WTF are those guys doing all the way clean over here almost to Alabammy?" Honest to God, I thought we had enough law enforcement in our own county to deal with a checkpoint.

I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a van in the parking lot carrying a colonoscopy probe, too.

Yeah. That'd be a waste. They're already up there.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:32 PM | Comments (2)

June 26, 2007

A Pause To Remember, And A First Meeting

I'm so disgusted and dispirited by this immigration shamnesty sellout that i just can't even post about it; the folks at HotAir have got it much better covered than I ever could.

It seems appropriate to me at this time when our elected leaders are giving away this country to pause and remember those who risked everything to make us great. My Bride and I took Daughter to Washington, D.C. last week to do the museums/government buildings tour. On Wednesday we had a tour of the White House which was rather disappointing, as we could not access very much of it and there were no staff in any of the rooms to explain what little of it we were actually seeing; every ramshackle castle in Scotland provides at least that, for gosh sake.

Afterwards we took the wonderful DC Metro out to Arlington Cemetery to pay our respects and meet someone. It's an amazingly somber, sad and dignified place. It's also quite large, as there are some 300,000 glorious patriots buried there. The staff at the Visitor Center are exceedingly kind and helpful, and if you give them a name they will give you directions on how to find their plot. Unfortunately, due to its size the only real way to get around it on a hot summer day is via one of the trolley buses that loop around it, and, as Daughter pointed out, while the operators mean well they can't help but add a touch of a carnival/theme park atmosphere to a place that is deserving of our utmost respect and dignity.

On a bright sunny June day those markers of sacrifice burn into you, and humble you.

As we walked to our meeting one marker jumped out at me:

Bugler John Cook, Medal of Honor, Battle of Antietam. Then I looked at his birth date, and it hit me. The battle was September 17th, 1862. He was 15. 15.

My God.

A little farther on and it was finally time. Time to meet someone I'd heard about all my life, whose strong, warm picture graced the mantelpiece of the house I grew up in, whose influence and living memory shaped my and my siblings' life, but a man that none of us ever met, as he died the year after my parents' wedding while they were in Japan with the newly-born Tree Hugging Sister,

our Grandfather

I wish with all my heart that our first "hello" could have consisted of more than my tears on the grass.

Update: Sis scanned the photo

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:06 PM | Comments (8)

June 14, 2007

Anybody Else

...catch the irony in this? Or is it just me?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:14 PM

So Beautiful It Makes Me

...cry.

Happy Flag Day.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)

June 05, 2007

Just Not Sexy Enough, Eh?

Honda will discontinue the hybrid version of its Accord sedans, the company said Tuesday, ceding Toyota’s dominance of the market with its Prius hybrid.

I'm still waiting for the day when those 730,000 odd battery packs start to sh*t the bed. Question A would be: Where they all gonna go? Question B would have to be: What's it gonna cost me to replace this mother?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:16 PM | Comments (8)

May 30, 2007

This Date in 1431 Proves Two Things:

1. NEVER listen to the voices in your head.

2. No good deed goes unpunished.

I could say something about royalty being weak, inbred, mewling, duplicitous cowards...but I won't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:26 AM | Comments (15)

The Point Of The Exercise

Insta had one of those moments this morning

WHY WE HAVE KIDS, even though they're a lot of trouble: When I got up this morning, I looked in on the Insta-Daughter, who'd been a bit ill last night. She was sleeping and I kissed her on the cheek. She smiled, murmured, "I love you Daddy," and went back to sleep. My day is already made.

I'm blessed to say that the last thing I do every morning before I leave the house is to give Daughter a kiss as she's sleeping, and 9 days out of 10 I get a drowsy hug and a kiss back (the 10th day she's too sleepy to notice). Makes everything that follows worthwhile, it does. Work to live, folks, not the other way 'round.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:54 AM | Comments (1)

May 29, 2007

How Can 'The Man' Keep You Down

...if you don't even try to get up?

An amazing, heatbreaking, three part series from a talented writer who quit his cush newspaper job to do the right thing.

I only have one beef with the series: I think he cops out in his epilogue. It's more of an argument to save the system for the six serious kids in it, vice addressing the inherent problems in the students' upbringing ~ a culture where being smart and using it makes you a social pariah. Or a target. I don't expect a Cosby-like railing against hip-hop and baggy pants, but, after it being such a central point of his disillusionment, you'd think he'd touch on it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:40 AM | Comments (1)

May 15, 2007

BREAKING NEWS

Jerry Falwell has died.

I can see it now...

God's office buzzer goes off

God: Yes, Peter?

St Peter: Jerry's just arrived, Heavenly Father. Shall I send him in?

God: Oh, you betcha, Peter.

God's hand hovers over the comm button

God: Oh, and Peter?

St. Peter: Yes, Lord?

God: Make sure you close the door behind him.

St. Peter: Oh, you betcha.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:40 PM | Comments (8)

May 08, 2007

Aging Infrastructure?

We don't see no steenkin' "aging infrastructure"!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:30 PM | Comments (6)

::sigh:: Bring It On

...BASTARDI.
I know how to prep for one. Or two or three....

Or four.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:21 PM | Comments (12)

April 19, 2007

25 Years Ago Today

...our odd little matrimonial experiment got started. I was 'out to here' pregnant with Ebola and we still hadn't been able to commit to giving it a legal whirl. Lounging around one morning, major dad asked "Well? We gonna do it?" Always on top of things, I said "What?" He meant 'get married'. Off to the Santa Ana Courthouse we trudged in what passed for our impoverished finest and filled out the paperwork. The Clerk of the Court was a radiant, lovely lady named Roberta Peters, about 70; snowy white hair, bespectacled, thin and graceful...who LIVED to marry people.

"Are you two ready?" she chirped.

"Uh...no, ma'am. Let them go first." We said that about 8 more times in the next hour or so, as we cowered in the hallway.

Then, somewhere, something took hold, we held hands and said, "Let's go do this." And we did. Ms. Peters was ecstatic. One more nuptial notch on her Justice of the Peace pole.

And we still are. I have no idea how he's stood me all this time, but I adore him all the more for it. The weird thing is, it doesn't seem like 'all this time'.

I guess that's what makes it right.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:59 AM | Comments (16)

April 14, 2007

It Ain't A Fit Night Out For Man Nor Beast

Or at least it won't be tomorrow

AT SANDY HOOK, NJ...HIGH TIDE ON SUNDAY MORNING WILL OCCUR AT 6:40 AM. THE FOLLOWING HIGH TIDE ON SUNDAY EVENING WILL OCCUR AT 7:07 PM. LATEST DATA SUGGEST THAT WATER LEVELS WILL PEAK NEAR 8.0 FEET ABOVE MEAN LOWER LOW WATER.

A wind driven heavy rain. High 42F. Winds ENE at 25 to 35 mph. Rainfall possibly over two inches. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.

and just a wee bit west of us up in the Mountains of Sussex™, that glorious land of the youthful Bingley, things could get real inconvenient

INITIALLY SOME LIGHT RAIN COULD DEVELOP THIS EVENING, THEN STEADIER RAIN AND SNOW WILL FALL AFTER MIDNIGHT. AS TEMPERATURES DROP TO NEAR FREEZING BY SUNDAY MORNING, THERE WILL BE MORE SNOW AND LESS RAIN FALLING. BUT SINCE TEMPERATURES SHOULD REMAIN ABOVE FREEZING MOST OF TONIGHT, ONLY AN INCH OR SO OF SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BE ON THE GROUND BY SUNRISE ON SUNDAY.

DURING SUNDAY, HEAVIER PRECIPITATION WILL FALL. IT IS STILL UNCERTAIN HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE FOR THE PRECIPITATION TO CHANGE TO ALL SNOW AND THE FASTER THE CHANGEOVER, THE MORE SNOW THAT WILL ACCUMULATE. BEFORE THE SNOW TAPERS OFF TO SNOW SHOWERS SUNDAY NIGHT, WE EXPECT AN AVERAGE OF 4 TO 8 INCHES OF SNOW TO ACCUMULATE. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS SHOULD BE HIGHLY VARIABLE WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS OVER THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS WHERE A FOOT OF SNOW CANNOT BE RULED OUT. OVER THE SOUTHERN PARTS OF THE AREA, SNOW MAY ONLY ACCUMULATE A COUPLE INCHES.

THE EXACT STORM TRACK REMAINS UNCERTAIN...AND A MINOR FLUCTUATION TO THE EAST OR WEST WILL GREATLY IMPACT EXPECTED SNOW ACCUMULATIONS. TRAVEL WILL BECOME EXTREMELY DIFFICULT LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM. IN ADDITION...POWER OUTAGES COULD OCCUR SUNDAY AS ANY HEAVY WET SNOW COMBINES WITH GUSTY WINDS TO CAUSE TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES TO SNAP UNDER THEIR WEIGHT.

Is Gorezilla due in the NY area this weekend?

*Bonus points for whomever correctly identyfies the source of the post title. Yes, I know you know Sis, so you can't play.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:09 AM | Comments (6)

April 11, 2007

Starting Day 2 Of Jury Duty

Just hanging with my boys (and gals), waiting for the call.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:03 AM | Comments (20)

March 23, 2007

BREAKING NEWS

An explanation is emerging for the KILLER PET FOOD NIGHTMARE this past week.

EXCLUSIVE: Rat Poison Believed to Be Source of Some Pet Food Contamination

ABC News has learned that investigators have determined that a rodent-killing chemical is the toxin in the tainted pet food that has killed several animals.

A source close to the investigation tells ABC News that the rodenticide, which the source says is illegal to use in the United States, was on wheat that was imported from China and used by Menu Foods in nearly 100 brands of dog and cat food.

Rat poison'll do it. Welcome to the global economy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:53 AM | Comments (2)

March 22, 2007

Rather Than Wander Around the Plane

...surrendering my comfort, I think I'd just chant the Bingley mantra:

"He has a right to his seat. What he doesn't have a is a right to MINE."

Why is it when someone relates an experience ~ if the picture painted by that experience is ugly albeit the truth ~ shitty little comments about 'stereotypes' come out, implying the complainer is both hateful and uncompassionate. To wit:

Dear Well-Mannered Traveler: “Is there a polite way to deal with an extra large passenger seated next to me? These folks always have bags full of food spilling out everywhere, their arm is actually in my seat space, every time they shift their weight my drink spills, etc. I nearly cry every time I see that I am seated next to such a person. Please advise!”
- Sheila T., Parkland Florida

Dear Sheila: Next time you head out to the airport remember to take your tickets and your driver’s license or passport, but please leave your stereotypes behind.

The WMT then discusses dealing with those annoying "SEATMATES OF SIZE", the implication being that it's your fault you're crushed into an armrest by the 500 pound sized fellow in the seat next to you. And that you should shut-up and suck it up, with helpful, well-mannered gems like this:

On a full flight, you’ll just need to make the best of it. Be patient: this isn’t a permanent situation and you’ll eventually get to your destination. Rather than sit and stew, get up and walk up and down the aisle a bit or find a spot out of traffic to stand and read a magazine or chat quietly with another passenger.

Oh gosh. I'll bet that would have helped the poor young fellow I heard asking for a supervisor in DFW one day. A rotund sized seatmate had exited the tiny plane earlier and I thought ,"Yeesh! I wonder who got to sit next to him..." and then heard the young fellow. It seems he had. In an aisle seat with the super-sized seatmate in the middle. Crushing him against and over the armrest, forcing his entire upper torso INTO the aisle for beverage carts to whang into and bathroom wanderers to beat with their belt buckles on their way to and fro, fo'ard and aft. In an Delta Embraer 70 seater all the long way from Portland to Dallas. I'll bet it felt pretty permanent to that kid after the first hour of his contortionist act, less mind with another hour or so to look forward to. 'Wandering' not available.

I'm about sick of tap dancing around the fact that a 60 inch waist is OBESE. I am the FIRST to point out that my cheesecake picture is MANY years/self-induced cheesecake love handles later and NOT in the "oh, if only Nicole Richie had ten more pounds on her" fashion. Even 40 inch waists will squeeze into the seat and we can still all live in harmony. Most likely (unless you're a klutz like me), your discomfort in said seat will be yours alone. As it should be. But this crap in her advice to the "seatmate of size" drives me INSANE...

It’s not your fault airline seats are so tiny. If you find yourself cheek-to-cheek with your seatmate, try to make the best of it. You might end up shedding some stereotypes as well.

"IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT". I'd say something snide about boxes of Snack Wells at this moment, but that would be re-enforcing stereotypes. And mean. And then "Scholars of Fat" lesbian college activists would start commenting on top of our usual asshat. Just SO not worth it. (But we all know whose crumb covered laps I'm alluding to, right?)

So. In an acronym: STFU, discomforted "seatmate of average size". It's your fault.

Now, go buy some bacon at Target.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:46 PM | Comments (4)

From One Girl to Another

Dear Elizabeth,

That sucks. Just plain out and out sucks. I watched a dear friend go through the agony of anticipation every time those three month check-ups came due, then watched her 'whew' of relief, watched what the tamoxifen was doing to her system in the meantime and then the three month check-up three years later when there was no 'whew'. When they wanted her to go through it all again. To get the rest. Terrifying. And then when she said 'I can't. Take them off. Completely.' And then the agony of recovery, tempered by some peace of mind that where there are no longer any breasts, the same may hold true for the cancer that dwelt there.

I know you have the best medical care in the world available, but that's cold comfort. Bless your heart. I wish you a complete, 'whew' filled recovery and ALL the best.

Ms. sister

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:29 AM | Comments (3)

March 10, 2007

Scene In NY

These two games caught my eye yesterday in a window on lower Broadway

Passover Slides and Ladders

and

Kosherland.

hehe. I love this stuff!

I wonder if Kosherland has a Goyim Sea?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:25 PM | Comments (1)

February 27, 2007

The 1993 Bombing

Lawhawk and Michelle Malkin remind us of a sad anniversary that has faded from the public memory: the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. 14 years, my God. I was 6 blocks or so away, and I remember hearing the explosion; not that we thought 'BOMB!' back in those innocent days, mind you. We thought that some construction crew had dropped one of those big honking steel plates that they use to cover up holes in the street. But then we got the phones calls from friends who worked in the Financial Center right across the street and who had a view into the parking lot entrance where the bastards had driven. While that was happening all the commodity markets in the WTC shut down and started evacuating folks...an awful prelude to that horrific day 8 years later.

Michelle also has a link which is hard for me to watch; it brings back such a flood of memories. It is the elevator ride up to the Observation Deck on the 107th floor of the South Tower.

For those of you who took that trip many times, as I did, it's hard to watch.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:14 AM

February 24, 2007

YES!!!

Thanks to Dave E. and Sheila I just had to watch Miracle again tonight.

I'm blubbering like no kind a'nuthin' all over again.

and loving every minute of it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:48 PM | Comments (2)

February 22, 2007

When the Students Get to Choose Everything From the University President

...to, probably, the color of the vegetables on their plastic tray ~ and then indulged during their predictable, juvenile histrionics when someone dares proffer a choice based on qualification without consulting said student body ~ what would you expect?

Commission: Gallaudet at risk of losing accreditation
The nation's only liberal arts university for the deaf could lose its accreditation unless it addresses concerns about weak academic standards, ineffective governance and a lack of tolerance for diverse views, an education oversight group warned.

Gallaudet University was rocked by student demonstrations last fall that shut down the university for several days and forced the board to revoke the appointment of a new president.

Afterward, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education said it was delaying a decision on whether to renew the school's accreditation because of concerns raised during the protests and because of a 2005 federal report that rated Gallaudet "ineffective." The federal Office of Management of Budget this month gave Gallaudet an improved evaluation, to "adequate."

A letter from the commission, dated Jan. 13 and disclosed this week, summarized the issues the university must address to retain its accreditation. Commission Vice President Linda A. Suskie said the fall protests raise questions about the university's governance and whether the board is out of touch.

University spokeswoman Mercy Coogan said interim president Robert Davila had shared the letter with campus leaders, who were addressing its concerns.

The campus 'leaders' were addressing the letter's concerns? NOT the president? 'Out of touch' seems a kind way to phrase it.

I think the commission could have saved itself a stamp.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:50 AM | Comments (2)

February 19, 2007

President's Day, 2007

I love long weekends.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:36 AM | Comments (5)

February 05, 2007

Baby It's Cooooold Outside

It was 9 here when I left the house, and the harbor at the ferry terminal was starting to ice up. Maybe we should transplant some of those homeless drowning polar bears down to New Jersey?

Of course, for real thrills...anyone want to hop in the car with me for a road trip to Mount Washington?

Temp -22.5°F Wind 283° (W) Gust 91.5 mph W. Chill -71.7°F

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:38 AM | Comments (9)

"Sexpresso" Shops

There's something about the West Coast that just affects people's minds, I think. I mean, sure, there's a Starbucks on every corner so if you want to have your own coffee shop the competition is pretty fierce. But have we gone so adrift as a culture that we really need these?

At the Sweet Spot Cafe in the northern suburbs of Seattle, you get more than a foam topping on your cappucino. You get a waitress in a bikini, or maybe a tight-fitting T-shirt, and a choice of drinks with names such as Wet Dream (with caramel and white chocolate), Sexual Mix (a caramel macchiato) or Erotic Pleasure.

South of the city, in Tukwila, the baristas at Cowgirls Espresso wear sheer negligees and visible pink panties. It's the same story in any number of other suburban bars and drive-through stands, like the Natte Latte in Port Orchard or Moka Girls in Auburn - bikinis, racy lingerie, fetish clothing, and plenty of suggestively exposed flesh.

...Welcome to "sexpresso" - the latest coffee fad to hit America, in which the country's seemingly boundless fascination for Italian-style Java is combined with its equally boundless fascination for half-naked women.

I'm not morally offended/outraged by these places and I certainly don't want to ban them or any such nonsense. But I do find it...sad is the word, I guess...that a bunch of these places have popped up and are accepted with such indifference. And it's not just coffee shops; look at the images in ads on TV. It is the ultimate irony: after 40 years of feminism our society is more permeated with images of women as sexual objects than ever before (which is pretty amazing considering how we constantly hear about how the country has been turned into a rightwing religious theocracy).

And it makes being the dad of a teenage daughter that much harder.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:27 AM | Comments (11)

January 31, 2007

Being a Master of 'Fuzzy Math', I Declare This to Be

...'fuzzy'.

Parents left in a lurch by new city school-bus routes refused to roll with the changes yesterday, with some defiantly sneaking their children onto buses and others keeping their little ones home in protest.

... "I'm not taking any chances with my children," said Denise Neibel, one of a handful of parents in the Roxbury neighborhood, who put their kids on a yellow bus bound for PS 114, even though they were told to take public transit.

"Anyone who thinks that it's appropriate for a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old to take public transportation to school made a really bad error in judgment," Neibel said, referring to her daughter, Isabella, and son, Sam.

... The department had estimated that the restructuring, which initially included cutting 250 routes and consolidating hundreds of others, would save the city $20 million. It has since lowered the estimate to $12 million annually based on 116 route cuts.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein defended the scheme before Queens parents last night, saying the first two days of the rerouting "went very smoothly" and that $16 million paid to the consulting firm of Alvarez & Marsal to identify the cuts was worth it.

Sure it was.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:02 AM | Comments (3)

January 30, 2007

If It's Easier to Put Ethanol in Your Tank

...the chicken is your pot is gonna cost more.

Tyson, the world's largest protein producer, on Monday warned that boosting US ethanol production would spill over into higher global food prices.

The US group said consumers would bear the brunt of domestic price increases being pushed through to compensate for the near-doubling of corn costs last year, spurred in part by the competing claim on the crop to make ethanol.

Food producers have expressed concern about the effect of ethanol-driven corn prices for months but calls for a food-versus-fuel debate have grown louder in the wake of last week's White House plan for a five-fold rise in renewable fuel production over the next decade.

I'd noticed that last week at our little natural food co-op. El pollo loco had gone up almost a dollar a pound, seemingly overnight.
When it was already at $3.49 lb, that's a bad thing. $4.49 lb puts it in the 'get something else' thing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:54 AM | Comments (1)

January 29, 2007

Damn, Damn, Damn

They had to put him down.

What a big, brave guy he was and bless his owners' hearts for doing everything they could.
We've all been there having to make that decision. And tearing our hearts out.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:37 PM | Comments (4)

January 26, 2007

Oh, ICK! It's Raining

...bodies!! I don't think I'd recover, either.

Jumpers leave workers sleepless in Seattle
A bridge over Seattle is becoming hazardous to the mental health of the dot-com employees and other office workers below, who keep seeing people jump to their deaths from the span.

Thirty-nine people over the past decade have committed suicide off the 155-foot-high Aurora Bridge -- eight in 2006 alone -- and counselors are regularly brought in to help office workers deal with the shock of seeing the leap or the bloody aftermath.

At least one woman, Sarah Edwards, drives on the left side of the street near her office ever since a body landed on the hood of a co-worker's car.

I'd never sleep again.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 PM | Comments (4)

January 24, 2007

They Should Have Asked Me

Group attempting to simplify terror alerts
Current system of notification called chaotic, confusing

For the sake of clarity, I would have suggested:

...and the always popular....

Easy cheesy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:42 PM

January 10, 2007

Higher Math And The AP

I saw this and I thought, wait a minute

New Jersey Ranks 2nd for People Moving Out

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- New Jerseyans appear to be on the move -- out of the state.

An analysis of migration trends by the nation's largest mover shows the Garden State second with nearly 61 percent of customers leaving last year.

United Van Lines says Michigan and North Dakota tied for the most outbound migration.

North Carolina had the highest inbound migration with 64 percent of moves going into the state. Oregon was second.

Eight of the ten winners in inbound migration were from the Southeast or West.

Now, don't get me wrong, having all these folks leaving is a drag, because it means that my taxes will keep going up to pay for all the people the government keeps hiring in their effort to 'streamline government', but what got me most about this is the headline.

If "Michigan and North Dakota tied for the most outbound migration" then New Jersey is number 3, not 2, you dopes.

But maybe this story was reported by Jamail Hussein too.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:56 AM | Comments (10)

January 08, 2007

My Turn

Yes, he's hanging out with his blond girlfriend.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:36 PM | Comments (4)

"Even Covered in Mustard, Bingley Wouldn't Tempt the Most Desperate of New Orleans Cannibals"

...is one of my favorite commenting 'handles'. "But ths", you ask,"Tres true and hilarious as that is, why you bring it up, cher?"
Well, truth is stranger than fiction, these days. Like, given to hyperventing hyperbole that he is, I'm still sure no one would think Barney Frank would accuse a president of 'genocide' concerning a natural disaster. His ignorance of all things 'emergency' might lead him to say 'ineptitude', 'indifference' or 'racist', but genocide? Good grief. Once and for all, neither George Bush nor Karl Rove control the very waves in the sea or the wind in the air. Only this guy does. And it's pretty arbitrary where the bad stuff winds up, depending on His mood.

Granted, we're sort of responsible for preparing just in case He's ornery and sends sh*t our way for whatever reason ~ gays, strip clubs, Mardi Gras, ad nauseum ~ regardless, it's still HIM/Nature/Thor the Thunder God doing it, not the White House. A couple bottles of water, box o' crackers, cans o' tuna ~ all covered by food stamps ~ will go a long way to making your situation palatable. And just to let you know that rising water isn't exclusively a Rovian plot to wipe the Democratic voting poor black man from the face of the earth, take a listen to some of these 911 calls during Ivan ~ those are white people climbing on their washers and kitchen counters, trying to break into the ceilings as the water comes up. "Can someone come get us?" (No dumba$$, they can't. The winds are steady at 140mph.) And. Some of them drowned. Now, I know that doesn't count as 'genocide', because it's white 'rednecks' from the Panhandle,
but we've got feelings, too.

MY question to Rep. Frank? So if THIS round was presidential 'genocide', who catches the blame for Round Two? YOU'RE 'in charge' now and those are OUR tax dollars, so...?

New Orleans Repeats Mistakes as It Rebuilds
Many Houses Built in Areas Katrina Flooded Are Not on Raised Foundations

By ones and twos, homeowners here are reinhabiting neighborhoods, even the most devastated ones, and many view their return as a triumph over adversity.

But experts involved in the rebuilding believe that the helter-skelter return of residents to this low-lying metropolis may represent another potential disaster.

...Moreover, while new federal guidelines call for raising houses to reduce the damage of future floods, most returning homeowners do not have to comply or are finding ways around the costly requirement, according to city officials.

"It's terrifying: We're doing the same things we have in the past but expecting different results," said Robert G. Bea, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and a former New Orleans resident who served as a member of the National Science Foundation panel that studied the city's levees.

"There are areas where it doesn't make any sense to rebuild -- they got 20 feet of water in Katrina," said Tom Murphy, a former Pittsburgh mayor who served on an Urban Land Institute panel for post-Katrina planning. "In those places, nature is talking to us, and we ought to be listening. I don't think we are."

Who has the cajones (the technical term) to be the adult in the room here, Congressman? Have you said ONE WORD about what's ACTUALLY going on in the city at this moment, instead of your pitiful, recycled urban legends? Do you even know? (Note to Barney: see Popular Mechanics for FACTS. Don't be intimidated ~ they have pictures and pie charts.) New Orleans had a DEMOCRATIC government before Katrina and, to the voters' utter, eternal SHAME, all the same good time boys are there again...

...New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) so far has favored allowing evacuees to inhabit their old neighborhoods as they wish.

Mike Centineo, the city's building chief, said, "Legally and morally, we're doing the right thing," but he acknowledged that most returning homeowners are not raising their houses to meet the new flood guidelines. "You wouldn't want to put people through more than they can endure. It's a catastrophe that happened. No one wants it to happen again. But they're just rebuilding as best they can."

...doing the politically expedient thing again. My best guess would be that New Orleans laissez faire will win out. And when they're all backstroking again ~ as they someday inevitably will be ~ it won't fall on the black Democratic administration's head for not acting like grown-ups who gave a damn about preventing another catastrophe. Who gave a damn about their people's safety. (I'm sure Randy Ray Noggin has kept that choice piece of property in Texas just in case...) Nah. It will be that the uncaring white folk in the White House LET the Ray Naginites LET them stream back into the bowl, build their houses free of pilings or stilts or concrete blocks where there was once 20 feet of water, knowing they could call up another storm and clear them all out...again.

Ain't nuffin' like havin' yo'sef de plan, cher.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:39 AM | Comments (3)

January 07, 2007

And Has Anyone Else Noticed the Latest GE Commercial

...is using a Cat Stevens' song? Of course, that was before he found Muhammed and started blaming the British school system for Muslim bombs and tapdancing around pretty simple questions.

Questions for Yusuf Islam
Singing a New Song

...[NYT] Right, the Islamia Schools, which are among the few Muslim schools in London. What do you make of the widespread discontent among Muslim schoolchildren raised in Europe?

[YM] The atrocities of 7/7 made everyone look very deeply at themselves. It’s noteworthy to recognize that none of those people involved in that horrific attack came from Muslim schools. They went to government schools.

Which means what? It sounds as if you are blaming British public schools for breeding violence among young Muslims.

There is a lack of a curriculum where the student could understand his role in society rather than be estranged.

...How do you support yourself these days — off your old hits?

I think we sell about 1.5 million albums a year.

...For all your devotion to education and good deeds, government officials in various countries have tried to link you to extremist groups, including Hamas. What do you think of Hamas?

That’s an extremely loaded question.

Can you try to answer it?

I have never supported a terrorist group or any group that did other than charity and good to humankind.

O.K., but many of us here in the States would like to see moderate Muslims make more of an effort to denounce the extremist fringe of the faith. Very few mainstream Muslims have publicly criticized their radical brethren.

If I am not an example of that, then tell me, Who is?

So would you say you have contempt for a terrorist group like Hamas?

I wouldn’t put those words in my mouth. I wouldn’t say anything on that issue. I’m here to talk about peace. I’m a man who does want peace for this world, and I don’t think you will achieve that by putting people into corners and asking them very, very difficult questions about very contentious issues.

Followed by a moonshadow? No. Just a note to customer service.

"Dear GE ~

I won't be helping you bankroll this guy...

thsister"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:59 PM | Comments (6)

December 15, 2006

This Could Be Fantastic News

Hurrah for red hot chile peppers

In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.

Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.

"I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more."

Here's the cool part

Dr. Dosch had concluded in a 1999 paper that there were surprising similarities between diabetes and multiple sclerosis, a central nervous system disease. His interest was also piqued by the presence around the insulin-producing islets of an "enormous" number of nerves, pain neurons primarily used to signal the brain that tissue has been damaged.

Suspecting a link between the nerves and diabetes, he and Dr. Salter used an old experimental trick -- injecting capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot chili peppers, to kill the pancreatic sensory nerves in mice that had an equivalent of Type 1 diabetes.

"Then we had the biggest shock of our lives," Dr. Dosch said. Almost immediately, the islets began producing insulin normally "It was a shock, really out of left field, because nothing in the literature was saying anything about this."

I hope this works out, and quickly.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:43 PM | Comments (7)

December 13, 2006

Why Does This Article

...remind me of Ted WIlliams' charming son?

A family at cross-purposes
Billy Graham's sons argue over a final resting place

Franklin wants the old man buried in his new theme park, while Ned (the son who's actually been taking care of Rev. Graham and his frail, suffering wife Ruth) wants them buried...where they want to be buried.

...Ruth Graham has told her children that she doesn't want to be buried in Charlotte. She has a burial spot picked out in the mountains where she raised five children, and she hopes her husband will join her there.

Ned Graham has been working to convince his three sisters, Gigi, Bunny and Anne, that their mother's wishes should be followed.

They've been married for a GAZILLION years and the best she has is to 'HOPE' her husband will be buried with her?! How is there even a discussion?

My personal opinion? Franklin Graham is a pretentious monster. He's Jesse Jackson to Dr. King ~ a coattail riding idealogue who will f*ck his parents over for a dollar in a heartbeat. I can't stand him or his sister Anne. They're as hateful as they come, just sprinkling "Lord, this or that' in to make it palatable.

I can't wait for Rev. Graham's head to wind up in a cryogenic freezer bucket. Just watch.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:12 AM | Comments (5)

December 11, 2006

Well, Jackass

Maybe if you hadn't gotten a lawyer, you wouldn't be worrying about being a Jewish Grinch.

...The initiative followed a decision by airport officials to remove its nine Christmas trees instead of adding a giant Jewish menorah to the holiday display as a rabbi had requested.

Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who made his request weeks ago, said he was appalled by the decision. He had hired a lawyer and threatened to sue if the Port of Seattle didn’t add the menorah next to the trees, which had been festooned with red ribbons and bows.

...“They’ve darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up,” said Bogomilsky’s lawyer, Harvey Grad. “There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch.”

So, you threaten to sue instead of work it out with the airport and then have the nerve to try to spin it your way when it blows up in your face?

I think the Yiddish word is Chutzpah:

One humorous example of chutzpah is often given as follows: "A boy is on trial for murdering his parents, and he begs of the judge leniency because he is an orphan."

That about covers it.

UPDATE: I'd call this SCHMUCK spin.

..."We are not part of the war on Christmas," said Grad. "All we asked for was inclusion and now we're getting hate mail and angry messages."

Your threat of a lawsuit is NOT "asking" for inclusion and most people would consider a lawsuit an act of war.

I sure do.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:38 PM | Comments (8)

December 05, 2006

Can You Hear Gaia Screaming Now, Clarice?

My cooking of late has been severely restricted around the house, as we have been redoing our kitchen. In fact, I have personally been responsible for the 15% rise in restaurant spending in New Jersey over the past month. But slowly, oh so slowly things are coming together.

The biggest decision that you face is what will your countertops be made of. We were getting rid of some blechy 40 year old laminate (which, to give it its due, did indeed last 40 some-odd years) and were torn about which material to choose. Initially I wanted maple butcher block, because it just looks some cool and, well, cozy in a kitchen. But, as my bride correctly pointed out, it takes a lot of maintenance, doesn't like liquids, and really doesn't like hot pans. Oh bother. Well, what about Corian? I have to admit it was very tempting to have an oil product in my kitchen! Plastic, New Jersey and me; perfect together. I wondered if I could get various Halliburton officials to autograph it...sigh.

But then blinding inspiration struck. I saw an article about Al Gore and the Cult of Gaia and I knew instantly what was needed here:

Gaia Flesh.

Living, breathing Gaia flesh. Ripped from her tormented body in an open pit strip mine in India by huge, smoke-belching machines. Loaded on to diesel-stench spewing trucks for a perilous drive down to the port, and from there on to a rusty freighter whose bilge effluvia leaves a sickened and oil-slickened gaian bloodstream gasping in her wake. My god, it was perfect; I had to have granite:

But gawd I hope everything is hooked up by Christmas...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:31 PM | Comments (45)

December 01, 2006

On This Day 51 Years Ago

...the lady kept her seat.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:52 AM | Comments (3)

November 27, 2006

"Spit Out That Cookie Monster!!"

The 'cookie monster' in question refers to a particular confection a California chain called 'Baxter's' used to have on it's menu ~ a LARGE chocolate chip cookie covered with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. They were divine and, in our youth, eaten completely by one individual. It also became the rallying cry Kcruella and I shrieked at each other when temptation would waggle it's finger. (We were Marines, after all ~ height/weight standards CAN be useful.) We'd be close to surrender ("YOU deserve it!" "No, YOU do!" "We can split one and drink water!" "Waitress...!"), only to have a human of monsterous proportions waddle by. We were saved.

Now that the Marine Corps no longer has any interest in my waistline, the passage of time ~ and making my meager living sitting on my tookus ~ has required my military cheesecake photo to carry a "many cheesecakes ago" warning label in the spirit of complete disclosure. So it was with some personal interest that I dove into an article major dad pointed out to me yesterday in Pravda. It really was astonishing.

Big People on Campus
ASK Sheana Director for a detailed description of herself, and chances are the word fat will come up. It is not uttered with shame or ire or any sense of embarrassment; it’s simply one of the things she is, fat.

“Why should I be ashamed?” said Ms. Director, 22, a graduate student in women’s studies at San Diego State University, who wields the word with both defiance and pride, the way the gay community uses queer. “I’m fat. So what?”

...Even as science, medicine and government have defined obesity as a threat to the nation’s health and treasury, fat studies is emerging as a new interdisciplinary area of study on campuses across the country and is gaining interest in Australia and Britain. Nestled within the humanities and social sciences fields, fat studies explores the social and political consequences of being fat.

For most scholars of fat, though, it is not an objective pursuit. Proponents of fat studies see it as the sister subject — and it is most often women promoting the study, many of whom are lesbian activists — to women’s studies, queer studies, disability studies and ethnic studies. In many of its permutations, then, it is the study of a people its supporters believe are victims of prejudice, stereotypes and oppression by mainstream society.

"Fat studies"? "Scholars of fat"? Who do they think they're kidding and why does the American college system perpetuate this pretentious bullsh*t? I'm still agog at the concepts in this article. And, quite honestly, absolutely mesmerized by the people who inhabit a bubble world where such things are feted, entertained, discussed and researched as if it were quantum particle theory and had ANY bearing on the real world at all.

To the Times' credit, there are voices of sanity represented, to which I could only say aloud "*yeah, no shit!"

...Others argue, though, that a movement does not make a scholarly pursuit and that this is simply a way to institutionalize victimhood.

“In one field after another, passion and venting have come to define the nature of what academics do,” said Stephen H. Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, a group of university professors and academics who have a more traditional view of higher education. “Ethnic studies, women’s studies, queer studies — they’re all about vindicating the grievances of some particular group. That’s not what the academy should be about.

“Obviously in the classroom you can look at issues of right and wrong and justice and injustice,” he added, “But if the purpose is to vindicate fatness, to make fatness seem better in the eyes of society, then that purpose begs a fundamental intellectual question.”

Or as Big Arm Woman, a blogger, wrote: “I don’t care if people are fat or thin. I do, however, care that universities are spending money on scholarship about the ‘politics of fatness’ when half of the freshman class can’t read or write at the college level*.”

...Whether activism is an appropriate goal for academia is a controversial notion. Joseph B. Juhasz, a social psychologist who teaches at the University of Colorado, said the possibilities are endless.

“Certainly we have not reached a point where we can do away with queer studies or race studies or women’s studies,” Professor Juhasz said. “But where do you draw the line? Is there going to be a department of man-boy-love studies? Do we need polygamy studies? At which point do you say, enough already*?”

Bad enough they live the dream, but students PAY to take these classes! They're exposed to such a twisted sense of being, that I don't doubt some impressionable, waif-like 18 year old will be marching to free her fat sisters from...ack...whatever they need liberating from. (And you can bet the overweight, beer swilling fella we all know and love would be MOST UNwelcome in these introspective, angry, feminine fat fests.)

...Elena Escalera, an assistant professor of psychology at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., vehemently disagrees with the idea that fat studies perpetuates a victim’s mentality.

“This is not about victimhood, but about becoming empowered,” she said. “Did Martin Luther King and Malcolm X espouse victimhood? Did Susan B. Anthony? It’s really easy for people to feel that fat people are trying to find an excuse.”

These fat people/scholars compare their 'struggle' to Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Susan B. Anthony?! 'STRUGGLE'? Hello? What struggle? I know it's tough to lose weight, I KNOW it's discouraging ~ I'm so there my sisters! BUT. Just because it's hard for you to walk a mile a day (or not eat the whole bag of chips or remind yourself that just because it's 'fat-free' doesn't mean you can eat the whole box), YOU, by virtue of your GIRTH, do NOT have the right to make someone else's life miserable. DO NOT. And that's what these courses are doing. They are rationalizing the 200 boxes of SnackWells on your hips into a reason NOT to be sorry that you've squashed the poor person stuck in the airline seat next to you into a wallie. Or twisted his body over the armrest on the aisle so badly that he needs to have broken ribs reset. Martin Luther King tried to make things better for OTHERS. Malcolm X tried to make things better for OTHERS. Susan B....you get my drift. Dear fat lesbian scholarly chicks. You are only trying to make things better for yourselves. And people will glom onto these excuses like a glazed Krispy Kreme ~ giving them the tacit approval to be offensively rude and foist their own lack of willpower off on society. Because it's your neighbor's tough luck if he doesn't understand.

THAT is unconscionable self indulgence.

Am I condoning being mean to large folks? No. I don't condone being rude to anyone, ever. There's enough meaness in this world without me adding to it. But obesity is probably the one thing in this world that affects your life that you can take ahold of yourself. You voluntarily got yourself that way. You can voluntarily un-get yourself that way. Which also means that my sympathy meter at your victimhood is pretty well pegged. When my clothes don't fit, I look in the mirror and I look to me. I don't check to see how the world is looking at me.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:54 AM | Comments (2)

November 01, 2006

I Blame Bush!

...corporate whore that he is.

Those annoying television commercials that told parents to talk to their teenagers about not smoking were especially annoying to the kids they were meant to help, an upcoming article in the American Journal of Public Health will claim--so annoying that they may have encouraged kids to take up the habit that the tobacco-company-sponsored spots were supposed to deter.

...The study looked at the results of the advertising on the smoking habits and beliefs of American school students. It turns out, perhaps unsurprisingly, that peer pressure overpowered the messages that penetrated living rooms in 75 U.S. television markets.

"As adolescents age toward adulthood, they are more inclined to perceive themselves as independent and self-reliant and less likely to report that they rely on their parents for guidance or assistance," the study said.

The ads aimed at the kids themselves did not have any effect on teen smoking, the study found, while those targeted at the parents apparently made the kids who saw them more likely to smoke.

"No way!" "You're joking!" And the always popular "what a surprise!" If this was REAL news and not a RETHUGLICAN PLOT, it would be on MSNBC/ABC and not FORBES.

In an unlikely coincidence, a proposed constitutional amendent is on the ballot here in Florida. In their infinite wisdom, the do-gooder dolts want to:

No. 4: Protect People Especially Youth, From Addiction, Disease, and Other Health Hazards of Using Tobacco
To protect people, especially youth, from addiction, disease, and other health hazards of using tobacco, the Legislature shall use some Tobacco Settlement money annually for a comprehensive statewide tobacco education and prevention program using Centers for Disease Control best practices. Specifies some program components, emphasizing youth, requiring one-third of total annual funding for advertising. Annual funding is 15% of 2005 Tobacco Settlement payments to Florida, adjusted annually for inflation. Provides definitions. Effective immediately.

Protect PEEPS! Especially YOOTS!! For $57 MILLION a YEAR!!
(Hey! Protection ain't cheap.) Even if the protection doesn't WORK! Is a FAILURE! Like BUSH'S IRAQ POLICY!! Because he's STOOOPID. Like YOO ARE if you don't vote for No.4. You must always vote for the CHIIIIDREN. Or YOO'RE A STOOPID REPUBLICAN HATER GATOR.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2006

Cabs in the City Are Expensive

And getting more so. What a surprise.

A New York minute just got a lot more expensive.

That's because the Taxi and Limousine Commission yesterday doubled the cost of being stuck in traffic in a cab.

Riders now pay 20 cents a minute for "wait time" - a price that hasn't changed in 16 years - but yesterday, officials voted unanimously to raise the rate to 40 cents a minute at a meeting in TLC headquarters.

Adding insult to injury, the wait-time rate will now click in when a cab starts going less than 12 miles per hour. Currently, the rate takes effect at under 6 mph.

What WAS the surprise ~ coming from Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus' mouth, in the city of the WTC gaping-hole-in-the-ground ~ was this statement:

In addition to the fare hike, the eight-member board also approved:
...*A controversial move eliminating the requirement that cabbies demonstrate they are legal U.S. residents.

They now will only have to produce their original Social Security card and a valid driver's license.

"We don't have any business asking people if they are a citizen or not," Daus said.

People who confuse 'legal' with 'citizen' have no business being in such a position. They might confuse other important stuff, wouldn't you think?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:06 AM

October 25, 2006

Amazon Makes A Profit...Sort Of

Amazon announced their 'profits' for the quarter yesterday, and they're pretty poor, frankly

Selling everything from books and computers to diamonds and lawnmowers, Amazon said net income in the quarter fell to $19 million, or 5 cents per share, from $30 million, or 7 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales rose 24 percent to $2.31 billion.

Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 3 cents per share on sales of $2.25 billion, based on Reuters Estimates.

Amazon has been seen as focusing on revenue growth at the expense of profits amid intense competition. In the process, it has alienated many investors who wonder when investments in technology and a costly free shipping program will pay off.

I mean, my goodness, if I generated $2.31 billion of revenue and could only squeeze $19 million profit out of it I think I'd need to find a new business model. It reminds me of the old joke we always laugh about when one of our competitors undercuts us to make a sale to one of our clients, and does the business for what we know is in effect a loss: "Oh, they'll make it up on the volume."

That ranks up there with "The check is in the mail" and "I'll respect you in the morning" as phrases that should cause reasonable people to grab their wallets and run for the hills.

But since I'm not a stockholder, who am I to turn down their free shipping offer? So last night I got the three books I'd ordered last week: America Alone by Mark Steyn, Londonistan by Melanie Phillips, and The Politically Incorrect Guide To Islam by Robert Spencer.

Last night I poured myself a nice glass of port and settled in for some enjoyable reading, only to be interupted by daughter who wanted to watch Victoria And Albert...again. So there went the night. It is a good production, though, and I certainly can't complain when she wants to watch stuff like that. She wanted to watch Seven Samurai last week, and she actually liked it. I love this girl!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:42 AM | Comments (3)

October 20, 2006

Searching for Answers Friday

Is it any wonder that the "meaning of is" hangover from the Clinton is still...hanging around, with prominent Clinton faces in prominent places? Take Dollnna Shalala, president of that bastion of integrity ~ the University of Miami. Oh, boy she's sticking to her guns. "The buck stops here" and a ripsnorting

``But we will not throw any student under the bus for instant restoration of our image or our reputation. I will not hang them in a public square. I will not eliminate their participation at the university. I will not take away their scholarships. . ."

Of course her wealth of experience with miscreants at the highest levels leaves her BLIND to the fact that while SHE might not throw her players under the bus, HER PLAYERS wouldn't hesitate to throw a body, given a LITERAL bus rumbling down Beach Boulevard.

Saturday's brawl was the third major on-field incident in Miami's past seven games.

The Hurricanes took part in a nasty fight with LSU at the end of December's Peach Bowl that left two Miami players, guard Andrew Bain and receiver Khalil Jones, unconscious.

That was followed Sept. 16 with a near-melee with Louisville players after the Hurricanes stomped on their host's cardinal logo at midfield following warm-ups.

That's the problem. They're goons. They have always been indulged GOONS. The contrast is pretty graphic, too, given...

FIU dismissed two players for good and suspended 16 indefinitely, and when Shalala was asked about the gulf between punishments, she said, ``There is no gulf. All of us did essentially the same thing, and that is suspending players and setting a standard in which they fully understand what the standard is.''

Oh, sweet, SWEET baby Jesus. Just Photoshop Bill or HIllary's head on her stumpy body.

Coker defended the one-game suspension for cornerback Brandon Meriweather, seen stomping on FIU players in video.

Oh, of course he did. Toney private school U of M (and their apologists) will be missing suspended players for?

The game against the ALWAYS DANGEROUS DUKE.

Don't worry fans. Most everybody'll be back for GA Tech the week after that.
Hey! It's scheduling! Dolla Shalala isn't like Karl Rove or anything. It just worked out that way.

While I'm piling on... How can a PROFESSIONAL baseball player ~ in a TEAM sport, a LEAGUE PENNANT series and a SHOT at the WORLD SERIES ~ "not be speaking" to his manager?

La Russa explained that he didn’t say anything to Rolen because “the last time I talked to him, it was a worthless exercise.”

La Russa added: “He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t believe it. He didn’t understand it.”

Tony La Russa has had to watch film to see if Scott Rolen's shoulder is well enough to be scheduled in the line up.

Did he play baseball at Miami?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:39 AM | Comments (7)

October 19, 2006

Not Just "NO"

...but "HELL NO", "F@CK NO", "NO WAY" and "NO HOW".

Army Corps proposes easing Gulf wetlands rule
Anger greets plan to let developers skip permits to speed Katrina recovery

Federal wetlands regulators have dropped a bombshell on environmentalists with a little-publicized proposal to relax restrictions on filling in certain wetlands along the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast to speed recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

“It’s unethical, illegal, immoral, unsustainable and they’re simply doing it to make the fat cats richer faster,” said Derrick Evans, executive director of a Gulfport, Miss., community group that plans to fight the proposal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps’ proposal would allow property owners and developers to skirt the conventional "regional general permit" process for any projects that fill up to 5 acres of “low-quality” wetlands in the six southernmost Mississippi counties. Especially galling to environmentalists: The new process would also eliminate the requirement for public notice of such projects.

Oh, please. 'Speed recovery'? How about "speeding significant bucks to undeserving pockets"? Perhaps everyone's forgotten what they were fixing to FIX prior to Katrina and why?

The Corps recommendations for projects to restore some wetlands and slow wetland losses in November 2004 is the most recent of numerous sets of proposals offered over the past four decades since a rapid rate of coastal wetlands loss was first documented. It is now estimated that more than 1.2 million acres of wetlands, an area approximatelythesize of Delaware, has been converted to open water since the 1930s. The remaining wetlands cover about 3.5 million acres, an area slightly larger than Connecticut. .... If the Corps’ program is implemented, it estimates that net wetland losses would be reduced to 170,000 acres by 2050. These estimates do not appear to account for major hurricane events. These losses have been caused by a combination of human activities and natural factors that have been frequently documented in many studies by the Corps and others. Proposals to respond to these losses have centered on rebuilding the region’s coastal wetlands in ways that could reduce the ecological, economic, and social costs. One cost receiving far more attention in the wake of the hurricanes is the diminished role that the remaining wetlands can play in reducing the impact of hurricanes by absorbing storm surges and thereby decreasing flood elevations and wave energy.

Or...?

General Robert Flowers, the head of the Corps of Engineers until last year, is concerned by the loss of a 'natural storm protection', along Louisiana's coast. 'With that loss of wetlands ... we had to build hurricane protection. I think a longer-term solution that replenishes Louisiana's wetlands will better serve us.'

There's a lovely map here of the Biloxi Basin which illustrates the point made here about tidal surges.

Now, I'm sure the Corps is receiving some sincere pressure from all things dollar related and sure as hell wouldn't want to be the generalissimo in charge. But let me make one thing PERfectly clear, because it's going to be presented 'as if'.

There ISN'T going to be any 'rebuilding' of the quaint little seaside villages/gorgeous Ante-Bellum Biloxi's we knew and loved. That's over and those are gone for good.

Biloxi, Gulfport and the other coastal cities/burgs from here west are bought up by condo and gaming developers. Not 'going to be' ~ ARE. You should see all the prospectii for 'Villa Gulfo Magnificos' type speculators on the web, travel and real esate magizines.

The Corps isn't getting pushed to do this so Granny Beauregarde Gautier can get her 1800's house rebuilt on the slab or pilings that's left of it. Oh no.

This is so the wheeler dealers of the world can take their share of the waterfront at firesale prices and build it just as cheap as pie because no one's going to be allowed to watch. And then sell it back to folks in Michigan for whatever the market will bear. You'll be sitting on Beach Boulevard in Biloxi ~ once rightly famous for it's stunning view (above) ~ and not even know there's a drop of water on the other side of that tower in front of you.

Less mind have a place right smack in town where you can get your toes sandy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:25 PM | Comments (2)

I Beginning to Believe One Shouldn't Leave the Beach

...without a RAY GUN.

A Lighthouse Point man is in critical condition this morning, a day after authorities say a stingray jumped onto his boat and stabbed him in the chest, leaving a foot-long barb stuck in him.

Eighty-one-year-old James Bertakis was boating with his grown granddaughter and her friend yesterday afternoon when the rare attack occurred.

...Authorities say Bertakis suffered a closed chest wound, collapsed lung and may have to undergo open-heart surgery.

Firefighters say the roughly five-foot wide, 30 pound stingray died on the boat.

Good Lord! I'm even keeping an eye on the drain in the shower. I mean, you just never know.

UPDATE: I'm frightened. Judging by the anecdotal evidence pouring in from Swillers across the country (See the comments...if you DARE!), I am going to have to change my mind and BELIEVE that...there is more to this fish story than meets the eye.

I am going to become...a

TRUTH Rayer

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:00 PM | Comments (4)

October 15, 2006

I Feel Better Already

Red wine may help prevent stroke damage
A couple glasses a day could protect the brain, mouse studies suggest

Red wine might work to protect the brain from damage after a stroke and drinking a couple of glasses a day might provide that protection ahead of time, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

In an effort to better understand how red wine works, the scientists from Johns Hopkins University fed mice a moderate dose of a compound found in red grape skins and seeds before inducing stroke-like damage.

They discovered that the animals suffered less brain damage than similarly damaged mice who were not treated with the compound, which is called resveratrol.

What's good for Stuart Little's okay by me.
Hmmmm....
That's weird. Same dentist?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:30 PM | Comments (1)

October 14, 2006

Dear Arizona

Vote for Prop 204. You'll take a lot of shit for it like we did here in the Sunshine State, but you'll never know how glad you'll be to have passed it. What you WON'T have is...

25 MILLION GALLONS of PIG POOPIE

...heading down stream in ONE poop swoop like we had in Norf Cacklelackey.

And that's worth every bit of print poop you take for passing it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM

October 13, 2006

Searching for Answers Friday

In Democratic minds, why is it 'no holds barred' to dig up and claw through a Republican candidate's personal ancient history...

...Democratic candidate Kirsten Gillibrand is calling on GOP Rep. John E. Sweeney in Upstate New York to explain a drunken driving arrest 30 years ago and a more recent car accident.

...or embellish associations...

...Top targets are Republican incumbents who have been bruised by the Abramoff scandal. In California, for instance, Democrats are assailing Rep. John T. Doolittle for supporting "forced abortions and sex slavery" in the Northern Mariana Islands, which were represented by Abramoff.

...with no sense of scale or shame...

...In most cases, these attacks are akin to a "Hail Mary" football pass because the chances of success are so low. An example is in Nevada, where Democrats are trying to oust GOP Rep. Jon Porter from a seat that would be very hard to flip under normal circumstances. Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) -- facing his own controversy over a big profit on a land deal -- has twice raised questions about Porter's divorce. The Democratic candidate in that race, Tessa Hafen, is a former Reid aide.

...but not okay to dig up and claw through possible terrorist conversations between here and overseas?

Judge Rules Against Wiretaps

...The eavesdropping program, revealed in news reports in December 2005, allows the NSA to intercept telephone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas without court approval in cases in which the government suspects one party of having links to terrorism.

...Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and other leading Democrats hailed the ruling as a welcome check on the Bush administration. The decision shows that "no one is above the law," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said.

I'm wondering if Mr. Reid was in the room when Kerry said that. It probably flew right over his head if he was.

Sen. Harry Reid asks if anyone "felt a breeze just then?"
- photo 2006©TPI

UPDATE: Well, I'll be jiggered.

Clinton 'Pardon Brokerage' Targeted
Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, filed a formal request with the U.S. Department of Justice, calling for a criminal investigation into the reported activities of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and her brother, Anthony D. Rodham; former President Clinton, and Vonna Jo Gregory, former owner of the carnival company United Shows International.

Recently released court documents provided new details concerning a scheme involving Anthony Rodham, who allegedly received $107,000 in fraudulent loans from United Shows International as compensation for securing a presidential pardon for Gregory in 2000 from then-President Clinton.

Of course, this won't make MSNBC.com, so whoopee doo for Babalu! Or we'd a missed it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:35 AM | Comments (5)

October 05, 2006

"Shoot Me First"

The bravest, most loving sacrifice and the most incredible, loving gift.

The oldest of the five Amish girls shot dead in a Pennsylvania schoolhouse is said to have stepped forward and asked her killer to "Shoot me first," in an apparent effort to buy time for her schoolmates.

...What's more, Fisher's 11-year-old sister, Barbie, who survived the shooting, allegedly asked the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, to "Shoot me second," Rhoads said.

"They were amazing," Rhoads said, "absolutely amazing. There was a tremendous amount of calm and courage in that schoolroom."

"Marian, the oldest one, did ask to be shot first," Rhoads said. "The faith of their fathers really was embedded in them. … How many adults are willing to do that? Not many."

There has to be a special horse and buggie lane on Heaven's gentle paths.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:32 PM | Comments (15)

On the CITGO 'Boycott'

I stole myself from Ken's comment section. (Yes, I'm the one with no...ahem...reproductive appendage for a reason.)

I'm not driving an extra 10 miles to buy non-CITGO gas. Sorry. CITGO's a fact of life here on the Gulf Coast, even to the point of being the supplier for ALL our local Naval installations' petrol stations. The Tom Thumbs that are two to every corner here carry CITGO as their branded gas, but are OWNED by Kroger Supermarkets ~ a VERY American chain. And, while it was convenient for 7-11 to drop CITGO, the fact of the matter is that most of these firms are signed into decades long contracts (a la the Navy (signed 1989 I believe) and have no such opportunity to be nimble.

7-11's contract was EXPIRING and they chose not to renew. Big difference.

Therefore the only people you are hurting by boycotting is the folks who work in the Quick Marts attached to CITGO pumps and it's not like most of them would be working in computer sciences if only they didn't LOVE the Quick Mart life so much.

So no.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:54 PM | Comments (4)

October 04, 2006

A Study in Grace Gives True Meaning

...to 'religion of peace'.

...‘God’s blessing to everyone’
Back in the pumpkin patch, the midday sun was getting hot. John had work to do. Pumpkins are a cash crop, unlike most of the corn and alfalfa in many of the fields.

John said the community is especially concerned that many of the children who were killed or wounded have young parents in their mid-20's to mid-30's. Brothers who escaped had to leave sisters behind with the gunman.

I had heard that some people from the Amish community were perhaps going to meet with Marie Roberts, the gunman's wife. John assured me that would happen soon, if it hadn't already.

"They need support, they need help," he said. "We will send them flowers." He expressed concern about how difficult it would be for the three Roberts children when they return to school.

Finally he asked me to promise to include this message in my story. "We appreciate the help and support of the police and firefighters and our neighbors. God's blessing to everyone. God has a reason for this. We don't know yet and we may not find out in our lives."

I wish, in the face of such horror, I could claim such tranquility reposed in my soul. It does not now, nor ever has.

I'm the vengeful type.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:55 AM | Comments (4)

October 03, 2006

Why Your Mother Always Said NOT to Share Personal Items

...with others in your school.

Study: Sea Lice Killing Wild Salmon
A team of Canadian scientists has found the most direct evidence yet that baby salmon pick up fatal infections of sea lice while swimming past salmon farms in British Columbia's Broughton Archipelago, and that the more salmon farms the more baby salmon die.

That's a lousy way to go.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:47 PM | Comments (1)

September 25, 2006

People For The Ethical Treatment Of...

Roaches

GURNEE, Ill. (AP) - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Six Flags Great America to scrap its Halloween-themed cockroach-eating promotion.

A spokeswoman for the animal rights organization says the contest at the amusement park's FrightFest is "gratuitously cruel."

The park in Gurnee, Ill., is joining other Six Flags parks in offering unlimited line-jumping privileges to anyone who eats a live Madagascar hissing cockroach. The bugs are up to three inches long.

They are beyond parody.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:51 AM | Comments (11)

September 16, 2006

Scotland Part 4: Whoa Nessie!

Sorry about the delay, but here's Day Four in Scotland. As always, I'll put most of the pictures below the fold to save both of us on bandwidth.

Anyhow, if you're not going to be golfing or distillerying (neither of which were in the cards on this trip, sadly) then the point of going to Scotland is Loch Ness. From this point on, we were amazingly lucky in the weather. Whereas in the first three days we had typical misty-rainy-at-any-given-moment-weather, from this point on the weather was gorgeous: mid 70s with bright sunshine. All you SUV drivers, I salute you!

Loch Ness is just a short drive southwest from Inverness, and the main road hugs the western shore. You drive through the village of Drumnadrochit, which I can only describe as South of the Border with buttered sandwiches and crisps. Its main attraction is the Loch Ness 2000 Exhibition Center (Centre, dammit!), which is a suitably cheesey 'investigation' into the myth of Nessie. But they do have a great gift shop and a huge selection of whiskies, which you can shop at without paying the money to see the exhibit.

About a mile farther on down the road you reach Urquhart Castle, which has the finest visitor center/centre you will ever visit. It has a great view of the Loch, a cafeteria, a decent gift shop, historical exhibit, yadda-yadda, but what sets it above the rest is the film they show. You go into a darkened room and the film begins, detailing the history of the Great Glen and Urquhart Castle. The film goes over the various forces that fought for and controlled the castle, and ends with the garrison in the 18th century deciding to blow up the castle as they leave so that it will not fall into Jacobite hands. Boom! The charges go off, and the castle is in ruins. And then the lights stay off but you notice that the screen is rising? What the? And the curtains behind it are opening? And then you see

the actual ruins. It is very well done and very cool.

After you get your breath back, you walk down the path and the first thing you encounter is a trebuchet from the NOVA show on siege engines. It's very cool to see it sitting there!

We then walked into the castle, and of course the kids ran off and started climbing on everything, which was fine. My bride was very impressed with the state of it; when she was last there in 1979 there was no visitor 'centre' or marked walkways; now it has been restored and there are good pathways to walk upon. There are also great views of the Loch

Sharp-eyed readers will notice the RAF "Tornado" zooming up the Loch in the middle of the picture. I have to say it was pretty neat in the Highlands, as we saw/heard these jets flying over head pretty constantly over the next few days. It felt very comforting, I have to admit.

But the Loch and Castle were just beautiful:

I just don't know where that not-as-brazen-as-I-had-hoped hussy Nessie was hiding while we were there. Sigh.

After Ness we picked up some sandwiches (made with butter...Blech!) and headed to Glen Affric, which is described as the most beautiful Glen in the Highlands. That's a tall order to fill, but it may well have done it. It is stunningly beautiful in the Glen. The mountains rise up, covered with thick growths of trees, as the streams burble and tumble down their slopes.

But as we were driving there (and it's only really a half hour or so from Loch Ness) I saw a sign for Corrimony Cairn, so we made a quick detour. A few minutes later, having only had to back up once because a bus was coming towards us on the single lane track, we arrived

This cairn was very cool, because, while the central roof had long since collapsed, the entry way was still covered

so you had to get on your hands and knees and crawl into it. Very cool, indeed.

What's also neat is that they have a fence around the cairn, as it sits in the middle of a pasture. That's it, really. You've got this 4000 year old ruin...and cows.

So, after being sufficiently diverted, we oddled off to Glen Affric, specifically Dog Falls, which seemed to be the easiest area to reach. And by 'easy' I mean that I only had to back up 200' or so once. Remember, all these darn roads are only 1 car wide. It makes the driving...interesting. But the views are lovely

That's where we had a picnic (oh, those butter sandwiches were tasty...not).

After we lunched we took one of the many hiking tails for a walk. The one we took was just a few miles and afforded some lovely views

What is really amazing are the ferns. They are everywhere. And they are gigantic. As in huge. I'm sixfoot, and they were always above my waist. I felt like a bit player in Land of the Lost or something. They were really neat to see everywhere.

After this busy day we drove back to Inverness and had dinner at La Tortilla Asesino, which was absolutely awful. Well, to be fair, the food, when we eventually got it, wasn't that bad, but the service was horrible.

At least it was close to the hotel!

And that was the end of that day.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:37 PM | Comments (1)

A Note to the Islamic Apologists in the Blogosphere

If you must use examples during your fretful arguments to cast the Catholic Church in the worst light possible and blame it for all the world's ills, stick to this century ~ Pope Pius, child predators, etc.

When all else invariably and inevitably fails (alas, including logic) and all tangents lead not to Rome...

"but Catholics had the Inquisition"

...is NOT the default choice.

On a lighter Inquisition historical note ~ Torquemada died today in 1498.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:24 PM | Comments (6)

Very Early This Morning Two Years Ago

...Ivan was busy blowing through major dad's office.

The first thing to greet a visitor were the hallways covered with a slimy, stinky inch and a half worth of God knows what. And then you turn left...

...which hints at what his Marines' office space...

...is going to look like. Ivan's storm surge crashed into the back windows of the building, which stood on the pier at the historic Navy yard. major dad's personal office was on the street side of the building. The door had been locked and was so still when he first arrived on the scene. But when they got it open, his desk had floated around helter skelter, along with the rest of the office furniture, ripping holes in the soaked drywall as they spun. Everything they'd secured in double plastic bags in the top of his six foot wall locker was soaked and reeking, and there was a four foot waterline left of toxic brown sludge.

Ivan's waters came in the back of the historic building...


...and his winds took the front. Almost every building has been razed now and what a shame. You should have seen the beams in just the roof of major dad's building ~ massive. (I believe the keystone said 1873 and there were far older buildings than his still in use.) They're all gone now.

I thought the oddest storm quirk of all were the cheapo white aluminum blinds lining each window. Every last pane of heavy duty glass was completely blown out, steel walls were ripped and twisted, furniture had been tossed like rags and those nasty blinds were still attached and hung ~ a little twisted, but stubbornly intact after all the forces of nature hurled at and through them for hours on end.

I think there's a metaphor in there somewhere.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:34 AM | Comments (2)

September 14, 2006

I Really Really Hate Fat...

Umbrellas. Son of a biatch. Why do people need an umbrella with a 6 friggin foot diameter? Actually, why do hundreds of people all trying to walk down the same damn sidewalk at the same damn time need them? If you are even moderately tall you are completely screwed, as you spend all your time dodging the sharp edges of these damn things. I mean, god forbid the idjits actually consider that I might want to keep my eyes a little longer and maybe tilt their umbrellas a little to avoid whacking other people. ARGH!!!!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:19 AM

September 13, 2006

It's Not Exactly Rocket Science

...Mr. Finlayson...

Neanderthal Find Hints at Longer Era

Neanderthals survived for thousands of years longer than scientists thought, with small lingering bands finding refuge in a massive cave near the southern tip of Spain, new research suggests.

...since they're still IN it. It's more a question of...

...how you get the smelly f*ckers OUT.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:00 PM | Comments (4)

September 12, 2006

Awwww...

Shepards, goldies, wots of wabbies ~ puppies and sliced up paws of every description in this slideshow...

...bless their brave puppy hearts.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:35 PM

A New Normal

Yesterday was a very draining day. While it's vital and important that we remember our friends and fellow citizens who were murdered that day it is hard. Man. We honor our friends by remembering them, and by going on, by living our lives.

Life will never be as it was prior to September 11th, that 'normal' is irrevocably gone. We have to make a new normal, and I think we have. I think we have a better, more realistic view of the world; well, at least some of us do, and that's a start. We now know beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt that there are people in this world who simply hate us and our way of life, and that no amount of dialogue or bridge-building or global conferencing will make them change their minds or decide not to kill us; they can not be brought to a reasonable compromise because they are not reasonable people.

In a real sense the figurative veil has been removed from our eyes by people who want to put a literal one in its place.

And so we must, and will, go on as we have these past five years, stumbling occasionally, as we face up to what confronts us, and what we will need to do if we are to defeat it. There are but two choices: defeat it or submit to it. We owe the 2996 from September 11th and the many since to never, ever submit to it.

Otherwise we are not worthy of what they have given.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:26 AM | Comments (5)

September 06, 2006

Steve

Irwin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:36 PM | Comments (5)

August 29, 2006

Scotland, Part 3: Up To Inverness

I am a silly man. Anyone who knows me will readily vouch for that, as will many who hardly know me. But I am exceedingly blessed in my Bride, who indulges in my silliness, and this drive was one such occasion. I like to play on my PS2, and one of my favorite games is a racing game called TOCA Racedriver 2. A silly name, I agree, but a great game, especially the online component. One of my favorite tracks in the race is called "Loch Rannoch"...which happens to be a real Loch that was not too far out of our way up to Inverness! How could I resist? Yes, yes, yes; it's very sad that I plan part of my vacation to visit a spot I only know of from a freakin' video game. As I said, I am a silly man.

Anyhow, so the Bride agreed and we turned off of the A-9 onto the road towards Loch Rannoch. Well, I guess it was a road. It was paved, but really only about a lane and a half wide, and it followed the course of an old sheep track. Seriously. Any road that is not a highway in Scotland goes up and down and over and around every little contour and dell in the land. Every corner was a blind corner, and I had all of 1 hour's experience sitting on the wrong side of a car and driving on the wrong side of the road. Oh, and it was raining. Luckily, about halfway there there was a place called "Queen's View" which looked out over Loch Tummel. There's some dispute over which particular Queen has dibs here; certainly Victoria visited here (and she was amused by the View, btw) but Mary may have as well. Regardless, the view was lovely:

Suitably refreshed, we hopped back into the car for the drive to Rannoch, which looked quite raw and foreboding when we finally arrived

But completely satisfying nonetheless. There's quite a swanky resort on the shores of Loch Rannoch, if you're ever in the area. I have to admit that the Loch didn't look quite like it did in the game...

I was getting the hang of this left-drive thing, so the trip back took much less time than the trip in, and as I turned back onto the main road leading onto the A-9 I heard this discreet cough next to me and a calm voice said "Drive on the left dear." Oops! No harm, no foul...

Next on the agenda and quite near by was Blair Castle, home of Atholl royalty. Man, does the 4th grader in me love that family name! I just want to shout out "Yo, Atholl!"

Anyhow, it's a spiffy looking place

and it comes with a built-in piper!

But sadly, like every other place of antiquity, there's no photography inside. Trust me when I say that it's worth a visit, as they have tons and tons of 17th and 18th century muskets on the walls, lots of neat paintings and tapestries, and a dining room that serves haggis sausage that is to die for.

Or from.

(We're still working that out.)

Continuing northwards we had a date at Leault Farm to see a working demonstration of sheepdogs herding...sheep, oddly enough. It's set in a lovely valley

The dogs were adorable and sweet

And the sheep were, well, sheep.

It was amazing how the dogs responded to the shepherd's commands and whistles. Each dog had it's own name and pitch that he would play on his whistle, and then he would play a few notes to indicate each command that the dogs were to carry out. He could get the dogs all to lie together whilst a few gathered the sheep close by

Notice the dogs lying in a widely spaced line. With a few whistles he got them to lay still and the other dogs weaved the sheep in and about the line line they were on a parade ground

And then he got the dogs to do the same sort of herding with ducks

It's amazing how much of this is instinct, as one of the dogs was only 12 weeks old yet was already learning and carrying out commands.

Just to make sure we emptied our pockets when the souveniers were offered they soon brought out the puppies, and of course Daughter fell hopelessly in love with one

It was a nice glimpse into a way of life that has all but disappeared.

We then drove up to Inverness and took a short detour to Culloden. Wow, what a sad, moody place. They have markers all about the battlefield showing you the disposition of the forces

And there are stone markers showing where the various clansmen are buried

It was a misty, overcast, windy day when we got there, late in the afternoon, and my god I swear you could hear the souls crying out of the swampy heather

The battle was a complete slaughter of the Jacobites, and the English showed no mercy. They've restored this house to as it looked during the battle

They had to restore it because after the battle 30 or so wounded Jacobites sought refuge in it, and the house was then burned to the ground...wars were fought to be won back then.

Well, the light was failing and night was fast approaching, so we figured what better place to visit then the 4,000 year old Bronze Age burial ground that was only about two miles away?

I'm pretty sure I'll never get to Egypt, but to walk around these 4,000 year old ruins, which are still in pretty darn good shape, was as cool as could be. They're tucked under these gorgeous big old trees, near the banks of the River Nairn, and well worth the visit. It's a rare treat for us gringos to be near something that just reeks of old.

And that was Sunday.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:00 PM | Comments (8)

August 28, 2006

Scotland Part 2: Zoo Britannia

The next day we decided to go to the Edinburgh Zoo in the morning and then take a bus out to see the Royal Yacht Britannia in the afternoon.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Zoo. I won't bore you with too many details, but it was quite lovely and sort of meanders on this hillside on the edge of town...and it was empty. That was odd, really. Here it was a beautiful Saturday morning, bright sunshine in Scotland even, and there was nobody there.

Who would have thought we'd run into Ken?

This was the weirdest little beastie. It would just run back and forth and then stick its butt way up this tree and mark...back and forth, constantly.

But then we saw it's name, and it all became clear

No Scent For Oil!

A little further on we happened on the Zoo's security system

Anyhow, after 3 hours of hearing Daughter squeal "It's so cuuuuuuuute!" at

Every

Single

Animal

we reckoned it was time to hop on the bus back into town, grab some lunch, and then hop back onto another bus to head out to Leith and see HMY Britannia.

So we did.

This was actually a great way to get a cheap tour of the city. Edinburgh only has 400,000 or so folks living there, but during August when the Fringe Festival is going on there are over a million tourists and performers and hangers-on there at any given time. It's insane, really. And they are all clustered about the Royal Mile for the most part. Sheila would absolutely love it, as everywhere you go there are street performers and hawkers for performances shouting out. We ran into troupes from all over the world up there, from High School groups from the States to dance troupes from Asia. Insane. So it was nice to get away from that and actually see more residential areas of the city from the bus out to Leith.

I've been in a lot of cities, and I have to say that the areas we went through, especially as we got closer to the port, which are traditionally the rougher areas of most cities, really didn't look that bad. Every place we saw seemed fairly clean and reasonably well kept up, and it was nice to see the residents going about their normal lives. There was a Hibernian match that day, and our bus took us near the stadium, and it was neat to see all these green-bedecked folks getting on the bus, chatting amongst themselves in that pre-game excitement before they hopped off to have a few at the many over-flowing-with-fans pubs we passed.

It also was comforting to see kids who were, oh, 10 or so, getting on the bus in pairs but unaccompanied by an adult. I know the crime rate in the UK is far higher then in the states, and it was nice to find out that here at least parents felt good enough to let their kids go to the mall without too much fear. Yes, I said 'mall', for that's where Britannia was moored, permantly attached to a mall. Not a bad idea, actually. It pays for the upkeep and ensures a steady stream of visitors, and the mall is there to merrily drain more pounds from you after you tour the yacht...pounds from your wallet, not your waist, sadly.

Touring the yacht (it seems a bit much to refer to something that is over 400 feet long as a 'yacht'...Thurston Howell 3rd eat your heart out!) takes a bit of time:

You start out on the top deck and loop around then go back off one gangway and down a flight of stairs and back on another gangway, wash, rinse and repeat:

One of the more interesting decks was the main deck on the stern for the royal family:

The teak was scrubbed every day, but it had to be done silently by sailors who were not wearing their caps. This was so because as this made the sailors technically out of uniform then the royals didn't have to return the sailor's salutes and thus wear out the royal elbows. Mind you, the sailors had to salute and stare straight ahead anytime a royal was about.

The main dining room was larger than my house:

I imagine the claymore behind the head of the table came in handy when the roast wasn't done quite right.

You can actually rent the dining room for private functions, as Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, if you're looking for that special place for your next soire.

Now, having a 400' yacht is nice and all, but how does one get one's royal personna from the yacht onto shore? Simple, really: you hop in your 40' 'barge' that you always carry onboard for just that purpose:

They had a neat picture from the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994 which gives you an idea of the size of Britannia

That's the QE2 in the backround.

Anyhow, she is a very interesting ship, and the tour tells lots of stories about life for her crew that seem just, well, odd I guess to American ears, but they are justifyably proud of her, and she is well worth the visit.

Shallow person that I am, however, I am forced to admit that the highlight of the day for me was afterwards in the gift shop, when I came upon this:

Hehehe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:39 AM | Comments (6)

August 27, 2006

Scotland, Part 1: Spot 23

Well, I've congealed a lot of the nearly 400 photos I took, so here's the first part of the trip. I'm putting most of the pictures below the fold so as not to tie up the bandwidth of folks who ain't interested.

I have to say the nice thing about flying right after a terror plot is busted is that the over-head bins are completely empty. It's nice to get on a plane and not be assaulted by feisty travellers who define "two carry-on items" as "a large purse, a large bag, a medium sized wheeled suitcase, a garment bag, and a laptop case." Gawd, those people bug the beejebus out of me. Anyhow, there was none of that on this trip. No lipbalm either, come to think of it, which was a bit of a drag; you know the terrorists have won when they take away Chapstick!

After many hours over the Atlantic we landed in Edinburgh and grabbed a cab into town and this street

where our hotel was. This street looked exactly as I thought it would, with all these cool tract-townhouse thingies curling off into the distance. But what the hell is up with all those cars parking on the wrong side of the street?

My bride correctly figured we needed to get our clocks set correctly, so as soon as we were checked in we took a tour of the Royal Mile area, both to get our minds acclimated to the place and to keep ourselves awake until we could go to bed at a reasonable time at night so that our bodies would get used to the new time zone, as well. And it was during lunch that I stumbled upon the insidious secret that enables the UK to continue to exist and its demonic symbol was everywhere: £. Seriously. You get off the plane all foggy brained, and you see a lunch menu where the entrees are priced at "10" and you think "well, 10 bucks, that's a touch much for a ham and cheese sandwhich, but what the heck, we're on vacation, so eat up kids" and you don't realise that the price is in pounds, not dollars, and you're now spending almost $19 for a sandwhich that seems to be made solely of butter. Food is incredibly expensive, and all I can say is thank God I lost my credit card at the airport before we left so that my Bride had to pick up all the meal tabs...in fact, she had to pay for everything. Woo-hoo! Am I the King, or what?

Anyhow, the next day we strolled down Princes Street on our way to the Castle and saw lots of these

Double-deckers are very cool, and they really are the best way to get around town, and by far the cheapest. You can get an all day fare for under $5 (£2.30, I think it was) and it's well worth it, as cabs will kill you, cost wise. And the busses are everywhere and go everywhere, and they seem pretty safe, as we saw lots of youngish kids (9-10 or so) getting on the busses in pairs to go various places. It took awhile to sink in, but then I realized why all the busses are doubles: there are no wires. Anywhere. Not one. No electric wires or phone wires or even telephone poles are to be found. Wiser minds then my own assure me that this is because all of the wires are buried in conduits in the street, but frankly I believe that the absence of wires is from Maggie Thatcher's fiendish place to implant radio control devices in the mind of everyone, so that they would respond to the orders beamed to them from the satellites that Reagan was supposed to have put aloft during Star Wars; she kept up her end of the bargain, at least, and as a bonus managed to rid the country of wires.

Immediately after I had this intellectual breakthrough my Bride let out a sigh of joy which caused me to turn about and see this:

Edinburgh castle really does dominate the city. In a fit of silly exhuberance, we decided to walk across the dell you see in the foreground (which used to be a stinky stinky garbage-and-excrement filled Loch whose odors gave rise to Edinburgh's nickname of "old Reeky") and climb directly up the hill to the castle. My goodness, was that a silly idea. We found a nice trail, but it was a steep and switch-backy climb and we were huffing and puffing by the time we got to here

the entrance to the castle. The castle is very cool to walk about; they have excellent tours and lots of well-marked historical sites and tidbits. It is also still under the aegis of the military, and the sight of all these 15th century torture devices combined with men with submachine guns really helped to keep the kids in line.

Its location affords some lovely views of the city, as well:

And there you can already see the clouds and mist starting to work their way in.

But the whole point of a castle is the cannons

Remember that picture; in an hour or so we returned there to watch them fire off a round from a modern howitzer that they have. They do this at 1 pm everyday, and you'll see how much the weather changed by then.

As with any good historical site, they have lots of neat stuff from the different eras when it was in use. I've heard alot about Mons Meg before, and I was very excited to see this cannon from the mid-1400s:

My Bride informed me that in the course of her research for our trip she happened upon a story that said a rather amorous couple conceived a child inside Mons during the 18th century...

Hmmm...

Right behind Mons Meg is the oldest part of the Castle, Saint Margaret's Chapel, which dates from the 12th century

It's quite lovely inside

The page I linked to above says that it is availible for small wedding parties, and that brings me to another point which became very obvious while we were there: Scotland is a land of many beautiful churches, and is the home of my Presbyterian faith and is thus very important to Protestantism as a whole. But it sure doesn't seem like anyone actually goes to church there anymore. Most churches that we saw that were still intact were used as "Community Centers" (sorry: Centres) or were gift shops or restaurants; very few, well, none that I recall, really, were actually focused primarily as, you know, houses of worship. Aside from the mosques.

Sigh.

Anyhow, we took the kids downstairs and tried to get them locked up in the dungeons but the darn doors wouldn't budge, and by this time it was close to 1 pm and we had to go up and see them fire off the modern howitzer they keep there to help set people's watches.

Remember how it looked when we got there?

Here is the exact same spot (from a slightly different angle) just a few hours later

I got that just after it had fired; you can still see all the smoke curling about.

The rain started to come down now, but heck, it's Scotland, so we left the Castle and headed down the Royal Mile to see more sights. I had to visit Spot 23 and to see his house in person, as my Bride has had a print of it hanging in our home for as long as we've been married. And so we made our way around the side of St. Giles church, where he preached for many years, to the parking lot and Spot 23

with its simple, bare brass marker. There is no writing, no inscription on that piece of metal, no fancy engraving or carvings or even words to mark the final resting place of the man who so clearly defined the Presbyterian faith apart from that of the Roman Catholic faith, the man who argued for so many hours face to face with Mary, Queen of Scots, the man who lived in this house

which is, in fact, the only surviving medieval private residence in Edinburgh, and is just a block from St. Giles. Yes, if you work in the Courthouse in Edinburgh you can park your little car atop the final resting place of the earthly remains of John Knox, and I can't help but think that that is just as he would like it.

We kept walking down the Royal Mile through the rain and made our way to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is a neat place in and of itself, mind you, but what appealed to me the most was the attached Abbey which collapsed sometime in the 18th century, I think:

There's something about being in ruins like that on a foggy, misty, rainy day which is just too cool and puts chills far beyond that which can be solely laid at the feet of the weather down one's spine.

Even though it was raining rather steadily we strolled about the grounds and gardens, which were very pleasant, and we could see that our friends up on Arthur's Seat were having a rather damp day as well:

We then had a very wet walk back to the hotel, and found a wonderful Indian place whose curries were just the thing to drive away the damp and chill.

Thus endeth the day.

Oops, I almost forgot the present I bought for my sister-in-law:

Hehehehe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:25 AM | Comments (6)

August 25, 2006

Searching for Answers Friday

Contrary to major dad's expectations, I'm gonna let my favoritest mayor slide, since he seems not to need my help publicizing his pearls o' wisdom at the moment. No, I'm gonna stick up for another Democrat ~ yes, I am. Our confusing situation quote of the day...

"The rule requires everybody to file it. The rule doesn't exclude anyone from filing it," Reed said.

He said Todd should be punished for not following the rule, because the challenge was filed against her and not against other candidates.

...causing concern that the Democratic Party is seriously off their nut(s). Or worse, the nut(s) are running the Deomocratic Party. Lemme see if I can lay this out for you. Here goes. It's so twisted, I can't begin to.

A Democratic Party committee Thursday night disqualified an openly gay candidate for the Alabama Legislature and the woman she defeated in the primary runoff because both women violated a party rule that party officials said no other candidate has obeyed since 1988.

That's the first part. Now, NO ONE ELSE in any Democratic race in any part of the state of Alabama had followed the rules either. (Got that?) So, HOW did these two particular ladies come to the party's attention. Welll, the winner, Ms. Todd ~ who is gay and WHITE ~ defeated Ms. Hendricks (who also had not filed said paperwork) ~ who is black ~ by 59 votes in a MAJORITY BLACK district. Ms. Hendricks M-I-L filed a challenge about Ms. Todd's late filing of paperwork. There has been a great deal of pressure to keep the seat...black.

"Of course if I was black I don't think they would have contested the election," Todd said. She blamed the contest on Joe Reed, longtime chairman of the black Democratic caucus, who wrote a letter before the election urging black leaders to support Hendricks because of her race and stressing the need for keeping the seat in black hands.

Segall also alluded to Reed's influence in his closing statement to the committee.

"This is about race. Folks are upset that a white woman won in a black district. There are some times you just have to say 'this isn't right,'" Segal said.

Contacted after the hearing, Reed said he was not responsible for filing the election challenge, but he said he believes Todd should be disqualified for violating the party rule.

Oh, I'll bet he wasn't responsible. I'll have to give the last word to the Gay and Lesbian Victory spokesman.

"Patricia got the most votes in two separate elections — the primary and the runoff — but party bosses didn't like the outcome, so now they want to simply handpick a candidate. What happened today in Montgomery was unfair, undemocratic, un-American and unwise," Dison said.

Can't disagree. And where are the operatives screaming about stolen this and disenfranchised that? Just remember you saw it here because (as deeply BURIED at MSNBC as it was), I don't think you'll hear much of it anywhere else.

Damn shame these weren't Republicans ~ even British papers would have front page fodder then.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:36 PM | Comments (2)

August 24, 2006

Tropical Depression Five

...has formed...

REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE INDICATE THAT THE
TROPICAL WAVE MOVING WESTWARD THROUGH THE WINDWARD ISLANDS HAS
DEVELOPED A CLOSED WIND CIRCULATION...AND ADVISORIES ON EITHER A
TROPICAL DEPRESSION OR TROPICAL STORM WILL BE INITIATED AT 5 PM
AST. MAXIMUM WINDS AT THIS TIME APPEAR TO BE JUST BELOW TROPICAL
STORM STRENGTH...BUT IT IS POSSIBLE THAT STRONGER WINDS MAY BE
OBSERVED PRIOR TO ADVISORY TIME.

...and DARN if it isn't in just the rattiest spot to do so. Dr. Jeff at Weather Underground is all over it. If it has fired up even more, it will be 'Ernesto'. Tell me ~ is that as WHACK a name as 'Ivan'? We seem to attrack the oddly named ones.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:51 PM | Comments (18)

Ralph Peters

...in the New York Post.

...A culture of blame prevents moral, social and political progress. This is a self-help universe. The nonsensical Arab insistence that all Arab problems are the fault of America and Israel (or the Crusades) ignores the fact that Arab civilization has been in decline for 700 years - and has been in utter disarray for the last 200.

This is a homemade failure. Through their own choices, cherished beliefs, values and norms, Arabs have condemned themselves to strategic incompetence. No society that oppresses women, denies advancement on merit even to men, indulges in fantastic hypocrisy, wallows in corruption, undervalues secular learning, reduces its god to a nasty disciplinarian and comforts itself with conspiracy theories will ever compete with us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:47 PM | Comments (1)

August 23, 2006

More Katrina:

"What went right."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:43 PM

August 22, 2006

I Hate to Keep Hammering on This

...but it's a subject near and dear to my heart. I've decided to let Max Mayfield talk today.

Looking back nearly a year to the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and the third-worst hurricane in terms of American lives lost, Mayfield said Katrina itself could have been a greater disaster.

More than two days before Katrina struck the Gulf coast August 29, the hurricane center had predicted its future track accurately and also warned it could become a powerful Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

New Orleans was squarely in the danger zone, and emergency managers and residents had plenty of time to prepare.

"One of my greatest fears is having people go to bed at night prepared for a Category 1 and waking up to a Katrina or Andrew. One of these days, that's going to happen," Mayfield said.

I believe they came close with Charley ~ people were expecting a 3 and got damn near a 5 at the last second. (I also love the swipe at local LA officials, but that's neither here nor there.)

...Or how about a major hurricane racing up the east coast to the New York-New Jersey area, with its millions of people and billions of dollars of pricey real estate?

"One of the highest storm surges possible anywhere in the country is where Long Island juts out at nearly right angles to the New Jersey coast. They could get 25 to 30 feet of storm surge ... even going up the Hudson River," Mayfield said.

"The subways are going to flood. Some people might think 'Hey, I'll go into the subways and I'll be safe.' No, they are going to flood."

That would suck. But there's something bothering Max that is the most important thing of all. And NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES (in however MANY ways) it gets passed to the citizens in vunerable areas, everybody STILL wants to know why the National Guard's not handing out Dasani 3 hours after landfall.

He is mystified by a study that found 60 percent of people in hurricane-prone U.S. coastal areas have no hurricane plan -- which to disaster managers means up to a week's worth of food and water squirreled away, a kit with flashlights and other gear, and an established evacuation route to higher ground.

"After Katrina and after the last two hurricane seasons you can't understand why more people are not taking hurricanes seriously," Mayfield said.

Because people are helpless MORONS in general, Dr. Mayfield. And MORONS are conditioned to think that ~ even if every major access to a HUGE area is OBLITERATED ~ that somehow the gub'ment is responsible for BOTH the damage and their welfare. 'MORONOCITY' (the technical term) spans all socio-economic barriers and all ethnic persuasions. The day after Ivan there were Range Rovers, taxis and ancient Impalas all lined up for hours (within hours) by our airport. The Squid Terrorist was aghast at the desperation. He had to deal with them attempting to attack him for 'cutting in line' as he tried to assess the damage to the airport and it's outer areas, so relief flights could start coming in. (He's one of the airport maintenance supervisors, hence 'emergency personnel'.) Oh, he was hot under the collar when he got home that first VERY long day.

"How can these f*ckin' IDIOTS be out of water and PISSED OFF already?!
It's only been a day..."

I dunno. But they do it every time, with every storm. And they're the goobers you see on the news reports, like the whole world's failed them.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:04 AM | Comments (9)

August 18, 2006

I Don't Think This is Quite What Wal-Mart Wanted

...when they hired Andrew Young.

Civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired to help Wal-Mart Stores Inc. improve its public image, said early Friday he was stepping down from his position as head of an outside support group amid criticism for remarks seen as racially offensive.

...In the Sentinel interview, Young was asked about whether he was concerned Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close.

"Well, I think they should; they ran the `mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," the paper quoted Young as saying. "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."

Whoa! Lucky thing for him he wasn't a WHITE guy named...um...Allen or something.

...Allen’s gaffe earned him plenty of bad press, especially from the Washington Post which has thousands of readers in northern Virginia.

Democrats and Democratic-allied groups have pounced on Allen’s blunder, aiming to weaken him as he heads into his Nov. 7 contest against Webb.

Allegation of racism
“Republicans have used racism to try to win over voters for decades, but this kind of pandering has absolutely no place in our politics,” said Nita Chaudhary, a staff member of MoveOn.org in an e-mail to MoveOn.org members Thursday.

Moveon.org and its PAC, a group which backs Democratic candidates, is urging the Republican National Committee to withdraw its support from Allen.

“The sting of Sen. Allen's words upset me personally,” Chaudhary wrote.

Chaudhary's parents emigrated from India and she was born in the United States.

“I'd hoped to see his colleagues in Washington censure him for this display of bigotry. But just yesterday, Sen. John McCain stood with him at a town hall meeting. Race-baiting continues to be a time-tested tradition for the Republican Party in the South.”

Well, no one's 'pouncing' by the 'thousands' on Mayor Young. (Although the WaPo is carrying the AP story, sans incisive commentary and excoriation.) Sadly, I guess that's because powerful Democratic blacks can never, ever be 'racist' in this society. Having that 'victim' placard firmly attached to their indignantly puffed chests, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Reverend Al and their ilk have the race baiting down to a science. But there is enough smug hatefulness to go around, knowing full well the consequences will never, ever be equal to the offense...if any at all...a veritable 'get out of jail free card' from the media. They're immune from the public pillorying that accompanies a simple misspeak for the rest of us, less mind a full blown statement à la Mr. Young*. As one man (and yes, in the interest of full disclosure, he is a Joo...) pointed out in the MSNBC piece...

The remarks surprised Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, who pointed to Young's reputation of civil rights work.

"If anyone should know that these are the words of bigotry, anti-Semitism and prejudice, it's him," Hier said. "I know he apologized, but I would say this, ... during his years as a leader of the national civil rights movement, if anyone would utter remarks like this about African-Americans his voice would be the first to rise in indignation."

Oh, indeed, sir. We're all in this together. T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R.

We're past the point where the 'Reverends' and the remaining vestiges of the 60's Civil Rights Leadership get to brandish those laurels to protect themselves from what their mouths are REALLY saying. Now luminaries in the public sector just have to find the intestinal fortitude to call them on it in a BIG way, as rapidly and vociferously as the protestations for, say, Senator Allen.

Settle in. I've got a feeling it's gonna be a while.

* 'McKinney' is a suitable substitute

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:38 AM

August 16, 2006

Gah

Summary The relatively quiet hurricane season we've been enjoying is not going to last. A very active period will start, as soon as the atmosphere destabilizes a bit more. If one believes the long-range 2-week outlook from the GFS model, the current quiet period should last another 4-12 days. Around August 21, I expect it will appear that a switch has been thrown, and the Atlantic will be very active indeed. Expect our first hurricane in the Atlantic by August 26, and a very active September. However, I do expect we will get many recurving storms that will miss land, and that this hurricane season will be similar to the ones we experienced in 1995-2003.

He could be way wrong. And the '1995-2003' does nothing to make me feel better. I'll post why shortly.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:29 PM | Comments (4)

BREAKING NEWS In the Current Climate

...rumbling with the flight crew is a bad, BAD idea...

London Flight Diverted Over Disturbance

A flight from London to Washington, D.C. was diverted to Boston Wednesday morning after the pilot declared an emergency because of a passenger disturbance, the airline said.

United Flight 923 with 182 passengers and 12 crew members landed safely at Boston's Logan International Airport, United spokesman Brandon Borrman said.

A Logan spokesman said three passengers had a confrontation with the flight crew. State Police took control of the plane after it landed. All the passengers were being taken off the plane and their carry-on luggage was being checked, said spokesman Phil Orlandella.

...right, Bingley?

UPDATE and bump: More coming out about this.

Fighter jets escorted a diverted London-to-Washington, D.C., flight to Boston's Logan airport Wednesday after a distraught passenger pulled out a screw driver, matches, Vaseline and a note referencing al-Qaida, an airport spokesman said.

United Flight 923 landed safely, Logan airport spokesman.

Hello, heightened security? I'll bet there were a couple other passengers who were "distraught" after that! Hopefully, they got a couple shots at him in, too, ala the thumping Richard Reid got.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:32 AM | Comments (2)

August 15, 2006

Another Sign the Apocalypse Is Nigh

Cindy Adams is channeling me.

SO many celebs lining up to help Africa - Angelina, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Jay-Z, Clooney - there'll soon be no room for animals. Next up, Lindsay Lohan, who just said: "Africa seems so exotic. I have always wanted to go there." Great. Admirable. But how about helping Americans? Like in Appalachia or New Orleans?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:28 AM | Comments (5)

August 14, 2006

Wow! And I Mean

...WOW!!!

Barbaro Walks Outside His Stall
Injured Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro Walks Outside His Stall and Grazes on Grass

Now that's a heart thhhiiiiissssssssssss BIG.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:09 PM | Comments (1)

August 11, 2006

For Our Florida Swillers

...in case you hadn't read it.

Hurricane Grants To Fortify Homes Almost Ready To Go

The thousands of homeowners eager for a shot at state money to help reinforce their homes against hurricanes may have to wait only a week longer.

...Called My Safe Florida Home, the $250 million program gives matching grants up to $5,000 toward the cost of fortifying homes against hurricanes. Homeowners first must request a home inspection, then wait for an inspector to visit and make a report on the home's condition.

The program is new, and Takacs couldn't say how long applicants might have to wait for an inspection or how long it might take for homeowners to get the grant.

The state has yet to announce the date residents may begin requesting an inspection. Takacs expects the state will be ready in about a week.

The grant would pay half the cost of up to $10,000 in improvements such as shutters, reinforcing garage doors or replacing shingles. Homeowners would pay the other half.

The program is aimed at homes built before building codes were toughened in the mid-1990s. Once an inspector completes a report detailing the improvements needed and the estimated cost, the homeowner can apply for the grant.

The state will be ready to accept grant applications Sept. 1, Takacs said.

Approved homeowners will select from a list of contractors sanctioned by the state. Only state-approved contractors may perform the work.

There are limitations.

Grants are for homes with an insured value of $500,000 or less and for homeowners only. You will have to provide the state proof of the insured value and homestead exemption.

...For information about the grant program, call 1-800-342-2762.

Some work covered: reinforce roof decking, add waterproof sealing to plywood roof deck joints, brace gable ends, upgrade shingles, replace garage door.
What a dynamite idea! Those matching grants now are a thousand times cheaper than the aftermath of a Charlie or Ivan.

Now if we could just get people to stockpile the minimum supplies...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:48 PM

August 10, 2006

Quote for the Day

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. -J. R. R. Tolkien

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:46 AM | Comments (5)

August 08, 2006

What If You Had a Big Pipe...

...and never peeked?

Corroded Alaska Pipeline Untested for 14 Years
The severely corroded pipeline that forced the shutdown of the country's largest oil field had not been inspected or cleaned by BP Oil for at least 14 years, according to U.S. Department of Transportation records.

The lines at Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field carry eight percent of the domestic crude oil production but are exempt from federal regulation.

And how did BP get their name in the paper at all?

The Department of Transportation increased its scrutiny of BP's Alaska operation only after the discovery of a 250,000 gallon crude oil spill there in March.

The spill went undetected for days until a worker who was passing by smelled the oil. The spill, which was caused by another corroded pipeline, has lead to a federal criminal investigation of BP.

So it gushed until someone without a headcold wandered by. 'Scrutiny' and 'enforcement' are two very different animals. If there's no one to force you to do something ~ and no mechanism for consequences if you don't ~ you do nothing. That keeps money in your jingling pocket, continuing and enhancing the Big Payoff.

Now, federally regulated pipelines are required to be inspected every five years. So why doesn't the BigPipe fall under those same regs? Because it's considered a "low-stress" pipeline.

...Removal of the “low-stress” pipeline exemption. Two weeks ago on March 2, 2006, the largest oil spill to date on the North Slope of Alaska of 200,000 gallons or more was discovered at a caribou crossing. This spill came from a BP crude oil transmission pipeline which was exempt from PHMSA regulations because it was a “low-stress” hazardous liquid pipeline that met the following criteria: it did not transport a highly volatile liquid (HVL), it was located in a rural area, and it was outside a waterway currently used for commercial navigation.13Moreover, according to BP spokesperson Daren Beaudo, the pipeline “had known interior and exterior corrosion damage. Because of this, BP had downgraded the maximum pressure allowed within the line…” [page 9]

I guess BP figures "low stress" to be the same as "NO maintenance". If the thing rots apart, you reduce the pressure in the line.

Holy crap! You think, with the price of oil the past two years, they could have spent just a little of it making sure their golden goose was still laying unimpeded. I'm not liking the looks of our goose at the moment...

UPDATE: CNN's got a little more. It seems everybody's shocked, SHOCKED! They should read the report I linked to.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:03 PM | Comments (16)

Drudge is Counting 139 Days 'til Christmas

Do you buy gift cards? Montgomery County has their 2005 Gift Card Report online and it's an eyeopener. If you've only got a minute, the charts on (page 11/gift cards ~ page 12 on/bank cards) let's you figure out whether you'll have any money left on that card after 12 or 24 months to use if you've forgotten it. (And what it'll cost you to get it in the first place.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:16 AM | Comments (4)

August 06, 2006

A Double-Double Moment of Silence Please

Esther L. Snyder, who founded the In-N-Out Burger restaurant chain with her husband, died Friday, her family said. She was 86. ...The Snyders' business plan was simple: Serve fresh burgers in a "two-way speaker" drive-through concept. While her husband ran the day-to-day operations, Snyder was in charge of the books and occasionally helped out in the kitchen by molding meat patties by hand and slicing tomatoes and onions.

As major dad says (through his drool after seeing this picture), "the Rolls Royce of burgers." And she kept the integrity of the chain pure. I remember reading where the biggest change in decades had been the agonizing decision about whether to add Dr. Pepper to the menu. I'm a 'double-double with cheese, grilled onions, fries and a chocolate shake' girl. Always have been

And, sadly, we've lost another incredible woman pioneer in the same weekend: a veritable legend.

Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher died Saturday in a Seattle hospital of a reoccurrence of leukemia after a recent stem-cell transplant, her doctor said. She was 51.


Butcher dominated the 1,100-mile sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome in the late 1980s. In 1986, she became the second woman to win the grueling race. She added victories in 1987, '88 and '90 and finished in the top four through 1993.

Bless her heart. I used to be glued to race reports when she was in it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:19 AM | Comments (6)

August 02, 2006

Sounds Like a Certain Lawyer Might Be Tap Dancing

...to a different tune, maybe the "Up to the Big House on the River Dance"?

What would you do if a lawyer threatened, "Give me a million dollars or my client and I will publicly brand you as a rapist and destroy your life?"

On July 27, the California Supreme Court expanded the range of choices possible to one man who was presented with that threat.

The dance phenomenon Michael Flatley of Riverdance fame can proceed not only with a lawsuit for defamation against his accuser but also with one for extortion against her lawyer.

...In January 2003, Mauro sent Flatley a letter on Robertson's behalf in which he demanded a "seven figure" settlement; his fee would be 40 percent.

...Court documents show he threatened to send news releases to media outlets such as Fox News and the Chicago Tribune. He continued, "Any and all information, including Immigration, Social Security Issuances and Use, and IRS and various State Tax Levies and information will be exposed.We are positive the media worldwide will enjoy what they find."

John Brandon, one of Flatley's attorneys, further attested that Mauro warned him, "I know the tour dates [of Flatley's shows]; I am not kidding about this; it will be publicized every place [the dancer] goes for the rest of his life."

The 'victim' is a real hot number, too...

...In October 2002, Flatley and his accuser Tyna Marie Robertson had a sexual encounter in a Las Vegas hotel. Twenty-five days later, she called Nevada from Illinois to report a rape.

...(Robertson was also in the news last year for litigation surrounding the claim that Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher fathered her child and, so, should pay her support; DNA tests confirmed his paternity. According to private investigator Ernie Rizzo, who worked for both Flatley and Urlacher, Robertson has had other relationships with wealthy and famous men that ended in litigation.)

major dad asked "Who's that friend of yours that always says 'F*ckin' lawyers'?" That would be DaveJ, wise man that he is.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:30 PM | Comments (6)

August 01, 2006

Well! That Didn't Take Long

Haden-Guest says, "It was a very heated discussion about Israel's invasion of Lebanon, but that's a far cry from being anti-Semitic. She was not channeling Mel Gibson..."

Made the Gossip Page just that fast. How long before...

"Going GIBSON"™*

...goes global?

You heard it here first.

*We've got ©(Okay, DAVE???)™TOWACA on THAT sucker and we'll hunt unauthorized users down like dogs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:03 PM | Comments (4)

July 31, 2006

Nitrogen in Your Tires

...Marty Mailhot, manager of the Tire Warehouse in Topsham, said the idea is catching on with consumers, who are purchasing nitrogen for tires for cars, trucks, motor homes and lawn tractors. He has even tried it on footballs and inflatable tubes pulled behind boats.

He has a retort for those who pooh-pooh the notion of paying for nitrogen when there’s plenty of free air for the taking.

“I say, ’Why are you drinking that bottled water when there’s a pond out back?”’ he said.

I'd give it a second thought since there's no danger of looking like the Hindenburg. And since I really am terrible about checking the tires in any case.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:43 PM | Comments (17)

July 27, 2006

A Refreshing Reality Check

Not about this horrible news...

Tour de France winner failed drug test in race
Team to dismiss Landis if excessive level of testosterone confirmed

...but about his mother's reaction to it.

Arlene Landis, his mother, said Thursday that she wouldn’t blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but “if it’s something worse than that, then he doesn’t deserve to win.”

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:10 PM | Comments (9)

July 26, 2006

This Would Be My Kinda Luck

...if it included a deadly Indian attack immediately afterward.

Sometime around 1610, archaeologists figure, a thirsty colonist in Jamestown set his brass pistol on the side of a well as he pulled up some water and accidentally knocked the weapon in.

D'oh! Great stuff hauled up from the bottom of a well.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:52 PM

"Get Yer Paws..."

"...offa my property." And the Ohio Supreme Court agreed.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that a Cincinnati suburb cannot take private property by eminent domain for a $125 million project of offices, shops and restaurants.

The case was the first challenge of property rights laws to reach a state high court since the U.S. Supreme Court last summer allowed municipalities to seize homes for use by a private developer.

The case involves the city of Norwood, which used its power of eminent domain to seize properties holding out against private development in an area considered to be deteriorating.

The court found that economic development isn't a sufficient reason under the state constitution to justify taking homes.

Let's keep clarifying those state constitutions and local laws, folks. It's the only way to beat these people ~ they either legislate to protect private property or vote them out and elect someone who will.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:04 PM | Comments (4)

July 24, 2006

Now THAT'S A Celebrity Named 'Catie'

...I'd love to meet.

The 94-year-old Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel spent $38 million on a facelift, refurbishing its soaring lobby with 21-foot-high Italian marble columns, gilded ceilings and Waterford crystal chandeliers.

Yet the most popular upgrade didn't have anything to do with French antiques or the ornate arches in Peacock Alley, an entrance hall lined with eight-foot mirrors and Renaissance friezes.

No -- the most exciting thing to happen here lately was that the "Grande Dame of Boston" got a dog.

Catie Copley, a 68-pound black Lab, now greets guests with a heartfelt wag and a curious nose. The hound came to the hotel as a gimmick in 2004 to showcase the renovation and has breathed life into the once stuffy 5,000-square-foot lobby

...In Boston, some guests call three months in advance to book a walk with the pooch, dubbed a "canine ambassador" by the hotel. Tour guides on Boston's Duck Tours talk about Catie in the same breath as Trinity Church's architecture when describing Copley Square.

..."It's a down-home, welcoming feeling," said New Yorker Curtis McKinney, 44, who comes to Boston once a month for business and now stays exclusively at the Copley Plaza. "We started coming here basically to see her."

Wabs have that effect on people.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:51 PM | Comments (1)

For the Plastic Turkey Crowd

...you have to admit the Bush team has no problem showing up where the action is.

Israeli ground forces pushed deeper into the country in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas on Monday as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to launch diplomatic efforts aimed at ending 13 days of warfare.

Rice arrived in Beirut in the afternoon and was to meet with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora during the previously unannounced stopover before she heads to Israel, Saniora's office said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:34 AM

July 21, 2006

Speaking of Cheeseheads

...apparently a fair amount of them want a particular Cheese Whiz "Churchilled".

Wis. Lawmakers Want Univ. Instructor Fired
More than 60 state lawmakers are urging the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fire an instructor who has argued that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A letter sent Thursday and signed by 52 Assembly representatives and nine state senators condemns a decision to let Kevin Barrett teach an introductory class on Islam this fall.

UW-Madison Provost Pat Farrell launched a review after Barrett spoke last month on a talk show about his views that the terrorist attacks were the result of a government conspiracy to spark war in the Middle East. After the review, Farrell said Barrett was a qualified instructor who can present his views as one perspective on the attacks.

"I still have every expectation this will be a very positive educational experience for our students," Farrell said Thursday. "Some are upset about Mr. Barrett's viewpoints on 9/11 and don't want to pay much attention to what makes for a quality educational experience."

Sounds like a gouda idea.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:17 AM | Comments (3)

A Moment of Greasy Silence, Please

The Philly Cheesesteak King has passed. Their American success story is great.

Harry Olivieri, who with his brother Pat was credited with inventing the Philly cheesesteak in 1933, had died. He was 90.

PLUS
...?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:50 AM | Comments (3)

One Missile Can Ruin Your Whole Commute

And I ain't talking Beirut.

NEW YORK (WCBS-AM) -- A motor vehicle incident involving a tractor-trailer and a flat-bed truck had closed Interstate Highway 95 Southbound in The Bronx. Cars are now rollling again.

The New York City Police Department has confirmed that one of the vehicles was carrying "inert ordinance." WCBS reporter Sean Adams has gotten confirmation from the New York City Fire Department that the cargo of the flat-bed was a Tomahawk missile. It is important to emphasize that the missile was not armed.

Talk about some serious road-rage potential...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2006

A Note to the Americans Snarling in Lebanon

I know it's scarier than dogsh*t BUT...There are 25 THOUSAND of you there. Chill the f*ck out and give it time to work. Logistics are a bitch thousands of miles from home in a WAR zone and, like it or not, you are the juiciest plum on the target tree. Ships big enough to haul substantial numbers and ships needed to protect those numbers don't levitate where you want them in the blink of an eye. And while Hezbollah might briefly think a ferry full of Frenchmen or Greeks is tempting for the odd shot or two, the thought of a helicopter or boatload of Americans in flames brings a glaze to their eyes and drool to their chins. Other folks want out, too and some are being told "you're pretty much on your own", so quit pissing and moaning to the ABC camera crews. Use your heads, give it a chance to work, be where you're supposed to be so someone can reach you, help those who are worse off than yourselves and be ready to leave when the flag goes up.

It's not Kansas, people.

It's the Middle East.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:05 AM | Comments (46)

July 18, 2006

Of The "25 Safest Places To Live" In The US

13 are in New Jersey.

Would you break into a house in Tony Soprano's neighborhood?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:38 PM | Comments (2)

Don't You Just Hate It When They're So Gracious in Defeat?

Even YEARS later? Rev. Jesse adroitly fans the conspiracy flames in an misleading article about "piety" and "true faith". (?)

...Poppycock. Democrats didn't lose Florida in 2000 and the 2000 election because of the lack of a high faith profile. Al Gore won the popular vote nationally and the popular vote of the majority who cast ballots in Florida on Election Day. He lost Florida because the fix was in, because the Voting Rights Act was not enforced -- and because Republicans turned the recount into an alley fight while Gore played by rules. Then a transparently partisan majority in the Supreme Court violated its own principles and shamed itself by ordering an end to a fair count, worried Bush might lose. This wasn't about faith; it was about will.

Similarly, Democrats didn't lose Ohio in 2004 and the 2004 election because of the lack of a high faith profile. They lost because the fix was in, and because once again, Republicans had a partisan zealot -- Ken Blackwell -- as secretary of state. Once again he abused the powers of his office in choosing voting machines and election schemes. Once again, a majority of people set out to vote for Bush's opponent.

How can Bush be SO stupid, yet so diabolically CLEVER? So hamfisted and awkward in everyday LIFE, yet so omnipotent and transcendent that he covers the ENTIRE COUNTRY at will with his foul, loathsome mantle, thwarting the Constitution and twisting the most sacred of our institutions ~ from half blind, half addled geriatric voters in SOUTH Florida to disenfranchised busloads in East St. Louis to the very bench where Supreme Court Justices sit ~ like a Machiavellian puppetmaster of unimaginable scale and scope? If you flush at midnight, does Bush hear it in D.C.? DOES he? Yes. And never doubt he could cause said commode to pour forth it's contents in reverse, should the whim strike him. Or to stop you from reaching the polling place in time to cast your Democratic vote. Such...is his power. Rev. Jesse's "fix" is HIM...

Wild how this stuff starts resurrecting when campaign time rolls around. And thank you RCP for the morning gut-buster.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:50 AM | Comments (2)

July 13, 2006

C'mon, Barbaro, Big Guy

FIGHT.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:04 PM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2006

Quote of the Day

"You send a real powerful signal when you know the citizen has a good potential of being armed and doesn't have to back off anymore"...

That 'ud be Florida he's a talking about there, pardner.

Florida's crime rate dropped for the 14th straight year in 2005 to its lowest mark since 1971 because of tougher laws, increased financial support from the Legislature and law-abiding citizens with guns, Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday.

"This report shows that staying tough on crime works," said Bush. "Law abiding citizens that have guns for protection actually probably are part of the reason we have a lower crime rate."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 PM | Comments (2)

Words

...escape me. Have I no heart, no compassion? Or is it that I just can't stand other people's children.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:43 AM | Comments (30)

July 09, 2006

I Know It's Sunday ~ Peace, Love, Happiness

I was about sick of the Rock, Paper, Scissors bunch, when along comes the Episcopalians to make me forget all about it.

Slavery Reparations Gaining Momentum
Advocates who say black Americans should be compensated for slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath are quietly chalking up victories and gaining momentum.

Fueled by the work of scholars and lawyers, their campaign has morphed in recent years from a fringe-group rallying cry into sophisticated, mainstream movement. Most recently, a pair of churches apologized for their part in the slave trade, and one is studying ways to repay black church members.

...The most recent victories for reparations advocates came in June, when the Moravian Church and the Episcopal Church both apologized for owning slaves and promised to battle current racism. The Episcopalians also launched a national, yearslong probe into church slavery links and into whether the church should compensate black members. A white church member, Katrina Browne, also screened a documentary focusing on white culpability at the denomination's national assembly.

The Episcopalians debated slavery and reparations for years before reaching an agreement, said Jayne Oasin, social justice officer for the denomination, who will oversee its work on the issue.

Historically, slavery was an uncomfortable topic for the church. Some Episcopal bishops owned slaves - and the Bible was used to justify the practice, Oasin said.

This is getting RIDICULOUS. A 'reconciliation' like South AFRICA? HELLO? Nelson Mandela is ALIVE ~ the people who perpetuated that abomination are ALIVE. The 'new' South Africa is only 14 years old. Unless my math is suspect, we're 150 years removed from SLAVERY. As for injustice, that's a human condition that needs to constantly be addressed and remedied. Robert Byrd can answer for his hood. I don't have to and neither does anyone I know.

Color me 'no'. HELL NO.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:38 PM | Comments (9)

I Know It's Infantile

And I really should be beyond such things; but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I found the fact that my shopping cart today at Whole Foods pulled continually to the right to be most gratifying.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:28 PM | Comments (12)

July 08, 2006

Get

...OUT.

Houston tells evacuees to find a job or get out

In the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, Katrina evacuee Samuel Smith sits on a donated futon and watches a borrowed television in a subsidized apartment the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided for six months. The unemployed truck driver just started looking for work.

That would infuriate U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican who wants what he calls "deadbeat" evacuees from New Orleans out of his city.

"Time has long since passed for the able-bodied people from Louisiana to either find a job, return to somewhere in Louisiana or become Houstonians," said Culberson, whose district neighbors the city's southwest pocket where many of 150,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees settled in Houston.

"You have to make an effort not to have a job in Houston," he said.

Labor analysts tend to agree.

...The WorkSource building -- like the attitude of Houstonians -- is much different than in the weeks after busloads of Louisiana residents were brought to the city. Gone is a table near the front door where evacuees could collect information on assistance programs, and the office no longer has a backlog of sympathetic employers eager to hire refugees.

"The attitude has shifted," said Rod Snyder, manager of WorkSource's southwest office.

WorkSource reports the agency has placed about half of the 24,000 refugees who sought work through their programs and training. Most of the other half abandoned the training or lost touch. Asked if there was any reason why a person who wanted a job in Houston couldn't find one, Ron Rodriguez, director of operations for WorkSource, said, "No."

Dropping off a few applications at photo labs in the past year doesn't constitute getting "to a point where things weren't happening."

A Zogby Poll of Katrina evacuees surveyed in Houston found:
85% of them were unemployed

69% of them employed before Katrina

60% of them looking for work

25% had applied for 10 or more jobs

58% want to stay in Houston

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:45 AM

July 07, 2006

Trying to Get Factoids Out

...before the counter-clockwise spin starts. The June jobs report came in weaker than forecast ~ a good thing from a Fed standpoint. Buried in the report were a couple figures that will probably be lost when the 'Chimpy McHitler struggling economy' caterwaulings commence.

...the jobless rate stayed at a five-year low of 4.6 percent.

...the average hourly work week climbed back to match a 3- year high struck in April.

...The 3.9 percent year-over-year gain in average hourly earnings was the largest in five years, the Labor Department said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:14 AM | Comments (1)

July 06, 2006

Mammoth Blondes and Really Hairy Brunettes

And no, I'm not talking about at the Wal-Mart this weekend.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:15 PM | Comments (4)

BREAKING NEWS

Bingley can hit the beach again and quit whining. His gin's gonna cost him more, though.

New Jersey Budget Deal Reached
New Jersey leaders agreed on a state budget Thursday following a six-day government shutdown that shuttered casinos and threw more than 80,000 people out of work, a high-ranking Statehouse official said.

"They'll be announcing the final elements later this afternoon," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the governor will announce the deal.

...The deal includes a sales tax increase that would raise $1.1 billion a year, a different high-ranking Statehouse official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Half of the new money would be used to lower property taxes this year, and all of it would go for that purpose next year, the official said.

UPDATE: Well, hey. No sooner do I post this than whammo ~ the GOP talking points arrive. Florida ROCKS and New Jersey SUCKS...

...or so they say.

July 6, 2006

Dear Concerned Republican,

As you may know, the state of New Jersey is in the midst of a budget crisis that has led to a total government shutdown. This crisis in New Jersey underscores the significance of every state's fiscal policies and the potential harm those policies can have on us all when they are mismanaged, regardless of geographic location or status as a "red" or "blue" state. A major contrast exists between Florida's approach to money management and New Jersey's, and this has been made so very clear by the events of the past few days.

In a nutshell, the Democrat-led Legislature and Democrat Governor are facing a $4.5 billion deficit and are locked in a stalemate over whether or not to increase the state sales tax from 6% to 7% to pay for this deficit, essentially holding the people of New Jersey hostage to their infighting. To date, over 45,000 state employees have been furloughed, while many others are working without pay.

To illustrate the disruption, the lockdown of one industry alone has resulted in a loss of approximately $1.3 million in tax revenue a day, dollars that are specifically earmarked for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Moreover, New Jersey enjoys a brisk tourism industry, and the closing of state parks and beaches will have an unknown but certainly adverse effect on the state's bottom line. To put it in perspective, tourism is Florida's largest industry-can you imagine the consequences should our state take such a financial hit?

A Tale of Two States:

Florida~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~New Jersey

No Income Tax~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Up to 6.4% Income Tax
6% Sales Tax~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Raising Sales Tax rate to 7%
Hurricane Preparedness and~~~~~~~~~~~~~NO Sales Tax Holidays
Back-to-School Tax Holidays
$6.4 Billion in RESERVES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~$4.5 Billion in DEFICIT

How can two states be so far apart in their economic health? The answer is simple: Governor Bush and Florida's Republican-led Legislature have embraced conservative fiscal management policies, worked to return tax dollars to the people, and focused on growing jobs and diversifying the economy. We have passed sales tax holidays to help families shop for back-to-school items and hurricane preparedness items. As Governor Bush has said, "When it comes to taxes, less is really more," so our Republican leadership has been able to cut $15 billion in taxes since 1999. During that time, state revenues have grown by 51%, the state has consistently been a leader in the number of new jobs created and, just as importantly, our financial reserves have increased by approximately 530%.

Ultimately, Florida and New Jersey couldn't be further apart, and the picture couldn't be clearer: Republican fiscal policies in Florida have been enormously successful, while big government, tax-and-spend Democrats have ground the state of New Jersey to a halt. The stakes are high and the choices are clear: continue sound Republican fiscal leadership or bring in New Jersey-style Democrat policies that lead to big government and higher taxes...while obviously failing to solve any critical problems.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:03 PM | Comments (24)

BREAKING NEWS ~ A Reversal of Fortune

Supreme Court Rejects Tobacco Damages
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a $145 billion verdict, the largest ever by an American jury, against tobacco companies for injuring smokers.

The justices approved an appellate court ruling that it had been a mistake to certify a class-action lawsuit representing an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 ill Floridians that resulted in the huge jury award for punitive damages in 2000.

About time. No one forces that cigarette to your lips. Hmmm...wonder if some of our local lawyers are gonna have to move out of their big houses?

More: The FSC ruled the judgement "excessive".

Nah. Those legal fees are paid already.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:26 AM

Gird Yer Loins, Ye Scum Ridden Florida Weevil Shaggers.

...Nationwide Insurance be comin' ta call and mean t'be plundering yer treasure!

Nationwide Asks To Raise Rates 70%
The Nationwide Insurance Company of Florida announced Wednesday that it plans to seek state approval to raise property insurance rates by an average of 71.4 percent.

The move makes Nationwide the latest big property insurer to insist that higher premiums are necessary for it to operate profitably in the hurricane-prone state.

Arghhhh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:36 AM | Comments (11)

July 05, 2006

BREAKING NEWS

Ken Lay is dead. Of a heart attack. (The AP report/obit still manages to get a last swipe in at Bush.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:43 AM | Comments (3)

July 04, 2006

When In the Course of Human Events

A reprise of last year's Fourth of July post, as I could never find anything more profound to say than what's on that piece of paper.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the
positions indicated:

[Column 1]
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

[Column 2]
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

[Column 3]
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

[Column 4]
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

[Column 5]
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

[Column 6]
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Happy Fourth of July!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:03 AM | Comments (2)

June 29, 2006

The PP Judge

...convicted. I think it's his lawyer's fault.

In closing arguments Thursday, defense attorney Clark Brewster called the device "a joke."

"Why in the world would anybody have this behind the bench?" he said, holding the pump.

"It's a stupid thing," he said, setting it down.

What a stoopid question to ask that jury.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 PM | Comments (6)

Oh, Way Down Here in the Land a' Cotton

They've figured out the Gov'ner's rotten...

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was convicted Thursday on federal charges of bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction of justice in a case that derailed his campaign for governor amid wide-ranging claims of corruption in office.

Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy also was convicted of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud on charges accusing him of buying a seat on a state board with $500,000 in campaign contributions.

Look away! Fade away!
Time to pay, grafter man.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:27 PM | Comments (4)

How High Is The River Mama?

40 feet high and risin'...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:36 AM | Comments (8)

June 27, 2006

Hmmmm. That Works Out to 242 Cans of Beer

...for every man, woman and child on the reservation.

In a desperate effort to fight the ravages of alcoholism on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, leaders of the Oglala Sioux tribe are threatening to set up roadblocks Wednesday and stop members from bringing in beer bought at four outlying stores.

Alcohol has long been banned on the 16,500-member reservation, where drinking has been a scourge for generations. But four stores in Whiteclay, Neb., a dusty village a few hundred feet outside the reservation, sell an estimated 4 million of cans of beer every year, mostly to Indians.

That's a lot of brewskis. (Unless, of course, you live next door to the Squid Terrorist...and I do.) But I'll be curious what the reaction will be when citizens try to stop another citizen from coming home with cervesas purchased legally. Those 'standing by' tribal police could be caught in a sticky wicket.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:48 PM | Comments (3)

Superman ~ The Man of..."Stuff"

Maybe I'll skip this one after all.

SUPERMAN'S motto, "Truth, justice and the American way," has been rewritten in the new "Superman Returns" to "Truth, justice and . . . all that stuff." Jeannie Wolf reports on Movies.com that screenwriters Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris wanted to avoid outdated jingoism. Dan: "I don't think 'the American way' means what it meant in 1945." Mike: "He's not just for Metropolis and not just for America." Dan: "He's an alien, from Krypton; he has come to Earth to be kind of a savior for this world, not our country . . . And he has no papers." Mike: "What would happen with the immigration laws we have now?" Dan: "I'd like to see someone kick him out!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 PM | Comments (12)

June 26, 2006

Looks Like He'll No Longer Be a WARD

...of the state.

University of Colorado Interim Chancellor to Recommend Firing of Ward Churchill
The top official at the University of Colorado's flagship campus on Monday recommended that the school fire the firebrand professor who compared some of the World Trade Center victims to a Nazi and later was accused of academic misconduct.

Ward Churchill has displayed "a pattern of research misconduct committed over a period of time," Interim Chancellor Philip DiStefano said.

..."If a university is a marketplace of ideas, then Mr. Churchill is the rotten fruit among hundreds of good apples. Hopefully, we can soon say good riddance to Ward Churchill once and for all," [Gov] Owens said.

We'll be looking forWARD to reading the entire statement.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:09 PM | Comments (7)

Instead of Bitching About Sea Turtles

...maybe he should think about moving.

Michael Martino's specialty license plate reads "Helping Sea Turtles Survive." He rents kayaks and bicycles instead of Jet Skis and motor scooters at his eco-friendly beach shop on this Florida Panhandle barrier island.

But the San Francisco native, who has seen two homes destroyed by hurricanes since 2004, calls himself "an environmental hypocrite" because he supports sand dredging that will help protect the island's homes from storm surge but has killed three rare sea turtles.

One more turtle death would likely result in the project being shutdown until fall, leaving two miles of shoreline exposed through the bulk of hurricane season, which began June 1. The turtles are close to shore because it is mating season.

"There is a saying about how you can be a tree hugger until you start to get splinters," said Martino, who lost his home to Hurricane Ivan two years ago, rebuilt, and saw the new home washed away by Hurricane Dennis less than a year later.

I'll bet he's pi$$ing and moaning about his insurance rates, too. If you've had two houses washed away, we don't owe you a third, nor the tax dollars to rebuild your buffer storm after storm. You live on a BARRIER island and that's what they do ~ migrate to and fro. No doubt you knew that, just like the folks on ShelL Island outside of Wilmington, N.C.

...When the nine-story Shell Island Resort was built in the 1980s on Wrightsville Beach only half a mile from Mason Inlet, its developers signed permits acknowledging that they were building in an erosion-prone area. The permit says, "In signing this permit, the permittee acknowledges the risks of erosion associated with developing on the site and recognizes that current state regulations do not allow shoreline erosion control structures such as seawalls to be erected for developments initiated after June 1, 1979."

"The notice was given to the developer," and the developer then sold units to individuals as condominiums, Moffitt says.

I know it's not gonna happen, but I would dearly, dearly love to see Florida adopt North Carolina's rules on hardened erosion control structures, enforce them and go from there to regulate beach renourishment.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:43 AM | Comments (6)

June 24, 2006

It Doesn't Pay to Be a Manipulative, Mean, Nasty Old Man

You're gonna die anyway.

Anna Nicole's rival for husband's fortune dies
E. Pierce Marshall known for taking Playboy Playmate to court over estate

E. Pierce Marshall, who feuded for years with former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith over his father's oil fortune, has died, his spokesman said Friday. He was 67.

If he'd a just given her $30 million to go away when his father died, he could have enjoyed these past couple years. But, no. He had to have it all.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 AM | Comments (16)

June 23, 2006

Worthless post for the day....

but saw something on the way to work this morning I have not seen in a long while: a tractor-trailer that got stuck under a railway bridge. Wish I'd had my camera. I wonder hoiw often this happens? It was on N. Tryon St, just outside of downtown/uptown Charlotte. Slowed traffic down a bit, but thankfully was in the outbound lane.

Posted by Crusader at 11:29 AM | Comments (12)

June 22, 2006

If the Big One Hits, California Dreamin'

...turns to the Dark Side. (And I'm not talking about the San Andreas...)

Just two Arab countries have supplied almost 50 percent of California's imported oil over the past five years, a dependence that leaves the state more vulnerable than the rest of the country to disruptions in the world oil markets.

...To meet the needs of California drivers who, according to the American Petroleum Institute, went through more than 43 million gallons per day of gasoline in 2005, the state - the U.S.'s most populous - has had turn to imports.

The increasing dependence on imports of crude oil and gasoline are largely to meet demand that has continued to climb even as the number of refineries producing gasoline in the state dropped from 32 in the mid-1980s to just 14 now - largely as a result of the state's emission standards, the toughest in the country, said Hull.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:44 PM | Comments (3)

It Ain't The Bogeyman Under Your Bed...

It's the parking lot attendant:

WASHINGTON D.C. -- A stalker hid under a woman's bed for two days -- just for the chance to be alone with her. How he got the keys to her house is the scariest part, and and it's a serious reminder of the need to be cautious before handing over your keys.

The disturbing video shows the convicted stalker carefully hiding his video camera on a desk in the victim's bedroom. When he hears the woman and her boyfriend come in the apartment, he disappears under her bed. Carlo Castellanos-Feria remained there for two days until he was discovered by the victim's boyfriend.

...Judge Herbert Dixon handed down a three-year sentence, including treatment for mental illness and sex crimes. Court documents show the Hyattsville man had a change of clothes, condoms, a power cord and latex gloves with him under victims bed at the time of his arrest. He was a parking valet with an unnerving obsession.

"He got access to her keys. He then took that opportunity to get those keys copied. That's something we should all think about next time we leave our keys somewhere," said Ken wainstein, U.S. attorney.

Good reason to keep your house keys separate from you car keys.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:46 PM

So You Say

...again.

Study finds strong warming tie to hurricanes
Half of Atlantic temperature increase in 2005 linked to global rise

But then why is the Atlantic measurably cooler this year?

In 2006, temperatures in the Atlantic were slightly* warmer than average, particularly in the Caribbean, but strong southwest trade winds stirred the Gulf of Mexico, keeping the surface waters cool, said Adamec. In 2005, by contrast, the entire hurricane-prone section of the Atlantic was much warmer* than average. In fact, at the opening of the 2006 hurricane season, sea surface temperatures were 2 degrees cooler* than they had been at opening of the 2005 season, said Adamec. The warm temperatures in 2005 allowed a record seven storms to form by the end of July, one of which, Hurricane Emily, set records when it became the first category 5 hurricane to occur in July. All other Atlantic storms of that strength have developed later in the season.

*ths
So, what...?

Maybe less fat polar bears heating things up?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:38 AM | Comments (9)

Hasta

...la vista.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a blow to longtime illegal residents, ruling that a deported Mexican man who lived in the United States for 20 years is barred from seeking legal residency or other relief in the courts.

By an 8-1 vote, justices said that Humberto Fernandez-Vargas, who was deported several times from the 1970s to 1981, is subject to a 1996 law Congress passed to streamline the legal process for expelling aliens who have been deported at least once before and returned.

Sounds like they're pretty together on this one.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:11 AM

June 21, 2006

I Could Tell You For $115

Larry Ellison of Oracle stiffs Harvard.

"He was enthusiastic and I am deeply committed to this project," said Prof Murray. "Right now we just don't know whose health systems are working and what should be done to improve health, which is one of the largest sectors in the economy globally."

A spokesman for Mr Ellison at Oracle refused to comment yesterday.

Okay ~ back off the Big Macs, drink more and eat only dark chocolate. No white after Labor Day.
And cancel your AOL subscription.

Academic barnacles.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:50 PM | Comments (10)

June 20, 2006

I'm Watching "Team America" Again Tonight

Because I want to see a lot of bastards like this

and this

die.

A lot.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:17 PM | Comments (10)

June 18, 2006

There's More to Ethanol

...than just corn.

City officials in Champaign and Urbana took notice when they heard that an ethanol plant proposed nearby would use about 2 million gallons of water per day, most likely from the aquifer that also supplies both cities.

"There was concern about impacting a pretty valuable resource," said Matt Wempe, a city planner for Urbana. "It should raise red flags."

There are green NIMBY issues to consider as well, in the rush to alternative fuels.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 PM | Comments (4)

June 17, 2006

On This Date

...yet another weird, historical confluence ~ a Yin and Yang, them and us, as it were. (Pretty appropriate, considering the debate in the House and airwaves lately.) The Yin of it?
Bunker Hill.

No one of the thousands who crowded the housetops, church steeples, and shore batteries of Boston to watch the spectacle ever forgot the extraordinary scene they witnessed. June 17, 1775, was an absolutely still, brilliantly clear summer's day. Viewers in Boston only half a mile away could make out the stages of the battle clearly.

It didn't go well, but we didn't give up.

And the Yang?

June 17, 1940 ~ France asks Germany for terms of surrender in WW II

Three days later, the 'give up' was complete.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:21 PM | Comments (6)

June 16, 2006

Finally! Panhandle Developers

...have to play by the rules.

The Panhandle for the first time will get a state environmental resource permitting program, similar to those in other parts of Florida, under one of the five bills signed Thursday.

"Including the Panhandle in the statewide program will preserve more wetlands, improve stormwater management and flood control and better protect some of the most pristine rivers, estuaries and streams in Florida," Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Colleen Castille said after the bill was passed last month.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:52 AM

It Might Be 'Common Law'

A 15-year-old girl can enter into a common-law marriage in Colorado, and younger girls and boys possibly can, too, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

While the three-judge panel stopped short of setting a specific minimum age for such marriages, it said they could be legal for girls at 12 and boys at 14 under English common law, which Colorado recognizes.

...but could they not still charge the elder partner with statutory rape?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:49 AM | Comments (6)

June 14, 2006

Delayed By a Dangerous Haboob

When the U.N. Security Council headed to Africa on a 10-day trip, ambassadors thought their biggest security nightmare could come during a visit to a camp for Sudanese or Chadians caught up in the Darfur conflict and angry at the United Nations. But it turned out their scariest moment came from a "haboob" - a word few had ever heard.

Flying back from Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, and approaching the national capital, Khartoum, on the evening of June 8, the ambassadors were talking about their meetings to promote implementation of a January 2005 peace agreement ending another conflict - the 21-year civil war between the government and southern rebels - when the pilot suddenly revved up the engines.

Peru's U.N. Ambassador Oswaldo Rivero, who happened to be sitting in the cockpit at the time talking to the Spanish pilot, said all of a sudden they saw a black cloud coming toward the plane. The pilot knew what it was - a "haboob" or sandstorm - and he immediately sought to gain altitude to avoid it.

"It was a terrible storm," De Rivero said. "He was concerned about sand in the engines. That is very dangerous."

I woulda hapooped.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:35 PM | Comments (2)

Happy, Happy

Flag Day !!

Ain't she a beaut?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:52 AM | Comments (5)

June 13, 2006

Bush in Baghdad

Bully for him!

Word is, he left the plastic turkey home for Barney.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM

Everyone Who's Heartily Sick of This Sh*t

...raise your hand.

Sept. 11 Memorial to Be Redesigned
When a jury chose a Sept. 11 memorial design from more than 5,000 entries, the panel praised it for the "powerful, yet simple" use of reflecting pools to represent the destroyed World Trade Center. More than two years later, nothing is simple about the memorial, called "Reflecting Absence," which was sent back for a redesign after contractors concluded that it could cost nearly $1 billion.

A builder appointed by Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg is due to present new options Thursday that would cut the memorial's cost to $500 million. Officials hope to open the memorial in three years; preliminary construction that began in March has stopped.

"There's no reason that this memorial should be $1 billion. Absolutely none," said Daniel Libeskind, the architect who created the master plan for the 16-acre site known as ground zero.

Put the f*cking BUILDINGS back up and be DONE with it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:08 AM | Comments (6)

June 12, 2006

Just to Tickle the Insurance Itch One Last Time

The owners of the sagging, flood-stained home aren't in. Above the front door, a banner explains their absence, and the lack of progress: "Allstate paid $10,113.34 on this house for storm damage."

..."I want people to drive by my home and decide for themselves: Could I repair this for $10,000?" asks Eric Moskau, the home's exiled owner who had over $1.2 million in coverage on his 3,000-square-foot home.

...Yet an analysis by the office of Donald Powell, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast recovery czar, found few communities were better insured against flooding than New Orleans: Two out of three homes had flood insurance, 13 times more than the national average of 5 percent. It's also far more than in many other communities historically prone to flooding. For example, Harris County, Texas, has one of the highest rates of repetitive flooding in the nation and yet only a quarter of homeowners have flood coverage.

Moskau, a well-to-do real estate appraiser, thought he had taken every precaution: He had the maximum federal flood insurance of $250,000. But when the government issued that check, it was issued in two names: Moskau's and his bank's. His bank applied the check to his $600,000 mortgage, leaving him with an outstanding note of $350,000 and no money for repairs.

It's a jaw dropper. And these guys were insurance adjusters and real estate appraisers ~ "in the business" types.

(Our earlier insurance throw down.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:41 AM | Comments (5)

June 09, 2006

Bingley Visits Royalty

Who knew we'd be graced with a visit this weekend, and that these ladies would be so kind as to pose for a few photos for your humble servant on the trip home today?

Here's the "Crown Princess"

and, of course, her Majesty "Queen Mary 2"

To give you a sense of the size of these ships, heres a view from a little ways away...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:57 PM | Comments (8)

On This Day in 1973

...Secretariat said,

"See ya!"

...in the Belmont Stakes. America had herself a Triple Crown winner and a legendary champion.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:15 AM | Comments (3)

June 07, 2006

A Quick Note From Casa de Major Dad

...nestled on the subtropical(!) Gulfcoast of FLORIDA.

We'd like to take a moment and thank Gore, Gaia, greenhouse gasses, global warming, Greenpeace, earth farts and polar bears for FIVE straight days of cool enough weather to have the airconditioning off during the day and the house wide open. (In June, no less.) The electricity we didn't use has surely saved another couple hundred pounds of something noxious floating upward into the atmosphere or belching into the Blackwater. (That doesn't mean the savings will be reflected in increased cause contributions or ticket purchases, however. Dillards has Via Spigas in the mark down bin. Sorry.)

Whatever you guys are doing, for God's sake, keep it up.

UPDATE: Via Drudge, Tallahassee's chillin' set a record. I don't think we did, but we're only 5 miles from the Gulf, too.(JOHN)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)

June 06, 2006

Lynn Cheney

"This is a man with a dark hole in his soul. He can have all the fake suntans and manicures he wants," she went on to say, "but deep down inside, he's rotten."

...on John Kerry. From a wonderful (via Radioblogger) Hugh Hewitt interview with Mary Cheney.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:45 AM

June 02, 2006

Why Is It Never

..."the janitor from Burbank"?

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is wounded and vulnerable, and yet the two Democrats vying to unseat him are tearing each other apart in the very nightmare scenario party leaders had feared.

..."The script couldn't have been written any better by the Schwarzenegger campaign," said GOP consultant Kevin Spillane. "Whichever Democrat wins is going to be a dirty campaigner and a tax increaser."

Westly, a former eBay executive who has poured nearly $35 million of his own money into his campaign, went negative first, despite a promise to run a positive campaign. He delved into Angelides' past as a developer, accusing him of paving over wetlands, building on flood plains and contributing to urban sprawl.

Angelides, also a millionaire but on a lesser scale, attacked the controller for contributions he took from a Chicago businessman who was later indicted, and accused Westly of steering state business to the man's company.

"Millionaire but on a lesser scale". What, he watches for the Nieman-Marcus sales with free shipping like I do? These classless f*ckers have too much money. I'd vote for him if he'd spent that $35 mil adopting a school district or a free clinic. But on a vanity project like an election? How disgusting is that?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:01 AM | Comments (2)

June 01, 2006

Someone Better Start Practicing Their Backstroke

Or at least learn to levee-tate.

Parts of New Orleans are sinking far more rapidly than scientists first thought, more than an inch a year, new research suggests.

That may explain some of the levee failures during Hurricane Katrina, and it raises more worries about the future.

The research, reported in the journal Nature, is based on new satellite radar data for the three years before Katrina struck in 2005. The data show that some areas are sinking four or five times faster than the rest of the city. And that, experts say, can be deadly.

"My concern is the very low-lying areas," said lead author Tim Dixon, a University of Miami geophysicist. "I think those areas are death traps. I don't think those areas should be rebuilt."

We'll be spending lots more money for what appears to be a limited return.

Dokka also thinks all is not completely lost. Smarter construction can buy New Orleans some time.

"We've made the pact with the devil by moving down here," he said. "If we do things right, we probably can get another 100, 200, 300 years out of this area."

"If we do things right" means not doing them the old way, cher. And wasn't re-electing Mayor Noggin a great 'first step' away from the past?

Dolts.

I have such hope for the future...and my tax dollars.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:31 AM | Comments (2)

May 31, 2006

Indeed It Is

The Homeland Security Department is studying whether legal immigrants seeking citizenship and other benefits should pay higher application fees.

..."American citizenship is priceless," said Gonzalez, a naturalized citizen. "I think people will pay."

...priceless. Which is exactly why it shouldn't be 'FOR SALE'.

The Senate passed a bill last week that would offer a chance at citizenship for many of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country. It would require the immigrants to pay at least $3,200 in fees to get on the path to citizenship.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 PM | Comments (3)

Since They Can't Go After Og the Caveman

...I guess Max Mayfield is a suitable substitute.

Hundreds of concerned citizens and leaders from across the nation will join Hurricane Katrina survivors Wednesday to call for the resignation of the heads of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the NOAA Headquarters just outside of Washington, D.C. During an 11 a.m. demonstration, advocates will demand that NOAA stop covering up the growing scientific link between severe hurricanes and global warming while insisting on real solutions to the problem of global warming.

A cranky, obnoxious guy named Joe Bastardi used a chart (and a pretty convincing argument for "hold on there!") during a FoxNews blurb the other day that I just had to track down.

Those red protusions aren't a Clearacil ad ~ they're warm periods that have been occurring pretty regularly for the past ten thousand years or so. You'll notice our wee red blotch is allll the way to the right and just beginning to scale up to the temps that have surfaced at least five times before.

After ignoring the past, some analysts then use computer projections to predict temperatures for the next 100 years or more. It is astounding to see people put so much faith in these man-made computer models, yet ignore the actual facts of the past. As someone who has made a living at pointing out the folly of worshipping the false idol of atmospheric models, I find these projections to be a classic case of being blinded by the lure of the latest technological fad. Perhaps this is the most telling difference between those who are accepting of the "global warming hypothesis" and those of us who are skeptical. The former tend to base their conclusions on the guesses of computer models. We skeptics focus on actual climate history and conclude that nothing out of the ordinary is occurring.

His article has a link to a hugely interesting paper called "Breaking the 'Hockey Stick': Global Warming's Latest Brawl" by the timeline's author, Arizona State University climatologist Dr. Robert C. Balling. In it, he notices something unusual about the Swampies' version of climatological history:

Evidence from throughout the world shows that the planet was relatively warm 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period and relatively cold 500 years ago during the Little Ice Age. When the 1°C (1.8°F) of global warming of the past 100 years is considered in the context of climate variability of the last 1,000 years, the recent warming looks quite natural and nothing out of the ordinary. In 2001, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prominently featured an important graph of northern hemispheric temperatures over the past 1,000 years, and the plot resembled a hockey stick. This same graph was recently highlighted in testimony to the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Climate Change. In this graph, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age disappeared, and after 900 years of nearly steady temperatures, warming dominates the most recent 100 years. The new “hockey stick” depiction makes the recent warming look highly unnatural, thereby lending credence to the argument that human activities are the driving force behind global warming.

Looks bad, eh? How lovely to just do away with 1000 years of documented research when it messes up those computer models. Except for the GEICO cavemen (who are corporate whores anyway),
no one's left to point out the omission during these orchestrated hysteria gatherings.

That's pretty convenient, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:27 PM

May 26, 2006

BREAKING NEWS

UPDATE and BUMP: So far it's "Move along, nothing to see here." That's a good thing if it turns out to be the case.

UPDATE REDUX: 'Twould seem it was a construction hammer of some sort. The whole exercise might have been a "this is just a test" pain, but it's always a plus to make sure things work as planned in real time, n'est pas? I'm sure things were learned and glitches noted regardless of the outcome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shots fired around the Capitol building. Drudge has it as being in a House office building nearby. MSNBC TV says it's the Rayburn building. They're saying most of the House members have wrapped up and left, but there are still a few members left in D.C.

Robert Byrd is still on the Senate floor.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., conducting a House Intelligence Committee hearing, interrupted a witness to request those attending the meeting to remain in the room and said the doors must be closed.

“It’s a little unsettling to get a Blackberry message put in front of you that says there’s gunfire in the building,” he said.

Oh, I'll bet! The place is teeming with tourists and the 'gunfire' is yet to be confirmed.

There'll be a briefing in a few minutes. The latest AP update.

Latest from MSNBC broadcast: They're putting yellow police tape up around the Rayburn building garage, but they're letting the press within 40 feet of the opening. Four ambulances on scene, but no one seems to be in a panic so they're figuring it's probably precautionary. The MSNBC fellow there says it just feels as if they're following protocols.

UPDATE: The press briefing from the Capitol Police rep went like this: "We responded to reports of shots fired and we're investigating." That's the gist of it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:10 AM

May 19, 2006

She's A Yank-Your-Doodle Dandy

Oh my. I mean...ouch:

The 52-year-old Tioga-Nicetown man, who we are identifying only by his first name of Howard, arrived home late Wednesday, hours after his wife allegedly tore off two parts of his genitalia with her bare hands. Surgeons at Einstein successfully managed to repair the damage.

Is this the fate of the vile non-believers?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:43 PM | Comments (6)

May 18, 2006

He's Ours, Dagnabbit!

Michigan is trying to steal Hoffa from Jersey!

(CNN) -- FBI agents and local police were searching a Michigan horse farm Wednesday for the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa after receiving a tip about his disappearance, the agency said.

...A federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said the search is for Hoffa's body.

Really? There's some key information from that brave anonymous tipster.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:57 AM | Comments (4)

May 12, 2006

Why I Love Being Married To An Academic, Part LCMXVIII

Me (in 5:28 am getting ready for work mode): shuffle-shuffle
Bride (in classes-are-over-and-I'm-all-done-with-grading-exams-sleepyhead mode): "H-h-honey, why are you getting up so early? Oh yeah, it's Friday" (smiles and retreats under the covers)

sigh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:37 AM | Comments (9)

May 11, 2006

Hey! Did You happen to See...

...the CRANKIEST effin' bear in the WORLD?! Well, they found him.

DNA Tests Confirm Bear Was a Hybrid
Northern hunters, scientists and people with vivid imaginations have discussed the possibility for years.

But Roger Kuptana, an Inuvialuit guide from Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, was the first to suspect it had actually happened when he proposed that a strange-looking bear shot last month by an American sports hunter might be half polar bear, half grizzly.

Territorial officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid - possibly the first documented in the wild.

I'm curious who met who where for the rendezvous that created this fellow. I don't blame her for fallin' for him, though ~ the big, bad bears among us are often the most seductive.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:13 AM | Comments (11)

May 10, 2006

Don't You Just Hate It When A Plan Goes to Pooh?

I know I do. Walmart v. Kelo, in a delightful episode of "reversal of fortune".

The Hercules City Council will consider whether to use eminent domain to wrest a 17-acre property from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. after the nation's largest retailer rejected a city offer to buy the site with views of San Pablo Bay, city officials said Thursday.

...Wal-Mart bought the property overlooking central Hercules in November after another developer received city approvals for a neighborhood shopping center.

In February, city planners recommended denying Wal-Mart's proposal for a big-box store on its property, saying the plan was not in keeping with what had been approved for the location, which commands a view of one of the Bay Area's most vaunted New Urbanist communities, with pedestrian-oriented streets and large open-space set-asides, as well as sweeping views of the bay.

I live vicariously through this...

The same day the company submitted its revised proposal, Councilwoman Charleen Raines was hardly welcoming, although she said she had not read it.

"What the council has said is that we want to buy the property,'' she said, describing the tussle with Wal-Mart as a "David and Goliath'' struggle. "At this point, we're concerned about moving ahead on this property. It's been hanging over us for a long time.''

...as Casa de Major Dad is plopped in the middle of "Walmart Central". (And make that count 12 stores, as they're throwing one up between number 1 and number 4 as I write.) Pensacola/Escambia County never met a Walmart they didn't like. (Although they'll fight Publix tooth and nail. I guess they don't pay off as well as other chains.) Of course, Walmart is playing the aggrieved party, somberly intoning such drivel as:

"We're disappointed that the city is really playing politics with the future of Hercules rather than looking at the big picture,'' company spokesman Kevin Loscotoff said.

"Many residents of the city who we've talked to are frustrated and anxious for this much-needed retail project to move forward.''

Now, I can't speak for the residents who are anxious (as the folks I could find are NOT...), but I can read a store-finder map to address the 'much-needed'. There are two Walmarts already within 10 miles of Hercules and, as any Californian will tell you, a ten mile drive is a walk in the park/no distance at all/hardly registers/do-it-in-my-sleep. 'Much needed' applies more to Walmart Corp. than the community, in my unscientific assessment.

Keno seems to have the council covered if they play hardball. Batter up!

UPDATE and BUMP: I meant to post on THIS Sunday, but I forgot. It complements the tenor of this post (and my reply to Life's Fifth String in the comments) beautifully.

Wal-Mart Vies for Right to Put On a Happy Face

For decades, this feel-good symbol ☺ has encouraged millions to smile.

The happy face and "Have a Nice Day ☺" helped to define the '70s. With two dots and a pencil stroke, schoolchildren have brightened handwritten messages by filling in their O's with mini-smileys. These days, nary a cheery e-mail is complete without a typographical smile.

But now a bitter legal battle over smiley could be enough to make the happy little symbol :-(.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which uses a yellow happy face to try to put its shoppers in a carefree mood, is saying — with a straight face — that it has exclusive rights to the familiar image*, at least among retail department stores.

"At least among retail department stores", right. They'll be petitioning freakin' Congress and the Supreme Court for your email records like Metallica looking for downloads before you know it.
*My outraged emphasis
Take THAT ...you corporate fascist BASTARDS!!!
BHUUUUWAhahahahaha!!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:12 PM | Comments (18)

May 09, 2006

At Least He Didn't Say "Drive Less"

...or "sugarcane". Jim Jubak offers an out of the box, four point plan for easing the energy crisis.

Raise gasoline prices to $4 a gallon
To discourage demand for gasoline, slap enough federal taxes on gasoline to raise the price to $4 a gallon. It sure looks like $3 gas isn't enough to produce a very big change in consumers' behavior. Sales of older-model SUVs have indeed plunged, but that seems to have more to do with the age of the design than with the price of gas. Sales of General Motors' (GM, news, msgs) new Tahoe SUV, on the other hand, climbed nearly 35% in April; sales of the GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade jumped 36% and 127%, respectively.

Average daily demand for gasoline for April was 9.127 million gallons, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That’s roughly the same as the 9.125 million gallons used in April 2005. Holding demand steady when the economy is growing at better than 4% isn't nothing, but it's not enough. Looking at the sensitivity of demand for gasoline to its price, many economists see $4 a gallon as the point at which higher prices really begin to bite.

Neat read. AND he's looking for more ideas.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:28 AM | Comments (21)

May 08, 2006

But It Doesn't Hurt

...to gauge how the wind blows ~ dip your toe in the Big Muddy, so to speak ~ float the thought.

“From a pure business model, if I was just a cold-hearted businessman the decision would be pretty easy but I’ve got to make the decision based on my head and my heart. I really do. I think it’s very important to use good judgment. And if the state’s willing to protect us, make sure we don’t get hit hard, I’ll ride it out.”

However, Shinn said he doesn’t think that Louisiana should offer to write the Hornets a check to ensure their financial success.

He's talking about how he'd say yes, like, if Louisiana wants to bail out his sucky basketball team.

“I don’t think they should do that because to me there are more important things to get done than having a basketball team. I think they’ve got to get the families back first and then worry about a basketball team,” Shinn said. “That’s my opinion, but I’m not one of the politicians in Louisiana.”

Oh, but you as smooth as any of 'em, cher.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:46 PM

A Kinder, Gentler Website

...to explain stereotypes to those of you who live and die by them.

..."I hope it causes people to pause, and question stereotypes."

The two are working on a series of short films for the site designed to do just that.

In one, a Hispanic man is mowing the lawn of a giant home in an affluent neighborhood. A blonde pulls up in a BMW and asks the man how much he charges to landscape the home.

He replies, "Why would I charge to landscape my own yard?" An on-screen message appears: "I am an American."

You should be ashamed of yourselves. Group hug, group hug.
Now, go be better people...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:33 PM | Comments (2)

THIS

...is GREAT news!!

Trapped Australian miners freed
Two men had been buried in Australian mine for two weeks

Woo hoo and hurray!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:29 PM | Comments (2)

The "New Coke"?

It sure is sounding like it.

A comfortable armchair. Cool hanging lights. Funky graphics and photos on the walls. Wi-Fi access. Premium coffee. Isn't Starbucks great? Except...this is McDonald's. McDonald's (MCD)? That's right. After 30 years without a major design overhaul, the 51-year-old fast-food giant is adopting a hip new look. The world's largest hamburger chain is redesigning its 30,000 eateries around the globe in a 21st century makeover of unprecedented scale.

...What will the new McDonald's look like? "Think iPod: clean lines, simplicity," says Miologos. The signature mansard roof? History. "The big red roof looks too dated today," says John Bricker, creative director at design firm Gensler's brand-strategy arm, Studio 585. It's being replaced by a flat roof topped by a newly designed, contemporary, golden sloping curve. Ronald McDonald appears safe: The mascot was given a leaner, sportier look just last year. And the iconic twin golden arches will still play a big role in the branding.

... The traditional McDonald's yellow and red colors will remain, but the red will be muted to terra cotta and olive and sage green will be added to the mix. To warm up their look, the restaurants will have less plastic and more brick and wood, with modern hanging lights to produce a softer glow. Contemporary art or framed photographs will hang on the walls. Bob Dixon, a private school fund-raiser in Chicago, says of an Oak Brook [Ill.] restaurant that sports the new design: "It's bright, it's lively, it's clean. It stunned me how beautiful it was."

You can put poop in a gift box, but it's still poop. They lost me when two visits to separate MickeyD's produced two completely whacked out Big Macs. As in all the patties piled on one side and all the bread, condiments and cheese piled on the other. If you can't make your simple, signature sandwich correctly (especially for those of us who consider it a once a year treat), you are losers.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:57 AM | Comments (8)

May 05, 2006

Man, If You Can Duck Into a Ritzy Treatment Center

...you can get away with almost anything.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday he was entering treatment for addiction to prescription pain medication, a decision made after a highly publicized car crash near the Capitol that the congressman said he cannot recall.

Same thing happened here in our big drug ring bust in Bangla-cola. All the lily white drug dealer/cocaine snorters got probation after treatment or went off to Camp Snoopy for 18 months. Doesn't work like that for Tameka or Ontuwan in the projects, though.

And they'll re-elect his loser butt, I have no doubt.
UPDATE: Jeez, it's like an Oprah episode.

The congressman was treated at a drug rehabilitation clinic before he went to Providence College and has been praised in the past for his openness.

I'm a loser, so you must love me. It's not my fault, it's yours if you don't love me. Group hug, group hug.

GACK.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:43 PM | Comments (14)

I'm Sorry

...but that's just obscene.

Memorial Cost at Ground Zero Nears $1 Billion

They've raised $130 million in private donations. Seems like you could build a helluva reflecting pool with some trees around it for that. Leave off the gaudy bullsh*t and get something built.

Enough already.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:29 PM | Comments (4)

May 03, 2006

Fish and Chips, Puddings

...plus pints make pasty pussed Nigel a healthy boy.

White, middle-aged Americans — even those who are rich — are far less healthy than their peers in England, according to stunning new research that erases misconceptions and has experts scratching their heads.

...The English have a higher rate of heavy drinking.

I'll go along with the heavy drinking ~ I can adapt to that (And it's no wonder considering the average English menu). But eat an English diet? Oh, good God, no. I starved the 2 weeks I was over there. Unhealthy and happy sounds good to me. With some heavy drinking thrown in for a nod to our strapping cousins across the pond.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:30 AM | Comments (2)

Sometimes A Girl

...can only stand so much.

A Pakistani woman beheaded her husband, chopped up his body and dumped the dismembered parts in a sewerage drain after he announced plans to take a fourth wife, police said on Wednesday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:15 AM | Comments (30)

Small Towns Are Good for One Thing, Though

Jacka$$es tell the local paper how they really feel. (In civilization, they might be forced to practice some sort of control.) For instance, the Florida legislature is finally on it's way to removing the Panhandle's exemption from wetlands and environmental controls. ALL kudos to JEB ~for President! ~ Bush and House Speaker Allan ~ for U.S. Senator! ~ Bense for jamming this down the collective throat. Our local governments have also won the right to enforce their stricter regulations where they bump up against the state's weaker ones. (There aren't many of them, thus the impetus for legislative action.) Of course, local builders are pissed and expressing themselves.

"It's absolutely absurd. What they're going to do is shut down growth," said Pensacola home builder Dan Gilmore, who is a past president of the state Home Builders Association. "We're a $48 billion industry in this state, and they're treating us like a red-headed stepchild."

Oh, well, there you go! 'We spend so damn much money here, how dare you people question us?' Jacka$$. That's precisely why we do. His other objection?

Gilmore said local governments in the Panhandle had no experience enforcing the stricter standards.

And if it was up to him and his bricky bungalow buddies, they never would.
I think they're going about this the right way, with the exception of not implementing the rules until 2008. But that'll give them local rube officials 'nuff time to hit and comprehend the regulations, bein' so stupid and backwoods and not beholden to them what pays the bills, right, Jethro?

(I can't wait 'til the rumble starts over expanding South Florida's tougher wind damage construction mandates to the Panhandle ~ the builders are against that as well. What's gonna happen if we finally get a hurricane?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:07 AM

May 01, 2006

I Know There's Gonna Be Some Serious Attaboys Comin'

...about this list in Newsweek...

The Complete List: 1,000 Top U.S. Schools

...and old number 38.

38 Pensacola** Pensacola Fla.
**Gave both IB and AP tests. AP and IB participation are indicators of a school’s efforts to get students to excel and prepare for college.

Sounds great, huh? Pensacola has a world class high school smack in the middle of a county of functional illiterates. I mean, that's what you'd think, right? Not so fast. That's not really Pensacola High School on that page. That's the International Baccalaureate program tucked into a corner of big, sprawling, inner city Pensacola High School. The one with these statistics:

School grade "D": This school was given a grade of "D" by the Florida Department of Education in 2004-2005. In 2003-2004, this school received a "D".

The one where 32% of the sophomores read at or above grade level. THIRTY TWO PERCENT.

Am I worried about someone finding this disclaimer and being pissed off? No, not at all. Chances are they couldn't read it. (Unless they came from the affluent schools in the next county. You can tell which ones they are...by the scores.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:31 PM | Comments (7)

As For the Seething, Angry Crowds in Bangla-Cola

...they were...um...thin.

And angry, oppressed, seething Hispanics...

...were damn near impossible to find. Yup. Hiding behind the crepe myrtles ~ all eight of them.
(That picture spans the park from sidewalk to sidewalk, just so you know I did'nt crop the real crowds out of the frame.)

And three out of five of the Mexican restaurants I passed on my cub reporter's trek were OPEN.
UPDATE: The local news says there were a couple hundred protestors earlier. Guess I missed them. But from the video I saw, they were as enthusiastic as this bunch.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:40 PM | Comments (3)

Oh.

Good.

God.

An aquatic theme park in Australia has renamed a species of penguins on exhibit lest the birds' real name, fairy penguins, cause offense to people in the local gay community, reports the Sunday Mail.

Managers at Sea World are now calling the species "little penguins."

There were fairies long before the name was applied elsewhere and educated people know that. Which is why the local gay community is as baffled by this as the penguins are.
(God, they're frickin' adorable!)

Even local gay rights activists called the move barmy.

"I don't think our community is that sensitive about those things. If the penguins were called poofter penguins or something more direct then it might be a problem, but I don't see the name fairy penguin as a mickey-take at all," said Kamahl Fox, chairman of gay support group the Gold Coast Breakers.

"Poofter penguins", sheesh! That's great good humor. What a bunch of goobers at the zoobers. And they're toast if the real fairies find out. Cranky fairies, elves and their relatives can be pretty nasty.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)

April 29, 2006

One Of My Most Endearing Qualities, As Far As My Bride Is Concerned...

Is my punctuality. Actually, if the truth be told, it drives her insane. You see, I really hate being late for anything. I mean really really hate it. If you tell me to be at your house at 7 I'm there at 6:45. If we have to be somewhere at a given time and it's a 30 minute drive, I want to leave an hour early just, you know, in case there's traffic or something. I showed up at her apartment 2 hours early for our first date, for gosh sakes. So I found it somewhat gratifying this morning when I encountered someone who is worse than me.

I had to get the car inspected. New Jersey a few years ago went from annual car inspections to a system where older cars are done every other year and new cars every four years, at least for the first go around. So naturally over the course of the past two years I forgot to look at the sticker in my windshield, and when I did the number '4/06' therein didn't really register. Until yesterday, that is, when I realized that I had to face the dreaded last day of the month crowds at the motor vehicle inspection line on a Saturday morning.

The inspection station opens at 7 am, and based on past experience I knew, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that it would be a zoo this morning so I had to get there early. I mean, in the past if you got there at 7 you were looking at a minimum 45 minute wait. So I set my alarm for the usual 5:28 wakeup and was out the door at the usual 5:43. But to show how casual and relaxed I am now, I didn't take the fastest route to the DMV but rather the more mature scenic route so I could hit a Dunkin' and get a big cup of coffee. See? I've mellowed, baby. Anyhow, I got to the station at 6:10...and I was second. I was so tickled; I could now truthfully inform my bride that there was someone out there worse than me.

The DMV station in Eatontown has got the standard sort of long swoopy driveway that curls about and leads into the inspection bays. A few years ago they added a ticket machine, much like one at a parking garage, that gives each car a ticket as you go by and you then hand the ticket to the person who checks over your license, registration and insurance card as you pull into one of the three bays. There is, oh, about 150 yards of curvy lane from the machine to the bays. I'm really not quite sure what purpose this ticket serves but the bureaucracy seems to think it's spiffy. Anyhow, access to the ticket machine was blocked by a little chain stretched across the road right in front of it, and there's a sign on the chain that says "Form Line Here" or some such not-unreasonble command an hour before the place opens.

Anyhow, so we're sitting there, and I'm feeling good about being number two. Cars start lining up behind me and I'm doing the "I'll be done before you" dance in my mind. I did start to get a little nervous, though, because I knew that usually once you got nearer to the bays the lane split into two lanes so they could squeeze more cars into the line, and I was afraid I might, you know, choose the wrong lane or something and someone would pass me. But I was able to console myself that getting inspected third was just about as good as being the second car into the bay. And that helped. A little.

So the minutes crept along and the number of cars behind me grew (Yes!) though not, it must be admitted, to anywhere near the volumes of the past, which only makes sense, I guess, as in any given month only half as many cars at most are being inspected now. There wasn't much to occupy my attention, really, just the squirrels chasing eachother about, the Motor Vehicle employees driving by on their way in and the guy in front of me who seemed awfully fidgety. I mean awfully fidgety. Dude, sit still already!

At 6:51 he gets out of his car, looks at his watch and then back at me and says "It's 7 o'clock, isn't it?" He then walks forward and unhooks the Chain, gets back in his car, moves up, pushes the button to get a ticket and drives around the building to the bays.

I sat there stunned.

I hear all these cars behind me start up in an Indy 500 roar of jubilation, and as they creep forward and apply thousands of tons of psychological pressure on me I'm thinking "We are soooo screwed." I mean, bureaucracies do not take well to such wanton displays of initiative, especially state ones. Hear I was, pleased at being in the presence of someone who was more anal than I; now I discover he's an ass too.

But what could I do? Of course I caved. I crept forward, got my ticket and began the long drive around the building. I opened my window as I saw the perturbed looks on the employess as the first car drove by, and I heard several voices say "Who opened the gate?" and all the while I'm thinking I'm staying way behind this guy and try and disassociate myself from any knowledge of his existence. I pull up to within about ten feet of him (but no closer) at the stop sign in front of the still-closed inspection bays...and wait.

Sure enough, in a minute or so a very official looking fellow comes over and begins to just ream the bejeebus out of this guy..."Sir, are you the one who opened the chain? That is NOT your decision" and so on, and me and the guy behind me are just sinking in our seats, both of us trying to think of ways to say "It's his fault!" without sounding too 3rd grade-like when the fellow moved on to chastise us, but he seemed to realize, quite correctly mind you, that the first car was wholly and entirely at fault. Whew. A few minutes later they opened the three bay doors and we peeled off into them for our inspection.

Shockingly, Mr. Chain failed.

Hehehehehe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:38 AM | Comments (11)

April 28, 2006

On It's Face

...this...

Shell unveils plans for 'biggest refinery in US
Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch Shell has announced plans to make its jointly owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the biggest in the United States.

...is great news. Then you think, "But isn't that the same Port Arthur hidden by Hurricane Rita?"

Doesn't help jack if it's underwater or all blowed up.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:54 PM | Comments (4)

Our Counter Slogan for National Illegal Monday?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:54 PM | Comments (3)

Senator Martinez Replied to My Email

...bless his little, pointy head.

...In addition to tightening border security, we must obtain better information regarding the illegals living here because it is critical to our national security to know who is living within our borders. Our estimated illegal population is equivalent to the population of Ohio. If we hope to bring 11 million illegal immigrants out of hiding we must provide them with the proper incentive to come forward. We cannot offer amnesty; instead, I believe we must establish a way for those with jobs to gain interim legal status to work after paying stiff fines, back taxes, and clearing a background check.

Blahblahblah. Bring them out of hiding? Who cares about that? My opinion is leave them hiding ~ but when you FIND them, back to Mexico they go and make it IMPOSSIBLE for them to get back HERE. Plus a hefty body slam for their employer. "¡usted NO puede!".

And it's "The Star SPANGLED Banner", a$$holes.
NOT the "Star SPANGLISH".

Dear Ms. th sister:

Thank you for contacting me with your support for legislation that would strengthen our border security to stop the flow of illegal immigrants entering the United States. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to take this opportunity to respond.

I strongly believe that to protect our homeland and halt the flow of illegal immigrants, we must strengthen our borders. I also understand that any new immigration law passed by Congress must first and foremost seal our southern border with Mexico to stem the constant stream of illegal immigrants who enter our country daily.

On October 28, 2005, President George W. Bush signed into law the Homeland Security Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2006 (P.L. 109-90), which includes more than $30 billion for national security. It specifically set aside $2.3 billion for the Border Patrol to improve and expand its stations, to install and improve fencing, lighting, and vehicle barriers along the border and to acquire technologies, such as portable imaging machines, sensors and automated targeting systems that focus on high-risk travelers and goods.

Securing our borders and enforcing existing immigration laws must be our top priorities. As the Senate considers the President’s fiscal year 2007 budget request and comprehensive immigration legislation, I will work with my colleagues to ensure substantial resources are made available to the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol.

American employers also need to take responsibility when determining the immigration status of individuals they hire. Too often illegal immigrants attempt to enter the United States chasing employment from unscrupulous employers who accept fraudulent citizenship documents. This hurts both American workers and immigrants whose sole aim is to work hard and get ahead. It is imperative that we implement a simple, fool-proof, and mandatory mechanism for all employers to check the legal status of new hires, and we must penalize employers that continue to hire illegal employees.

In addition to tightening border security, we must obtain better information regarding the illegals living here because it is critical to our national security to know who is living within our borders. Our estimated illegal population is equivalent to the population of Ohio. If we hope to bring 11 million illegal immigrants out of hiding we must provide them with the proper incentive to come forward. We cannot offer amnesty; instead, I believe we must establish a way for those with jobs to gain interim legal status to work after paying stiff fines, back taxes, and clearing a background check.

Thank you for sharing your thoughtful comments with me. As the Senate considers this important issue, I will keep your views in mind. If you have any additional comments, please contact me. For more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:41 AM | Comments (4)

April 25, 2006

The U of W Student Senate

...has a change of heart.

After a sometimes-heated debate and an unusual roll call vote, the University of Washington student government Tuesday night backed the creation of a campus memorial to honor former students who have received the Medal of Honor.

The vote followed an earlier attempt by a UW student to create a memorial in recognition of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, a pilot with the Flying Tigers and later the Marines in World War II.

The UW student government rejected the proposal for a Boyington memorial by one vote at a February meeting. News of the decision -- and comments some students made that questioned if the university should honor a Marine who killed people, or a rich white man -- became public, and hundreds of people wrote the university and undergraduates, many expressing outrage at the students.

Several students brought up that public scrutiny during their nearly hourlong debate and vote, which was recorded by a national television news crew.

UW junior Deidre Lockman said the meaning of the memorial had been "hijacked" by people for political purposes, noting the "horrible" treatment some students received from the public after they voted against the Boyington memorial. She feared that some students might be intimidated by the public reaction.

"The true intention of this resolution will not be achieved," she said.**

...The UW's Medal of Honor memorial would honor five former UW students: Boyington, Deming Bronson, Robert Galer, Robert Leisy and William Nakamura.

FIVE Medal of Honor winners. Wow.

**ths notes: "HUH?" I wish I could've gotten someone to pay for a college education, so I could be completely incoherent in my pretentiousness.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:25 PM | Comments (5)

Odd Names

...to be on opposing sides of an issue, huh?

Former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, Teamsters President James Hoffa and civil rights leaders marched with striking service workers and about 200 supporters Tuesday at the University of Miami.

...No Americans should be working full-time and still living in poverty," Edwards told the crowd. "This struggle is about earning a wage, about having health care benefits, about everyone in America, not just a few, having a shot at the American dream.

University President Donna Shalala has said the school would not take a position on the unionization of striking janitors at the campus. But the university took out an ad Tuesday in The Miami Herald criticizing the union's organizing tactics, which it said are disrupting the school's academic programs.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:55 PM | Comments (1)

April 24, 2006

Okay, So Ken Lay Gave His Testimony Today

"I think it all began with the deceit of Andrew Fastow and probably not more than one or two other people," Mr Lay said.

Pretty much "Andrew made me do it".

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:01 PM

Holed Everything!

A large sink hole opened in the middle of a house, killing a 27-year-old man who plummeted 10 feet and was covered by the rubble, officials said Sunday.

The two-story home, built in the 1980s, might have been sitting atop a decades-old underground mine, authorities said. Recent rains possibly softened the ground under the home, in an isolated area near Lake Alta, northeast of Sacramento.

“It’s unbelievable,” Placer County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said. “From the front of the house, it’s absolutely normal. Then, in the middle of the house, is this enormous hole.”

Dang!! Poor guy. I thought that stuff only happened in South Florida...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:28 AM | Comments (7)

The New Orleans Election Glass

Was it half full...

...but the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Sunday the low turnout should be a mandate to further encourage participation among voters unable to return.

Jackson said the election would be challenged in court regardless of the outcome because voting rights need to be protected.

...or half empty?

Stonecipher, however, said the turnout may not be a sign of disenfranchisement, but rather an indication that many registered voters don't plan to return.

If they re-elect Mayor Nagin (Noggin), my guess is half a$$ed, but that's just me. Why do I keep thinking of the Palestinian elections when I see who the voters went for ~ of ALL the choices, they went for the bad ones. Not a damn thing's gonna change when they had a chance to start fresh. That Noggin could get even three votes is astonishing, less mind have a legitimate (always a word used loosely in NOLA context) shot at retaining his seat. What a testament to ignorance and intransigence. The voters had chance to get rid of that seedy, sleazy, smokey pall that hangs over politics there in the Crescent City. Damn. Talk about blowing it in the eyes of your fellow Americans ~ those same taxpayers who are being harangued into paying for NOLA 'business as usual'. NOTHING'S going to change. I believe people are going to have a problem with that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:25 AM | Comments (4)

April 22, 2006

Speaking Out

...all over the Sunshine state.

On Thursday, Dale Meares, 63, a Canada native who became a U.S. citizen, told Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, that illegal immigrants "make her blood boil."

"It is so wrong," said Meares of Clermont, her voice quavering. "Thousands say they have rights. They don't have any rights unless they earn them. Legal citizens are being spit in the face - it's like an insult."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:40 AM | Comments (3)

April 20, 2006

Oh, You Almost Fooled Me

...NOT. You know those high school/"college" (and I use the term loosely here) kids who bang on the door, trying to sell magazines to win the "Major Award"? The company that sucks them in has come up with a new spin on the same game. Instead of the most subscriptions, now you're "voting" for them. How? Well, you...yup. Pony up for overpriced magazine subscriptions which, by virtue of how overpriced, are assigned X amount of "votes". I have only two suggestions for these irritating door-to-door kids.

1) Don't get suckered in in the first place. (For all the walkin' you're doing in the hot Florida sun for NO return, you might oughta try McDonald's, 'cause at least it's airconditioned, fry boy or not. Or Cynthia Tucker for $6 an hour.)

2) If I bother to peek out the front door and you begin your earnest, cheerful spiel, the chances of parting me from the subscription cost would vastly improve if you weren't dressed like Randy from "My Name is Earl" and Jam Master Jay.

Honestly. This is for your own good.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:51 PM | Comments (8)

A Reminder of Yesterday's Anniversiary

(noted by Miss Emily here.) And I'm not talking Lexington-Concord.

6 Branch Davidians to Leave Prison

Thirteen years after the Branch Davidians' armed standoff with federal agents ended in an inferno that killed nearly 80 people, six sect members who were sent to prison are about to be released from custody.

Most of those who will be freed over the next two months escaped from the compound near Waco as it burned to the ground on April 19, 1993 - 51 days after a shootout that erupted when federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest religious leader David Koresh for stockpiling guns and explosives.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:07 AM | Comments (4)

Oh, Really?

On the streets of Mexico City, the word is spreading. Cristina Robles, an elegantly dressed business woman who has just done the family shopping at Superama, a supermarket chain owned by US retailer Wal-Mart, says she will support the ban. "I am not going to buy anything American," she says. "I know it is not easy because there are a lot of illegal immigrants but the US has to treat them the same as any other worker."

Well-to-do Mexicans swear off Wal-Mart for a day to lecture the U.S. how to deal with the millions of illegal POOR Mexicans hanging out here. Take THAT, capitalista peegdogs! (And it's a dirty little secret ~ no one here likes to admit they shop at Wal-Mart either.)

Joaquín García Nava, owner of a corner cafe in La Condesa, a swanky neighbourhood in central Mexico City, agrees. "For me, the protest serves a double purpose: I get to support the immigrants and I also get to express my slightly anti-Yankee sentiments."

A two for one deal! Bueno. Make mine a double latte. Besides, he needs the gringo dollars.

Antonio Pereyra, a local government official, says people feel strongly about the need for immigration reform in large part because of their increasing dependence on remittances – money sent home by immigrants in the US. "Every single family has at least one member working in the US and without the money they send back home every month many would not be able to survive," he says.

To paraphrase something I heard ~ if you're strong enough to face the dangers and survive the desert, then you're strong enough to keep your illegal ass HOME and change YOUR country.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:11 AM | Comments (4)

April 19, 2006

Cynthia Tucker

...comes face-to-face with what I've posted on and railed about, time and time again. She was honest enough to write a column on it.

The black men I know best are all hard-working, accomplished professionals. They include my brother, a physician, and my buddies -- lawyers, college professors, political consultants, journalists. I live in an insular world of middle-class affluence, rarely stumbling into the troubled universe of marginalized underachievers.

...I was to find men willing to help him paint, lift, scrape, fill, dig. The pay was hardly exorbitant -- $6 an hour. But it seemed reasonable for unskilled labor. So I looked among unemployed high school classmates, members of my mother's church and men standing on nearby street corners.

The experience brought me face-to-face with every unappealing behavior that I'd heard attributed to idle black men but dismissed as stereotype.....

Education. EDUCATION. A reverence for EDUCATION MUST become a driving force in the lower class black community. No more handwringing and moaning about lousy schools. You can still learn to read and write and add numbers in a lousy school ~ the difference is the community that makes the most of what it's got at hand. PARENTS who WANT their children to be better, who will NOT accept an illiterate child, who will protect and bolster their child's thirst for knowledge from the hip-hop gansta losers who would shame them from BEING someone. Shame them from their EDUCATION, from their ticket OUT of the cruel little world they inhabit, where such ne'er do wells and malcontents are the big dogs. And where everyone's a victim.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:21 AM | Comments (8)

Why I Commute By Boat

Stranded up in the air for 11 hours ain't my cup of tea.

I wonder if Jaws was in town yesterday...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:56 AM | Comments (1)

April 18, 2006

Now He Wasn't Even There?

One of the two Duke University lacrosse players arrested on charges of raping and kidnapping a 27-year-old woman at an off-campus party had been arrested in the fall for assaulting a man in Washington, D.C., and the other was not present when the alleged crime occurred, sources told ABC News.

Multiple sources told ABC News that Reade Seligmann, 20, was not present in the house at the time the alleged victim says the crime occurred. Sources say this is established through different witness accounts, as well as cell phone and credit-card records.

This quagmire is making sucking sounds.

UPDATE: The sucking is getting louder with this timeline linked description of the party photos from a local ABC affiliate. Dang.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:19 PM | Comments (6)

The Subject Line in a SPAM Email

...seen as I sent it to SPAMMY hell, set me to Googling, and lo and behold ~ it's true.

Voter registration and citizenship education initiatives are set to begin in several states after a "Day Without An Immigrant" campaign planned for May 1, an event which asks immigrants nationwide to stay home from work and school, and refrain from buying American products.

"Marches will only get you so far," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, an umbrella organization for Hispanic activist groups in Southern California. "There has to be an electoral component to get the Republicans out of the majority."

Does 'refrain from buying American products' cover the tortillas and sauces made by Mexicans in American factories? Or strawberries picked in California fields by immigrants? If you buy Danish cheese, for instance, you're still supporting the American long shoremen who unloaded at a U.S.port and the truck drivers who delivered it to the American grocery store warehouse and then the American grocery store you bought it at. The second you put your quarters on the counter, you're buying American. I mean, what are they not going to buy? It's hard to boycott a certain country's products when you live in that certain country...isn't it?

UPDATE: OMG, it wasn't SPAM ~ well, not in the biblical sense. Michelle Malkin got one, too!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:08 PM | Comments (3)

I Wonder How Rev. Jesse Will Spin This

...IF he mentions it at all.

The number of businesses owned by black entrepreneurs grew more than four times the national rate for all businesses from 1997 to 2002, the federal government said Tuesday.

Black entrepreneurs owned 1.2 million businesses in 2002, an increase of 45 percent from 1997, according to a report by the Census Bureau.

..."I'm proud," said Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. "We're the fastest-growing segment."

Alford said black entrepreneurs have been helped by improved education levels and increased incomes among black consumers and business owners.

Blacks as a group still trail whites in education and income, but they have made gains in the past half-century. In 1950, only 14 percent of black adults had high school diplomas, compared with 36 percent of whites, according to the Census Bureau. The gap narrowed by 2000, when 72 percent of black adults had at least a high school diploma, compared with 84 percent of whites.

"We've got the first generation of significantly educated people," Alford said.

"There's a black middle class like never before."

That's just terrific! Now, if they keep the ball rolling on education, they'll change a LOT of lives.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:51 AM

April 17, 2006

Tell Me Again

...how they pay taxes and therefore aren't a burden?

Only two of Laurau Cuevas' three children can visit the doctor anytime they get sick. Like her mother, the oldest is an illegal immigrant born in Mexico.

Every sickness brings a dilemma.

"She doesn't have Medicaid like the others," Cuevas said in Spanish about her 9-year-old daughter. "When she really needs to go, we have to figure out how to pay the bill."

From this paragraph, I understand that these illegal immigrant parents have two U.S. born children who are ON MEDICAID. Last I heard, we taxpayers foot those bills. And as her oldest is also an illegal, what happens when push comes to shove and she winds up in an emergency room? Not to mention that I'm sure all three are in our local schools and on the breakfast/lunch program, which is...yeahyeahyeah...taxpayers footing the bill. Don't make her sad story the lead in the article if you're trying to get my sympathies roused. The meter's pegged.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 PM | Comments (1)

April 15, 2006

"A History of Violence"

We got half-way through it before an early wake-up for Snapper Season called. Yeah, it's gruesome, Viggo "The Chin" Mortenson is the man-of-few-words hero, his wife says 'baby' waaaay too much, blahblahblah. None of that's really bothering me. But I'll tell you what's annoying the CRAP out of me ~ the product placement for the Post Honey Bunches of Oats. If I see that box passed across a kitchen table with the label side perfectly angled for the camera to focus on it ~ three times and counting in three different scenes ~ one more TIME, we can add another chapter to the history.

Oh, you betcha.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:59 PM

If I Tell "The Welfare" to Pi$$ Off

...does it mean they take my baby? (PROMISE?)

New Jersey doctors will be required to educate expecting mothers and their families about postpartum depression and screen new moms for the disorder under a new law signed Thursday.

He's almost 24 now, but there are still days I swear I'll let them have him.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:34 AM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2006

Quote of the Week

"Bottom line: It is hard to see how the GOP is not like the Titanic, except it is aiming for the iceberg."
-Hugh Hewitt

Odd he should choose that analogy. John Wilkes Booth had a ticket for a performance at Ford's Theater on April 14th in 1865, while a scant 47 years later this same night,

"The Band Played NEARER MY GOD TO THEE
as the ship went down".

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:34 AM | Comments (7)

April 13, 2006

This Wicket

...just keeps getting stickier...

A woman who claims she was raped by members of Duke University's lacrosse team was described as "just passed-out drunk" by one of the first police officers to see her, according to a recording of radio traffic released Thursday.

The conversation between the officer and a police dispatcher took place about 1:30 a.m. March 14, about five minutes after a grocery store security guard called 911 to report a woman in the parking lot who would not get out of someone else's car.

The officer gave the dispatcher the police code for an intoxicated person. When asked whether the woman needed medical help, the officer said: "She's breathing and appears to be fine. She's not in distress. She's just passed out drunk."

World News Tonight played the recording of the call. What happened when she woke up?

TUESDAY, MARCH 14 -- At 12:53 a.m., a woman called 911 to report that a man had shouted racial slurs at her and a friend as they walked by a house owned by Duke and rented by several players.
At 1:22 a.m., a security guard at a Kroger grocery called 911 to report that a woman outside the store had refused to get out of her car and that she appeared intoxicated. After the police arrived, she accused three lacrosse players, whom she identified by first names, of forcing her into a bathroom at the house and sexually assaulting her for 30 minutes. The woman said she and another woman had been hired to perform as exotic dancers for a party at the house.

The devil's in the details.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:00 PM | Comments (3)

April 12, 2006

That's Peachy

Sensing change, migrants rush to the border
Mexicans hurrying to Arizona anticipating passage of guest-worker plan

Seems they all want to get here in time to get grandfathered in. Oh yeah, Señor Bush ~ we need a wall. A BIG, FREAKIN" W - A - L - L, wall.

This looks about right.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:18 PM | Comments (2)

Home For A Few Days

Spring is in the air, I'm sitting on the back deck with a cup of coffee, and my bride has to go to work whilst I watch the birds ravage the feeder.

Life is pretty good!

Hope she can figure out how to make less noise when she gets ready in the morning though; geesh!

hehehe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:33 AM | Comments (10)

April 11, 2006

If Dick Morris Can Be Gold Plated Now

...sure. Why not 'Brownie', too?

In one of the most amazing turnabouts in recent times, officials in Katrina-ravaged St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana are looking to hire the man most vilified in the aftermath of the disaster: former FEMA Director Michael Brown.

The consulting firm formed by Brown after losing his job at FEMA, has been approached by St. Bernard Parish to help businesses and communities negotiate the maze of federal bureaucracy.

Isn't this a great country? You can get canned for being an ineffectual, abysmal failure (or responsible for one) and six months later they're paying you the moon. I haven't got the hang of this yet, but I will. Hopefully before Ken Lay gets hired somewhere and takes my spot. (Bastards. Someone's always taking my spot...)

UPDTAE: It's all academic now.

Former FEMA chief Michael Brown says he'll still offer advice to hurricane-battered St. Bernard Parish, but he won't serve as a paid consultant because it would just stir up controversy.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:32 PM | Comments (16)

A Step in the Right Direction

This is good news.

The headwaters of the Everglades will soon flow freer now that all the land has been purchased to restore the Kissimmee River's meandering path.

State water managers say they have completed the acquisition of about 103,000 acres of land that will allow much of the water to return to its natural state in the river basin, flowing south through Lake Okeechobee and on into the Everglades.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 AM

April 10, 2006

Hard to Be a Rapist

...if your sperm wasn't even there. The Duke DNA tests have come back with no matches.

DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.

Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.

...“No DNA material from any young man was present on the body of this complaining woman,” said defense attorney Wade Smith.

There is going to be an uproar. This has been turned into a class/racial war of words, from black preachers holding prayer services on the frat house lawn for ABCNews to film, to a scathing indictment by a part time Duke prof in the NYT this weekend. Who backs away now and says "we were too quick to judge" when they were so quick to say "we told you so"? Granted these guys are pigs (like that's a surprise with today's Lawrence Phillips type college athlete) and need to be hammered as such, but they've been demonized and hung out to dry for something that apparently never happened.

AFTERTHOUGHT: And you know what? If poor, piteous, goggle-eyed Ms. Wilbanks could be charged with making false statements for a misadventure that basically caused concern, anxious moments and inconvenience, what's the penalty for ruining 46+ young lives with your lies, if they are proven to be so? I would be heartened if the black leaders in Durham who were so quick to rain invective are as quick to call for reconciliation and recompense, as well as every sports writer and major newspaper in the country. (Hello, ESPN's Sports Reporters? NYT?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:33 PM | Comments (11)

The Wheels of Justice Move

...EVER so slowly...

Prosecutors have dropped charges against a retired teacher who was beaten by New Orleans police during an arrest caught on videotape shortly after Hurricane Katrina, he and his lawyer said Monday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:17 PM

Montezuma's Revenge

DATELINE: Pensacola. Yes, I went to our local rally.

(To be honest, I didn't even know we were having one until we passed them on the way to the airport. I shot back home and grabbed the camera.) There were couple hundred souls, 95% Hispanic, shuffling around the median. As I passed by on my way back the first time, I noticed several white contractors, each with a gaggle of Mexican workers in tow behind them ~ all with clean hair and faces, wearing identical new blue jeans, pristine white t-shirts and new hats. Clean illegals are a whole lot less threatening than how they usually look, I guess. Pretty frickin' calculated.

Maybe I should have titled this "Ivan's Revenge" instead, because if this was being held in April '04, there wouldn't a' been but twelve of them out there.

There was some half-hearted chanting. Hardly a Mexican flag to be seen.

Scattered among the crowd were isolated juedo faces...

...who, of course, carried the fancy printed, all purpose solidarity/protest banners.

Can you tell the local news mobile just showed up?

Half the group surged toward the center of the grassy area, gesturing, hands in the air. (There were handlers/cheerleaders coordinating the whole thing. Nothing spontaneous about it.)

And then there were the scenes that reminded me of the Parque El Centenario in Merida ~ loads of fellows hanging out, following the shade around under the trees as the day went by.

No counter protests to be seen ~ in fact, I was the lone prowler on the edge of it. (I figure most citizens had to work on a Monday, n'est pas?) Anyone on the sidewalk was a courthouse worker taking a cancer break, folks waiting on the ECAT bus to come along, bystanders doing and going somewhere else. Most looked sort of bemused by the whole 'foreign' thing ~ I would see them lean over to the person beside them as if asking 'Huh? What'd they just say?' An older fellow I was standing next to asked me "Do you know what it's about?" I explained and he said "well, they must be starving in Mexico." I replied "There's starving folks in Serbia and Sudan waiting to get here legally. So what do we say to those people?"

He couldn't answer.

UPDATE: Well, the local media doesn't disappoint. They're claiming over a thousand people showed up, even though the reporters on the scene say "hundreds". Another reason to scoff? Instead of crowd scenes, they interviewed individual protestors and did the old 'lay the camera on the sidewalk to catch the feet walking by' shot. What you see in my pics is the crowd. I'll stand by my 'couple hundred' original estimate.

FLORIDA UPDATE: I'm so with this guy:

David Caulkett, founder of the Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, questioned the strong showing of American flags at more recent protests, after many demonstrators waved Mexican flags at protests in Los Angeles last week.

"This week the theme is American flags and citizenship. Why the sudden change of loyalty? What is the true sentiment?" he said. "Who is financing all of these protests?"

Caulkett also criticized South Dade Senior High School in Homestead which offered students buses back to campus after they walked out of classes last week and protested at City Hall.

Read the WHOLE artricle ~ there's plenty to get angry about AND agree with.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:19 PM | Comments (16)

Nicholas Kristof

...in the NYT yesterday.

...But I've changed my mind on a guest worker program, because of growing evidence that low-wage immigration hurts America's own poor.

The most careful study of this issue, done by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that the surge of immigration in the 1980's and 1990's lowered the wages of America's own high school dropouts by 8.2 percent. "The large growth and predominantly low-skilled nature of Mexican immigration to the United States over the past two decades appears to have played a modest role in the widening of the U.S. wage structure," the study concluded.

Another study, by Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, reached similar conclusions. Between 2000 and 2005, he found, immigrant workers with a high school degree or less rose by 1.5 million, while employment of native workers at that education level fell by 3.2 million.

It's often said that immigrants take jobs that Americans won't take. But look at employment statistics, and you see that even among maids and agricultural workers, only four out of 10 people are immigrants.

...The broader problem is that our immigration program is structured so as to bring in cheap laborers more than brilliant minds. At last count, only 16 percent of admissions for permanent residence went to those with employment qualifications, while the great majority went to applicants on the basis of family ties.

When I lived in China, American diplomats complained that under the law they had to deny visas to brilliant physicists while granting immigrant visas to elementary-school dropouts who had a relative in Chicago.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:09 AM

Has Anyone Heard?

Is Jimmay Cartah and the U.N. monitoring this?

Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees from as far away as Texas and Georgia have signed up to board buses and return to Louisiana in order to vote on the future of New Orleans.

The evacuees are returning to cast early votes Monday in elections for mayor and city council, the first major test of the city's post-Katrina electoral system.

The busing is both practical and symbolic, said Kevin Whelan, spokesman for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

"Part of it is obviously turning out real voters. But it's still, obviously, a small percentage of the entire electorate," he said.

Displaced residents can vote Monday through Thursday and Saturday at early voting stations in Lake Charles, Shreveport, New Orleans and seven other cities around the state. The offices will be closed for the Good Friday holiday.

Sounds like how the Democrats got all those voters to the polls in East Saint Louis.
Strikes me as ripe for abuse. ( What happens if you get on a votin' bus to NOLA and Houston doesn't let you come back?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:04 AM

April 08, 2006

What's Left of the Escambia Bay Bridge

...will be going in the Gulf as the newest artificial reef.

The damaged Interstate 10 bridge over Escambia Bay is set to become a concrete haven for fish and other marine life.

The 2 1/2 mile bridge is in line to be sunk in the Large Area Artificial Reef Site, which encompasses about 125 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 miles south of Pensacola, officials said.

Hurricane Ivan wrecked the bridge in September 2004, with pieces of the structure ripped away by the bay's roiling waters. A wider, taller, $243 million bridge is under construction.

Workers could begin dismantling the old I-10 bridge in January or February. The contractor has a $10 million incentive to finish the new eastbound span, which will handle four lanes of traffic, by Dec. 29.

Well, newest next to the Oriskany.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:46 PM

April 07, 2006

Gamble Lost

A worker on the property found the woman's savaged body, said Sheriff Mansavage.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:22 PM | Comments (10)

What a Load of Tripe

One problem, many causes
Holzer sees many reasons for the bleak situation: unemployment, enduring bias in American life, the disproportionate impact of the war on drugs.

“When you look at what’s responsible, there’s a lot of stories," he said. "The labor market changed a lot. There was a disappearance of good jobs for less educated men. For blacks you have continuing problems of discrimination, job flight from the cities."

So get EDUCATED, huh? (Oh, STFU about the discrimination as an excuse.) My/yours/our tax dollars put that education right there. They get breaks for college tuition, etc, ad nauseum, that your middle class ~ black, orange, green, venusian or white ~ has no access to. Make yourself responsible for your child's education, even if you're illiterate yourself. Make yourself better by WORKING with your child. Quit fighting the teachers and looking for the next federal program your kids can qualify for, so you can abdicate more of that responsibility.

I will tell you the big problem here ~ there is an unending harrassment of young, smart black boys in the elementary and middle schools by other black kids. The best and brightest black kids (and I'm not talking just brains) ~ the upstanding citizens, future rocket scientists, doctors, Presidents, anything they want to be ~ are being beaten down literally and figuratively by the hoodlums and ne'er do wells who see an education as a threat. They are perpetuating a culture of gansta street hip, "don't need nothing from nobody, gonna be a pro b-ball player and show these motherf*ckers" that is a cancer eating away at the black community. The ability is there. The potential is there. Somebody needs to protect the kids who want to be something.

You can only be beaten down by your peers for so long before even the strongest little guy cracks. Someone needs to be there and it's NOT the government's home or family. So. Hmmmm...any suggestions?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:40 PM | Comments (4)

Too, Too Young

Army women’s basketball coach Maggie Dixon, who led the Black Knights to their NCAA tournament debut last month, has died. She was 28.

Golly. That's awful.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:21 PM

I'm So Sick of You

Isidro D. Ortiz, a political scientist and professor of Chicano and Chicana studies at San Diego State University, said the flag is primarily a symbol of Mexican pride. But, in the current climate of the United States, Latinos also wave it to express dissatisfaction with how they are treated, Ortiz said.

"(Immigrants) have been trying for some time to imagine themselves as a part of the United States," he added. "What they've experienced is refusal."

..."A lot of immigrant families in southern Arizona are telling one another to carry the American flag in their hands, but hold the Mexican flag in their hearts," she said.

...and I'm not afraid to say so. An expanded version of the (St. Paddy's Day) article below does nothing to warm the cockles of my cold, cold liberal heart.

UPDATE: Speakin' of which, MSNBC.com is reporting that the immigration bill has "failed a key senate vote, passage in doubt." No link yet.
AP's got it.

The Senate sidetracked sweeping immigration legislation Friday, leaving in doubt prospects for passing a bill offering the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.

A carefully crafted compromise that supporters had claimed could win an overwhelming majority received only 38 of the 60 votes necessary to protect it from weakening amendments by opponents.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Find out where YOUR Senator stands/sits. I've emailed old gooberhead Martinez already. And was terse...but polite.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:35 AM | Comments (2)

Besides NOLA, LA Needs Some Petty Cash

...to help out with their 'homeless' problem.

The vast homelessness problem in Los Angeles County can be solved in a decade by spending up to $15 billion on affordable housing and other preventative services, officials said Thursday after a three-year study.

Granted, that's a staggering amount. STAGGERING. Once I got past it and kept reading, this sentence caught my eye:

Elsewhere Thursday, Maine Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill to ensure that attacks on the homeless are prosecuted just as stiffly as attacks on people because of their age, race or sexual orientation.

You mean they weren't before this superfluous law? And does this mean if I'm mugged just because they could, I'm NOT entitled to vigorous prosecution of the thugs, since there was no particular reason they did it ~ I was neither old, paleface or goatloving, so they blow it off?

I am so sick of these bullsh*t special 'hate/love/peace/happiness' crime categories. A life is a life is a life, whatever it's wrapped in.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:41 AM | Comments (5)

Sput...SputSput...Sputtering Along

...damn his big, brown, liquid pool Chimpy eyes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers added 211,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate unexpectedly slipped back to a 4-1/2-year low 4.7 percent, the government said on Friday in a report likely to keep concern about potential inflation pressures on the burner.

The pace of hiring last month was stronger than the 190,000 jobs that had been forecast by analysts, who also had expected the unemployment rate to be unchanged at February's 4.8 percent.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:55 AM

A Neat Story

Baseball behind enemy lines.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:50 AM | Comments (1)

April 06, 2006

I Think SHE's Conveniently

...missing the point.

Hundreds of protesters gripped Mexican flags as they marched for immigration reform in the past few weeks, but they say a display of cultural unity is being mistaken as a lack of loyalty to the United States.

The displays turned off many Americans...

"Nobody gets upset with the Irish on St. Patrick's Day," said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy and legislation at the Washington, D.C.-based League of United Latin American Citizens, the group that organized most of the recent protests and is heading the dozens of marches and rallies scheduled across the nation Monday.

News flash: Self serving, ignorant tripe like that also turns off many Americans. Revelers in green sweatshirts and lapel pins on the same one day a year don't come close to the image of hundreds of thousands of Spanish chanting, MEXICAN flag waving ILLEGALS and their supporters defiantly marching to protest the very foundation of this country ~ our LAWS. Occupying government buildings and threatening speeches have nothing in common with NY transit cops in emerald green berets for a day. If I remember my history correctly, the vast majority of the 3.5 million Irish came over by boat, passing through immigration facilities at Ellis Island, Boston, and Philly.

Legally.

I think the Mexican illegals have found America vastly more accomodating than the LEGAL Irish immigrant 100 years ago.

The Chicago Post wrote, "The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses...Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country."

Heard that before?

Not only the men worked, but the women too. They became chamber maids, cooks, and the caretakers of children. Early Americans disdained this type of work, fit only for servants, the common sentiment being, "Let Negroes be servants, and if not Negroes, let Irishmen fill their place..." The Blacks hated the Irish and it appeared to be a mutual feeling. They were the first to call the Irish "white nigger."

Remember...

"We'll take the Niggers and the Chinks, but we DON'T WANT the IRISH!!"

Nah. As far as most things go, the ILLEGAL immigrants of today have nothing in common with the Irish. Nice try.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:42 AM | Comments (8)

April 05, 2006

Spring has Sprung.....

In Norf Cackalackie.

[Bingley update: It is currently snowing in Manhattan. Like hell.]

Posted by Crusader at 06:35 AM | Comments (10)

April 04, 2006

And Nope

I don't think I agree with this at all.

Gun advocates and business owners watched a contested bill to let gun owners bring their guns to work and keep them locked in their cars crawl out a first committee Tuesday.

It took six tries for lawmakers in the House Judiciary Committee to move the bill (HB 129) past its first stop. They offered a tweaked version: Gun owners could keep their weapons locked in their cars at work, unless businesses- like security outfits and hazardous waste companies - showed a compelling safety concern to ban the practice. This could include banning individual employees, who have a history of violence or problems with the company. Plus, businesses wouldn't be responsible for any crimes.

Jeez, thanks a lot. I'm not responsible ~ some comfort that. Does a business owner have no 'rights' as far as what's allowed on his property? It's been hard enough keeping people with grudges from coming back and blasting their old supervisor along with half the staff as it is. What if his gun is in the car the day they fire him? Just that much easier to kill people. And don't try to tell me that all those guns that could be in cars in parking lots will deter/save the blastees. A gun for self defense is only as useful as your ability to get to it.

We have a right to carry (and 'Castle Doctrine') here, and there've been 'a million permits issued in a state of 17 million residents', but that's hardly indicative of how many guns are riding the street in your average citizen's car at any given time. To my knowledge, there's only been two instances of 'shoot first, ask later' happening in Escambia since the law went into effect, so we've hardly devolved into the Dodge City scenario they were all predicting. But forcing business owners to allow firearms on the premises if they choose not to? I think the NRA is overreaching.

This whole argument is academic, of course ~ predicated on folks admitting they have a gun in the car in the first place. And who in their right mind would do that?
UPDATE: Two minutes later, I find a case in point:

The ex-wife of country music star Garth Brooks was kidnapped at gunpoint by a man who worked on her farm after she cooperated with a bail bondsman who wanted to arrest the worker, authorities said Tuesday.

Sandy Brooks had allowed the bondsman onto her property Monday to apprehend the man, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant. The worker responded by drawing a weapon, forcing her into a car and ordering her to drive away...

How weird is that?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:46 PM | Comments (16)

Never, EVER Do

...this:

Marco Island authorities say an eleven-year-old tourist was cut on his right hand and thigh after a reported shark attack.

...Ausum was walking along the beach with his father when he dove into a school of fish just before he was bitten.

There can be more than one kind of fish in a school.

UPDATE: ::sigh:: Or this, either.

Part of a teacher's hand was blown off when a 40 mm round of ammunition the instructor used as a paperweight on his desk exploded in his classroom.

...Colla found the 40 mm round while hunting years ago, Huston said. He used it as a paperweight and "obviously he didn't think the round was live," Huston said.

Let's just leave it at "obviously he didn't think."

UPDATE: Good Lord. He was bug schmushing with it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:55 PM | Comments (1)

Wouldn't That Be Loverly?

"Even though we expect to see the current active period of Atlantic major hurricane activity to continue for another 15-20 years, it is statistically unlikely that the coming 2006-2007 hurricane season, or the seasons that follow, will have the number of major hurricane U.S. landfall events as we have seen in 2004-2005," Gray said in a statement.

Dear Dr. "Nothin' But Bad News" Gray ~

I hope you're right.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:31 PM | Comments (2)

March 31, 2006

I Can Not Hide From The Truth

(updated because Crusader in Comments made me realize I'd answered a question incorrectly. And my score went from 60% to 68%. Ouch)

We are an Internet addicted family in my house...

Update: (Crusader)

Ha! I can tell the CAG that I have no problem, and have proof!

: You are all pitiful, sorry escapists, waaka, waaka.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:54 AM | Comments (17)

March 30, 2006

Yeah. Exactly.

The first time Rep. Tom Tancredo got really angry about immigration, the year was 1975, and he was a junior high school social studies teacher in Denver. The state had recently passed the nation's first bilingual education law, and Hispanic kids were taken from his class to study in Spanish.

That idea made zero sense to Tancredo, the grandson of Italian immigrants. He believed that newcomers should be assimilated into the country, as they had for generations. The image of America as a beacon for people from all over the world uniting under one flag and one language was threatened, he contended, if the country started adapting to immigrants, instead of the other way around.

This is THE spot on the face of the earth people head for, people dream about. It needs to stay that way. Join us and go forth from here as Americans.

We are not assimilating our immigrants patriotically now. We are assimilating them culturally. Within a generation their children speak Valley Girl on cell phones. "So I'm like 'no," and he's all 'yeah,' and I'm like, 'In your dreams.' " Whether their parents are from Trinidad, Bosnia, Lebanon or Chile, their children, once Americans, know the same music, the same references, watch the same shows. And to a degree and in a way it will hold them together. But not forever and not in a crunch.

So far we are assimilating our immigrants economically, too. They come here and work. Good.

But we are not communicating love of country. We are not giving them the great legend of our country. We are losing that great legend.

What is the legend, the myth? That God made this a special place. That they're joining something special.

Oh yeah. He did.

More facts 'n figures reading via our good friend, the Gateway Pundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:32 PM | Comments (16)

March 29, 2006

Five Years and Change in Prison?

...Before the hearing, more than 260 people — including rabbis, military officers and even a professional hockey referee — wrote letters on the men’s behalf asking the federal judge for leniency.

..."... is a good person, who in his quest to be successful, lost sight of the rules,”...

Pffft. They're talking about Abramoff.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:40 PM

I Think Gasoline's Fixin' to Go Through the Roof

The Energy Department has released last week's inventory data. Crude oil supply rose a more than expected 2.03 million barrels; analysts had anticipated a 950,000 barrel build. Meanwhile, gasoline inventory fell 5.34 million barrels -- a drawdown that was much greater than the expected 1.45 million barrel decline. That portion of the data is shifting into focus as the summer driving season approaches, and is bullish for energy markets.

Great. And things haven't even begun swirling off the African Coast or in the Caribbean.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:58 AM

Today's Required Reading

...I commend to all those presumptuous senators and congressmen the sardonic and wise words of Edmund Burke in his 1792 letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe: "No man will assert seriously, that when people are of a turbulent spirit, the best way to keep them in order is to furnish them with something substantial to complain of." The senators should remember that they are American senators, not Roman proconsuls. Nor is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee some latter-day Praetor Maximus.

Tony Blankley cuts to the meat of the matter.
UPDATE: There were student protests in LA, Dallas and Phoenix yesterday.

“I'm here for my parents,” Juliana Rojo, 14, told the Associated Press. She said her parents are illegal immigrants. “They work hard. I just want them to be treated fairly.”

Senator Kyl from AZ has my vote.

The Senate bill would allow the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants now in the USA to become citizens eventually. They would have to prove they have jobs, pass a criminal background check, learn English, and pay fines and back taxes.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said he cannot support the bill approved Monday by the Senate Judiciary Committee because it offers a chance at citizenship to workers who are needed only temporarily.

Pay back taxes?! Who are they kidding? Of course, that idiot Senator of ours is all for letting them stay. Every time he opens his goofus mouth, he makes me look like a genius for not voting for him. And dear Cardinal Mahoney ~ I think you've missed the point.

Like a number of the Judiciary Committee bill's supporters, Mahony argued that it offers a more workable approach to a difficult problem. “How are you going to pick up and arrest 8 (million) to 11 million people?” he asked. “It's not realistic.”

If they wore turbans and had private pilot licenses, he'd be wondering why we weren't tougher on defending the borders.

Kathleen Parker has a question:

When Illegal Is Right, What Is Wrong?

Who'd a thunk it ~ Lou DOBBS quoting Teddy Roosevelt??

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:49 AM

How Did Clarence Darrow (or Atticus Finch, et al) Ever

...muddle through?

Law Professor Bans Laptops in Class
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A University of Memphis law professor has banned laptop computers from her classroom and her students are passing a petition against it.

Professor June Entman says her main concern is that students are so busy keyboarding they can't think and analyze what she's telling them.

...Student Cory Winsett says if he must continue without his laptop, he'll transfer to another school. Winsett says he won't be able to keep up if he has to rely on hand-written notes, which he says are incomplete and less organized.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:05 AM | Comments (2)

March 28, 2006

This Photo of Injured Student Protestors Isn't From Paris

It's from Dallas.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:10 PM | Comments (5)

My Sympathy Meter is Pegged

...as well.

...House Insurance Committee Chairman Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, said he is drafting legislation that would require Citizens to phase out its 6,024 million-dollar policies in the next two years. Also, a top lawmaker from Tampa said Monday he might call for an investigation into Citizens' rates.

These developments come after The Tampa Tribune reported Sunday that Citizens' premiums for million-dollar homes are often lower than those charged by private companies.

Ross wants to make it much harder for millionaire homeowners to get coverage from consumer-backed Citizens until the policies are phased out. Under his plan, homeowners seeking coverage from Citizens for more than $1 million must prove they can't get a policy in the private market, even the unregulated surplus lines market. Surplus lines carriers generally offer custom policies for expensive homes at a premium price.

To millionaires worried about paying more for insurance, Ross said: "You're not going to generate a lot of sympathy."

...Citizens' low rates are partly to blame for the company's $2.2 billion deficit after eight hurricanes pounded the state in the past two storm seasons.

Now all Florida property owners with insurance are bailing out the insurer.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:45 AM | Comments (1)

March 27, 2006

Oh, I'll Bet

...it was in 'protest'. Amazing how many converts to a cause you can find if they get to walk out of class to do it.

At least 14,000 mostly Hispanic students stormed out of school classes across Los Angeles in a snowballing protest against Washington's plans for a draconian crackdown on illegal immigration.

Local news reports said that "tens of thousands of students" were taking part in the protest that was spreading through schools across the country's second largest city ahead of a US Senate debate on a divisive immigration reform bill.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:10 PM | Comments (5)

Where's the Balance?

Developer Mitch Kass, of Fort-Lauderdale-based Glenn Wright Homes, defends the construction. He is building a dozen houses, some nearly 4,000 square feet, in a neighborhood next to one of Delray Beach's historic neighborhoods.

"We're doing a regentrification of the housing stock. We're not destroying the Everglades here," Kass said. "We're regentrifying what's outdated."

'Outdated'. Frank Lloyd Wright is 'outdated'. Victorian is 'outdated'. Arts and Crafts is 'outdated', as well as Georgian, Federal and Queen Anne. History is outdated by it's very nature. What would you rather have?

Historic homes make way for McMansions. The ones I passed outside of Dallas were creepy enough ~ huge houses built to within 3 feet of the property line, hundreds walled into little Stepford Wives communities piled one on top of the other that belch out their commuter residents onto one four lane road through the middle, all wreathed in that damn brown air. And they were built on open prairie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:01 AM | Comments (4)

March 23, 2006

Why, Oh WHY Can't We Just Want High School Seniors

...who can READ, WRITE and MAKE THE CORRECT CHANGE at Mac Donalds? HUH? (I'd ask for "be pleasant", too, but don't want to push it.) What kind of frickin' gobbledee GOOK is this pig poopie?

Lila and Andrew Zoghbi are bored five days a week in classes at Chiles High School.

It's not that they are slackers. They are honor students: Lila, 15, plans to be an engineer, and her brother, 17, wants to design video games.

The problem, they say, is that school is not giving them the career preparation they want.

"It's just stuff I don't think I'm really going to need for the job I want," Lila said. "I'd probably like it if I had more things to help me in the future."

Students like the Zoghbis would get an education more tailored to their career plans under a proposal from Gov. Jeb Bush that education experts say would make Florida the first state to require incoming high school freshmen to declare a major, just like college students.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. The heartburn and brain freeze pain at this moment is overwhelming.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:23 AM | Comments (10)

March 20, 2006

Doesn't It Just Suck

...to have to deal with people you so thoroughly despise?

...The Democrats need to go after the group with whom they have not been connecting - the white middle class.

No Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson has won a majority of white voters. Yet even in an increasingly diverse America, and despite increasing voting participation by minorities, whites were still 77 percent of 2004 voters.

Democrats, who see themselves as looking out for the little guy, have sought a way around that problem without directly addressing the reality that "Jill and Joe Six-pack" have moved to the suburbs and become middle class.

Oh, I can't wait 'til they come knocking...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:10 PM

March 18, 2006

As Far As the Iraq War Protests in Pensacola

...they must have had a glimmer of the participation ennui, since they decided to combine it with a group protesting local police brutality.

Movement for Change and Veterans for Peace are combining for the demonstration because "violence is happening in Iraq, but it's also happening in our community," Satterwhite said.

So mortars are falling and IED's are rampant in Bangla-cola. I hadn't heard that, but I also don't get out much. Major Dad and I went past their earnest but meager gathering just as it was breaking up. I didn't have my camera...but there wasn't much to snap.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:15 PM | Comments (4)

March 17, 2006

Oh, God Bless Him

...and his brave heart.

As a homeless man opened fire in a Denny's restaurant, a patron's decision to try to stop the gunman cost him his life, but allowed others to flee to safety, authorities said Thursday.

According to police, a surveillance video showed Harold Hatley, 73, leaving his seat at the counter and getting in the line of fire, which enabled others to flee.

"Like many brave soldiers and peace officers, Mr. Hatley was walking toward trouble rather than away from it," Police Chief Joe Cortez said.

Damn. Makes me cry.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:49 AM | Comments (5)

They Announced This Last Night

...and it is SOOOO cool!

It's an unexpected find that is keeping archeaologists busy at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
Construction on a building was stopped today after the remains of what is believed to be a historic ship were found.

...Number one: could this ship be part of the fleet lead by Don Tristan De Luna as he lead the first group to settle pensacola?... the answer is... maybe.
Winter: "Could it possibly be the de luna ship? Yes."

Holy schamoly, makes goosebumps break out! Why is a Tristan De Luna ship a big deal? Well, first and foremost, the year of his landing ~ 1559 ~ which gives Pensacola it's place in the history books as America's First Settlement. But, in typical Pensacola fashion, we're not America's oldest city by virtue of some...ahem... unfortunate weather.

The party anchored in Pensacola Bay, called by them "Ochuse", and set up the encampment of Puerto de Santa Maria during the summer of 1559 at the site of the modern Naval Air Station Pensacola. With much of the stores still on the ships, Luna sent several exploring parties inland to scout the area; they returned after three weeks having found only one Indian town. Before they could unload the vessels, a hurricane swept through and destroyed most of the ships and cargo. The colony in serious danger, most of the men traveled up the Alabama River to the village of Nanipacana (Nanipacna or Ninicapua), which they found abandoned; they renamed the town Santa Cruz and moved in for several months. Back in Mexico, the Viceroy sent two relief ships in November, promising additional aid in the spring.

The relief got the colony through the winter, but the supplies expected in the spring had not arrived by September. Luna ordered the remainder of his force to march to the large native town of Coca, but the men mutinied. Bloodshed was averted by the settlement's missionaries, but soon after Ángel de Villafañe arrived in Pensacola Bay and offered to take all who wished to leave on an expedition to Cuba and Santa Elena. Luna relented and agreed to leave, eventually moving back to Mexico, where he died in 1571. The Pensacola colony was inhabited for several more months by a detachment of 50 men Villafañe had left in case further orders arrived from Viceroy Velasco; when they left the area was not populated again by Europeans until 1698, when the Spanish founded the city of Pensacola.

But 'twould seem we have the hurricane to thank for this wreck, if it indeed turns out to be a De Luna ship. It's sitting about 300 yards from the present day bay front and under 20 odd feet of white sand ~ just as if it'd blown up onshore during the gale. Can't wait to hear the rest!

A side note: Speaking of wrecks, Oriskany has finally left Beaumont, Texass on her way here. Play it again, Sam.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:10 AM | Comments (5)

March 16, 2006

It's Boiling Down to "Poop

...or get off the lot".

State officials walked away from negotiations with the World Trade Center site developer Wednesday after failing to agree on who should build the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower and how to split billions of dollars in rebuilding money.

The dispute threatens to hold up the entire project.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:18 PM | Comments (4)

Wanna Stretch?

Then it's gonna cost you or quit whining and put your knees up.

For an extra $15, Northwest Airlines Corp. will sell coach passengers a few more inches of legroom.

Starting Tuesday, Northwest will ask passengers on most domestic flights if they're interested in paying extra for certain prime seats in coach exit-row seats or aisle seats near the front of the cabin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:24 AM | Comments (9)

I Hate to Break It to the Big Guy

...but we've been talking about it for months DAMN near the whole year we've been around. (Maybe if he spent a little time among the teeming underclasses instead of hobnobbing with toady book publishers and academic glitterati, he'd already know, huh?)

Anyways, toDAY'S news on the economic front, brought to you courtesy of the McChimps at Hitler, Halliburton & Rove:

U.S. consumer prices rose a modest 0.1 percent last month, both overall and excluding food and energy, the government said on Thursday in a report showing even less inflation pressure than Wall Street expected.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:05 AM

March 15, 2006

If the End's Nigh, You're Supposed to Bend Over and Kiss

...Djibouti good-bye...right? According to this article, it could be time to pucker up.

...In north-eastern Africa's Afar Triangle, though, recent months have seen hundreds of crevices splitting the desert floor and the ground has slumped by as much as 100 meters (328 feet). At the same time, scientists have observed magma rising from deep below as it begins to form what will eventually become a basalt ocean floor. Geologically speaking, it won't be long until the Red Sea floods the region. The ocean that will then be born will split Africa apart.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:54 AM | Comments (2)

March 14, 2006

I'd Think About Rehiring the Officers You Laid Off

...and maybe filling in the gaps with hired guns.

If the Federal Emergency Management Agency approves the sheriff's department's proposal, which would cost $70 million over three years, up to 100 DynCorp employees would be deputized to be make arrests, carry weapons, and dress in the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Department khaki and black uniforms.

$70 million can go along way and you won't have the police/community issues you will with a hired paramilitary outfit. What worked for them in Kabul won't fly here.

And another thing I noticed ~ is this WaPo code-speak for "Mexican construction labor"?

Besides being nearly broke, the department has a host of new challenges. The FBI has warned that gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, could come attached to construction crews and establish operations, prompting the department to establish a strike team that has already arrested eight alleged members, police officials said.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:53 AM

March 09, 2006

That's Getting to Be My General Impression, Too

As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Put your frickin' guns and stones down, quit killing yourselves and us over stoopid sh*t and prove me wrong.
I would love to be wrong.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:51 AM | Comments (3)

March 07, 2006

It Would Be Asking Too Much

“I rage that a human being could choose to take another human being’s life,” she told a regional BBC program. “I rage that someone should do this in the name of a God. I find that utterly offensive.

“Can I forgive them for what they did? No, I cannot. And I don’t wish to. I believe that there are some things in life which are unforgivable by the human spirit.”

The good vicar lost her 24 year old daughter in the London Underground bombings and has hung up her vestments. I can't imagine the pain.
And she is so very right.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:45 PM | Comments (65)

Does Anyone Sell on eBay Anymore?

I mean, besides businesses, corporations and Powersellers. I used to do a handy bit of art selling before they pissed me off years ago. I couldn't keep up with the fee changes and the copycats/copyright infringement was so horrific, rampant and unregulated, I've never been back since. I'd see all these little person listing's in those stores and wonder "how the hell do they afford these listings when NOTHING sells month after month?"

Sounds like nothing's ever changing for the better. As far as the mom and pop seller is concerned, they can stuff...
...where the sun don't shine.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 AM | Comments (3)

March 02, 2006

Video Killed the Radio Star

...and it works both ways.

"We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. "We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time."

In fact, the National Weather Service received a report of a levee breach and issued a flash-flood warning as early as 9:12 a.m. that day, according to the White House's formal recounting of events the day Katrina struck.

Karma. It's a bitch. And...

Reality check: Who said what about Katrina?
New video contradicts former FEMA head’s recent statements

NBC News has now obtained the videotape of a key private meeting between federal and state officials on Monday Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina hit. Though Michael Brown has been critical of President Bush, the tape shows Brown praising the president that day, saying they'd already talked twice.

...We now know that an hour before Blanco's assessment, a FEMA official alerted superiors to reports that at least one levee had failed — information that didn’t reach the White House until almost midnight.

Well, that sure s*cks for your book deal, eh Brownie? Loser. Now, for something completely different...

(Editor's Notes)...Whatever the failings of the government's response, it is hard to imagine any rescue effort reaching victims scattered across perhaps 1000 square miles as quickly as critics demanded.

(Debunking Katrina's Myths)...Bumbling by top disaster management officials fueled a perception of general inaction, one that was compounded by impassioned news anchors. In fact, the response to Hurricane Katrina was by far the largest - and the fastest -rescue effort in U.S. history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm's landfall.

Dozens of National Guard and Coast guard helicopters flew rescue operations that first day - some just 2 hours after Katrina hit the coast.

From "Debunking Katrina's Myths" in Popular Mechanics' March 2006 issue. If you don't have it yet, buy one. They take on the insurance angles, the levee breaches, death and destruction at the Superdome ~ wonderful information in a most dispassionate fashion. Buy it.

UPDATE: According to a Drudge link, the AP has clarified that the "breach" they reported did not accurately reflect the "overrun" the president had been briefed on. Depends what your definition of...oh...never mind.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:45 PM | Comments (1)

March 01, 2006

UC Irvine Starts Trouble

...or has it. I'm not quite sure which.

A student panel discussion that included a display of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons descended into chaos, with one speaker calling Islam an "evil religion" and audience members nearly coming to blows.

Organizers of Tuesday night's forum at the University of California, Irvine said they showed the cartoons as part of a larger debate on Islamic extremism.

But several hundred protesters, including members of the Muslim Student Union, argued the event was the equivalent of hate speech disguised as freedom of expression.

Why is any display and discussion of Islamofascist repression considered "hate speech'? (And do all these guys write the same, or is there a protest sign factory they order this sh*t from?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:07 AM | Comments (2)

February 28, 2006

She Musta Missed That Little Rule

...when reading through her conversion kit.

An Islamic association and two of its officials must pay more than $1.7 million to lawyers for a woman who successfully sued the organization for sexual discrimination, a judge has ruled.

The ruling is against the Islamic Society of Orange County, which runs the Orange Crescent School in Garden Grove where Zakiyyah Muhammad was principal for five years until she was fired in 2003.

Muhammad, 60, a convert to Islam, was awarded $788,000 in damages by a jury in September after she claimed she was dismissed for challenging her male bosses.

I'm glad it worked out for her. Her Islamic world sisters wouldn't have been so lucky.

UPDATE: Seems there may have been a cultural clash at work here. An OC Register interview with Zakiyyah Muhammad.

Q. You were fired about two months after Fazal Mirza (a Pakistani Immigrant) came on board as school board president. Why?

A.That's a good question. We concluded he chose not to work with an African-American principal. (Also) he did not appreciate the fact that I was not a subservient image who will keep very quiet.

....(Also) many (immigrant Muslims) perceive that because they've had their religion longer than many Muslim Americans, particularly African-American Muslims, that our Islam is not legitimate. But that is not what Islam says.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:21 PM | Comments (11)

February 27, 2006

Oh, You Betcha

...Some lawmakers have called for a change to the national response plan that gives the Red Cross the primary role and the dollars that flow with it.

I've been saying they were AFU for years. Wouldn't give them a dime or a drop of blood.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:45 PM

February 23, 2006

Duh!

Americans work more, seem to accomplish less

'Cause we're blogging and that takes time. While our readers may 'accomplish less', we like to think ~ and you can thank us ~ that they're in a MUCH better mood and more informed than your average slackers. Efficiency is overrated.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:42 AM

February 21, 2006

I Have Had Enough of a Hyphenated Citizenry

On the local 10 o' clock news, the local anchors referred to the three Ohio men arrested as "Muslim-Americans". Sorry, folks. That's the straw that breaks this baptized-Catholic-but-worships-rock-trees-recycling-and-DanielDayLewis-wonders-why-she-got-another-Scottie-one-more-glass-of-wine-cause-Blonde-Marines-do-drunk-good-cranky-Scot/Irish-who-KNOWS-MiracleWhip-ain't-mayonnaise-American's back.

That's it. I'm done with the foolishness.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:56 PM | Comments (8)

February 16, 2006

Not An Answer to Cartoon Critique

..."not a religious tract, and it is certainly not meant to criticize any group, religious or otherwise."

...but to Opus Dei's concern about "The DaVinci Code". Now, everyone knows "Code" is a cheap, discredited slap at the Catholic Church, no matter what disingenuous, pablumatic panderings spring forth from the movie company. But these guys aren't even organizing a boycott, less mind threatening producers with "cake or death" or torching Sony headquarters.

Them and us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:38 AM | Comments (9)

February 15, 2006

I Would Think There's a Pretty Good Argument

...that could be started with this statement.

For example, in confinement situations men often turn to homosexuality.

From the comment section of Volokh's Valentine post, which just happens to address a subject also at Sharon's this morning.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:03 AM

February 12, 2006

And I Flew Home From Brazil Last Night Why Exactly?

I go from shovelling beer in to me to shovelling snow away from me in the space of a few hours. Yeah!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:47 AM | Comments (15)

February 08, 2006

The Fear Invoking, Vindictive, Pissy Office Monster

...(aka: Lying Sack o' Sh*t) has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. By a Swede, no less.

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is one of two Americans who have been nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Last year, Democrats and a few Republicans refused to confirm Bolton to the U.N. post, forcing President Bush to resort to a recess appointment.

Bolton and Kenneth R. Timmerman were formally nominated by Sweden's former deputy prime minister Per Ahlmark, for playing a major role in exposing Iran's secret plans to develop nuclear weapons.

I wonder if Chris Dodd'll be sending along a "whoops! Wrong thread!" apology.

"I think you're going to have an awfully difficult time with Mr. Bolton building the kind of support the United States needs today at the United Nations," said Dodd, D-Connecticut, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Or Pravda?

The longer John Bolton's Senate hearing for the post of United Nations representative went on, the more outrageous it seemed that President Bush could have nominated a man who had made withering disdain for that world body the signature of his career in international affairs. Some fear that the aim is to scuttle the United Nations. It's more likely, but just as disturbing, that this is another example of Mr. Bush's rewarding loyalty rather than holding officials accountable for mistakes, especially those who helped build the case for war with Iraq.

Nah. But what a hoot. Swill salute to the the Blogfaddah.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:36 PM | Comments (3)

Monkey Business

...most FOUL...

A collaborator on the children’s book series Curious George has been found dead on the driveway of his mobile home in Florida.

Police say Allen Shalleck’s body was covered in black garbage bags. Neighbors had passed by for a least a day, thinking it was just trash.

Yeesh!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 AM | Comments (10)

February 07, 2006

The Left is a Class Act

KING FUNERAL TURNS POLITICAL: BUSH BASHED BY FORMER PRESIDENT, REVEREND

I'll leave it at that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:25 PM | Comments (10)

February 06, 2006

How Cool Is It

That I can be sitting in the little town of Guaxupé in the state of Minas Gerais in the interior of Brazil and blog.

That was supposed to be a question, but I can~t find the darn question-mark key on this portuguese keyboard...heh.

I'm not sure if any of the other 'hotels' I'll be staying at will have broadband access.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:02 PM | Comments (3)

So I'm At The Airport Friday Night...

I've travelled a reasonable amount, and I've seen some funny things at airports, both funny people and funny things that they bring on the flights with them. I remember being at the airport in Port Au Prince, Haiti in the late 70s and being amazed at all the folks standing in line to board the flights with live chickens in cages as their carry-on luggage. When you fly out of San Salvador back to the States you will often see many people carrying buckets of fried chicken with them, as it's a certain type that you just can't get Stateside, that special taste of home.

But I have to admit that on Friday night, as I was at Newark checking in for my flight down here, I saw something I'd never seen before. In line in front of me at the Continental counter was a family going on the flight to Puerto Rico (I think), and on their luggage cart were 4 new tires. And not little car tires, but decent sized pickup truck tires. Brand spankin' shiny black new, still with those little fuzzy-nubbly thingies sticking up all over them, resisting every attempt to be wrapped in plastic tape or to let any type of name tag besmirch their vulcanized glory.

Crazy.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:48 AM

February 02, 2006

Things Seem to Be Tightening Up

A second report from the Labor Department suggested the job market has tightened further since the fourth-quarter. New claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly to 273,000 last week, pushing a four-week average of claims to the lowest level in nearly six years.

But productivity also dropped. Some economists are saying a it's temporary blip because of the hurricane impact in the fourth quarter, while others hold their breath about wage inflation. All eyes will be on the monthly report tomorrow. I love this stuff.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:53 AM

::sniff:: Weather Predicting RODENTS!

Everybody know winter gonna end, so who care what some rag bag nutria say, eh? Down hyah we only got one worry 'round dis hyah time an' dat would be fine weather for Mardi Gras. We also happens ta have our own Cajun prognosticator ~ T-Claude, the Cajun Crawfish!

Fame is chasing the elusive Claude the Cajun Crawfish as cameras from all over will be flashing at 10 a.m., Feb. 1, when all will converge on the banks of the Red River in front of Joe's Crab Shack at the Louisiana Boardwalk in Shreveport-Bossier City, LA, straining to get even a shot of the red-headed weather predictor.

The camera shy Claude the Cajun Crawfish shot to national stardom last year when he emerged from his hole and predicted - with 100 percent accuracy - great weather for the all-important Mardi Gras season. That bit of fortune made him a media darling, landing the usually reclusive crustacean on television.

He say it's a go, so Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler, y'all!

DISCLAIMER: A course, T-Claude, he don't say Mardi Gras clear? Den he be Gumbo, cher.

UPDATE: A Warm Swill Welcome to Pat! She shared a great link to all things Claude in the comments.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:45 AM | Comments (10)

January 31, 2006

No Weddings But A Funeral

The last week has been a bit of a blur. My bride's mom died very suddenly and we've just been in the midst of the maelstrom of activity that such an event ignites, especially when occasioned by the passing of one who was such a presense in the communities where she lived. My Outlaws are dear, kind, sweet people, and none more so than my Mother-outlaw. Since we first met in 1988 we had much more of a mother/son relationship than a mother/rascallian-who-absconded-with-my-youngest-girl one, which is to say that when the moment required it we fought like cats and dogs over whatever principled stand of the moment existed at that second, fights which generally arose out of plans that had been made for our activities on any given day, and then just as promptly the dust would settle as if sucked down by some familial vacuum cleaner and we'd move on with no baggage to color the rest of the day.

It was such a comfort to my bride and her family, as well as a wonderful honor and testament to her mother, to see all the hundreds of folks who came to the memorial service on Sunday. How easy it is, in this day and age of experiencing life on the couch, to just sit at home and not take the time to actually thank someone who has touched your life, to shelter, conceal and cuddle memories as if they are some gift that is solely yours. But not these folks. Out they came, of all ages, in a graceful Minnesotian snow to honor a graceful lady: doctors, hairdressers, neighbors, secretaries, cleaning ladies, folks whose boat was in the third slip over on the next dock, folks who were in her sorority at KU 50 years ago; out they all came to honor her, to thank her for the wonderful way she affected their lives. Oh, she didn't merely 'touch' people's lives; she hopped right into them with both feet and grabbed you by the neck and made you a vital part of hers.

And you were so very thankful she did.

She will be greatly missed.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:29 AM | Comments (25)

January 30, 2006

Thinking Outside the Box

...STORE, that is. Leonard Pitts laments the loss of a hometown's specialness.

Drive across the country these days and “unique” is not a word that comes often to mind. Increasingly, Richmond could be Rochester could be Dayton could be Duluth. We shop at cookie-cutter stores in cookie-cutter malls and eat at cookie-cutter restaurants, not because the food is special but because it is familiar.

A former colleague called it the Wal-Martification of America. It's as good a term as any for the process by which we become uniform. And regionalisms – that thing they say only in Cincy, that funky bookstore in lower Manhattan, that dish you can get only in that little dive in Jackson – become fewer and farther between.

We try here, in our own small way. Thinking of myself in terms of a 'local business', I always check the local merchants out first for practically everything. (Our Swill Stuff is all printed locally, for example as are my fine art giclees.) It's very much the old Mafia 'one hand washes the other' mentality with me. If they're within reasonable $'s reach of a Wally World/Target price ~ as most are ~ I'll buy whatever it is from the local guy. Clothes shopping and gifts? I can honestly say I've been to our local mall probably twice this past year ~ dash in/out both times for, like, 'suck-your-gut-in' pantyhose or something along that line. I hate the place. We lunch in the local bistros regularly and prowl around the slowly re-developing downtown to see what's new. Even in Bangla-cola, there's a lot to be gleaned locally if one is willing to take the time to explore. You can't always have convenience to have character, but you'd be surprised how much local character is actually quite convenient.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:20 PM | Comments (2)

My Heart Weeps for Their Loss

But honest to God, what were they thinking? I will state my opinion unequivocally: No 16 year old should ever be allowed to drive someplace 360 miles away.

Grief counselors will meet with Milton High School students and faculty today after a soccer player and zany anchor of a student television show died in a weekend crash while driving to Jacksonville.

Walter Drew Sanborn, 16, died at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville following the crash Friday night on Interstate 10, about 20 miles east of Lake City, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:16 AM | Comments (20)

As I Said

...the Hamas victory was no surprise.

"By failing to strengthen (President Mahmoud )Abbas's position, the U.S. has paved the way for a Hamas victory," states a document prepared by the Saudi National Security Assessment Project.

"Moreover, the U.S administration's faith in the power of elections to transform people makes it oblivious to the possibility that the democratic process is often a double-edged sword which can have unintended consequences," goes on to say the policy brief delivered last Dec. 27 by the SNSAP's director, Nawaf Obaid.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:52 AM | Comments (7)

January 27, 2006

No, They Can't

"They can't tell you how to spend your money," said the man, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. "It's still a free country."

But they can tell you where to park it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:17 AM | Comments (12)

Sounding a Cautionary Note

Hitler won a free election - and went on to build the world's most formidable war machine in history's blink of an eye.

ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE

I really have been bemused by the references to Hamas' 'shocking' victory. As if the Palestinians had choices a plenty. They didn't. (Of course, they've never been a people of informed and wise choices in any aspect of their quest toward nationhood.) And they seem particularly drawn toward the dark side, especially just as it seems they might crawl out of the muck. In all their struggles, where is the elder statesman they can look up to. A Hamid Karzai, for instance? All they have to show for all these years of violence and death is Fatah and Hamas. How pitiful is that? And why is that? But Hamas winning is no surprise.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:38 AM | Comments (8)

January 26, 2006

Why Does It Seem So Completely in Character

...that Sen. Christmas N. Cambodia is doing all this...

Sen. Kerry calls for filibuster of Alito
Unclear if Massachusetts Democrat has votes needed to block nominee

...by phone from SWITZERLAND? While, no doubt, wearing his toasty magic ski thinking cap. Farfegnugen!*

*commonly used when someone says something really fast or in a language that you do not understand
Person one: Du bist ein scrotochupar!
Person two: Fleuven Hueven Fargegnugen

UPDATE: It's come to my attention that CNN has completely revamped the story I first linked to as it broke, 5 hours ago. Here is the original report I was using:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John Kerry has decided to support a filibuster to block the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, CNN’s Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry reported Thursday.

Kerry, in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, was marshaling support in phone calls during the day, Henry said.

He announced his decision Wednesday to a group of Democratic senators, urging they join him, Henry said. Kerry also has the support of his fellow Massachusetts senator, Democrat Edward Kennedy.

Some senior Democrats said they are worried that the move could backfire.

Republicans need 60 votes to overturn a filibuster.

Thanks to Pardon My English for the screen grab I wish I'd thought of. The fact that the Sen. is in Switzerland has now been relegated to the middle of the article, with "marshaling the phones" nowhere to be found. I guess someone else found it less amusing/ironic/typically dense than I and did some reconstructive surgery.

Oooh, now I understand why. I wasn't the only one to notice. Drudge is particularly snarky with his headline. (My dorky Kerry picture is much better though.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:09 PM | Comments (7)

Upset the Apple Cart

...and you don't get a ride.

Further humiliations lay ahead, like the time Mullane tried on a NASA-issued condom — used for urine collection in weightlessness — and watched the too-large sheath drop off and fall to the floor.

“I’ll have you know I’ve fathered three children with this!” is what Mullane wanted to shout to the condom-fitting technician but didn’t. A complaint might have derailed his selection as an astronaut.

Mike Mullane kept quiet and got the ride of his life three times. He's retired now......and talking.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:24 PM | Comments (9)

Exit Polls Will Bite You in the Last Thing

...to exit the polls every time. ABCNews called it for Fatah last night, based on "the exit polls just in.".

Hamas' top official told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday the Islamic militant group is ready for a partnership after defeating the ruling Fatah Party in parliamentary elections - a shocking upset sure to throw Mideast peacemaking into turmoil.

Officials in both parties said Hamas appeared to have captured a large majority of seats in Wednesday's elections. The Central Election Commission said the vote count had not been completed and that it would make an official announcement Thursday evening.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:29 AM | Comments (5)

January 23, 2006

Film at 11

The FBI has uncovered fraud by public officials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and has created a task force to investigate corruption as federal money pours into the Gulf Coast region, Mississippi's top agent said Monday.

"We are seeing public officials facilitating some of the fraud," John G. Raucci, agent in charge in Mississippi, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's not widespread, I will say that, but we have seen it and we have begun addressing it."

Raucci would not give details.

You knew it was coming ~ KNEW it had to be happening ~ but it's still such a shame. If this breaks big, the sympathy meter might well be pegged in a lot of hearts and minds.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 PM | Comments (5)

"I want to soak," he said. "I want to get some of this off me."

You go right ahead, Mr. Crotzer. You enjoy every second of it.

TAMPA, Florida-Alan Crotzer stepped into the warm sunlight outside the courthouse Monday and raised his arms to the sky, celebrating his freedom after more than 24 years behind bars for crimes he didn't commit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:06 PM | Comments (2)

January 22, 2006

More Tree Hugging Debate

...in Miami?

A renaissance is under way on Biscayne Boulevard, the central artery of downtown Miami, where derelict motels and strip malls are being tenderly restored and scruffy neighborhoods are striving for cachet. But a defining element is about to vanish: the royal palm trees that have lined the street for decades, making clear that this is not Hartford or Detroit, but the otherworldly subtropics.

Along several miles of the street, the tall, trim royals are being replaced with bushier live oaks, which planners say will provide much-needed shade and beautify the heavily traveled street.

...Most palm trees withstood the high winds of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, making their dwindling popularity all the more puzzling. Some private landowners, like Skip Stoltz, a developer in Palm Beach County, are planting only palms after losing dozens of hardwood trees in the storms.

If they remake 'Miami Vice' five years from now, the opening credits're going to look peculiar.

Whatever they decide, I hope it's not as half-a$$ed as the remake of our downtown here in Bangla-cola. They had a magical, graceful canopy of mature crepe myrtles that were like a lacy frame for the historical storefronts. Then they decided to tear up the sidewalk. Out came the trees (And three quarters of the businesses ~ urban planning strikes again.), to be replaced by an oak here and a spindley maple there, with an 'i-got-no-idea-what-it-is' in between. It looks like a mish-mash, 'whatever was cheapest at the nursery that day' crap ~ there's absolutely no coherency to the street anymore. And all those different twigs are going to grow at different rates and into different shapes. Blech. Anyway, maybe Miami won't be so boneheaded. ( I know a guy who loves bulldozing trees if it turns out badly.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:28 PM | Comments (5)

January 20, 2006

Coming From Him

...it's a worrying admission.

Land conflicts, fluctuating crop prices and backward conditions in the countryside are threatening China's stability and its food supply, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in unusually blunt comments published Friday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:05 PM | Comments (4)

Sounds Like We Got Us

...a pi$$in' match.

Four and a half months after Hurricane Katrina blew through Louisiana, a bit of Mississippi envy is in the air.

...Before Congress adjourned last year, it passed a hurricane aid package that included up to $6.2 billion in grant money for Louisiana and $5.3 billion for Mississippi, the two states hardest-hit by Hurricane Katrina. But Louisiana officials say that getting 54 percent of the Community Development Block Grant money -- the most it can get under the law -- is nowhere near enough for the level of damage to homes, schools, hospitals and businesses, which they say far overshadows the destruction in Mississippi and the other Gulf Coast states.

I think Mississippi would beg to differ ~ a lot of those folks are feelin' like the country thinks New Orleans had the only hurricane this year.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:52 PM | Comments (2)

::sigh:: I Love

...John. He talks such sense so purty.

Just as the Boomers here enjoy the fruits of a society most of them had no hand in building or maintaining (and in fact actively tried to destroy), pretentious, preening Europeans can be that way because the wolf has been kept from their door by the very American military might that they so despise.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:12 AM | Comments (1)

No Surprises Here

More than half of students at four-year colleges — and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges — lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers, a study found.

...Without "proficient" skills, or those needed to perform more complex tasks, students fall behind. They cannot interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

"It is kind of disturbing that a lot of folks are graduating with a degree and they're not going to be able to do those things," said Stephane Baldi, the study's director at the American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social science research organization.

Most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills. That means they can do moderately challenging tasks, such as identifying a location on a map.

...The survey examined college students nearing the end of their degree programs.

The students did the worst on matters involving math, according to the study.

Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station. About 30 percent of two-year students had only basic math skills.

Of course the answer to all this is "monitoring" by the states. I would humbly suggest we start at the grade school level and (SOMEHOW) require parents to be part of the educational system, vice using it as a babysitting/psychiatric therapy/clinic/selective disciplinary/meal delivery service. Maybe then teachers could get back to 'teaching' (Read: KNOWLEDGE impartment) instead of forced into pseudo parenting a horde of ungrateful, unmannered, surly, entitled and enabled functional illiterates AND their 'parents'.

But that's just me. In the meantime, I hope you know how to make change for your $20 when the register poops out, 'cause the 26 year old knuckle-head behind the counter (AND her manager) sure won't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:39 AM | Comments (10)

The Wheels of Justice Turn SLowly

But they do turn.

A man who spent nearly 21 years in prison for a toddler's death, now believed to have been an accident, was awarded $756,900 by a state compensation board - $100 for every day he spent in prison.

...In 2004, the San Diego district attorney asked for a new trial and later dropped the case when a doctor raised doubt about Marsh's guilt. Marsh was released from prison that year and married Philip's mother.

Doctors retained by Marsh's attorneys believe the drug mannitol, which was administered by physicians at Children's Hospital to treat the head injury, was a "substantial factor" in the boy's death.

Marsh has filed a $50 million federal lawsuit against doctors at the hospital and a coroner's investigator, alleging they conspired to "cover up" alleged medical malpractice that contributed to the boy's death.

Thank goodness the San Diego DA had some integrity.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:18 AM

January 19, 2006

You Can Laugh About It

...until it hits you in the wallet. THEN it's not so funny anymore.

The impact of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's controversial comments on Martin Luther King Day landed squarely on the shoulders of local tourism officials Wednesday, one day after the mayor and his staff launched a major damage control effort to temper the firestorm.

As pundits and talk-show hosts parodied Nagin coast to coast, tourism officials tried to soothe angry, disillusioned clients while political observers weighed the potential impact in Washington.

..."A lot of people in Washington see Louisiana as a banana republic and New Orleans as a kind of zoo," Cook said. "The mayor's not helping the city when he says things like that. It just reinforces that negative stereotype and really does hurt your cause."

Just in Washington? Actually, I'd say that's pretty much the perception all over the country.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:16 AM

I Know Money's Tight

...but this veto seems like a particularly bad idea.

Gov. Haley Barbour vetoed a bill Wednesday that would phase out a state sales tax on groceries and increase the tax on cigarettes.

...The bill, which zipped through the Senate and House at the start of the 2006 session, would eliminate the 7 percent grocery tax by 2014.

Officials say Mississippi has the highest state grocery tax in the nation - but one of the lowest cigarette excise taxes, 18 cents a pack.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 AM

The Gun That Won the West

...has ridden into the sunset.

Traditional Winchester rifles discontinued, factory to close

The traditional Winchester rifles carried by pioneers, movie stars and Wild West lawmen will be discontinued in March, a Belgian manufacturer said Wednesday, confirming the end of an American icon that became known as "The Gun that Won the West."

More Winchester porn. I LOVE this picture!

Along with the more in-depth CNN piece from which it was stolen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:25 AM | Comments (8)

Who's Your Buddy, Who's Your

...pal?

After the longest independent counsel investigation in history, the prosecutor in the case of former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros is finally closing his operation with a scathing report accusing Clinton administration officials of thwarting an inquiry into whether Mr. Cisneros evaded paying income taxes.

Circumventing justice, time and time again? It sounds like King Clinton & Co. were running some kind of plantation!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:51 AM

January 18, 2006

A Yin and Yang Moment, If There Ever Was One

One over the other news links on CNBC.com. First:

American grounds 27 aircraft as losses reach $604m

Followed by:

Southwest reports 75% profit growth, protests fees

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:19 PM

January 17, 2006

Comin' Out Swingin'!

...“If Al Gore is going to be the voice of the Democrats on national security matters, we welcome it,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said...

...McClellan said the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches, and he cited an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton’s deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.

“I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds,” McClellan said of Gore.

This could be fun.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:48 PM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2006

The Advantages of Self Delusion

Several Democrats expressed frustration over what they saw as the Republicans outmaneuvering them by drawing attention to an episode Wednesday when Judge Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, began crying as her husband was being questioned. That evening, senior Democratic senate aides convened at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, stunned at the realization that the pictures of a weeping Mrs. Alito were being broadcast across the nation - as opposed to, for example, images of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, pressing Judge Alito about his membership in an alumni club that resisted affirmative action efforts.

"Had she not cried, we would have won that day," said one Senate strategist involved in the hearings, who did not want to be quoted by name discussing the Democrats' problems. "It got front-page attention. It was on every local news show."

Gosh, guys! No, no and NO, duh. For all those 50 pound brains in the Democratic Party, they don't have a frickin' clue that they should be sending the distressed Mrs. Alito a dozen ROSES for her tears, instead of bitching. Watching her diverted people's attention from Teddy Kennedy's rocket propelled descent into real life charicature of the "Watch it LIVE!" Tammy Faye Baker variety. And we're STILL hammering the boys' club thing? After their own witness for the prosecution was discredited? Sheesh. I couldn't pay for someone to come up with this stuff. Why haven't more of these erudite cosmopolitans listened to one common sense young fellow in their own party?

"George Bush won the election," said Representative Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat. "If you don't like it, you better win elections."

Not the way they're going, they won't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:44 PM | Comments (1)

January 11, 2006

The Ultimate Brünnhilde and Isolde

... the Turandot all others are measured against ~ has left for Valhalla.

The voice was gigantic and had the ability to slice through even the cruelest, loudest orchestras. Nilsson was a good performer on stage, but it was her sound that made her: the thrill of that sound, which was like an expressive laser beam, was almost unbelievable. It has, fortunately, been well-captured on CD. Nilsson recorded Turandot twice commercially. In both recordings (one with tenor Franco Corelli, the other with Jussi Björling), her clarion tones, her imperiousness, and her sheer potency take one's breath away. Just hearing her opening Battle Cry in Wagner's Die Walküre (the second opera of the Ring cycle, in which Brünnhilde is first introduced) makes you want to hear it again just to make sure you've heard right. And the fact that Nilsson's portrayal of the loving daughter of the King of the Gods, Wotan, is also at the same time defiant, loving, and tender makes one realize what a great artist she is. And her depiction of the Irish princess Isolde, complete with outrage and unmatchable nobility and humanity, is as fine as you'll ever hear. What if she breaks a few glasses? All the more thrilling!

Wow. Lucky Odin.
Auf Wiedersehn.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:42 PM | Comments (5)

The 'Master Plan'

...is at last revealed. Great. The school of 'throw it all up in the air and see what comes down'. And it's either "not our fault" or "all our idea" depending how the wind blows.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:27 AM | Comments (4)

January 10, 2006

Yeesh

Just got this through my little circle of New Orleans area artists. Shame I can't make it. I'd go dressed like a crawdad er sumthin'. Maybe a nutria.

Yeah. That's it.

Nutria.

I can see the headlines now:

Loud, foul mouthed Florida nutria infiltrates peaceful levee protest. Film at 11.

That would be me.

DEMONSTRATION AT JACKSON SQUARE

When: Tomorrow (Jan 12th), Thursday at 10AM

There will be a nonpartisan, single focus demonstration in front of

Jackson Sq this Thursday at 10 am, Jan. 12, to coincide with the

President's visit to New Orleans.

The purpose of the demonstration is to draw attention to the

nonpartisan need for Cat 5 levees AND coastal restoration. The

notice explaining the purpose and parameters follows this email. Here it is:

LET THE PRESIDENT HEAR WHAT AMERICA NEEDS

We need Category 5 levees AND coastal restoration NOW, but

insufficient funds have been allocated for this effort. We will

continue to be at risk until adequate funding is realized.

Our weakened levees and eroding coasts are the result of bi-partisan

neglect over several administrations. The issue of Category 5 levees

AND coastal restoration must be unshackled from partisan politics,

and addressed NOW.

The only way to do this is to de-politicize the issue.

President Bush will be in New Orleans on Thursday. Let the President,

Congress and the world see us together without political or racial

divides on this very important issue. Come one, come all -

Republicans, Democrats, New Orleanians, Jeffersonians, residents of

St. Bernard and Plaquemines - all those who have been affected. Let's

unify on this issue.

Here are the ground rules for this grass-roots effort:

1. No politics. The ONLY issue for this demonstration is Category 5

levees AND coastal restoration. No anti-Bush; no pro-Bush; no

anti-Iraq; no pro-Iraq. No politics. JUST pure focus on the need for

Category 5 levees AND coastal restoration.

2. Bring signs that say only:

- "Cat 5 Levees AND Coastal Restoration NOW!!!!"

Capitalize "AND" and "NOW" to emphasize the need for both.

- "Party Affiliation: Louisianian."

3. Wear a life jacket or bring other items to underscore what will

happen to this area if the funding is not allocated. You can have fun

with this one.

4. Meet on Thursday, January 12, 2006, in front of Jackson Square

where President Bush announced the start of the "Greatest Recovery

the Nation Has Ever Seen."

Thank you,

No politics. Right. Like THAT'S gonna happen with a bunch of artists and God knows whoever else shows up. I'm the closest thing to a conservative those guys have ever hung out with and look what you all call me! I'll bet Cindy Sheehan'll be there, suckin' up to Mayor Noggin, while giving Anderson Cooper an interview about how this detracts from her war protesting and then a satellite feed from Gov. Blame&Co in tulipland, pissed she forgot W was coming and went on vacation instead.

::sigh:: But they mean well. No politics. What a hoot.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:48 PM | Comments (4)

Another Florida Cracker Post

...has me dwelling on a particular one of the myriad strange co-incidences in my life. (Major Dad has learned not to question my witchy ways ~ he just shakes his head and says "How do you do it?") She notes that quite a wonderful American died Friday. A real hero whose name we should all know, but don't.

On March 16, 1968, Hugh Thompson stopped the My Lai massacre.

And that moment in time for me?

I was having dinner at 'Hamburguesa', in Old Town San Diego. I'd been TAD at the (now-defunct) Naval Training Center for instructor school and dragged my Squidette roommate (with her sailor classmates) out for a decent dinner. Barracks rats, the lot of them. Once through the Earth Burgers, bowling ball size margaritas and Negro Modelos, we'd leaned back for some grown-up conversation and stomach settling. Somehow the conversation swung around to the Army, then Army bases and, before I knew it, I was recounting my first visit to Fort Benning, GA.

Our Uncle Nat was an Army LtCol stationed there at the time and we were all loaded up in the Vista Cruiser to go see him. They lived (He, Aunt Dolly and the SIX micro units) in one of those beautiful, classic, colonnaded Southern-style Officer's Quarters. It looked like a mansion to us. Never having been on anything remotely military in my memory, the sights and sounds were absolutely fascinating and magical. Especially the gauntlet we got to run every morning on our quest for donuts. A little non-descript building on our route was surrounded by crowds and microphones and TV cameras. And, if we timed it just wrong and got caught in the crush, we got to watch as Lt. William Calley and all his lawyers walked across the street and into the building. The whole show gave us (Me and Pat, a pair of 15 year olds) plenty to gawk at and the adults plenty to talk about. (Plus we'd check the broadcast that night to see if someone's mug on their way for donuts had made the news shots of the crowds.) Surreal world, there in an Army household, archly conservative, terrified of Communists and Red Chinese, and all John Birch Society types. You can imagine whose side they were on.

As I'm talking, I noticed an older, very well dressed gentleman at the next table pretty plainly attuned to the discussion at ours. When I caught his eye, he excused himself to his companions and came over. He introduced himself (seemed to be a hugely pleasant fellow) and said, "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. I was so astonished to hear Lt. Calley's name...and honestly surprised anyone would remember and talk about it now. I never thought about how it looked and I had to listen. You are so right in how you remember it ~ the crowds and those TV cameras. You probably saw me, you know. I was one of Lt. Calley's lawyers."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:29 PM | Comments (2)

"Is Your Mummy Home?"

"She's upstairs, actually..."

The mummified body of a woman who didn't want to be buried was found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death, authorities said...Authorities did not identify the caregiver, a women in her 40s who apparently lived in the home with Pope, Pope's daughter and her 3-year-old granddaughter.

There's just some odd, odd folks about.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:15 AM | Comments (10)

January 09, 2006

It's Not Just the Bird Flu They're Fighting

...but cultural differences as well.

The doctor said the youngsters most likely contracted the virus while playing with the heads of dead chickens infected with the disease. The children had reportedly tossed the chicken heads like balls inside their house in Dogubayazit, near the Iranian border.

This cached page of the MSNBC.com report has the paragraphs in it about the children playing with body parts that I'd originally read. Those references have been completely removed from the latest pages and I'm not sure they should have been. So far there hasn't yet been a 'proximity to chicken' transmission. These poor babies had been both exposed to fluids and injested infected chicken. But it also shows just how tough it's going to be to get a handle on it, when the lives of Turkish/Chinese/Iranian/Afghani/Vietnamese/fill-in-the-blank villagers and their livestock are so thoroughly intertwined. And the world is now so thoroughly small. We live in this lovely, sanitized bubble on the globe and tend to forget just how lucky we are.

Then when this stuff arrives via the 3:30 a.m. Singapore Air from Taipei, or in the hold of the cargo ship from Kenya, we're shocked and we shouldn't be. We should be ready. What happens to some sweet little kids in an obscure Turkish village matters very much, indeed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:22 PM | Comments (9)

January 06, 2006

Tea and Crumpets

...make weight gain easy, but then hard to dump it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:20 PM | Comments (6)

On the Economic Front

...waves of despair.

In its monthly report on employment, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate fell in December to 4.9 percent from 5 percent in November.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 AM | Comments (3)

January 05, 2006

The Only "Urge" Microsoft Inspires...

Is vomitorial in nature:

Bill Gates aims to take over your living room and late Wednesday he unveiled a new music service and new software to do it.

Using an appearance with Justin Timberlake, the Microsoft chairman debuted a new music service, Urge, to directly compete with the iTunes music store and interface. Urge launches with over 2 million tracks for purchase or as part of an all-you-can eat subscription, an option the iTunes music store doesn't have. The offering will include exclusive material from MTV, though it will not be compatible with iPods, which are currently the most popular MP3 player.

I mean, what an unappealing name. This is what happens when corporate duffi try to get hip.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:02 PM | Comments (10)

December 30, 2005

A Beautiful Story

I hope this pilot gets a huge bonus:

A drunken holidaymaker has been dumped on a desert island after launching a foul-mouthed tirade at the crew of a passenger jet.

The unnamed passenger's difficulties began on Tuesday evening at 35,000 ft when he began abusing the cabin crew of flight ZB558 from Manchester. He refused to calm down and then turned his attention to the other 210 passengers.

Eventually the pilot decided that he posed a risk to safety and had to be removed.

Rather than continue for a further 45 minutes to Tenerife he diverted his Airbus A321 to Porto Santo. Within moments of the plane touching down the passenger was escorted to the terminal. Last night he remained a castaway on the Portuguese-controlled island. His New Year home is a mere 10 miles long by three miles wide with a population of 4,000. There is little entertainment apart from walking on the sand dunes.

Simply wonderful.

Happy New Year, doofus :)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:48 AM | Comments (4)

December 29, 2005

Rep. Jeff Miller, FL-R

...got some 'splainin' to do.

Though battered by two Category 3 hurricanes in less than 10 months, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties were cut out of Congress' recently enacted Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005.

...Major added that from a "practical standpoint it's very nice they did this, but where in the world were they last year after Ivan and Dennis?"

New Orleans isn't the Third World in America, we are. Welcome to Bangla-cola, from the cast of 'Lost'...in America.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 AM | Comments (2)

December 28, 2005

Color Me Cranky

...but, when you live ON the water, should this be that big a surprise?

It is easy to understand what attracted Richard Pinegar and his family to Dauphin Island, Alabama. From the terrace of their elevated seafront home, they look down on the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico lapping against an idyllic white sand beach, just footsteps away.

After 11 years, however, Mr Pinegar has decided to trade in his piece of paradise for somewhere on higher ground.

He has grown tired of repairing his property after each of the powerful hurricanes and tropical storms that have struck the island over recent years.

"We had not finished rebuilding after Ivan when Katrina struck," he said. "It will break my heart to leave. But living here has become a constant struggle between man and nature and nature is winning."

Plus the fact that I don't owe you a rebuild on your sand castle 18 times before you give-up. Live a couple miles inland like we do and quit whining.

Critics complain that reckless private investment in places such as Dauphin Island is subsidised bytaxpayers through thegovernment-run National Flood Insurance Program. The programme, which has had to borrow heavily from the US Treasury to cover recent hurricane losses, was established in 1968 to protect homeowners in flood-prone areas.

But the scheme has allowed developers to build homes in places that would be considered too risky by commercial insurers.

Dauphin Island, which has lost 500 homes to storms over the past 25 years, had received more than $200m in NFIP payouts before Katrina and that figure will now increase sharply.

Better the attitude of our Uncle Dick. They bought a second home on Hatteras a million years ago and were 3 rows back. Now they're one row from the beach. Being a max anal type, he'd spent the money then for the stilts and steel hurricane shutters that have helped his beach house hang on in the face of some pretty exhuberant storms over the past 30 odd years, while 2 full streets of less foresighted neighbors were eaten by the Atlantic. The plan? He sells when he becomes beachfront. "Everybody always forgets about the storms a year later and real estate goes through the roof. Then we're outta here."

Just because you hadn't had a hit in 34 years (like our one N.C. summer with Bertha, then Fran 3 months later almost to the day) doesn't mean it's not going to happen. It's been our experience (usually because we've moved somewhere that hasn't been hit in, like, forever...and gets schmacked good after we get there...I sense an ugly trend...) that the lull means things are saving up for a wallop, vice a glancing blow. If you are going to move everything you own and love to one and only one home and it's beachfront, you need to be pragmatic and appreciate every single day that you get to spend there. All the while realizing that when Mother Nature decides it's time for you to go, you'll leave. On her terms.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:14 AM | Comments (3)

December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:33 AM | Comments (7)

December 24, 2005

And A Song For Our Troops

Recorded July 11th, 1918 it's a song whose words we need to fulfill again.

And we will.

I suppose I should mention that on this post and the one below it you may not want to click if you're on dial-up.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:52 PM | Comments (1)

A Song For Tonight

Recorded February 23rd, 1916 and still wonderful today.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:39 PM | Comments (5)

Sugar Maple Burl Tree

Last week over at Cullen's he posted a post about some of the gorgeous wood that guitars are made out of, and, as we all know, Cullen is all about the guitar. In the comments I mentioned that I had a sugar maple in my yard that was darn-near all burl, and he asked for a picture, so take a peek below the fold...

Here she is:

The wood from this baby will be divine looking.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:04 PM | Comments (3)

God Bless Us, Every One

And I think he already has, far more than we deserve. From the most wonderful brothers in the world and their incredible families, to such warm, marvelous friends as we've made here. From your daily comments and emails, to your generous, incredible support for the Marines of VMU-1 Forward's S-2 shop, we have been honored and just plain tickled to death to be associated with each and every one of you. Be safe, happy and well, whatever you call this week.

Thank you all so much. With all our hearts.
ths, major dad, Ebola and BooBoo

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:06 PM | Comments (9)

December 21, 2005

On This Day in 1621

...the Pilgrims...
...posed for this picture.

After a 65-day journey, the Pilgrims sighted Cape Cod on November 19. Unable to reach the land they had contracted for, they anchored (November 21) at the site of Provincetown. Because they had no legal right to settle in the region, they drew up the Mayflower Compact, creating their own government. The settlers soon discovered Plymouth Harbor, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay and made their historic landing on December 21; the main body of settlers followed on December 26. The term Pilgrim was first used by William Bradford to describe the Leiden Separatists who were leaving Holland.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:08 AM | Comments (8)

December 19, 2005

Bush Says "Bite Me!"

Okay, well, not exactly. But close enough.

“It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this important program in a time of war. The fact that we’re discussing this program is helping the enemy,” he said at the White House event.

UPDATE: Newsweek's spin on this:

This will all play out eventually in congressional committees and in the United States Supreme Court. If the Democrats regain control of Congress, there may even be articles of impeachment introduced. Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:14 PM | Comments (4)

December 17, 2005

The Excitement Is Building!

Christmas is coming!

Sorry Suzette:

The Nativity is there, safe in the stable atop the liquor cabinet.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:41 AM | Comments (22)

December 08, 2005

Damnable Weather

Poor little puddin'.

A jetliner trying to land in heavy snow slid off a runway, crashed through a fence and slid into a busy street, hitting one vehicle and pinning another beneath it. A 6-year-old boy in one of the vehicles was killed, authorities said. He was among eight people hurt on the ground. Two passengers on the plane suffered minor injuries, Aviation Department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said

And DAMN!

The accident occurred 33 years to the day after a crash at Midway that killed 45 people, two of them on the ground.

Big red 'X' through 12/08 in my travel itinerary from now on. Not that I have one.

But if I did...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:48 PM | Comments (4)

December 07, 2005

BREAKING NEWS

Shots fired on an American Airlines jet on the runway in Miami. CNN is saying it's an Air Marshal.
Breitbart has it as a flight out of Columbia and one person wounded.

UPDATE: Fox News is reporting some knucklehead said he had a bomb and the Marshal shot him. Some reports are saying he'd tried to flee through the terminal. But nothing official's out yet.
AP's reporting someone was confirmed shot. Homeland Security confirms a person getting on the flight claimed they had a bomb in a carry-on bag, security tried to take the individual at gate, he ran off jetway, tackled by the Air Marshals and attempted to pull something from his bag, so they fired. Confusing stuff so far.
UPDATE: Hmmm, a local (Miami-Dade) news person (WFOR) reporting they killed him.
UPDATE: Homeland Sec. spokesman says the plane landed and parked at the gate. The passenger said he had a bomb in his carry-on, was confronted by an Air Marshal, then ran off the plane. A 'team' of Air Marshals pursued him, ordered him to get on the ground, which he did BUT then he reached into his carry-on and they shot him.

Amazingly enough, with all the loonies and drunks on every one of thousands of daily flights in the US, this is the FIRST time the Air Marshals have fired a weapon. That's a testament to training.

UPDATE: He was a 44 yr old American citizen. He frantically rushed down the aisle, then out the door, starting the whole brouhaha, would not stop when the AirMarshals directed him to and actually turned back toward them. In the meantime, a witness on the plane says a woman with him was saying he suffer from bi-polarism and hadn't taken his meds.

Oh, man, they lit him up. Five to six shots from multiple weapons.

UPDATE: AH, so. He was at the back of the plane, sitting with his wife, got into an argument with her and started on down the aisle, with her behind him shouting that he had mental problems.

Chris Matthews is a jacka$$. He basically just asked if Air Marshals weren't trained to be able to take the guy down physically instead of having to shoot him. I knew he'd get around to police brutality questions eventually.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:39 PM | Comments (10)

Stories

...like no one should ever have.
Joe, 93, and Angelina, 86, still remember three of their son's first words:

"Air raid, Mommy!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:58 AM | Comments (4)

December 04, 2005

SNOW!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful, gorgeous thing to wake up to this morning!!!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM | Comments (15)

November 29, 2005

G.I. Joe

Lieberman, that is, bless his heart! For those of you I didn't send it to already, here's the link. The only downside? His words are in the Opinion Journal, where he's preaching to the choir. They need to be in the NYT, the LA Times, the Washington Post, the...you get the picture, 'cause you're sure not gonna hear him quoted on the networks.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:57 AM | Comments (3)

Damn Bushie McChimpyHitler!

Thank God MSM keeps this stuff under wraps, couching it in shades of doom and gloom, or people might feel better about the guy. (And we can't have that.)

The U.S. economy has been surprisingly resilient this year and is expected to grow by 3.6 percent in 2005 despite the difficulties posed by both oil prices and hurricanes -- the latter cutting 0.5 percentage points from growth on an annual basis in the second half of the year.

Overall activity is expected to return to trend in early 2006 and then be somewhat higher, taking growth for the full year to 3.5 percent, 20 basis points higher than the 3.3 percent forecast by the OECD in its last report in May.

...Business spending is also growing quickly, unemployment has dropped toward its equilibrium level and export growth is being supported by the respending of higher oil revenues by oil producers.

UPDATE: More bad news, delivered in a surprisingly chirpy manner!!

Consumer Confidence Comes Roaring Back

Falling gas prices boost sentiment; factory orders, new-home sales surge

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:15 AM

November 22, 2005

Does This Have Anything to Do

...with that "personal accountability" and "challenging school curriculums/do the WORK" thingees we're always talking about?

America's ability to compete in the global economy is being undermined by a "serious shortage", of skilled workers in manufacturing industries, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

..."The pain is most acute on the front line, where 90 per cent report a moderate to severe shortage of qualified skilled production employees including machinists, operators, craft workers, distributors and technicians, said Richard Kleinert of Deloitte Consulting. Engineers and scientists were also in short supply, with 65 per cent of respondents reporting current deficiencies.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:15 PM | Comments (3)

Strangers in a Strange Land

Returning residents, some who might well have never lived outside New Orleans in their entire lives, are coming home feeling like freshly awakened Rip Van Winkles. Once over their initial astonishment at the world beyond the levees, they are bringing some hard questions back with them. The status quo just might not cut it anymore.

But after tasting life elsewhere, they are returning with tales of public schools that actually supply textbooks published after the Reagan era, of public housing developments that look like suburban enclaves, of government workers who are not routinely dragged off to prison after pocketing bribes.

Local leaders have realized for weeks that they must reckon with widespread anger over how they handled the relief effort. But it is dawning on them that they are also going to have to contend with demands from residents who grew accustomed, however briefly, to the virtues of other communities.

Many evacuees seem to be arriving with less tolerance for the failings of a city that under its glitzy makeup has long had an unsightly side. They do not want New Orleans to lose its distinctive character - after all, that is one reason they are back and vowing to rebuild. But they say their expectations have changed.

"What's wrong with our school system, and what's wrong with the people running our school board?" asked Tess Blanks, who had lived here all her life before fleeing with her husband, Horace, to the Houston area, where they discovered that the public schools for their two children were significantly better. "Our children fell right into the swing of things in Texas. So guess what? It isn't the children. It's the people running our school system."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:56 AM | Comments (2)

November 21, 2005

Paying for the Party

Everyone wants one, but splittin' the bill is like alligator wrasslin'.

The city's budget problems have also revived arguments that corporate sponsors should be accepted for Mardi Gras as a way of underwriting expenses.

Mardi Gras traditionalists are adamantly opposed to the idea, fearing it would commercialize an event that has always been intensely local. Krewes pay for their own floats and parades. "Everyone says no," says Bill Grace, a lawyer and chairman of the mayor's Mardi Gras committee.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:51 PM

November 16, 2005

Say a Little Prayer

...for a warm.bed They're opening what shelters they have in AL and MS. We're going to be in the low 30's tonight and tomorrow night and they're forecasting 28º for Friday's low. There are thousands of Katrina and Rita's victims ~ those who lost their homes and volunteers still onsite helping, bless their hearts ~ who are sleeping in pop-up and garrison tents. Even on the Rotarian site, it says the priority is "Pakistan". This may be the "South", but it gets damn cold here. Damn cold.

When you crank up that thermostat tonight, remember how lucky you are.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:41 PM | Comments (2)

November 12, 2005

Yippee! I Get To Buy A New Appliance!!!

Our dishwasher has died. Well, to be more precise, we've decided that something of its vintage is not worth sinking $300 into to repair.

My heartfelt suggestion to my bride that it wouold be very theraputic for her, in order to releave the stress and tension of her days, what with all the student problems and disappointments, to do the dishes by hand for a few weeks was surprisingly not well received; I'm constantly amazed how women mis-interpret men's compassionate and concerned suggestions in such a manner.

Anyhow, we scoped out a hot little Kitchenaid beauty dressed demurely in black last night, so soon she shall be ours!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:40 AM | Comments (7)

Autumn Is Here

The ocean takes on a completely different color and character, and you get these "English Seascape" clouds shining in the crisp light...

And the colors on the leaves have turned into all the hues of yellow and orange that one could want...

Now if I could only convince them to stay on the trees.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:59 AM | Comments (5)

November 10, 2005

Music to My Ears

Probably to yours, too.

"Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!"

A bee-yoo-tiful chorus.
UPDATE: Newlyweds Ashraf al-Akhras and Nadia al-Alami pose with their fathers at the Radisson SAS in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday shortly before the hotel was bombed.

The dead there included the fathers of the bride and groom.
UPDATE: According to ABC World News Tonight, the bomber walked past all the Westerners in the lobby, straight into the Muslim wedding. Al-Qaida considers weddings with drinking, women dancing with men and a bride wearing white to be blasphemy and an abomination. Against Islam.

Bastards.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:37 PM | Comments (9)

November 08, 2005

Rest In Peace, Schweet Schmacks

I'm so sorry Sis.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:16 AM | Comments (27)

November 03, 2005

Sandy Hook, 6:10am, November 3rd 2005

Kinda peaceful and nice.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:53 PM | Comments (7)

October 28, 2005

There Must Be Something In The Air...

in Oregon:

MEDFORD, Oregon (AP) -- A woman bought a winning lottery ticket worth $1 million with a stolen credit card and could wind up with nothing if convicted, police said.

I'm sure the state would love to keep it.

A search warrant served at her home Thursday turned up some methamphetamine, but little money, George said.

"Our investigation is still trying to determine what happened to the $33,500," George said.

Maybe she invested in a horse farm?

Update: Beaten by the Perversion Catalyst yet again.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:12 PM | Comments (9)

October 24, 2005

Logic Rules the Day

“I don’t like people walking around armed on the street. But since all the bandits have guns, you need to have a gun at home,” said taxi driver Mohammed Osei, who voted against the ban.

Brazil votes no on a nationwide gun sale ban.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:09 AM | Comments (3)

October 22, 2005

You Rarely See The Ocean This Calm

It was like a quiet lake Thursday. Pretty neat.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:11 PM | Comments (10)

October 16, 2005

'Tis An Angry Sea, Laddie

Not having the resources of The Proffessor™, my little digital camera doesn't do 3-D and 40 megapickles, but those are 8 foot swells that we're rolling over off of Sandy Hook during the midst of our 8 Day Storm last week. We kept thinking we were headed towards Gilligan's Island.

Yeah, yeah, I know 8 footers are nothing for you Seafarers out there, but in Raritan Bay they are something.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:25 AM | Comments (1)

October 14, 2005

Bless Her Brave Young Heart

Vivian Malone Jones, one of two black students whose effort to enroll at the University of Alabama led to George Wallace's infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" in 1963, died Thursday. She was 63.
...she recalled meeting with Wallace in 1996, when the former governor was in frail health...

"I asked him why did he do it," she said. "He said he did what he felt needed to be done at that point in time, but he would not do that today. At that point, we spoke -- I spoke -- of forgiveness."

I can't imagine the courage it took to take that walk that day.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:03 PM | Comments (7)

October 12, 2005

You Know

...I could give a rat's patoot if Harriet Miers ever went to church a day in her life. I only care if she reveres the Constitution and will listen carefully and dispassionately to any arguments made before the Court. But you can't flood the airwaves, touting how devout she is in a blatant effort to suck-up to the religious Right, yet then expect us to also believe that she never, ever said a word in passing about...you know. Like "...but I never inhaled". The White House is handling this very, very badly.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:18 PM | Comments (10)

Air Traffic Controllers' Strike Ring a Bell?

That Northwest Airlines mechanics' strike is looking even more like pure genius...NOT.

Northwest seeks to void labor contracts CHICAGO (Reuters) - Northwest Airlines Corp. on Wednesday said it has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to void its labor contracts if its employee unions do not agree to concessions worth $1.4 billion a year.

...Northwest has already managed to achieve some of its labor cost savings by replacing its 4,400 striking mechanics and related staff with cheaper workers and outside vendors.

I mean, don't bite the hand that feeds you while there's still scraps on the table fellas.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:17 PM

"I'm Not Putting Lipstick On Any Pigs Out There"

Well, somebody is.

Expressions of concern among conservatives and former Iraqi exiles, seen also in the rising disillusionment of the American public, reflect a widening gap with the Bush administration and its claims of "incredible political progress" in Iraq.

What's the big rush with this jury rigged, half-a$$ed 'constitution'? I don't get it. We're stuck there for the long haul either way, so why not DO IT RIGHT? KEEP OUR PROMISES? Make life BETTER for ALL Iraqis and make Iraq a BEACON for the whole Arab World.
We could do that.
We could.
UPDATE: Ayman Zawahiri sees hope for the future, besides chewing on Zarqawi and asking for a little hand-out.

Invoking the specter of the United States abruptly abandoning Iraq as it did to Vietnam, Zawahiri counseled immediate political action: "We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us."

Be a shame to let these guys down or so we hear, right Mr. Kennedy?

BUMP ~ UPDATE AGAIN: It seems the story I linked to (above) last night happens to be one of Yahoo's 'most popular:viewed/emailed'. Nice to be ahead of the curve again, but it does make me wonder who's doing the emailing. Is it believers in what we're doing sending it to doubters? Surprised anti-war types forced to rethink their position by virtue of Al-Qaeda's banking on a given reaction? What, why and whom? Hmmm, hmmm, hmmmm...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:39 AM | Comments (1)

October 07, 2005

All Brains and No Clue

"The best rhetoric will fail if the public rejects the substance of a candidate's agenda or entertains doubts about his integrity."

With all the 'intellectual' (and I use the term loosely...) power running the Democratic Party, it takes a study to tell them that? Commonsense instead of social disconnect would have saved them both the price of the study and Kerry's campaign.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:02 PM | Comments (3)

October 06, 2005

Show Me the Money!

I mean, you know it's coming. Thank God Mayor Noggin will be safe in Dallas, where they still have a police force.

Bankrupt New Orleans may free prisoners
Hundreds of prisoners in Louisiana may be released or left in limbo awaiting trial because there is no funding for prosecutions.

Eddie Jordan, Orleans parish district-attorney, whose parish was among the hardest hit by Katrina, has been told his office will get no fourth-quarter funding from the city for operating expenses.

Mr Jordan's office is already struggling to cope with problems that include damaged and waterlogged evidence, missing records and witnesses, defendants who have jumped bond, and destroyed offices and courthouses.

Have you seen these suspicious characters? Report them to NOLA authorities immediately.
A TPI Public Service Announcement.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:48 PM | Comments (6)

October 04, 2005

I Think Bill Bennett's an Overweight, Arrogant A$$

...not to mention a hypocrite, who could use a dose of the "physician, heal thyself" bottle.

But I can stand him today, because his fat mouth got La Shawn all riled up.
And I LOVE La Shawn.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:45 PM

Pffft! Good Luck...

Bush calls for new refineries, cuts to meet hurricane spending bill

President George W. Bush called for the United States to build new refineries after hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered US oil production.

Bush, speaking at a White House news conference, also renewed appeals for Congress to cut spending in other areas to help meet the reconstruction bill arising from the powerful storms.

"The storms that hit the Gulf Coast also touched every American with higher prices at the gas (petrol) pump," the president said.

"It ought to be clear to everybody that this country needs to build more refining capacity to be able to deal with the issues of tight supply," he said.

The Swilling's been hammering this drum since we set up shop. And yes, it ought to be clear and is completely clear...until they try to put it in your backyard. Then it quickly becomes NOT so clear.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)

September 30, 2005

Resistance

...is futile.

Wal-Mart takes control of Japanese retailer

Move will turn 400-store Seiyu into subsidiary

Welcome to the hive.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:34 AM | Comments (4)

September 29, 2005

I Guess the Contractor's Off the Hook

Remember Bob Livingstone saying whoever the contractor was who built the 17th Street levee had a big problem?
Not so fast.

They reveal that when the floodwall on the 17th Street Canal was built a decade ago, there were major construction problems — problems brought to the attention of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

A 1998 ruling, by an administrative judge for the Corps' Board of Contract Appeals, shows that the contractor, Pittman Construction, told the Corps that the soil and the foundation for the walls were “not of sufficient strength, rigidity and stability” to build on.

...Pittman won the contract in 1993. There already was an earthen levee made of soil. Embedded in that was a thin metal wall called sheet piling. The contractor was hired to pour concrete on top of all that to form the flood wall.

But the 1998 documents — filed as part of a legal dispute over costs — indicate the contractor complained about “weakness” of the soil and “the lack of structural integrity of the existing sheet pile around which the concrete was poured.” The ruling also referenced the “flimsiness” of the sheet piling.

...The construction company said as a result of these problems the walls were shifting and “out of tolerance,” meaning they did not meet some design specifications. Nevertheless, the Army Corps of Engineers accepted the work.

Wow. This 'government stuff' is turning out to be quite a racket! You basically get to wear a bullet proof 'Bite Me' T-shirt. I can do this awfully with my eyes closed. Where do I sign up?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM | Comments (13)

September 27, 2005

Jeez, I Hope We Had Something to Do With This

Today's warm fuzzy.

New Orleans police chief resigning

Move follows disclosure that many officers left posts during Katrina

UPDATE: The Gateway Pundit has put the 'oh, SO did NOT happen' events noted below, Katrina BS-wise, in order. (He's so much more organized than I am.)

UPDATE DEUX: The Times-Picayune weighs in.

Unfortunately, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some of the most lurid rumors of violence in the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center came from those in charge: Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Eddie Compass. And now it appears they were mostly false.

Do tell, do tell...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:08 PM | Comments (1)

And The Good News Just Keeps A' Comin'

A tropical wave sweeping WNW through the central Caribbean is being monitored for further development. Convection with the system diminished last night, but redeveloped rapidly this morning. Conditions are becoming more favorable for additional strengthening of the system as it pushes toward the northwest Caribbean, so an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft may be dispatched to check out the disturbance tomorrow.

Another disturbance being watched is moving westward in the central Atlantic about halfway between Africa and South America near 10 degrees north. Convection is beginning to develop around a low pressure center associated with the system, so further development is possible.

We've only got four terrific name choices left...

Stan ~ Tammy ~ Vince ~ Wilma

...and they're all getting on my last nerve.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:05 PM | Comments (19)

September 26, 2005

You Know, I Hate Excuse Makers

But in light of self congratulatory headlines like these:

Defenders of Iraq war counter-rally
Smaller-than-expected gathering follows anti-war protest

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Support for U.S. troops fighting abroad mixed with anger toward anti-war demonstrators at home as hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected, rallied Sunday on the National Mall just a day after tens of thousands protested against the war in Iraq.

...I'm given to ponder if there's, perhaps, a disconnect between the Cindy Sheehans of the world and the Un-Cindys.

You know ~ the folks in the neighborhood who have a son, or daughter, or grandson, or niece or best friend's kid ~ in uniform somewhere they send letters and cookies to. Emails and Vienna Snausages. Baby wipes and stupid birthday packages. Those Un-Cindy folks work. They go to church and volunteer afterward for Sunday school, or just sit home watching football games until it's time to help a neighbor with his fence. Maybe even watch their 2 year old so neighbor and the missus (who also has a job) can go be a 'couple' for a few hours. (While you get to enjoy a baby and THEN give him back. Now, that's Heaven.)

I don't know. It seems to me that 'protestors' live in a different world than I do. I know that, for all the money and free MSM coverage they were getting, not too many 'protestors' showed up compared to what they expected. That had to be a bummer, but I'm sure they found a way to spin it. Kinda like the 'Million Man March' wound up being a hundred and fifty thousand or so. I just don't think your average American has time to wisk on down to D.C. He says what he has to say by the flag hanging off his brickwork, the ribbon on his Toyota, his voter registration card, just the time he spends being a good citizen. I feel strongly about a bunch of stuff, but think my time is better served by actions, not activism. The blog here is a vanity project ~ you all are subjected to my opinion in spite of Bingley and Crusader's best efforts and I am proudly the bleeding heart liberal of the bunch. But it's also a community, a neighborhood. We've all got 'stuff' we're doing that feeds the fabric of the nation. Lisa's D is off to Iraq, New Orleans; wherever they need him. Wherever we need him. JeffS wears tacky Sod Off T-shirts in one of the God forsaken armpits of earth, alongside intrepid fellows like Skylar Rentner and Cpl. Tim. Mr. Summers goes to work everyday and does his best to keep things honest. Bingley counts beans (literally!), Crusader is a bean counter, I'm a has bean and Major Dad is a 'bean there, done that' veteran, like Sharps. Cullen watches the parade of human beans through the front gates, Kraut wonders about what has bean and what's to come, while Diptera strings beans and sees the mystery in God's order. We're all busy, we all have stuff to do, we're all on the crusade of living LIFE. And if you live life to it's fullest, the best you can, that takes work. And dedication. There's a conviction there that doesn't need your photo in Newsweek for validation. Or a hand lettered, dork-ass 'F@ck Capitalism' sign for proof of commitment. WTF is that? No one understands that. So who are these people talking to? Each other, I guess. Not to anybody I know, that's for sure, because we don't have time for 'out there'. We're all busy. We're all working on life.

That's the disconnect, I think. I see these 'protestors' on Gateway Pundit, etc., and all I see is Clare, from 'Six Feet Under'. A caricature. Written to be so clever and tortured and privileged and cutting edge; and so far from anything remotely connected to real life, that it renders serious consideration moot. I don't mean to sound like an apologist for the lack of sign wavers for, um...my side. But I think I know why there weren't huge red, white and blue crowds. We're busy. We've got things to do, friends to support and a way of life ~ of living ~ we cherish and defend. Who we are doesn't need a rally, a parade or a public face. I'm not rushing to buy a bus ticket to D.C. because Mother Sheehan's in town. That happenstance doesn't begin to meet the threshhold of galvanization ~ of a call to action. She and her buddies are hardly worth notice, less mind airfare and an ulcer. We're busy with better things to do. And are better for it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 AM | Comments (5)

September 24, 2005

Rita and Perdido Key

Kidnapped Major Dad and forced him to drive the car while I snapped.

With the dunes all lost during Ivan, the sand has it's way with the main drag.

The Perdido section of Gulf Islands National Seashore was open...

...but the sand was moving at face shredding speed...

...and the water was churned brown and dangerous.
There used to be 15 foot high dunes here and you couldn't see the Gulf from the park road.
Now you can sit in the car and snap away, it's been that flattened.

And no matter where you look...

~ from the chunks missing out of buildings and blue roofs in the first picture, to this sentinel at the gates of the park ~

...everywhere are reminders of Ivan.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:37 PM | Comments (4)

September 23, 2005

A Constant Wind

But pretty benign, considering our recent standards.

Thank goodness.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:46 AM

If I Might Add My Two Cents

Beldar is holding down the fort in Houston and his traffic snafu analysis, along with snippets from other Houston bloggers, has been pretty fascinating. Something in his post caught my storm weary eye, however, and I wanted to mention my take on this:

Katrina + news media hysteria = lots of folks in non-flood-prone areas of Houston, who otherwise would have hunkered down altogether or at least waited until tomorrow to evac, instead hitting the road yesterday afternoon, last night, and today = avoidable degree of gridlock.

IMHO, local media have done a very bad job of distinguishing between "mandatory evacuation" areas (truly coastal counties, storm-surge areas) and elsewhere. Some of the adjacent coastal county officials are already bitching (publicly and unproductively) at Houston/Harris County officials for "ignoring the plan," which was to get the coastal zones evac'd first. Since so many Houstonians are also on the road ("early," in the view of those adjacent county folks), congestion is much worse for everyone. But I think the "fault" for that, if fault there be, can be laid more at the feet of the breathless media rather than Houston/Harris County officials. And ordinary folks are hyper-receptive to the hype because of Katrina.

While that's true to a certain extent because of the 'flooding', I think a fair amount of those folks might well have seen the pictures of what 140mph+ sustained WINDS can do to a house and lack the confidence in their homes' construction. Hysteria perhaps, but it would be a crap shoot to stay around and then have the walls come down around your ears. Too late to reconsider then. I'm not sure what the building codes are in the Houston area as far as wind mitigation, but I'll bet they're nowhere near what they are even in the Florida panhandle (and ours are considerably lax compared to South Florida). Or, if you're not sure your engineer/contractor even built to code. One word. Andrew. That was no storm surge. That was howling winds, pure and simple, flattening those homes. If Casa Sister hadn't been new construction (read: hurricane strapping, braced facades, rebar reinforced brickwork, 140 mph rated garage door, etc.), we would have had to seriously consider leaving Banglacola before Ivan. The houses here ten years and older took a sincere beating, with many of them completely destroyed. So it could well be that these folks aren't even thinking 'water', they're thinking

"when the garage door blows in, which then blows my roof off, which collapses the exterior brick/clapboard/sheetrock walls inward...do I really need to be here?"

If you've the means to leave? Probably not.

Via Instapundit.
UPDATE: Found this pertinent addition to my argument, courtesy of Bingley's link in a previous post...

Meanwhile, as the storm moved over western Harris County, its most dangerous winds, well in excess of 120 mph even inland, would lash the Interstate 45 corridor, including Clear Lake, the Texas Medical Center and downtown.

Many older buildings could not withstand such winds.

Like I said, it's not just the water.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:13 AM | Comments (1)

The Mobile/Pensacola Radar Loop

Yeesh. Kinda creepy when it sits just off-frame.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:00 AM | Comments (4)

September 22, 2005

Little Bits of Rita Overhead

You can see the breezes picking up, too.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:15 AM | Comments (3)

September 20, 2005

Schweet Mac Daddy

Respect your elders!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:07 AM | Comments (13)

September 19, 2005

I Think Mayor Nagin

...needs to scurry back to his cot in Dick Cheney's Secret Location. You know, like where he hid out as the city flooded?

NEW ORLEANS - Residents began trickling back Monday as part of a plan by the mayor to reopen New Orleans one ZIP code at a time, despite repeated warnings from the top federal official on the scene — and President Bush himself — that the city is not ready.

Mayor Ray Nagin defended his decision to let people back in, and suggested that the federal official in charge in New Orleans, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, had made himself “the new crowned federal mayor of New Orleans.”

Because every time he pops his little bald head out of the hobbit hole, he stuffs his foot in it. And, surprise! People could start dying again. I sense an ugly trend here.
UPDATE: The man just doesn't get it.

After backing off on his call for some residents to return to New Orleans, the city's mayor ripped into the top U.S. government relief official on Tuesday,...

...The mayor reversed course even as residents began trickling back to the first neighborhood opened as part of his plan, the lightly damaged Algiers section.

"You're in", "you're out", "come back", "run away"...SOMEbody please eat the Mayor. I'm so confused.

I'm tired of men always coming and going, going and coming and always too soon.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:31 AM | Comments (16)

September 16, 2005

One Year Ago, This Morning

Ivan

Pensacola in the Perpetual Bullseye



I can think of more cheerful reasons for a Commemorative Edition, but here it is.

Major Dad says New Mexico is looking better all the time. I'd argue, but...well...sometimes it does.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:38 PM | Comments (4)

Time Stood Still

Peering closely, I noted that the clock was stopped at about 6:35 . . . and indeed it didn't move at all. Then I remembered why that time looked familiar . . . two blocks to the rear of St. Louis Cathedral sits Cats Meow, at the corner of Bourbon and St. Peter. Our webcams there - Bourbocam and Beadcam - sent their last images on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, as Katrina's rising wind blew out the electricity in the Quarter . . . 6:34:51 a.m. . . . that's when the clocks stopped.

Jon Donley, Bourbon Street Journal

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:43 PM | Comments (6)

September 15, 2005

A Note to Our Katrina Evacuees

We're ever so grateful you got here safely. Understanding exactly what you've gone through, we've welcomed you into our community, thrown open our schools, volunteered by the hundreds to see you get all the assistance you need; done our darndest to try make it better for you the best we can. But, when you have the time to take a deep breath, I want you to know that you've landed in a community that is still wounded. A small community still trying after a year, a YEAR, to find housing and work for it's people, but who still had the heart and the love and the compassion for your need to say 'C'mon on in', instead of 'move along'. Please cut us a husk when things don't move at big city speed. I know it's hard. Some of the newly christened volunteers helping you out still are living in trailers or with friends themselves. Homeless, like you. But they answered the call. And no, sometimes they don't have all the answers, but please, please realize the Herculean effort put forth before you complain and castigate them to print and TV journalists. It's so disheartening and demotivating. After all, they're volunteers. We have been listening to your complaints. As we hope you can tell, we've tried to make things better as quickly as we could. And your appreciation gladdens our hearts.

Outside the church, Red Cross volunteers handed out water and snacks every 10 minutes to the hundreds waiting in line. Inside the church's air-conditioned gym, 450 seats were available for those near the front of the line.

Rows of 30 applicants at a time were called in to see case managers. The rest of those seated cheered and clapped every time a row was called. Several applicants whose row was called would do a little dance of joy for the amused crowd or pump their fists in the air.

"I'm starting to feel relieved," said Katara Sellers, 26, of Gautier, Miss. "This is the best place I've been so far to get help. I actually expected the line to be longer."

Eva Kemp, 27, and her cousin, Susie Foreman, 66, both tried to get help three times in Mobile, where they reside. They either were turned away despite getting in line at 2:30 a.m., or they would find out after being in line for hours that the facility would help only Louisiana or Mississippi residents.

"Here, they give us water and treats," Kemp said. "They watch out for us. There's no chaos here."

It's such a shame, the practice we've had this year. How many times we've gotten a chance to try to make it perfect. A little bit of a break would be good for all of us about now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:25 AM | Comments (2)

September 14, 2005

Oh Do, DO Tell...

Is the Orleans Levee Board doing its job?
Critics allege corruption, charge the board with wasteful spending

The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the levees surrounding New Orleans — the same levees that failed after Katrina hit.

"They misspent the money," says Billy Nungesser, a former top Republican official who was briefly president of the Levee Board. "Any dollar they wasted was a dollar that could have went in the levees."

And...

Beyond the fountain, there's the $15 million spent on two overpasses that helped gamblers get to Bally's riverboat casino. Critics tried and failed to put some of that money into flood protection.

There was also $45,000 for private investigators to dig up dirt on radio host and board critic Robert Namer.

Well, hush my puppy! There was never no such thing of the kind! And this is another example of Chimpy churlishness, trying to put the blame on the locals.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2005

You Don't Pooh Pooh VooDoo..

..if you're a local.

But you can't visit the old Girod Cemetery. Abandoned for years, its iron caskets and bones were tossed up by excavation gear in the early 1970s as the crews moved in to build . . . the Superdome. Beneath the now-shredded roof and the fetid stinking mess of excrement and blood where tens of thousands huddled in storm and flood . .. and some died . . . likely lie even more unexcavated bones.

And local lore is that the Superdome was cursed . . . a punishment for desecrating this City of the Dead. Exorcists and voodoo priestesses have been here to dispel the curse. That lore will no doubt expand into an even more gruesome story for buggy drivers in the Quarter to enchant their passengers.

Anytime I'm in St. Louis No. 1, without fail, I make sure to stop by Marie Laveau and say hi.

Never hurts to be polite.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:22 PM | Comments (11)

Good News

London bomb suspect extradition approved
Italy's highest appeals court on Tuesday upheld the extradition to the UK of Hamdi Issac, the Ethiopian-born Briton who is suspected of involvement in an attempted attack on July 21 on London's transport system.

Mr Issac, also known as Osman Hussain, cannot challenge the Court of Cassation's ruling. Legal experts expect him to be transferred to the UK in the next 10 days.

As long as the British legal system has a chance to actually try to hold him accountable.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:06 PM | Comments (2)

Other Than 'Because I LOVE The Place'...

...it really is hard to come up with a persuasive argument for rebuilding New Orleans. Yes, yes, we need the port and the French Quarter's fun and intact, but the truth is there's a whole lot of that city that was figuratively razed generations ago. By poverty and ignorance, crime and neglect. A fair amount of the folks who got on those buses won't be coming back, because this is their ticket O. U. T., out. If you are determined to live on public assistance, or have known nothing else in your entire existence, you can as easily collect a check in Houston as in New Orleans. But if you've been trapped in that squalorous cycle, with big dreams that haven't been ground out of you yet, that bus ticket to Houston and points beyond is your chance to grab at a new life. Don't think those folks won't. Here in Pensa/Bangla-cola, we've already got people saying "We're staying." If I had a house in the Garden District, I'd be back in a flash. Most probably, I'd also have means independant of the local economy to keep my lights on. But if you live in a 'Ward', why return? If you have a completely flooded upper middle class development home that has to be leveled and your job was underwater, I'll bet you're already casting around for opportunities in situ. You'll get your insurance money, so why not see what's happening at the local level where you've landed? After all, everything in every direction radial from New Orleans is high ground, and I'll bet that sounds pretty damn good right about now.

I think the next few months will be illuminating not in terms of who's rebuilding, but who's willing to come back.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:37 AM | Comments (5)

September 12, 2005

Quick Katrina Comparisons and Reference Points

Courtesy of Jack Kelly.

1.

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

Pretty fast to us, too.

2.

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

3.

Journalists...have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

4.

...a week and a day after the main levee protecting New Orleans breached:

~ More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.

~ The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.

~ Shelter, food and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:10 PM | Comments (3)

Mary, Mary, Quite to the Contrary...Part Deux

The Senator continues her Sunday talk show rounds.

Chris Wallace: But senator there were hundreds of buses sitting in that parking lot...we're looking at the picture. There were hundreds of buses sitting in parking lots.

Mary Landrieu: That is underwater.

Chris Wallace: It wasn't underwater before the evacua...before the...

Mary Landrieu: Those buses were underwater. Those buses were underwater.

Chris Wallace: They weren't underwater on Saturday. They weren't on Sunday.

All because 'this administration doesn't understand mass trasnportation'.

I couldn't make up stuff this good if I tried.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:29 AM | Comments (14)

September 11, 2005

Mary, Mary, Quite to the Contrary

On Face the Nation this morning.

(Bob Schieffer)Of course, Senator Landrieu, let me ask you the question that a lot of people are asking: Do you think that some of these casualties could have been averted had control been turned over
to the federal government sooner?

Sen. MARY LANDRIEU (Democrat, Louisiana): Well, that is a very important question, but I can tell you on the ground in Louisiana that the local elected officials, governor, local parish president and mayors, did everything they could to save lives, to issue a strong evacuation plan¹. That was carried out. An emergency declaration was issued, Bob, before the storm, asking for full federal resources². Why those resources didn't come, why they were stopped in Washington, I don't know, but what I do know is that we will all be held accountable, from the White House down, and blaming local elected officials is not the way to get the rebuilding
process under way.

Let's take a look at this impressive opening salvo from the senator.
¹ "Get out, you're on your own" does not constitute 'a strong evacuation plan'. NOLA/LA officials completely blew it during Ivan and didn't learn a thing. Although, to give them credit, they did pen a very spiffy Disaster Plan, complete with bitchin' website. It's just that no one implemented the plan. Then again, maybe they did...

But the most recent Louisiana emergency operations plan doesn't address how to evacuate in the case of flooding from storm surge, saying simply that "The Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area represents a difficult evacuation problem due to the large population and its unique layout."

It continues, "The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating."

Buses were unable to transport New Orleans citizens for days following Katrina's landfall. The plan acknowledges that, in the event of a catastrophic hurricane, "the evacuation of over a million people from the Southeast Region could overwhelm normally available shelter resources." But it doesn't include a solution to the shelter issue.

²President Bush declared a State of Emergency for Louisiana prior to landfall, to facilitate the federal response, and 'have stocked supplies and emergency rescue crews in areas expected to be affected'. Then he had to call and beg your Governor for God's sake to get those people out of there. She did, but on September 1st. That was helpful. You all sure do a lot of declaring, but you just as surely don't do anything.

SCHIEFFER: Do you think the White House is trying to put the blame on local officials?

Sen. LANDRIEU: I am unfortunately aware that, yes, they are. While the president is saying he wants to work together as a team, I think the White House operatives have a full-court press on to blame state and local officials, whether they're Republicans or Democrats, whether it's Haley Barbour or Kathleen Blanco, whether it's Mayor Nagin or a Republican mayor from Mississippi³. And it's very unfortunate. This federal government has an obligation to support our local and state officials particularly in times of tragedy and distress, not to pile on them, not to make their suffering worse, but to lighten their load, and I hope the federal government will do that. It's been years of neglect from not investing*, and as Susan Collins will tell you, one of the big lack of investments is in a communications system that would allow locals to communicate with each other, and that's a lesson that we should have learned after 9/11 and we will learn again, unfortunately, this week.

³ Well, no. It's mostly just you LA types. But it's not just the Whitehouse, Senator. The State of Florida thinks you're all pretty sorry, too:

Florida emergency planners criticized and even rebuked their counterparts -- or what passes for emergency planners -- in those states for their handling of Hurricane Katrina. Gov. Jeb Bush, the head of Florida AHCA and the head of Florida wildlife (which is responsible for all search and rescue) all said they made offers of aid to Mississippi and Louisiana the day before Katrina hit but were rebuffed. After the storm, they said they've had to not only help provide people to those states but also have had to develop search and rescue plans for them. "They were completely unprepared -- as bad off as we were before Andrew," one Florida official said.

* About that NOT investing thing...um, NOT.

But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.

As far as Homeland Security ~ funding, radios, FEMA funds,stuff like that ~ maybe if you'd answered the survey they sent you...

Survey Methodology
The survey requested information on funding provided to states through the Office for Domestic Preparedness for fiscal years 1999-2002. Thirty-seven states** and 2 territories provided data.
The survey also requested information on funding provided to states through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the fiscal year 2002 Supplemental. These funds were made available in recent months and states are at varying stages of the grant application/approval process. Consequently, not all states provided data on the FEMA funding. Responses were received from 33 states and 2 territories. The survey analysis attempts to place the FEMA funding information in the appropriate context.
It is important to note that funds provided through HHS for Bioterrorism Preparedness are not included in this survey. Also, the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters is a separate grant program that provides funds directly to local fire departments.
Terminology
For the purposes of this survey, the term “expended” means actual money spent. The term “obligated” means sub-awards made to local governments, contracts executed, funds earmarked for state use, etc. The combined use of the two terms expended and obligated represents the states’ commitment of the funds for a specific purpose and actions underway or completed to spend the funds in accordance with federal guidelines.

** I guess the folks in charge of Louisiana were busy that day, since they're NOT on the list of respondant states.

Bob Schieffer then asks the good Senator for PROOF. Wait. Not even proof; for a simple, single EXAMPLE bolstering her claims.

SCHIEFFER: That's a very strong charge you've just leveled. What are some examples of that?

Sen. LANDRIEU: Well, I think that there are journalists throughout town that can give you those examples, and I'll be happy to provide more detail as the week unfolds.

Once again, lobbing Molotov Cocktails, with nothing to back it up. She has to wait to get details?? In the meantime, ask a reporter?? All this suffering, black-eye, punch in the nose threatening death and diss-truction, and you can't think of a single thing off the top of your HEAD??

How about you keep your mouth shut unless you have the goods at hand.

You know, I'm really familiar with this strategy. You probably are, too. It's the

"out-all-night-drinkin'-she's-gonna-be-pissed-so-I-start-a-fight-right-when-I-git-in-the-front-door-so-she-fergits-I-f@cked-up"

...method of blame shifting. Works evey time.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:01 PM | Comments (13)

September 08, 2005

You Got to Have a Plan

Is this a miserable piece of cartography, or what?

(I'd point out Bangla-cola, only we're COVERED in the 'OVER 30X's' BLACK!!) You know where I found it? On the Escambia County (FL) Department of Emergency Preparedness Hurricane Info page. You'll notice the entire right hand side of the page is devoted to links with everything you'd ever want to know about getting ready and staying safe. The left hand side is how the public officials are going to handle seeing you stay that way. They even note that you might want to print out the salient points as there's no electricity after a hurricane. Imagine that! At the beginning of every season this is all printed out in booklet form. It's tucked into the local fishwraps, left for free at newsstands and public places, plus tips, directions and resources on every TV/radio broadcast ~ it's all over town and county. The best part is that all our public officials, clean up to the JEB, know what's in the Escambia plan. And they act on it without hesitation.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:51 PM | Comments (16)

September 07, 2005

Glad We're All On the Same Page

Mayor, Governor at Odds Over Evacuation

NEW ORLEANS —Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (search) seemed at odds with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (search ) Wednesday, hours after the mayor ordered the mandatory evacuation of the crippled Crescent City by force if necessary...

...But in a Wednesday interview with FOX News, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (search) said she had not signed off on the decision.

"The mayor certainly has ordered that but the governor, and that would be me, would have to enforce it or implement it. We are trying to determine whether there is an absolute justification for that," she told FOX News.

Damn. Their dithering has been killing people, not just plain stupid. But why anyone would expect them to start talking to each other by now is beyond me.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM | Comments (10)

September In NY

Man, the weather is gorgeous here right now. There is no finer place on earth than New York City in early September: deep, cloudless sapphire blue skies smile down upon a city basking in warm, radiant sunshine, gently shining with a temperature in the mid-to-upper 70s and virtually no humidity, and there is always a slight breeze out of the west/northwest that bears just the barest hint of a chill; a teasing promise of the Fall to come that is so refreshing after the oppressive, moisture-laden air of July and August. You can always feel the carefree joy in the people when the weather's like this. Oh sure, Summer is officially over, the kids are back in school and there're only 113 shopping days left until Christmas, but this weather causes everyone to feel refreshed, to wear a smile, and to be beautiful. It's a scientific fact: all women are beautiful in New York during the first half of September.

As I was opening up a bottle of wine for dinner tonight (I guess this is how those slanderous rumors began: let me amend that by saying "a bottle of wine to go with dinner) my bride (who is beautiful on non-September days, as well) summed it up perfectly by remarking "It's September 11th weather."

She's exactly right. It was the most glorious day of the year: not a cloud, bright laughing sunshine that you could just taste and worship in but not so hot as to raise even the slightest hint of a sweat.. A dear friend from Brazil was in town, having just flown in from Oregon where he had dropped off his 15 year old son to spend a year in school in America on an exchange program.

I picked him up at his hotel at 7:30 or so and we caught the 7:55 ferry out of Highlands, which is tucked in behind Sandy Hook, bound for Manhattan. Gosh, did I mention it was a glorious day? We sat on the roof of the ferry, laughing and joking on the cell phone with friends in Brazil as we sped along at 35 knots, the breeze rippling across our clothes. As we neared going under the Verrazano Bridge my friend said "That plane is awfully low."

And so indeed it was, crossing the mouth of the harbor from west to east at a slow, leisurely pace and turning up the East river. But then we saw another jet follow it a few minutes later and I thought, well, if there were two planes then the controllers must be routing them that way because of the wind. One can rationalize anything, at least then. And yes, I've seen all the diagrams and maps of how the various experts say the planes flew that day and none of them mention this, but that's what I saw.

We got to my office on the very end of Maiden Lane around 8:45 or so. I started looking through my emails and the first one I always read was from my friend Sylvia San Pio, who was a coffee broker at Carr Futures. Her husband, John Resta, also worked at Carr. They had gotten married in August of 2000, and man did we have a blast at their wedding. Sylvia was seven months pregnant with their first child, a boy they were going to name Dylan. I would always kid her that she was condemning him to a life of whiskey drinking, and she would laugh and say that at least they'd get some good poetry out of him.

Carr Futures was on the 92nd floor of the North Tower.

Flight 11 hit the 94th floor.

A few minutes after the first plane hit word came out that a plane had crashed into the WTC. That's all we heard. Since the weather was so perfect we knew it wasn't an accident; I figured some guy in a Piper Cub had committed suicide, as none of the initial reports said 'airliner'.

I remember when the Mets (yes, the Mets) won the World Series in 1986. I worked in an office on Lower Broadway at the time, so I got to see the ticker tape parade from our windows. And at that late date, as the computer era was just starting to take hold it was still ticker tape; that, and all those millions of tiny paper dots that that all the multitudinous Telex machines that were in every office had produced. Fine, fine particles of paper cascading slowly down, like the crystalline snow you get on a January day when the temperature is in the low teens.

As I looked out the window on September 11th I saw it snowing again.

Except this time instead of small paper bits it was entire sheets of paper, whole sheets of deals and agreements and lives fluttering about like the first fat flakes on a Fall day.

We turned on the small portable tv in the office and saw pictures of the smoke pouring out of the towers just a few block away. I had tried to call Sylvia but had gotten only a busy signal, which for some reason I took as a positive sign. Then the tv signal went blank, and we got word that a second plane had hit the South Tower. One of the oddities of that day is that the huge tv antenna was on the North Tower, but we only lost the signal when the South Tower was hit.

Anyhow, by this point the phone lines were a mess and the internet had gotten extremely overloaded, piggish and slow; the only way I was able to get any outside information (aside from the radio) was when I could get a line to Tree Hugging Sister in Pensacola, who would then tell me what the tv was saying. No one had any idea what was going on. Obviously, there had been multible hijackings, but whether it was 3 or 30 no one, least of all the media, knew. I truly want unedited transcripts of the broadcasts of, say, CNN and Newsradio88 from 8 am until, oh, 5 pm or so from that day. I think it is a critical piece of our history, to show the evolution from bliss to fear to resolve.

I leaned out my window and looked up Maiden Lane at the two beautiful smoking towers that had always seemed so strong and sure. The paper continued to flutter down.

I called my wife in her car and got a hold of her on the Garden State Parkway as she was driving to work. I said "Honey, don't worry; I'm ok". I could tell by the tone of her "Uh, ok, I'm glad" reply that she had no ideas what was going on (the KC and the Sunshine Band I heard blaring in the backround was another clue that I picked up upon). "Turn on the radio," I said, "Planes have crashed into the World Trade Center."

I really can't recall when we started using the word "terrorist" that day, much as I can't recall a day since when I haven't used it, but it certainly gained prominence early on in the many reports, many of which were false, that were broadcast during the day of explosions and crashes about the country.

We sat in our office wondering what to do. Obviously no work was possible, as our market was in the WTC and had been evacuated. Thousands of people were milling about in the street below staring mutely at the glorious towers as they burned and belched out thick columns of black smoke and rained paper down upon everyone and everything.

What could we do? What should we do? As we nervously looked at the tall green skyscraper across the street we hadn't a clue. How would we get home? Hell, would we get home? We had no idea.

And then I heard incredibly high pitched screams of terror from the street. I ran to the open window and looked up the street. I saw people sprinting frantically towards the river, running a desperate race to escape this huge roiling khaki-colored cloud that was bursting down the street between the Federal Reserve Castle and the Chase building. I shouted for everyone in the office to close the windows, and they did so just in time, for immediately the cloud enveloped us in its dark dusty shroud of fear. Where seconds before one could literally have seen for miles one could now not see a foot through a mantle barely illumined by a diffuse gray/green/khaki glow that eliminated all reference points. We were isolated. Alone.

The radio crackled that the South Tower had collapsed. Dear God. And just as the air was clearing it happened again as the North Tower fell. Shock and numbness doesn't begin to describe how we were or whay we felt. We assumed that thousands were dead, and we saw thousands more shuffling about in the street, ash covered and heading ever north and east like so many souls on Judgement Day.

There seemed little point in leaving just then: where would we go? So we waited. Eventually the air cleared and we could see that the ferries were loading people for the trip back to the Highlands, so I grabbed a pack of coffee filters and handed them out to people to use as a mask (my only useful act of the day. Well, that and the many bottles of wine I opened that night at home).

I can't say I've ever been sadder than on that ride home, retracing our happy path of the morning, only this time the brilliant blue sky was marred by an enormous black cloud that headed up and south east out over the harbor.

The usual crowd from the morning was missing many members, lost in the ruins, and they had been replaced by scores of people, many ash-covered from head to toe, all dazed and uncomprehending, who had gotten on the boat simply to get away.

My Brazilian friend ended up staying an extra week until he was able to get a flight back home.

With regard to Sylvia, John and Dylan...

all that was ever recovered were a few of John's teeth.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:00 PM | Comments (5)

Yeah

What we've said, for days now. I'm not bitter. Just feeling our little blog has been validated and vindicated. (As walkie-talkie size operations go.)

UPDATE (BUMP):

He's joined by Jesse Jackson, who said the squalor in New Orleans "looks like the hull of a slave ship." Oh, please.

Damn! This is a good one. The truth is soooo ugly. That may account for the mayor's recent reticence in incendiary fault finding. Now that a week has passed and people have had time to look closely, the refuse thrown into the wind is all being blown right back on the local/state government, where it belongs. Even, to our eternal amazement, by the ABC Evening News last night. In their 'A Closer Look' ('Who's to Blame for Delayed Response to Katrina') segment, they started off with the rote anti-govt/Bush line but, in an absolutely stunning admission, followed that with...

But experts say when natural disasters strike, it is the primary responsibility of state and local governments — not the federal government — to respond.

New Orleans' own comprehensive emergency plan raises the specter of "having large numbers of people … stranded" and promises "the city … will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas."

"Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves," the plan states.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, however, that plan was not followed completely.

Instead of sending city buses to evacuate those who could not make it out on their own, people in New Orleans were told to go to the Superdome and the Convention Center, where no one provided sufficient sustenance or security...

...Shortly before Katrina hit, she (Gov. Blanco) sent President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. One aide to the governor told ABC News today Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation...

Wowsahs. I mean, WOWSAHS!!

A NOTE :The Bob Williams* named in the ABC News piece.
*In extended section, for those w/o WSJOJ subscriptions.

AFTER THE STORM

Blame Amid the Tragedy
Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed their constituents.

BY BOB WILLIAMS
Wednesday, September 7, 2005 12:01 a.m.

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?
As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property.

Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible--local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his emergency operations center.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.

In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved.

A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.
The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His Office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.

The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.

The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure.

Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed, in these facilities. Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans. Now he wants to blame Gov. Blanco and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an emergency the first requirement is for the city's emergency center to be linked to the state emergency operations center. This was not done.

The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.
In addition, unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. The plan clearly gives the governor the authority for declaring an emergency, sending in state resources to the disaster area and requesting necessary federal assistance.

State legislators and governors nationwide need to update their contingency plans and the operation procedures for state emergency centers. Hurricane Katrina had been forecast for days, but that will not always be the case with a disaster (think of terrorist attacks). It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response."

I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response. Congress and the president need to take corrective action there, also. However, if citizens expect FEMA to be a first responder to terrorist attacks or other local emergencies (earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes), they will be disappointed. The federal government's role is to offer aid upon request.

The Louisiana Legislature should conduct an immediate investigation into the failures of state and local officials to implement the written emergency plans. The tragedy is not over, and real leadership in the state and local government are essential in the months to come. More importantly, the hurricane season is still upon us, and local and state officials must stay focused on the jobs for which they were elected--and not on the deadly game of passing the emergency buck.

Mr. Williams is president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a free market public policy research organization in Olympia, Wash.

Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:58 AM | Comments (24)

The Difference Between the Guy in the Red Shirt...

...and the other castaways in the picture?

I never wanted HIM to get off the island.
Sweet Mother of Mercy, will somebody please send a boat for these other losers?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:10 AM | Comments (6)

September 06, 2005

A THS Sponsored Nature Moment

Today's installment:

Trees Get Confused by Hurricanes

The thing about being on the east side of the storm; it puts the worst whompin' on everything further from the eye than those on the west side and does so for hours. That's how we managed to get hammered so completely by Ivan, who came ashore 20 miles west of our house. We had gusts well over 100mph here as Katrina came onshore 130 miles to our west. What trees still have leaves are an amazing sight to behold. On the side that took the worst of the winds for the longest, the leaves are shriveled and brown. On many trees the opposing half, especially those sheltered on one side by a fence or building, it's as if a storm never happened. Half green, half gone/brown, like a Steak 'n Shake
Side by Side. The trees are stressed and in shock, though and will soon prematurely drop their foliage altogether. In our yard, the River Birch and Drake Elm stood tall, while the affectionately monikered 'Hybrid' lost all but a few (below). Here in semi-tropical Bangla-cola, it's not such a big deal. But when Bertha and Fran whacked us in N.C. ('96), it became a desperate situation for the few trees that had made it through. They'd all started 'spring' blooming in late September. It can get frosty quick in Coastal Carolina, so killing off the tender, new leaves could have well meant the end (and did for many) of the tree itself.
POSTNOTE: Buy your seafood, crabs and crawdads NOW, and freeze 'em. It'll be awhile before anything they'd catch that side of the Gulf will be edible.

BATON ROUGE, La. - The brew of chemicals and human waste in the New Orleans floodwaters will have to be pumped into the Mississippi River or Lake Pontchartrain, raising the specter of an environmental disaster on the heels of Hurricane Katrina, experts say.

...State and federal agencies have just begun water-quality testing but environmental experts say the vile, stagnant chemical soup that sits in the streets of the city known as The Big Easy will contain traces of everything imaginable.

Yeesh.

The Hybrid
Eye crossing close-up of the River Birch

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:48 PM | Comments (2)

Bangla-cola, FL

Yup, that's been us since Ivan. No gas has been a problem for ages, especially before and after storms, as everyone's learned to top off. But now it's exacerbated by the poor folks from Biloxi/Gulfport looking to fill up their vehicles and whatever else they can stuff petrol into, to take back with them. You sure as hell can't begrudge them fuel, but no denying it's got us teetering even more on the edge here. Our gasoline arrives via trucks or barge, so it's slow boat to China time for replenishment. To make matters worse, Ebola reports from his side of town that they had to hit two grocery stores yesterday just to get eggs and essentials for the holiday communal breakfast at their apartment. The shelves were stripped. That hasn't happened on the west side yet. His apt. mate reports that her little eatery is short of fresh veggies and salad fixin's. The delivery trucks have enough petrol to get here, but none to go back with. No end in sight to any of this, according to the local Lords of the County. If you've never had to place Bangla-cola (known, in it's former halcyonic life, as Pensacola) on a map (back the zoom out), we're the biggest thing in the middle of nowhere. The favorite saying of us locals, concerning evacuation routes or civilization itself is;

"You can't get there from here."

And now there is having a rough time getting here. Pffft. Welcome to the Third World.

Damn, I say that alot anymore.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 AM | Comments (5)

September 05, 2005

Ya Think?

Mississippi could consider land-based casinos
Devastation of gulf coast gambling industry could sway legislators

...Mississippi requires casinos to float, either along the Gulf Coast or on the Mississippi River. A state law that took effect earlier this year allows the floating casinos to build permanent pilings to stabilize the barges...

...Some lawmakers, particularly religious conservatives, have opposed land-based casinos along the coast or the Mississippi River because they fear other, inland counties would push for gambling house, too.

One important point missing from this article is that a gazillion ton casino barge washed ashore and landing on your historic waterfront Victorian, local motel or humble 50's home makes it damn difficult to survive a hurricane, too. If I owned one of those houses in Biloxi that's underneath, I'd be suing the state legislature. I mean, since I have nothing but time now, anyway.

UPDATE: The fall out from this is going to enormous for the state.

...Now, the Magnolia State is fighting to keep the lucrative travel industry alive.

Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC), hopes to do that, although he's not fully confident that the gaming companies are willing to come back and rebuild their businesses. And there are now some indications that his task is daunting -- particularly if there's no change in the state's 12-year-old gambling law that mandates casinos operate only on water in floating barges...

...Harrah's spokesman Alberto Lopez said Monday the company's decision whether or not to return was reflected in "comments made by our CEO Gary Loveman that Harrah's will return to the Gulf Coast bigger and better," Lopez said. "But the state's legislature has to revisit the current laws." ...

...All 13 of the region's casinos in Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis are closed and more than half were "completely destroyed" by the storm. The state is losing $500,000 in gambling tax every day as a result, Gregory said.

"The other challenge is that insurance companies won't want to cover them if they operate on water,"...

..."We have a very serious situation facing the future of our casino industry," Gregory said, important enough for the governor to possibly call a special summit of the state's legislature to completely overhaul the gambling law and allow inland gambling options, similar to those in neighboring Louisiana...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:40 PM | Comments (2)

It's Up to the Fates...

...who's in the chair when the going gets tough. While we're on the subject, seems Mayor Nagin had some problems before the Big Easy Big One.

As Nagin enters the last year of his first term and begins his bid for re-election, the No. 1 issue of his campaign is already clearly defined: crime. New Orleans saw a significant drop in its murder rate during the tenure of Nagin's predecessor, Marc Morial (who brought in Nagin's 2002 mayoral opponent, former Police Chief Richard Pennington, to lead NOPD). Now, under Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass, we are regaining the ignoble title of the nation's murder capital.

In recent months, spats with various other elected officials -- particularly some on the City Council -- seem to have distracted the mayor and underscored his inability to grasp even the fundamentals of politics. If he's not careful, his sour relations with some City Council members (and other elected officials as well) could make him look like a guy who can't get along well enough to get things done. Above all, if he doesn't do something soon to get a handle on the city's crime problem, all his other efforts won't matter.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:28 AM | Comments (2)

September 04, 2005

Pffft. From Our Little Local Weekend Weather Girl...

...on the 10 o'clock news tonight.

"In the next couple of days we could be watching three or more tropical depressions. Kinda makes you sick to your stomach."

Amen, Kathryn. Amen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:27 PM

One of the Foghorns Speaks Up

Stuff us walkie-talkie types have been saying for days.

Another take that I nod as I read:

...Scapegoating the federal government misses the point. No president can stop a hurricane, or keep people from looting, rioting or shooting at government aircraft. Nor, for that matter, can a president know all that's needed, and how much, in an emergency.

Indeed, the federal government's response is almost always elephantine, and inadequate to local needs. That's why we elect local officials and have local government.

Unfortunately, many of those affected by Katrina have, in one way or another, been crying, "Where's the federal government?" all their lives. And their lives are more miserable for it....

...As far as we can tell, it didn't have one. Certainly not one that worked. Maybe years of political and police corruption in Louisiana and New Orleans matter today more than people think...

And Tim Russert actually asked the tough one. Of course, the loser local official ran him over, but hey! He did ask...

(Jefferson Parish President MR. BROUSSARD:) It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.

We need strong leadership at the top of America right now in order to accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask--I want to ask--should...

MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just some quick examples...

MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

STFU, you miserable, carbon-based puddle. He asked YOU what YOU had done to prepare and protect YOUR PEOPLE. And, just like the Mayor, you no speaka de Anglish. And haffa no dee answer.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:19 PM | Comments (3)

Breaking News

Police Shoot 8 on New Orleans Bridge

NEW ORLEANS - Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six of them, a deputy chief said.

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said the shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which connects Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

He said he had no other details.

Ho boy. Hope this isn't a case of a Brazilian kid in a overcoat.
UPDATE: Oh dear God, it's looking like it was. The Army Corps of Engineers is saying it was 6 of their personnel.
UPDATE 2: AP is reporting that the ACoE had contractors working on the bridge who were shot at by snipers, then that the NOPD shot and killed the snipers. AP reporting the contractors were not shot.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:23 PM | Comments (2)

"This is not our first rodeo."

Moody says Riley appears "at his best" after a hurricane. Moody thinks people have a reasonably favorable impression of how he's handled this. Before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Riley had been planning a Labor Day barbecue at the Governor's Mansion, where many of his supporters expected him to announce plans to seek a second term as governor. Once Katrina hit, Riley canceled the event to focus on recovery efforts and plans to help serve the barbecue Monday to evacuees at a Y-M-C-A soccer complex in Montgomery. Riley has been highly visible in recent days. He's held a news conference at the state's Emergency Management headquarters in Clanton to talk about relief efforts, visited hurricane victims on the coast. He's toured old Army buildings in Anniston to see if they could be used for temporary housing, and talked with President Bush upon his arrival in Mobile. Riley has had plenty of practice dealing with hurricanes, beginning with Hurricane Ivan in September and Dennis in July. As he told reporters in Clanton, --quoting-- "This is not our first rodeo." David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said citizens want their leaders to be visible and appear in charge after a natural disaster. And in his view, Riley has done that.

Imagine! The folks want to see their leaders. A study in contrast.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:26 PM | Comments (2)

Poll For Thought

Sept. 4, 2005 — Americans are broadly critical of government preparedness in the Hurricane Katrina disaster — but far fewer take George W. Bush personally to task for the problems, and public anger about the response is less widespread than some critics would suggest.

The American people have proven time and time again they can see through the BS flying as soon as there's an opening for attack. There have been inexcusable lapses of judgement, preparation and response that have increased the suffering of thousands. But the magnitude of the disaster dwarfs anything the United States has ever seen and Americans know that. Thank God for the common sense that courses through this country even as media mouthpieces are fanning the flames of hate and blame, irrespective of the facts. They just want all the folks from Alabama to Louisiana safe, fed and warm. The reckoning will come later.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:56 PM | Comments (5)

September 03, 2005

The Squid Terrorist...

...is back from Biloxi. With pictures. And they're horrible. He and his Pensacola crew (Plus one from Savannah they'd worked with during Ivan) left on Tuesday to clear the runways, taxiways and get a functional space running at the airport. He got back late last night and steady relief flights are coming in. I'll have a gallery of his pictures set up later.
UPDATE: Those poor folks in Mississippi are feeling neglected and unloved. Not sure as I can blame them ~ I remember how we felt after Ivan. We'd gotten hammered and all anyone heard was Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.

Richard Gibbs was disgusted by reports of looting in New Orleans and upset at the lack of attention hurricane victims in his state were getting.

“I say burn the bridges and let ’em all rot there,” he said. “We’re suffering over here too, but we’re not killing each other. We’ve got to help each other. We need gas and food and water and medical supplies.”...

...In poverty-stricken north Gulfport, Grover Chapman was angry at the lack of aid.

“Something should’ve been on this corner three days ago,” Chapman, 60, said Saturday as he whipped up dinner for his neighbors.

He used wood from his demolished produce stand to cook fish, rabbit, okra and butter beans he’d been keeping in his freezer. Although many houses here, about five miles inland, are still standing, they are severely damaged. Corrugated tin roofs lie scattered on the ground.

“I’m just doing what I can do,” Chapman said. “These people support me with my produce stand every day. Now it’s time to pay them back.”

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:16 PM

September 02, 2005

New Orleans Satellite...

...before and afters.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:13 PM

A Little Organization Pays Off

A Swill Salute of the Highest Order to These Guys.

Even as its employees sleep on the office floor, breathing diesel fumes from a generator and watching looters from their windows, a Web company in New Orleans vows it won't let the hurricane shut it down...

...Employees haven't been lacking food. The company has routinely supplied its employees with lunch up to twice a week, and chief executive Sigmund Solares was storing food "just to keep ahead," Barnett said via instant messaging.

"Sigmund Solares is the most organized, stockpiling human being on earth, and we all love him for it," Barnett said.

The accommodations, however, leave something to be desired: "I've been sleeping on the carpet, and that's a very thin layer covering the hard concrete. It takes about 3 days to get accustomed to sleeping on concrete," Barnett, a former soldier, wrote on his blog.

Barnett started the blog last week. One of his first entries: "Hmm. This could actually be a nasty storm."

(Sir Rob ~ When you get power, we're gonna need that jelly donut back...Sorry. Console yourself with "All Glory is fleeting.")

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:31 PM

A Wonderful Moment of Good Cheer!!

Rob of Crab Apple Lane and his family made it through!!

We just got word that Rob, Patsy & Aunt Ginnie are ok. Haven't heard anything else, just that they're ok. Maybe now my butterflies will settle down.

Posted by Rob's cousin Laura in MN on September 1, 2005 10:16 AM

Oh, HOT damn, that's great!
UPDATE: Why doesn't everyone go over and wish Rob the best on his blog!! Use the last entry and drop a happy hello in the comments.
Crab Apple Lane

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:03 PM | Comments (4)

September 01, 2005

Overheard on the Radio

Wir (as in all of Pensacola) haben kein Benzin. Nicht eine Scheiβgallone.

Verdammt und zugenäht!!
UPDATE: I don't think 'unnerved' covers it...

"In short, the U.S. is facing a major gasoline crisis and is starting from a nearly empty tank," said a Barclays Capital report.

Europe was unnerved by how ill-prepared the world's biggest economy was for Hurricane Katrina's rampage...

The U.S. oil industry remained shaken after Hurricane Katrina, with most offshore production from the Gulf of Mexico down, about 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity paralyzed, and pipelines struggling to restart. At least 20 rigs or platforms were adrift, listing, sunk or missing.

The U.S. Department of Energy said some of the eight refineries shut by Katrina could take months to restart, with reports that floodwaters swamped at least three in Louisiana.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:44 PM | Comments (3)

It's Not Just Getting the Refineries Back Open

Initial reports vary as to the extent of damage to Gulf Coast refining. But a longer term problem may not be refining infrastructure but providing shelter for refinery workers. “One of our refineries is scheduled to be back up soon but our real problem is finding housing for our workers. Most of their homes are destroyed or under water. Unless we can solve the housing problem we will not be fully operational for some time,” said one major oil company representative.

One needle with many threads unraveling.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:02 AM | Comments (1)

August 31, 2005

Prescience is a Bitch

During a strong hurricane, the city could be inundated with water blocking all streets in and out for days, leaving people stranded without electricity and access to clean drinking water. Many also could die because the city has few buildings that could withstand the sustained 96- to 100-mph winds and 6- to 8-ft. storm surges of a Category 2 hurricane. Moving to higher elevations would be just as dangerous as staying on low ground. Had Camille, a Category 5 storm, made landfall at New Orleans, instead of losing her punch before arriving, her winds would have blown twice as hard and her storm surge would have been three times as high.

Yet knowing all this, area residents have made their potential problem worse. "Over the past 30 years, the coastal region impacted by Camille has changed dramatically. Coastal erosion combined with soaring commercial and residential development in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have all combined to significantly increase the vulnerability of the area," says Sandy Ward Eslinger, of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Services Center in Charleston, S.C.

Popular Science. September 11...2001.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:17 PM

How Horribly Ironic

I was Googling for the City's elected officials and the address for the Mayor's office showed up.

Mayor's Office - 1300 Perdido St # 2E10, New Orleans, 70112

The English translation for 'Perdido' is 'lost'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:36 PM

Observation of the Day

Mary Landrieu, whom I've always thought of as a vapid sort of Senate chair filler, is truly the only competent sounding individual in the entire New Orleans/LA political hierarchy. The mayor's whining, the ACoE is tap dancing, the governor can't stop crying, the other Senator stands by until called on to babble. Ms. Landrieu stands up there and bluntly makes her points. Corrects previous information, gives no nonsense answers and sounds like the only man on the platform. Wowsahs. I'm impressed and humbly adjust my attitude. Considering the general gaggle of incompetent twits running the show so far, they are lucky to have her.

Amazing who steps up when the chips are down.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:31 PM | Comments (3)

Air Force One...

...just doing a fly over on the way home to D.C. I know the President and First Lady's heart will be breaking. But I want them to know what the sight of that blue and white plane overhead after Ivan did for us.

"There's Air Force One! The President's here!"

We were hot, beat-up and miserable. But that seeing plane, dang. You felt like the outside world knew we needed them. I hope it does that for some of those folks.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:42 PM

CNN Is Reporting

The Superdome crowd is being bused to the AstroDome in Houston. That's the plan, anyway.

316 Miles.
Tens of thousands of people.

And the freeway overpasses surrounding the downtown area are filled with people heading for the Superdome, in sight of it, but who can't get to it because of the water. And when the buses make it to the Superdome, getting the folks out is still up in the air. Right now they talking ferrying them out from the Dome to the buses.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:29 AM | Comments (2)

We'll Be Busy Here

Four Navy amphibious ships were to leave Norfolk, Va., over the next few days for deployment on the Gulf Coast. The Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida will be a base for the relief effort.

And that's a good thing, helping your neighbors.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:15 AM | Comments (2)

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army's Hood said the effort will be long and expensive. "Our position is we stay until all the needs are met, and that will be a long time," he said. "Our typical philosophy is, let's go in, do the work, stay as long as needed and then figure out how to pay for it, and so far the American public has never let us down."

I know we won't. The blogosphere has a 1 September fundraiser organized, but don't even wait that one day more. Please. Whatever you can do, wherever your heart leads you to send it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:07 AM

August 30, 2005

When the Witch of September Comes Early.

I wish I could second DaveJ's optimism regarding New Orleans, but I can't. And everyone of my aquaintance knows I am the perpetual ray of sunshine in the midst of any disaster. When Ivan hit here, for example, there was destruction of a magnitude I've never imagined being a part of. But there were plenty of things still standing. Plenty of foundations to build on. Plenty of roofs torn up, but fixable. The views of New Orleans don't hold that same 'we'll go from here' promise. When a wall comes down, a roof flies off or, God forbid, your house is wiped from it's slab, you can put up a new one. Your neighbor may well still have his house, his roof, something standing around you. Even in Grand Lagoon, the complete devastation held out hope. But miles and miles of houses underwater. Damn. A roof goes, you put it back on. Your house floods to the eaves, it has to come completely down. Your roof goes, your neighbor still has his. Your house floods to the eaves, so does your neighbor's. And his neighbor's, and so on, for miles. All those roofs peeking above the waters are houses that may as well have been flattened. They are just as gone, even though standing. All those MILES of houses.

The looters in the city will shortly be turning that city into an island of savages. The city administration has said to every resident 'get out'. EVERY resident. Well, they can't. And shortly, as you try on your new Nikes, you'll realize that the 46 inch TV you just stole can't be eaten. But your neighbor hit the Robert's supermarket. He has food and something to drink. And you'll be going to get it. God Almighty, I can't imagine it. Two weeks to get just the water out. Before anything can even start go in. The human toll will be beyond imagining.

Essential to the human condition is hope. I know that. I know there's hope that New Orleans will rise from this. The skyscrapers still stand. The new stuff. But the Bywater, the Marigny and the little ratty parts of the city I love are irrevocably tied to those ramshackle houses; now, those roofs lined up like stepping stones across a brook. You can rebuild...something there. But you can't replace it. Or the people who opened their arms to us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:27 PM | Comments (6)

Sun Herald

Two reporters from the SunHerald blog Katrina and the aftermath they've found.

Dancing With Katrina

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:51 PM

Katrina

The bands overhead Sunday night. We were done boarding up.


If one could say there was an advantage to Ivan, it was this ~ our electrical grids were completely replaced. New ways of stringing wire ~ taut to hold the poles upright ~ replaced the old 'leave it loose so it can swing'. We had power the entire storm, even with gusts well over 100mph. Ebola's apartment and swaths of town are still out. The downtown flooded and the beaches washed over. Our FEMA blue roof held yet again. Milagro upon Milagro.

We are so hugely lucky.

Cullen darlin', our hearts go out to you and all our best, best wishes for the happiest of news. Let us know. Rob, check in when you can. You have friends here who want to see your name in the posts.

To our magical Cresent City, beautiful Biloxi, gracious Gulfport and all our Gulf Coast family, bless your hearts. Help is on the way. Hang in there.
UPDATE: While I can get online, let me first thanks Bingster for posting this, but please, please let me add my fervent appeal for your donations to go to the Salvation Army. We have unfortunately gotten to see all the aid agencies in action. The Salvation Army has impressed us tremendously with their selflessness and dedication to people's immediate needs and their continuing ones. They were literally a Godsend after Ivan and stuck around through thick and thin for months afterwards. For everybody. Feeding people, clothing them, sheltering them, holding hands, getting answers. If you need it, they're there if there's anyway on earth possible for them to be.

And you know who else? The little church groups. They were fantastic. If your congregation is part of a larger group that has disaster teams they fund, they did one helluva job here and that's a wonderful later place for your donations. They get their hands dirty, tarping roofs and getting supplies out, once the areas open to other relief. Wonderful, wonderful people, bless their hearts.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:21 PM | Comments (9)

August 27, 2005

Sir Rob of Apple Lane, Crabbeton

Hope you're all ready to go, good friend. Looks like the ball's moving to your court and we're thinking of you.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:38 AM | Comments (8)

August 25, 2005

Major Dad Knows I Do the Best I Can

The 152 year old Labradork is a difficult proposition. Poor MacDaddy ~ 11 1/2 people years, congestive heart failure, old man skin, 6 hairs left on his body and Cushings syndrome ~ subjected to the ultimate indignity. His skin is now so fragile that he's rubbed a raw spot on his jelly belly. We've gotten it coated for the past few days with spray-on bandage and it's started to heal. Ergo, started to itch, so he's started to lick, which started to tear it up again ~ the whole Rube Goldberg thing. So I cleaned him up, sprayed the liquid bandage/made sure it was dry one last time...then slapped an ultra-thin maxi pad on the sore and yanked a pair of what looks to be a pair of black puppy SpeeDos up over it (to hold it in place and protect him from himself). But they're not SpeeDos. I lied to him. It's a pair of girly puppy underdrawers designed for when they're in heat.

Poor Schmacks. An Always Thin Ultra Maxi Pad and a pair of 'Bitches Britches'. Don't worry, Houndie.
We'll all be there someday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:43 PM | Comments (14)

This Is Great

Until your partner runs off to Florida with your kid. Then you're screwed.

California court affirms gay parenting
...In California, the landmark decisions - which granted full parenthood to former partners despite the absence of legal adoption or, in two of the cases, a biological connection - have made the terrain a little clearer and solidified the direction in which many courts are moving: conferring the rights and responsibilities of parenthood based on intent and psychology rather than biology, adoption, or marriage.

But as the decisions have been lauded and decried across the country, they've also underlined the vastly different patchwork of how states handle the often-murky relationships at the nexus of reproductive technology and shifting family structures...

...At least nine states officially allow second-parent adoption - often sought by gay couples - and several confer visitation rights or have ordered child support from nonbiological or nonadoptive parents.

But the California cases are the first in which such individuals have been declared full legal parents, with the rights of, say, inheritance or social-security benefits.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:04 PM | Comments (4)

August 23, 2005

"I Did NOT, Suh!"

‘Mockingbird’ actor Peters dies at 78 He also played Admiral Cartwright in ‘Star Trek’ films
LOS ANGELES - Actor Brock Peters, best known for his heartbreaking performance as the black man falsely accused of rape in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” died Tuesday at his home after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 78.

One of the most powerful, charismatic and classy actors I've ever seen. Tom Robinson makes me cry every time I see the movie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:20 PM

August 20, 2005

Keep Small Children Away

'cos there's a big spider on my house.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:35 PM | Comments (6)

August 19, 2005

Rough Weather in Wisconsin

What an awful mess. Oh, I feel for them, dang! Having been through our meesly little tornado here, I need a valium and three quaaludes everytime there's a thunderstorm, less mind when the Alert Radio starts blaring. (As Bingley can tell you, there are nights around here when it stays on.) But it seems there's always a bright spot somewhere in the midst of destruction...

Lenny Peaslee, executive chef at the Stoughton Country Club, said the twister tore the roof off as about 40 people took refuge in the basement.

"We were ... hiding behind the bar," he said. "We had beer, anyway."

Why am I never with that person on days like this?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:12 PM | Comments (4)

August 18, 2005

Fairy Tales Can Come True

It can happen to you...and me, if we're lucky.

"There's been a big speculative bubble" in oil prices, insisted Tim Evans, an analyst with IFR Energy Services in New York. The bubble has been predicated on the idea that demand is still growing and supplies are tight.

Fact is, he said on CNBC's "Power Lunch," "there really is no shortage of oil" and won't be until the fall of 2006. The U.S. inventory of crude oil is 10% bigger than a year ago. Refineries are producing 2 million more barrels a day of products than a year ago.

So, oil prices, he opined, are "exploring the top of the trading range," which is a nice way of saying oil is near a top. And he thinks a big blow-off is coming and may be just starting. How low will oil prices fall?

As low as $30 a barrel is a possibility, Evans said. He wasn't kidding.

Why does my Magic 8 ball keep saying if oil/gas prices start on their way downward to palatable levels, that building new refineries will suddenly vanish from the collective consciousness?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:57 AM

August 10, 2005

Dang! This Was a Great Column...

..."As late as 1975, the United States graduated more engineering and scientific PhDs than Europe and more than three times as many as all of Asia", humminah, humminah, humminah, "In 2001 China graduated 220,000 engineers, against about 60,000 for the United States..", humminah, humminah, humminah. Now Ebola ~ like the majority of his cousins ~ got screwed by his dumb ass, minimum wage college advisors (They all seem to be on the six year plan) or the world might have had one more computer scientist. (I did say might, mind you. A little effort on his part would have helped, tortured geniuses being so yesterday.) What struck me was the total collapse of mathematics and science as career choices. I can't imagine it's 'too hard' for talented, creative kids. I mean, Apollo 13 got home with slide rulers. (Hell, the back-to-school calculater Wal-Mart sells for $14.95 could fix the Space Shuttle foam flaking if anyone knew how to use the functions in the proper sequence.) But it was the very last paragraph, and one sentence in particular, that made the eyebrows rise...

What's crucial is sustaining our technological vitality. Despite the pay, America seems to have ample scientists and engineers. But half or more of new scientific and engineering PhDs are immigrants; we need to remain open to foreign-born talent. We need to maintain spectacular rewards for companies that succeed in commercializing new products and technologies. The prospect of a big payoff compensates for mediocre pay and fuels ambition. Finally, we must scour the world for good ideas. No country ever had a monopoly on new knowledge, and none ever will.

That is as sad as anything I've ever read. I'm no rocket scientist, but I've always had faith in the American ability to make the better mousetrap.
Or get the guys home.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:30 PM | Comments (3)

This May Be True...

Airlines Face Growing Fuel Shortage Risk
WASHINGTON -- Lost luggage, bad weather and now ... no fuel?

While fliers haven't yet had to add that problem to the list of headaches associated with air travel, it may not be far away. Airports in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada recently came within a few days _ and at times within hours _ of running out of jet fuel.

...but in Pensacola, running out of gasoline is getting to be a regular thang.

Drivers fuming over lagging fuel supply Gasoline shortages persist as Dennis - then Emily - hamper delivery ...After the stress of not having enough fuel before and after the storm, residents and store managers Wednesday said they were fed up.

Gasoline stations still selling fuel had limited supplies. Some were left with only regular fuel, while others had only premium grades.

Heather Kimbrell, 24, of Pensacola didn't learn about the shortage until a client who ran out of fuel called her office to cancel their business appointment. Then she needed gas for herself.

"This is ridiculous," she said Wednesday as she left an empty BP station at North Ninth Avenue and Cervantes Street. "This is the third place I've been to."

Now, mind you, that article was written on the 21st of July. The 25th of July, when I had to trek to the airport to pick-up Major Dad, every single gas station had yellow bags over their pumps.
Every. Single. One.

It is now the 10th of August, damn near three weeks later and guess what? Last night, at the third gas station he went to, Ebola found a pump full of mid-grade gas ~ everything else was gone. Needless to say, he filled the Little White Mazda of Death to the brim. Now, I feel for the rest of you, but we're living the life of fuel shortages and long lines already, and this freakin' storm season hasn't really fired up yet. Drudge can have a cow about FEMA paying for funerals all he wants. Honestly, we could give a rat's ass. We've been playing this 'find the station with no yellow pump baggies' game since Ivan (count it people ~ ELEVEN MONTHS ~ that makes it almost a year) and you still don't dare let your tank go below half full. Because you can blow that half looking for the fill-up. So we're screwed, for God knows how long.

Welcome to The Third World, FL.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:44 PM | Comments (3)

Jeb Jumps In

'It's ridiculous'
Gov. Bush criticizes NCAA ban on FSU's nickname
..."I think it's offensive to native Americans ... the Seminole Indian tribe who support the traditions of FSU," Bush said on his way into a Cabinet meeting. "I think they insult those people by telling them, 'No, no, you're not smart enough to understand this. You should be feeling really horrible about this.' It's ridiculous."

Meanwhile, attorney Barry Richard, who successfully led the legal challenge on behalf of Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential recount in Florida, has agreed to represent the school in its case against the NCAA, Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said Wednesday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:40 PM | Comments (1)

August 09, 2005

Make No Mistake ~ I DESPISE These Guys...

...on every other day of the year. But THIS time, I'm rootin' for them to win 100%.

Florida State to sue NCAA over mascot-nickname rule
TALLAHASSEE - The NCAA can forget about Florida State University changing its "Seminoles" nickname any time soon.

Stung by an NCAA decision Friday to ban schools using Native American names and symbols from hosting championship events, Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said he will sue the organization for an "outrageous and insulting" decision.

"This university will forever be associated with the "unconquered" spirit of the Seminole Tribe of Florida," said Wetherell, who played football for the Seminoles 40 years ago...

...Friday's decision comes after the Seminole Tribe of Florida's governing council unanimously approved in mid-June a resolution in support of Florida State's "Seminoles" nickname.

"It is unconscionable that the Seminole Tribe of Florida has been ignored," Wetherell said in a four-paragraph statement released by the university.

"That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole people as culturally 'hostile and abusive' is both outrageous and insulting," Wetherell said. "I intend to pursue all legal avenues to ensure that this unacceptable decision is overturned."

(Maybe Lisa's Illini should join in a class action. Victory loves company, n'est pas?)

UPDATE: Scathing commentary from Michael Ventre at MSNBC.

If you’re offended, you’re offended. That’s the result of your own sensibilities, your own cultural, social, racial and ethnic filters. It’s preposterous for me to tell somebody that they’re overreacting to a perceived insult, and to get over it.

I just know this: Each person chooses to be offended.

I happen to be an Italian American. My favorite movie is “The Godfather” and I love “Goodfellas” and “The Sopranos” as well. I recognize that the characters and storylines in those productions represent a tiny, albeit well-chronicled and somewhat romanticized, criminal element within the Italian-American population. I feel that if someone out there watches “The Godfather” and comes to the conclusion that all Italians are in the mafia, then that person is an idiot and I don’t care what they think anyway.

In those aforementioned cases and others like them, I choose not to be offended.

Indeed.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 AM | Comments (11)

August 08, 2005

Many's the Time I Thought to Myself...

..."Oh Peter, just shut-up". But we've watched you from the day you sat in Frank Reynolds' chair. And we never again watched anyone else. The Major Dad household will miss you immensely.
Immensely.
And Peter? Thank you.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:42 AM | Comments (9)

August 05, 2005

Check the Bill When It Comes to Your Rights

Well, that's jacked up! Talk about a Rube Goldberg way of getting ripped off:

RALEIGH, N.C. - An original copy of the Bill of Rights that was given to North Carolina by George Washington back in 1789 was returned to the state Thursday...

...The stolen document was sold by the Union soldier in 1866 to an Ohio buyer, whose family sold it to Connecticut antiques dealer Wayne Pratt in 2000 for $200,000.

In March 2003, an FBI agent posing as a museum buyer pretended to purchase the paper from Pratt and his investor, Robert V. Matthews, for $5 million. Instead, the agent presented a seizure warrant signed by the judge in the case.

Pratt relinquished his ownership claim to the document and has agreed to donate the document to North Carolina. Matthews continues to claim partial ownership of the paper, which has been valued at up to $40 million.

U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle last year awarded the document to North Carolina, but in January, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., told the judge to reconsider.

Boyle determined the document should return to the possession of the person or entity who owned it before the government's sting operation. He ruled Thursday that Pratt had the clearest right to possession, but had relinquished the claim to North Carolina.

"It's just thievery; it's absolute thievery," said Matthews' attorney, Mike Stratton of New Haven, Conn. "Bob Matthews paid real money, $200,000, to buy a document that's been in private hands for 140 years."

How can you get caught in a sting operation for something you bought legally three years before? If Norf Cackelackey was so desperate to have it back, why didn't they track it down and buy/steal it back sometime in the preceding century and a half? So they 'sting' this guy, pressure him to 'give it up', he 'gives it up', an appeals judge says reconsider, so the district judge says okay, it really was his but it's not now 'cause he 'gave it up'? I'm with the lawyer for $200K, Alex. Remember when that guy found the Declaration of Independence hidden behind the old print? Norman Lear eventually bought it for over $8 million. If I were him, I'd be checkin' the bushes for the Feds.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:19 AM | Comments (1)

August 03, 2005

Wilbon On Weenies

The baseball kind.

Denials, even eloquent ones, aren't good enough, not after the Rafael Palmeiro revelation. Blaming Jose Canseco doesn't work because even a dope like him now has more credibility than some of the people he has been outing as steroid users.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:28 PM | Comments (2)

The 'Cajones Grandes Award of the Day'

Good on 'im!

Unprecedented Shuttle Repair a Success

...Astronaut Stephen Robinson said both pieces came out easily. He did not have to use a makeshift hacksaw put together in orbit that he brought along just in case.

"That came out very easily, probably even less force," Robinson said of the second piece. "I don't see any more gap filler. ... I'm doing my own inspection here. It is a very nice orbital belly."...

...It was the first time an astronaut has ventured beneath the ship.

Get home in one piece, ya'll. That's all we want.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:40 AM | Comments (1)

Talk About Hedging Your Bets...

...in Cincinnati, Ohio. If the Democratic candidate had a strong showing, it would send a signal to the GOP. If the Democratic candidate won, it would...um...send a signal to the...oh, you get the picture. So, what happened. The short of it? He lost anyway, by 4 percentage points or 3500 votes out of a little over 112,000. Judging by this MSNBCdotcom article, you'd be forgiven for getting confused about who'd won, as Ms. Schmidt's name (oh yeah, she won) gets mentioned six times, while Mr. Hackett's is noted equally, albeit in paragraph form, including a handsome recitation of his Iraq war service (a Marine, bless his heart), his feisty anti-Bush rhetoric, along with a bold paragraph headline quoting him calling Mr. Bush a 'chicken hawk'. Snappy, that.

Now, the Democratic party line:

Democrats had viewed the race as a bellwether for 2006, saying even a strong showing by Hackett in such a heavily GOP district would be a good sign for them in the midterm elections.

...rings a bit thin with me. They should have royally kicked some GOP bootie, viewed through the MSM prism of a wounded duck president who can't bump his approval numbers above 45%, coupled with a supposedly hugely unpopular war and a struggling economy. I mean, we've all seen it on the news, right? Oh, and add John Bolton, Judge Roberts, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, the shuttle, blah, blah, blah, Karl Rove and the president's own good health. (Oh! And the Boy Scouts.) If there was ever a party primed for a thrashing by it's own missteps, by George W., it's the Republicans. Stick a fork in them, they're done.
But in spite of that, little Miss Republican Schmidt wins the thing anyway?
To quote Buffy St. Marie; "Little wheel spin and spin, and the big wheel turn 'round, 'round..."
Let's see what Dr. Dean has to say. I'll bet he mouths 'mandate' for five, Alex.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:13 AM

August 01, 2005

There's No Spanish in Baseball!

Well, in a Massachusett's Little League game, anyway.

Ump's language ban incites protest

Little Leaguers told to stop speaking Spanish on field
METHUEN, Mass. (AP) -- Coaches on a Little League team filed a protest with the league after an umpire ordered the players to stop speaking Spanish during a state tournament game this week.

Coaches said the order demoralized the Methuen players and cost the team the game.

Call me cranky, but there is an advantage to calling out instructions in a language other than English. And maybe the Spanish speakers were demoralizing the other team. Granted, it could have been handled better, but hey. Excrement happens. It does need to be addressed officially now, but I'll lay ya dollars to donuts it won't.

"All I could hear was, 'We cannot allow this,"' Mosher said. "At this point I was baffled why we could only speak English."

Um, let me take a shot at this. Because we're in America schmaybe?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:13 PM | Comments (2)

Have Ford Executives...

...been living in a cave or something? What morons thought this was a good idea to begin with?

Ford splits with Eminem: report
Paper says Ford initially happy when rap star wanted new Ford for video, but lyrics raised concerns.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ford Motor Co. is ending a newly formed relationship with rapper Eminem, according to a published report.

The Detroit News reported that the split comes because of concerns of Ford executives over the title and lyrics of the artist's newest song. The three-word title includes a vulgarity.

A vulgarity?! From the mouth Slim Shady kisses his mother with?!
GTFO!!
And here I was all set to buy me a Ford because they were gonna sign Eminem as a spokesman.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:41 AM | Comments (3)

July 29, 2005

It's Gonna Be a Long, Hot Summer

First: The hair ~ it wasn't Bigfoot, barefoot or even 'my left foot'; it was four hooves.

Bison, not Bigfoot, stomped through Canada
DNA test of hair sample shows it came from bison, not Sasquatch

Second: The other hair ~ it wasn't Natalee Holloway's. There goes any chance of Greta Van Sustern reporting like, real news.

FBI: Hair found in Aruba is not Holloway’s
Focus on pond and landfill in search for missing American teen

Just at it's bleakest moment, someone thinks to send a little humor our way:

Question: What is a sonofabitch, exactly?

Yup. That would be the guy. And we all know at least one...

Thank God.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:36 PM | Comments (3)

Swill Friend peteb...

...takes a Northern Ireland-ish look at what the IRA said yesterday and what people heard.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:33 AM

July 22, 2005

Good For Him!

"Lt. Dan" has a fine charity rolling.

When actor Gary Sinise talks about Operation Iraqi Children, the humanitarian organization he cofounded 16 months ago to provide basic supplies to schools in the war-ravaged country, he does not peddle sob stories. He does not proselytize, or inflate with self-satisfaction the way celebrities usually do when they wax about giving back. He describes his project in modest terms, as if it were as simple and obvious as shutting off the lights when you leave a room. "We're just about giving some pencils to some kids," says Sinise, 50, star of "CSI: New York" and an Oscar nominee for "Forrest Gump." "That's it."...

...OIC, which now operates out of a central warehouse in Kansas City, Mo., is proudly supportive of U.S. troops....

Wow.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (5)

July 21, 2005

A Lovely Scotty Tribute

From Hank Stuever at the WaPo.

The real tribute to James "Scotty" Doohan, 39 light-years after he first saved the USS Enterprise's heinie (and did it many times over), is that it's now almost impossible to have a boyfriend or husband who can't do a somewhat reasonable impression of Doohan's famously stressed-out burr: "We've got nuh powrrrr, Cap'n!" Or "She cannuh take much moor."

Men say these things when copy machines are jammed. They say it about an overstuffed Diaper Genie, or a '91 Honda with an expired inspection sticker. The world is full of chief engineers, and oh, the things they could do, if they only had a wee more dilithium and a little more time. Ask your man right now to do some chore: He'll do it, but maybe not without some Scottytalk...

How true can you get? I loved it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:19 PM | Comments (5)

July 20, 2005

One Skinny Old Bald Guy Speaks His Mind...

...Walmart looses theirs and the sh$t hits the fan. This column*, dated June 18th, by Pensacola News Journal columnist Mark O'Brien has the world of Walton all up in arms...

Wal-Mart mentality keeps us pinching pennies rather than building a future

...resulting in a corporate case of taking your ball and going home. The day it appeared, the News Journal disappeared from newspaper racks at local Walmarts. Now, in a 40 miles radius of our humble hurricane shelter, there are at least 11 Supercenters. 9 of those are within reach of a population of about 430,000 people and Wally World is in the process of building yet another just 5 miles from the one closest to us. Right down the road. Their miserable brand of market domination is pretty secure here it seems, so the petty panties-in-a-wad reaction was completely uncalled for, but completely in keeping with the paranoid behaviour that is Walmart's SOP. The kicker is, O'Brien didn't say anything that wasn't true.

*reproduced in the extended section, as it seems to have mysteriously blipped off the PNJ's site as well.

Wal-Mart mentality keeps us pinching pennies rather than building a future
Mark O'Brien

Here we are strutting around in the year 2005, so proud of ourselves, sure that we're brilliant folks doing the right thing because we're positively modern.

Except that maybe we're not.

People thought they were brilliant 30 years ago when they scoffed at buying more land for U.S. 98 or planning for traffic growth in Santa Rosa County.

They thought they were thoroughly modern, although we now know they wasted a great chance to provide better transportation.

And what about the tourism promoters who congratulated themselves 55 years ago for offering land free of property taxes to entice people to build homes on Pensacola Beach?

Today, you can buy a 110-foot lot on Sabine Bay for $1.3 million and pay the government only a $410 per year lease, as the newspaper ad proclaims.

If it were anywhere else in Escambia County, a $1.3 million lot would pay $24,382 per year toward government services.

What were people thinking 30 or 55 years ago?

Yes, hindsight is 20-20, and people did have some good reasons for these decisions that had unintended results.

But Pensacola must work smarter and harder now, or someday our children will say, "What were they thinking in 2005? Was everybody on crack back then?"

Surely, we can be more than the Wal-Mart kind of town we're becoming -- cheap and comfy on the surface, lots of unhappiness and hidden costs underneath.

I like Wal-Mart prices the same as the next shopper, but there's a downside, too.

Many Wal-Mart employees lack the fringe benefits and insurance that make the difference between existence and a good quality of life. Yet, we customers pay a surcharge from a different pocket -- subsidizing health care for Wal-Mart employees who can't afford it.

Case in point: The New York Times found more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees in Georgia's health-care program, costing taxpayers nearly $10 million a year; 31 percent of patients at one North Carolina hospital were Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid.

Pensacola has a strong whiff of Wal-Mart thinking about it, with the emphasis on short-term results rather than investing in more permanent assets.

Sure, our cost of living -- at least until Hurricane Ivan -- was relatively low.

But too many of our schools are failing. Drainage and roads remain inadequate, and Ivan has been both the best and the worst thing to hit the local economy.

The Times report was quoted in a new book, "The World Is Flat," by Thomas Friedman, who reminds us that Pensacola no longer is competing with just Mobile and Fort Walton Beach for jobs, residents and services.

Engineers in China, computer specialists in Japan, call center employees in India -- they have the skills to match Americans, and they will do it for less money.

Where does Pensacola fit in this global economy? Will we be just another big discount store with lots of grumbling employees, or do we dare to do more?

To do more, Friedman says, a community needs "strategic optimists," people with more dreams than memories.

As he put it, we need, "the generation that wakes up each morning and not only imagines that things can be better, but also acts on that imagination every day."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:12 PM | Comments (1)

I'd Be Horribly Remiss...

...if I didn't ask for good thoughts and prayers from all for those in Hurricane Emily's path. We've been on the receiving end too many times and had nothing but support, from family, friends ~ even folks we've never met ~ not to wish the best to someone else facing a nasty storm with a name. Not to mention our having the benefit of building codes and technology. The part of Mexico she's aiming for is awfully rural and I'm sure the comforts of those advantages are sorely lacking. Hang in there, amigos.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:51 AM

July 13, 2005

The Real Pleasures Of Life

Lileks has a wonderful Bleat up today on life, and taking the time to enjoy and appreciate it.

Because I’m young and stupid and the wrong things matter?

Not today. Today my daughter ran to me with open arms when I picked her up from school, and my dog barked when we both came home. Today was an ordinary day in the middle of an ordinary summer, and I have every reason to expect tomorrow will be the same. You don’t think that’s what happiness will be - you imagine the awards banquent, the press notices, the flattering faces in a Manhattan claque - but that’s the shape it takes. You can even chose an ordinary noisy moment – child leaping through the sprinkler while you stand over the grill making burgers, listening to some stranger on the radio name you the 10th best guest on the Hewitt show (tied with JPod!) and shouting SHUSH as Jasper runs for the gate because he’s heard your wife’s car pull up. That’s as good as it gets. You didn’t know how happy you were? Maybe you weren’t paying attention. So pay it.

Go read all of it. Yeah, I'm feeling sappy. Tough.

UPDATE: As Ken points out in the comments, I'm brutishly flaunting my joy in life. Heh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:45 AM | Comments (2)

July 12, 2005

Karl Rove Has a Lot of 'Splainin' to Do...

...as I'm sure he's responsible for this too.
(UPDATE: As Emily seems intent on a Mexican vacation, we have redacted the forecast tracking map until our lives are again in jeopardy.)
Meet Emily. You probably thought it was the Dennis graphic below and no wonder. It's like identical.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:54 PM | Comments (2)

July 10, 2005

We...

...have seen the LIGHTS! They're on and we're astounded. I think all our experiences hurricane wise, colored by Bertha (07/96 CAT2) and Fran (09/96 CAT3) in N.C., were forever altered by the beast that that was Ivan. This was also our first experience with the western edge of a hurricane (we have always been beaten up non-stop in the northeastern quadrant) and, while it had it's moments, compared to what's been our norm? We were lovin' life. FEMA contractors fix up a bitchin' roof ~ proof positive our neighbor's complete coverage and our two smaller spots still intact, after 100+ mph winds. Our local utilities learned from Ivan, replaced and upgraded their equipment and we had power late into the storm, have power/cable now and never lost the water, cell phones or landline. Outstanding job all around and one feels ever more confident moving into a pretty active season with a bullseye on one's derriere. Ya know, since there's already a new Tropical Depression on it's way and, if it gets a name, it will be 'Emily'.

Should we be worried...???

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:08 PM | Comments (19)

The Squid Terrorist...

...stops by, while making his rounds of the neighborhood.

We got a full report of who lost what. Great to have a salty bosun's mate next door.

Kudos again to Gulf Power, Southern Bell and People's Water Co. for keeping the lights on. This is aMAZzing!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:40 PM | Comments (11)

Oh My Gosh

This is so macabre. I just switched to the Weather Channel, just as the radar was on. There's the swirl of the first part of the eye wall and they've got their damn goofy music. Lalalala. What a hoot. I think Jim Cantore did this. He's always wanted to be at the dead center and got his wish on us. Pffft! He must pay me back for causing me distress with sexual favors.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:29 PM | Comments (2)

Damn

It's getting close to crunch time and we're still ground zero. They're even saying 'Perdido Key', which just SUCKs, since we're 6 miles as the SUV drives from there.

On the upside, I'd like to thank FEMA for the tarp jobs they did. On the downside, I hate being one of the folks they practised on. Our neighbors across the street still have theirs so I'm hoping our smaller patches hold up as well. Cingular is still full signal, something they WEREN'T as ATT, we still have water and (Bless your little pointy heads Gulf Power!!) juice in both their lines and Southern Bell's. Rock on!

UPDATE: Ol' John Ed Thompson, the weatherman for Fox10 Mobile
has to be the best crisis weather guy I've ever seen. We listened to him during Ivan and his delivery was straightforwrd and honest. I adore him. He's just said that Dennis has taken a slight jog to the east and (for the moment) they're thinking landfall in an hour or so a little east of Pensacola Beach and then Gulf Breeze. Now we're 10 miles WEST of dowtown, so I think that might be better for us, marginally. So of course it won't happen. There's an hour to go yet. The other good news is the central pressure is up 9 mb's to 939, so it may poop out a mph or so yet. That also is a lovely thought.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:22 PM | Comments (1)

Forget It

They won't come in.

Scottie Blogging, brought to you live...
You saw it here, folks.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:16 PM | Comments (3)

Pics

Gusts are whistling, trees are bending, rain's a drivin' and the house is starting to creak a bit. Our visitor has picked up speed, praise JEsus, so won't be able to get any stronger if he keeps this up. The Squid Terrorist has run a power line off his big honkin' generator under the garage, so when the lights go out, we'll still have the fridge. We WILL be boarding up the inside of the front door, and have sandbags inside and out to strenthen the door and try to keep the driving rain out from under it. I was a soaked towel wringing fool during Ivan. Now, I have to go get Major Dad, who's on the porch. Ebola's asleep. What a surprise. Power's been burping, so this might be our last 'wish you were here' update for a while. Love you guys!!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:54 PM | Comments (2)

Blech

His ugly old eye is already on our short range radar.
We've got the place as fortified as humanly possible, all things considered. And there's a blessing in that the worst winds are in a tight little band, so whoever gets clobbered will catch it good, but it won't be the massive swath Ivan cut.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:18 AM | Comments (6)

July 09, 2005

Blue Skies Shining at Me

Nothin' but blue skies...

...do I see. It's great while it lasts and I'll take it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:18 PM | Comments (3)

BAStard!!

The graffiti says:

Pelican Soup Taste Good

PAY THE RANSOM

Okay, you heartless cretin. TAG!!

You're

IT !

Explain THAT when the CNN crews come through the neighborhood.
Heh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:12 PM | Comments (4)

July 08, 2005

Dateline Pensacola

Stores are laid in.

And we firmly endorse 3/4 inch plywood. "Home sweet home" was added post Ivan, but we really mean it.

The squid terrorist's best side.
Actually, if there was ever a better neighbor in the world (excepting his ugly anti-Flamingo tendencies, but I won't quibble during a time of crisis), you'd be hard pressed to convince me. He and his gorgeous wife are the kindest, most giving individuals it's ever been my honor and good fortune to meet. (Plus, he's hell-on-wheels the best fixit/do anything tool guy, where me and Major Dad are all thumbs.) ST Jr., all of one year old, is the most overindulged, unspoiled baby I've ever been through disasters with. We adore them all.

Now, we're all pooped. There isn't an ounce of gas, bag of ice or roll of toilet paper left for 50 miles, but we're snug as bugs and in awfully good company. Plus, there's always the entertainment value. The kids on our right side scored plywood this afternoon and are busily hacking it to size with an electric chainsaw. Rock on, dudes. They didn't know you have to have a drillbit to make the hole the concrete screws go in. We hooked them up with Ivan left over 1 X 4's to frame the plywood to their windows and the ST found an ancient drill he could afford to have them break. They are humming right along now. Shit, we were all young once, n'est pas?

Hokey doke, that's it for tonight from everybody's favorite target. Supposed to be pretty for the better part of the morning, so maybe I'll get some more shots before the power schmutzes out. Later gators. {:^)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:38 PM | Comments (25)

July 04, 2005

When In the Course of Human Events

It took a little work. And a lot of courage.

Lucky for us they were able to work it out. And what an unearthly result.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the
positions indicated:

[Column 1]
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

[Column 2]
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

[Column 3]
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

[Column 4]
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

[Column 5]
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

[Column 6]
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Happy Fourth of July, Americans!
A place like nowhere else on earth.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:08 AM | Comments (3)

June 27, 2005

Bay-Sah-Baw-Roo

I grew up a Yankees fan. Born one, still am and have no clue why. One of those things like being baptised Roman Catholic, making it to about six Masses in your life but worshipping rocks and trees as an adult. One born-again or supercilious 'Christian' f*ck says a WORD about the Virgin Mary or how Catholics are the 'ones who don't want you to read the Bible' and you still lose your mind. That's how I am about the Yankees. Defend them to the death, even if I can't name Jack One on the team. Now Ebola's Aunt Cruella ~ different side of the tracks. Mets fan, bless her little pointy head. Applies for the job every time they have a managerial opening. Gets the newsletter signed by the Manager of the Moment and, every year, really considers spending her hard earned health insurance industry dollars on the summer camp they run for adults. For $3500 a head. Eat, drink and shag flies with somebody NOBODY remembers from the '67 Mets. Well, what the f*ck. She's a FAN.

Right this second, the Mets are still a SQUeek ahead of the Yankees in Game 6 of the subway series. This could be very expensive for me, as she proposed a wager weeks ago, and I agreed, in which the loser buys dinner at Pensacola's toniest establishment AND sends a tacky city souvenir to the winner. (Oh, rock on! The Yankees won 5-4 in the 9th. Buff up that VISA, baby.) Bingley subjects NJSue to evenings at Yankee Stadium, and neither he nor myself EVER set foot inside those hallowed halls as children. Major Dad was such a natural ball player, he was scouted and recruited by colleges in high school. Baseball is the default of choice in the summer remote viewing click-a-thon. I mean, in our house, 'The Natural', 'Long Gone' (for which I wrote a well received Amazon review), 'Field of Dreams', 'Major League' and 'The Sandlot' are all movies of epic proportions.
The point of the whole dissertation being...we're fans.
But our kids aren't.
Is
a
puzzlement.

Ebola's played baseball since he was a tyke - T-Ball clean up to 8th grade. We never made him. But when he had uniform and glove on, all was right with the world. Root, root, root for the home team! It didn't matter if they sucked, if he sucked (although finding out about his near-blindness ~ and the consequent addition of glasses ~ improved his batting average/aptitude markedly) or the venue sucked...it was baseball and we were tickled to be there. As a 23 year old, he can't stand to watch it. And neither can his friends.

Major Dad and I were pondering that this evening, after Ebola'd changed from the game to Comedy Central. Once past his Dad's initial 'that's-my-remote-touch-it-again-and-you-die' direction to return to the game, it was 'why don't you want to watch baseball?' It's no fun, the answer was, unless you're playing. And that's pretty much true for his generation. There doesn't seem to be the dogged devotion to a team, any team, any sport, that we enjoy. And I do mean enjoy.
Is it because people don't live in one place long enough to feel a connection with one team? Is it because players come and go so quickly that they don't become identified as the standard bearer for their club?

Or maybe it's because kids don't get to stay out anymore until well after dark. Divvying up teams, playing ball 'til their hands and knees are raw, their voices raspy from yelling 'do-over!' With not an adult in sight to spell out rules of the game, scream at a coach or berate a teenage ump. Maybe it's because their lives are so full of structured sports that the pick-up game is a thing of our memory. And the kid who might have blossomed in that 'ollie-ollie-all-in-free' winds up swallowed by the superstars of the local 'league'; playing not because they love the game, but because their father does and expects them to excel. To be the contender he knows he could have been. Expectations. I've seen a lot of ugliness on ball fields because of parental expectations. And those memories don't make for great baseball fans either.

Pffft. I don't know. It's a shame that they won't ever be attached to something that they can share, like a baseball team. Cruella loves me enough to buy me Yankee hats, but hates them enough to only buy the street vendor $5 knock-offs, since she can't bear the thought of supplementing Steinbrenner's wallet. I send her dirt on Piazza's new stripper wife. We both laugh at how poofy Keith Hernandez looks in the 'Just For Men' commercials because we both remember what a stud muffin he was, and how Nancy Seaver (of 'Tom Seaver and his lovely wife...' fame) and Bucky Dent's brain dead spouse irritated the bejeezus out of us. Stupid stuff like that.

And now she owes me one tacky New York snowglobe and a $200 dinner. Yeah, you should cover your face. Losers. Ah. Bay-sah-baw-roo.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:39 AM | Comments (6)

June 24, 2005

"Witsie"

NAS Pensacola is dotted with these gorgeous brick retaining walls, almost to a one filled with elderly oaks. They mimic the line of the Fort Barrancas Redoubt and the 1836 Spanish Wall, whose remaining bits snake through the oldest parts of the base.
This particular one is a hop, skip and a jump west of the old base hospital. It crowns a hill that's covered with great, stretching live oaks festooned with Spanish Moss, swale to crest. You might have seen this one and thought little of it. Or maybe the crumbling brick staircase cut into the slope, it's antiquarian risers ornamental and uncomfortable. But you'd miss something if you drove on by, like I used to do. Major Dad went for a run one day and took me up the hill, to show me what he'd found.

As soon as you step foot under that canopy and smell that 'Florida' smell - the mouldering plantlife and damp, heavy air - you're transported back in time. Running along the spine of the rise, which overlooks the Pass, is a brick pathway that's seen better days; sections of it earth hove or disappearing in miniature sinkholes. But in it's day, it had to be a saving grace for the occupants of the ancient base housing behind it. A walk along that ridge would be bathed in shade and washed cooler by the Gulf breeze wafting in off the water around four every afternoon. Oh, it's magical in itself. But then you notice an unpretentious piece of statuary tucked in behind those big trees, it's weatherbeaten countenance mirroring the trunks of the younger trees flanking it.

'Oh' you think, 'a plaque'. The DAR, Officers' Wives, or any of the myriad other plaque hangers who abound on military installations. So you read it. And your heart contracts.

He was 8.
I come by to say 'hi' as often as I can. It's a beautiful place, but awful lonely and I hate to think of him by himself for so long. I hope the kids in the houses behind him splash in the bowl and make lots of noise.

But in case they don't, I stop by to talk to Witsie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:28 AM | Comments (2)

June 23, 2005

Until they come up with a bionic eye....

they won't be hearing from me yet. But I can hope.

Posted by Crusader at 03:29 PM | Comments (5)

June 18, 2005

Why Radar Is A Good Thing

Coming home on Thursday we hit a thick fog bank between the Verrazano Bridge and Sandy Hook, and visibility went down to under 50'. When you're doing 30+ knots on a boat with 300 people on it across one of the busiest stretches of ocean in the US, it's nice to know (well, hope) that the Captain can see if there's anything in our path.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)

June 15, 2005

Oh, She Didn't Really Say That...

But it says she did. WTF are these people thinking when they run their mouths? (Wait. They're not. Thinking, that is.)

South Africa nevertheless has a special place in Ms Winfrey's heart.

"I'm crazy about the South African accent," she said. "I wish I had been born here."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:50 PM | Comments (2)

June 03, 2005

First Ken...Now Lisa...I'm Next!

Lisa has the sad details of an event that is getting all too close for me: my sweet little child becoming a teen.

Ken is just about out of this cloud of woe.

Update:Crusader
Tell me about it. Crusader II hits the teens on August 31. Sheesh...
Big party if you guys can make it. We will be getting the food from Matts Chicago Dog
Double Dog DARE UPDATE:THS

Matts Chicago Dog??!!
BASTARD!! Note to Bingley ~ I was first, duh.

Second Update:Crusader
Like I said, you guys are invited, so don't come cryin' to me iffin ya miss it.

Newsflash!
The popcorn you are eating has been pissed in. Film at 11.

Even BIGGER UPDATE: In the immortal words of Crusader's hero, Jar-Jar Binks, "How WUDE!"

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:26 AM | Comments (11)