Monday, December 29, 2008

Clean Coal?

I don't think so. I missed this on xmas day (I was too busy pouting over my non-boat status).
When an earthen wall holding back 525 million gallons of ash slurry gave way at the coal-fired Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee in the wee hours of Monday morning, the resultant flood ruined a picturesque rural landscape, inundated more than a dozen houses, and blanketed as much as 400 acres of land with potentially toxic muck.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Extremely Small Victory

The Packer's win!!! This resounding 31 - 21 victory, however, was against the 0 - 16 Lions. The hapless Lions set a record for losses in one season. The Packers set the bar of stupidity very high, i.e., dumping Brett Favre, arguably the Packers Packer. I hope Ted Thompson & Mike McCarty are pleased with a defense that gave up 21 points to a team that did not win a game all year.  Oh, & the refs were still crooked, it was Ed Hochuli, enough said.

25 Years Ago, Reagan Was President

& he was a liar, so what did the Chesapeake expect? & for those of you who are still ReThugs, hard to believe that simple time doesn't mature some, we've had nothing but ReThug Presidents, with the minor relief from Clinton. We've also had the ReThugs in charge of the Senate & House for a lot of those years. ReThugs just don't give a shit about the environment, much like they don't like black people.
The water is still there, but The Bay -- the old, bountiful estuary -- is not. As the old industries have declined, they have been replaced by tourism, where the look of the water is all that matters. Or by trucking, or work in prisons, where the water doesn't matter at all.

This is the real cost of the cleanup's failure: People learning to live with broken promises.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I Suppose This Will Work

It has apparently worked many, many times before.
Waves of Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group’s rocket fire, killing more than 200 — the highest one-day toll in an Israeli military operation against Palestinians in decades.

----

Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks that began in broad daylight, as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market and children were emerging from school.

The center of Gaza City was a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. Most of those killed were Hamas police officers and security men, including two senior commanders, according to Palestinian officials. But the dead included at least a dozen civilians, including several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.
My emphasis.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Harold Pinter, R.I.P., As Usual, Death Takes Our Presents Away At Xmas

Obit here. More here. & here.
All that happens is that the destruction of human beings - unless they're Americans - is called collateral damage.

----

I mean, don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?

----

The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them.

----

Nothing is more sterile or lamentable than the man content to live within himself.

----

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?

All quot4s above by Harold Pinter. I will miss him, anyway.
Merry Xmas




George Thorogood & The Destroyers



My Chemical Romance



Cheryl Crow & Eric Clapton



Christine Agulero & B.B. King



Bing Crosby

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Sleep, Sleep

Sleep(*):
"I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting." -- Mark Twain

"Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone." -- Anthony Burgess

"There are two types of people in this world, good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more." -- Woody Allen

"To achieve the impossible dream, try going to sleep." -- Joan Klempner

"Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,...."
-- William Shakespeare

* -- From here.

More sleep(**):
I'll sleep when I'm dead. -- Warren Zevon
** -- From here.

More sleep(***):
“Sleep is the best meditation.” -- Dalai Lama

“Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.” -- Ambrose Bierce

“Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera.” -- James Stephens
*** -- From here.

Now, the real reason for this post is another example of why didn't they tell me this when I was a kid, for crying out loud. Health classes? Yeah, right. & here I sit, one heart attack, three stents, & one CPAP machine later.
In fact, getting an extra hour of sleep had the same effect on heart disease risk as lowering one's systolic blood pressure (the upper reading) by 16.5 points.

The study adds to the mounting evidence that short sleep duration (less than five hours) has subtle health consequences, Lauderdale said.

Indeed, over the last several years, research has showed the length of time a person sleeps is important to health, said Terry Young, a sleep expert with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Adrian Mitchell, R.I.P.

Obit here. Man, this blog is turning into obit central or something. It must be the holiday season.
I was run over by the truth one day.

Ever since the accident I’ve walked this way

So stick my legs in plaster

Tell me lies about Vietnam.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Good Idea

About time for a permanent dark sky reserve. Leave it to the Canadians to be ahead of us again, eh?

A Post I Wish I Could Have Written

Jude:
And why, in the name of all that is holy, are they talking to G. Fucking Gordon Fucking Liddy about what he thinks? Attention all: That asshat is a convicted felon.
....
And that's what's wrong with our elite press in a nutshell. When you don't have any information about a topic, keep your fucking mouth shut. Your opinion in such a case is worthless.
....
In other dumb-ass news, George Bush is still President, and, since these people can't go five minutes without being total dicks, he's deciderated to implement a "conscience clause" by executive fiat. Of course, this is just cover for religious nuts to deny women reproductive health services. And we're not only talking about abortions here--these fools can now get away with refusing to dispense birth control because they (doctors or pharmacists) don't approve of it. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? If you have a moral objection to dispensing certain medicines, don't become a pharmacist. It's not like your choices are:

1. Be a pharmacist
2. Homelessness


See, all the jobs I've ever held, if I refused to do some of the work because I "didn't believe in it," I'd have gotten fired. And with good cause. You know what I'm waiting for? A Muslim doctor refusing to treat a cirrhosis patient, because the Qu'ran says we should avoid alcohol. That'd go over like a fart in church, wouldn't it? I know these fundie assholes are short-sighted, but don't they understand anything about unintended consequences? When you open the door for people to refuse their professional obligations based on personal beliefs, you destroy the very concept of professionalism. Or, as Chief Lyman used to say, "You fuckers don't have to like it, but you do have to do it."
....
Which anyone with three functioning neurons can tell you.

Go read the whole thing, I didn't cut & paste all of it, OK? My emphasis.

Very Short

May Joulupukki treat you well today, the winter solstice.

http://www.24kvintageart.com/library/santaclaus/joulupukki.jpg


http://gracemagazine.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/winter480.jpg


http://www.socialmedia.biz/images/2007/12/22/winter_solstice_at_stonehenge.jpg


http://naturalpatriot.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/father_winter_solstice.jpg

Robert Mulligan, R.I.P.

Obit here.

Majel Roddenberry, R.I.P.

Obit here. Man, it seemed like yesterday that I was lusting (in my brain, of course) after the mini-skirted nurse my freshman year at college. Nostalgia/sentimentality, the most evil, destructive emotions, IMHO, seem to be Velcroing themselves to my back.

http://www.nndb.com/people/069/000023997/majel-sized.jpg

More Of The Dangerous Bu$hCo Legacy

Putting kids in danger. God I hate this idiot president, the worst president ever.
In the Prince George's County community of Riverdale Park, town officials have noted a distressing sign of the national economic downturn: more children left home alone to fend for themselves by working parents too strapped to afford child care.
My emphasis.

No Child Left Untouched

Bu$hCo's worthless & harmful "education reform" has reached the heights of stupidity, much like Bu$hCo, himself. Here is the way one school district in Wisco deals with the mandated state tests. Just sad.
The law has led to a change of focus for many schools when it comes to how they approach educating students with disabilities, ranging from students with physical impairments to those who have slight learning disabilities to those who have medically diagnosed conditions such as autism.

At Arrowhead, it means time once spent teaching how to cope independently with a disability - using books on tape, for instance - is now devoted to more instruction on the skills they need to pass the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations.
....
Many, such as Arrowhead teacher Ginny Thorson, also worry about the toll on students' self-esteem of taking the same test as is given to someone with no disabilities.
To those people out there who actually believe that this change is a good thing for handicapped students, I don't know how you sleep at night. Must be a lot of mother's little helpers. I couldn't find The Stones singing their song, so you will need to be happy with this cover. So sue me. My emphasis.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Things Are Looking Way Up For My Friend Al

According to Josh Marshall, it is now my friend Al's election to lose. One bright spot given the Obama invitation to the slimy hater Rick Warren. I knew that Obama was not a liberal, but with all the hard work that a whole lot of people did to ensure his overwhelming election, I was expecting much more than a condescending statement about grown-ups. It looks like we are going to be dealing with more of the same. Fuck the dirty fucking hippies who have been right for the last eight years. Thanks for nothing Obama.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I Did Not Listen Or Watch Or Care

Jacksonville - 20 (Yes, that Jacksonville) Green Bay - 16
Now 5-9, the Packers joined the 4-12 club of Mike Sherman in 2005 as the only ones in the last 17 years to finish with a losing season.
Green Bay sucks. Oh, you know that Brett Favre guy? Well, his team won again today. They are 9-5 for the season & are tied for first place in the AFL-East. Thanks Ted Thompson & Mike McCarthy, stupid morons.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

UPDATE: More On Cars

Athenae has a great post on the ReThugs sole reason for existing - destroying every union job in America, & Harry Reid will not even make them publicly vote for it. Disgraceful.
But this thing where the UAW is somehow responsible for the downfall of American industry is absolutely enraging, and not just because I grew up the granddaughter of somebody who wore coveralls and carried a black lunch box to work every day and came home deaf, big hands black with grease, from the days on the line. It's enraging because SERIOUSLY, this is what we're doing?

Friday, December 12, 2008

More On The Failed Attempt To Save The Car Industry

Let me repeat, the ReThugs torpedoing the car industry load is nothing more than trying to destroy the UAW & with that the middle class in America. Those bastards in the Senate are criminals that are beneath contempt. Why the citizens of these southern states keep electing these moron is incomprehensible to me. With actions like this, the ReThugs will continue to evolve into a pathetic regional party (the South) & finally become forever the Herbert Hoover Party, the party of insensitive, blowhard haters. I wish them all the ability to savor by direct experience the wonderfulness of the nursing home industry in America.
They could have given the loan on the condition that - cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.

They could have given the loan on the condition that - build cars that reduce global warming.

They could have given the loan on the condition that - the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.

They could have given the loan on the condition that - the management team which drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign....

[buuuhht...ed.]

...the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.
Tip of the blaze orange hunting cap to The Kid.

They Get Their Asses Handed To Them In November & Now They Have Declared War On The Workers

I guess the dickwads that run the ReThug Party have absolutely no ideas left. So, what do they do? Why, attempt to eliminate the UAW, don't you know? Hoover? Right. & yet Hoover doesn't get to the half of it. I know I've said this before my loyal four readers, but I just hate the ReThug sonsofbitches, hate them. I do dearly love the chickadees that come to our feeders, however, so rest assured that I am not an angry leftist blogger. Yep, that's the ticket & I'm sticking with it, you betcha'.

Dennis Yost, R.I.P.

Obit here. I do remember Spooky, getting groovy, there's an idea for a cloudy December day & Stormy, but I do not remember Traces of Love. Sorry about the dearth of blogging the last couple of days. My excuse is that I shot my second deer of this season & have spent the last few days processing both deer. I think next time I will be much friendlier to the $70 price tag for cutting, wrapping, & labeling that a local butcher shop offer.Justify Full




Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Wide Stance Stays Convicted

Convicted sex offender, Larry Craig, remains a convicted sex offender. There are days when I just love the criminal justice system in this country. Today is one of those days.

Blame The Bloggers

Of course. I suppose the correct move from here on out is to put Zell in charge since he is way more knowledgeable about the newspaper business than, say, me.
Mr. Zell financed much of his deal’s $13 billion
of debt by borrowing against part of the future of his employees’
pension plan and taking a huge tax advantage. Tribune employees ended
up with equity, and now they will probably be left with very little.
(The good news: any pension money put aside before the deal remains for
the employees.)

Monday, December 08, 2008

Sundown Suburb

I learned something new today, what a sundown suburb is. I had never even heard the term before. I can almost feel the neural network now being formed in my geezer brain, almost, but no cigar, oops, no smoking on this blog, unless, of course, it's after, whoa big fella. Sorry about that, some strange, outside force moved into my body from the snowy & cold outside. Any of my four loyal readers know the reference? Anyhoo, back to sundown suburbs - it just doesn't surprise me that Bu$hCo is moving into one in Dallas, TX, or that Dick "Dick" Cheney still has house located in one, again near Dallas, TX. Racism is not dead with the election of Sen. Obama, it just continued on in the toney neighborhoods, except for the servants.

No More Moose?

Looks like moose in MN are leaving for cooler climes. The deniers blame the wolf, an easy, but completely moronic answer. It's global warming, absolutely no question. With President-Elect Obama as our new leader, I think we will see major improvement in our work with other countries. We will accept the responsibility of our role in global warming & do what we can to stop it. We just had a young bull moose wandering around Ashland, here in northern Wisco. I'd give you the link to The Daily Press' article, but they want a bunch of money so you will just have to believe me on this one. This is an event that occurs occasionally up here. The last moose, however, was a sick animal that was taken by the DNR. Moose are susceptible to a brain worm larvae that are carried by whitetail deer. They don't hurt the whitetails, but are lethal to a moose.

Moose Heading North To Avoid The Warm Weather

http://cozycovecabins.com/images/moose-on-road.jpg

It's Coming On Stronger, People

Without being a drama queen, this drone is leading us into a society where we all become drones to the Bu$hCo/Cheneys of America.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g222/pma1963/Cheney_and_Bush_Borg.jpg

Z

While in school at Madison, way back in the day when the politicos of Wisco actually valued post high school education for all, or at least all in the top 75% of a graduating class, I was quite inspired by the movie Z. It played at an off the square theater somewhere on the far east side of Madison. I had taken one semester of French, sadly ...you know, but this movie was so good that it seemed that I didn't need to read the subtitles. I have also been envious of how quickly the youth of Greece can mobilize on any given issue. It appears that the recent murder of a 15 year old by the police has ignited a huge protest against the Greek government. I know that it's unpopular & a sign of not being serious, but I would hope that someday the young in America, along with their geezer allies, would act this fast & this fiercely. I like the incredibly awful writing of this paragraph in the story:
The youths regularly clash with the police, whom they view as symbols of the establishment. In most cases, the confrontations are relatively contained and end at the gates of universities with the young people holding off the police with gasoline bombs, rocks and slingshots.
I haven't heard the word establishment used in this context in, oh, let's say 48 years. Looks like a certain NYTs reporter needs to get out a bit more.

It's All About Freedom

So shut your pie-hole, traitor. Oh, & you're a Moooslim.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

24 - 21

The refs were rotten & so were the Packers. Thanks again Ted Thompson & Mike McCarty. Thanks for getting rid of the heart & soul of this franchise - Brett Favre.
Good teams find ways to win games. Bad teams find ways to lose them.

While I Didn't Shoot At A Deer Today, I Did Shoot At A Stump Just Off The Grass In The Front Yard, These Muzzle Loaders Require A Person To Fire It When You're Done Hunting Since There Isn't A Way To Unload It Once You've Put The Powder In, The Bullet In, & The Primer In, Yes, Yes, I Bought An Inline

Finally I have something to really smile about. This is President-Elect Obama's finest appointment, so far, IMHO. I've been less than excited, to say the least, about his team so far. Let's hope this is the beginning of a recognition of just how many liberals supported him in a really big way. Many of us stuck with him, even through the FISA vote, which he ought to regret. I'm glad for Gen. Shinseki, now he can do what Rumsfeld, Bu$hCo, Paul Wolfowitz & true tool Douglas Feith failed to do - understand that they were & are stupid, especially about Iraq. Has there been anything this idiot boy-president hasn't fucked up?
"If Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and [former undersecretary for defense Douglas J.] Feith had listened to Shinseki, there wouldn't be as many wounded veterans to take care of," Cole said. "I think this is a way of saying, 'Here was a career officer who had valuable insights who was shunted aside by arrogant civilians, and we're not going to make the same kind of mistakes.' "
My emphasis.

Yes, I'm A No Kinda Guy

When it comes to oil refining in northern Wisco, right at the headwaters of the Lake Superior drainage. It's a very bad idea. Murphy Oil would be the refiner & this graf ought to be enough to kill the deal, enough, of course, for thinking people.
Murphy, which has a checkered environmental record in Wisconsin, wants to boost its refining capacity in Superior nearly sevenfold - from 35,000 barrels daily to 235,000. That's almost 10 million gallons a day.
My emphasis.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

H.M., R.I.P.

Obit here.
Henry Gustav Molaison, born on Feb. 26, 1926, left no survivors. He left a legacy in science that cannot be erased.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Time Out

Via First Draft, we get the video, & please click the following link: Jones' Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage - & read a bit. I particularly enjoyed the description of a job as a "...street Pharmaceutical Sales Rep...."

O.J. Sentenced To At Least 8 Years In Jail

I'm watching a replay of the sentencing on ESPN.  As others more intelligent than I have pointed out, our long national nightmare may be over.

Double Good

This is apropos the previous post. I guess, what with the dead doe hanging in the barn & the new muzzle loader leaning against the chair, I have guns on my mind. Plus that particular chief of police is also a bad role model for those obese youth who need to lose weight for their health.

About Time, No Thanks To The Worthless NRA

A report from the ATF concerning guns & crime was finally released. I hope the execrable Rep. Todd Tiahrt is happy about the results of this study. People like Tiahrt, a pentecostal(no surprise here), must think god has left for the coast. Another good thing about Sen. Obama's election is that the NRA will lose some of its hold on the political machinery of government. & none too soon, since IMHO, the NRA has set back the country in ways that even it didn't imagine. These fascists need to be put out to pasture, a pasture full of milkweed. Not that I want anyone to get hurt, mind you. The amount of gun violence in this country is astounding, & to have this praised as some sort of crime prevention is beyond the pale. No matter how hard they try, handguns are not made for deer hunting (or any other big game animal, for that matter).
ATF is allowed under federal law to inspect federally licensed gun dealers once a year, but agency officials said inspections are done at an actual rate of about one every 17 years.

"The federal laws are written to the advantage of the gun dealers," said Daniel Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore. "It's difficult for [officials] to act decisively to suspend or revoke a license."

To increase oversight of gun dealers, nearly two dozen states, including Maryland and Virginia, as well as the District, allow or require state inspections. In those that do not, crime guns are exported at a rate 50 percent higher than in states that allow or mandate inspections.

"Leaving it up to federal law and ATF is insufficient to really hold gun dealers accountable," Webster said.
My emphasis.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

$tephen Harper Is Canada's George Bu$h

What a fascist disaster for democracy in Canada. Looks like Harper is much like Bu$hCo, lies & raw power to keep his position. If the Canadian people don't do something tomorrow, things will get even worse. People like $tephen Harper & Bu$hCo believe so strongly in their own ideas that those ideas need to be put into practice no matter what the ELECTED representatives of the people decide to do. This is a huge embarrassment for any one's freedom agenda. Come on Canada, don't let thus tin horn dictator run your democracy into the ground.

Headlines, Headlines

Since I've got nothing right now, I've been putting a scope on my brand new never been fired muzzle loader, a gun I can use, well, as of Tuesday, that would be last Tuesday, the day before yesterday, but given that I couldn't get the last payment organized until yesterday, I will be happy to hunt by tomorrow afternoon. Lucky I have one deer hanging in the pole barn. So, given my general laziness today, here are the headlines of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel online edition for today, December 4, 2008:
Auto executives beg lawmakers for quick action
Losses at state pension fund deepen in November
No crime, just incompetence
Coach asserts he has confidence in Rodgers

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

439 To 147

I can even figure this math out, & math is my worst subject. Soon, we'll be returning to the conservative's dreamtime, only the white, the handsome, the beautiful, the children of privlege will be able to afford a college education. The rest of us will make useful serfs for the ruling class. Another piece of Bu$hCo's awful legacy.
Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.
My emphasis.

Odetta, R.I.P.

Obit here. Oh boy, what a loss this is. The last time I saw her was at NOLA's Jazz Fest in 2004. At that venue, it's possible to get a front row seat without hassle or price. It was one wonderful performance, as all of hers were. She ended her set by letting the audience in on a couple of truths, one was that tonight they better use condoms & that in the fall they had better NOT vote for George Bush. Too bad.





More here.



Interview on video here.