OK, Loyal 5 (Yes! 5) Readers, Time To Make Another Commitment

This is a recipe commitment. No more Bluefin Tuna for you. As usual, I'm thanking you in advance.

Federal Workers Pay Freeze

What a way to reward the people who truly serve the nation.  This ill-conceived act fits right into President Obama's strategy for a top-down recovery. Why in the world would a true Democrat institute a pay freeze while apparently allowing the very rich to continue getting their tax breaks that were given to them by Bu$hCo?  I guess he's not much of a Democrat.  It's time for President Obama  switch parties & go caucus with the ReThugs.  You can also kiss goodbye the votes of these workers.  Again, & it's been asked by a lot of people - WTF was he thinking?

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, I'll Have Another Whiskey Manhattan, Please**

My take on this is that the bees go where they can get enough food to survive. I think it's pretty brave of anyone keeping bees in an urban setting.  Good for them.  It would be nice, however, if there were enough actual pollen to feed the bees & have them produce normal honey.  I wonder if there is a market for cherry honey?

 

**I'm from Wisco where we drink a lot of brandy, so I also need to ask for whiskey.

Depending on who you’re asking, Wisconsin consumes either the most brandy in the nation, more brandy than all other 49 states combined, or 90 percent of brandy distilled worldwide.

Though each of these claims proves more hearsay than fact, Wisconsin does consume disproportionate amounts of the liquor. For Korbel, a northern California brandy manufacturer, the state is an invaluable market.

Wisconsin is Korbel’s biggest state for sales, purchasing roughly 133,000 crates of Korbel brandy in 2008, accounting for more than one third of the Korbel’s total brandy sales, Korbel’s Midwest Area Manager Mark Winkels says. Wisconsin has been a major market for Korbel over the past 15 to 20 years.

No More Murders In The Name Of The People

We still kill people in the name of all of us by allowing executions that have proven to be in error.  Our nation must erase this stain onour claims of liberty, compassion, fairness, & justice.  Bob Herbert says it well in this piece.  Justice Steven's (the John Paul version) article is worth the read as well.

I Almost Forgot

Thanks to commenter nonheroicvet - Favre WINS.

Leslie Nielsen, R.I.P.

He's Canadian & he's dead.

What Is That Worthless Senator Graham Worried About?

After all, how does that line go, the one about if you're innocent, why hide anything, why run? As usual, that doesn't apply to ReThugs.

The Result Of Lousy, Crooked Refs

Rogers still can't win the big game.  I mean, fumbling in the end zone?  That said, the refs stunk up the place.

Sports Beat - Another WipeOut For The Badgers

70-23

Faux News, Can't Tell Onion From Fennel

This headline says it all -

    Fox Nation readers confuse Onion article with real news

Here's the rest of the story.

Onion

Fennel

Seems obvious to me, but then again, I'm an elitist.

Mark Ruffalo - Terrorist - Who Knew?

We are fast becoming a police state.

More here, but on a different topic.

"The stranger went free, of course."

Jesus Christ leave the old guy alone.

More Old Crocodiles, More Science, What; Is A Teabagger To Do?

100 million years old & a new species to boot.

"They were living on land and could run very fast," said Komsorn, who noticed the skull fossil in a museum in the summer of 2006. The 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long) fossil was originally retrieved from an excavation site in Nakhon Rathchasima province, also known as Korat, but had not been identified as belonging to a distinct species.

A Day Late, A Turkey Drumstick Short

I remember this show & Mrs. coldH2Owi & I laughing so hard at this episdoe. In fact, I can't recall laughing that hard at a teevee show since. Maybe I have, but it didn't stick in my mind like this WKRP episode.

Oh,,Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving Day & Apologies To All The Blind Guys

 

 

 

 

Good For Dentistry

I wonder what the big guy's stomach looks like after five years of elephant sized aspirin? Without pain he must be in even a better mood. Oh, & he took it like an elephant, no novocaine.

 

The dentist who carried out the operation, CV Pradeep, told the BBC that the elephant was fully co-operative and appeared much happier once it was all over.

Good News - Environmental Front

I glad Clough Island will be protected.

It About Time

Now, if President Obama will unleash his Justice Department to go after the many criminals that screwed the American people during Bu$hCo's illegitimate presidency. Tom Delay is now an official convicted felon. Makes me happy. For the next trial, let's hope it's starts with this--

My New Best Friend & I Hope He Teaches Us How To Enjoy "It"* When We Are 111

It appears this lizard & her/his brain & his/her gonads has a lot to teach us.  Information like this is the result of science.  Yet, because science has become the bogeyman of the idiotic right wing, we must not believe any of it, especially the numbers.  It all  happened in 4000 years, dontcha know?

*I'm sorry for the quotation  marks, but I haven't learned how, if possible, to us italics in the  headlines of my posts.  More to learn, more to learn.

The ReThugs Are Destoying The Country (With Sad Help From The Democratic Party) & This Appears On The Strib's From Page (Online Version)

& they say journalism is dead.  Not so, not so.

Another Lie, Nothing New Here - We're Supposed To Move On - Remember

Bu$hCo's whole life is a while lie. When your mother calls you a liar, there is really nothing else to say. I hope the morons who voted for this dick are thrilled,.

If Mel (The Racist) Gibson's Case Can Be Delayed, Think Of All The Regular People Awaiting Justice From A Corrupt System (You Name The System)

I regret having laughed during any of his movies. Here's the story.

Tell Me One More Time How We Are The Greatest Country Ever

Yeah, right.

¶“I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.”

I'm not sure what to say.

Sports Beat - The Refs Called A Good Game Edition

The Packers routed Brett Favre & Ryan Longwell. It's hard when you give a team your two best players & they still can't win. On the other hand, Favre won pretty nicely last year. Onward.

Rough times in Minnesota.  It's really too bad.

Happy overall with the Packer's win, however.

A Lutheran? I'll Be Dipped

The 2010 Zeidler Award. It's an award for those among us dedicated to social justice, civil rights, etc. Bu$hCo will never win it, neither will Hank Martinsen. What the country really needs now is a socialist like Frank Zeidler, a politician who actually gave a crap about the people he represented, i.e., good roads, sewage systems that work, safe schools, you name it, he helped make Milwaukee a much better urban hellhole, er, city.

Michigan Isn't Much Anymore

I wonder how the term for a bunch of one dollar bills became "a Michigan bankroll"? Well, the Wolverines (I also wonder when the last Wolverine tromped around MI?) weren't much more impressive than a pocketful of singles yesterday & the Badgers won in the Big House, 48-28. More here.

Patti Smith, Good For Her

She wins the National Book Award for nonfiction. Her book, Just Kids, is a memoir that deals with Smith's friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe.

Book Report(s)

Presently, I'm reading a book called Tiger, by John Vaillant. It has been nominated for a Sigurd Olson Book Award. Full disclosure: Mrs. coldH2Owi is chair of the book award committee at the Sigurd Olson Institute. I like the book so far, it is a great evocation of a landscape, both human, plant, & animal that most of us will never experience. There are at least four distinct ecosystems that converge on the Amur tiger's last holdout. The book is also a grim reminder of what happens when uncontrolled capitalism takes over a country, in this case the former USSR. The other book by John Vaillant is, The Golden Spruce. This is a great book & I urge you to get to your local library or independent/online bookstore, say, like Powell's, or ebook seller & get the book & read it.

Harbinger? Omen? Truth?

Had a benign visit with my urology nurse practitioner yesterday. I finally bit the checkbook & bought a good miter gauge for my table saw. I need to make repeatable cut for my pen making endeavors & this purchase will make it easier & safer. I purposely stayed away from the camera store. While I was gone, Mrs. coldH2Owi put up & filledour various bird feeders. With the snow on the ground & the temps hitting the 20s, she figured the bears had dug in for the winter. The point of this info, my dear, loyal five, yes five, readers, is to let you know that there were birds flying about in my peripheral vision as I read my email & drank coffee & ingested pain killers, but the first bird that I clearly saw & identified what a nuthatch. A White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis). Now, go back & read the title of this post & let me know what you think.

This is how you normally see this bird. Does this change you answer?

What The Hell Is Wrong With President OBama?

He has apparently learned absolutely nothing at all from the recent election, much less his experience of the last two years. How about vowing to be a Democrat & actually standing up & fighting for Democratic Party ideals?

Sports Beat - Political

Sometimes it is good & fun to read a sports columnist. A gem like this occasionally gets through.

Q. Don't you find it amazing that Phil Simms was able to survive 14 NFL seasons without the benefit of a chinstrap? (Eric Karashinski; Milwaukee)

A. Well, Glenn Beck has survived five TV years without the benefit of any reasonable thought.

It's Sad - Favre Loses

Boy, I wish he would have won the two Super Bowls that he came so close to in the last few years. He is still fun to watch & is still better than most of the quarterbacks in the NFL. Anyway, Favre loses.

Given The Results Of The Recent Election Debacle The Bishops Might Be On The Right Track For The First Time In A Very, Very, Very Long Time

More exorcists!!!

What A Fucking Fool

This man, & I use the term loosely here, is supposed to be the face of compassionate conservatism? Yeah, not waiting in traffic jams sure paves the way to world peace, among other things. Having your own great big, really big, airplane helps in eliminating poverty in world as well. The American people should be so ashamed they elected this moron once, much less twice.

I Hope All These "Health Care Professionals" Are Not Only Kicked Out Of Their Jobs, But Are Also Put In Prison

Here's the story.  "...whether is matters" indeed. This question of torture, & it' is horrible that it even is a question, will be Bu$hCo's great legacy, in my opinion. The mere fact that we, as a country, have apparently been willing to even debate this shows just how far we have fallen as a society, a state, as part of Western Civ. Goddamn I hate the ReThugs & the blasted Democrats who enabled them.

What Bu$hCo did (& apparently President Obama supports as well, although much more quietly.)

What the Roman Catholics did during the Spanish Inquisition.

What's the difference?  Answer:  There is no difference.

This Is Actually Interesting

So some (I'm looking at you Tea Baggers & assorted moronic ReThuglican office holders, yes, I'm doubly looking at that Senator Imhoff who must be some sort of alien or else a genetic way-way throwback), this might seem a waste of time, but to me it's fascinating. Figuring out how things work is the most important thing that science does, & not every figuring out needs to produce money.

It has taken four highly qualified engineers and a bunch of integral equations to figure it out, but we now know how cats drink. The answer is: very elegantly, and not at all the way you might suppose.
****
What happens is that the cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.

The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water behind it.

Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the rush of the water and starts to pull the column down — snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it.

The cat laps four times a second — too fast for the human eye to see anything but a blur — and its tongue moves at a speed of one meter per second.

How cool is that?

First Snow At Our Place 2010

Cross posted from my other blog, everypicturetellastorydontit.

Click 'em to big 'em.

Down the town road.

The sauna, almost finished.

Down the town road again.

The flowering crab in the yard.

The Daily Doe, I think. My game camera seems to be off its game, so I am going to make the assumption that this is a doe since I've only had two bucks trigger the camera back when it was on & in the game.

Click 'em to big 'em.

Sports Beat - 82-20 Division

This wipe out was a pleasure to listen to, I had it on the teevee, but was using my eyes for something else. It did not appear that UW was piling it on, but who knows in this era of not only trying to impress the computers, but of also impressing the human voters for the worthless BSC process. It would be nice if the Badgers would rise in the polls, they are currently 7th, but there is a lot of bias towards the teams in the southeast, deep south. We'll see. I'm now going to take a nap on this snowy day, the first one of the year. It's sticking to the trees, etc., I'm supposed to say it's beautiful, but for the life of me can't figure out why.

A Lie Is Not A Fib

An ex-German leader says BuShCo is lying. BuShCo just keeps lying his way through life. Our press corps has continually enabled this worthless excuse for a man. At least European political leaders are not afraid of calling him out & calling him what he has always been - a liar. & why does the writer of the article use the word "fibbing"? It's lying, clear & simple. A fib implies something cute, harmless, quickly owned up to. BuShCo is a liar, not to mention his mother 's miscarriage in a jar.

LIEberman Is Not A Decent Person - No Newsflash Here

Ezra Klein clues us in regarding Lieberman's underhanded tactics. Loser Lieberman isn't much of a Democrat, apparently he never was. Talk about a sore loser - he apparently wants to destroy the Democratic Party, a party that nominated him for the vice-presidency. Here's Ezra Klein's take on how Lieberman aided in the defeat of the Democratic Party last week.

Late in the negotiations over the public option, a group of five conservative Democrats and five more-liberal Democrats seemed near to an unexpectedly smart compromise: Allow adults over 55 to buy into Medicare. This idea had a couple of different virtues: For one, it opened an effective and cheap program up to a group of Americans who often have the most trouble finding affordable insurance. For another, the Congressional Budget Office has said this policy would improve Medicare's finances by bringing healthier, younger applicants into the risk pool. Oh, and it's wildly popular with liberals, who want to see Medicare offered as an option to more people, and since Medicare is already up and running, it could've been implemented rapidly.

But Lieberman killed it. It was never really clear why. He'd been invited to the meetings where the compromise was developed, but he'd skipped them. He'd supported the idea when he ran for president with Al Gore, and he'd reaffirmed that support three months prior to its emergence in the health-care debate during an interview with the editorial board of the Connecticut Post. But now that it was on the table, he seemed to be groping for reasons to oppose it. About the best he managed was that it was "duplicative," which was about as nonsensical a position as could be imagined. Nevertheless, he swore to filibuster the bill if the buy-in option was added. The proposal was duly removed

My emphases. What a sleazy piece of crap.

What A Fool/Tool

Apparently I wasted my vote two years ago. Yes, I linked to the WSJ. I guess the world really is ending.

Typical - Another Reason To Wonder About What Happened To America

Atrios.

Fortunately it might be so hideous even the Dems will reject it.

Crooks & Liars.

The Catfood Commission co-chairs are trying hard to get ahead of the untimely release of their draft proposals for deficit reduction because they are so incredibly draconian no one would possibly agree to them, much less 14 of 18 commissioners, which is what it takes to get them approved.

Mother Jones.

This document is a paean to cutting the federal government, not cutting the federal deficit.

Digby.

Obama has made some less than savvy political decisions in office but this one has to take the cake. If he ends up signing on to deep cuts in social security in exchange for some tax hikes that will be subject to revision by the next idiot Republican who comes into office bleating "it's your money!" then he will have presided over the destruction of the Democratic Party.

Oh Loyal Five Readers, Here This

Yes, I'm watching ESPN right now, but I am able to multitask. I still, I guess, have hope that things can change. We certainly need to de-claw FAUX News, de-fang them & de-nut/ovary them as well. Here's a good way to begin. I beseech you, loyal five readers, to click & then make yourself heard. Thanking you in advance. Your humble, I guess, scribe.

http://www.pfaw.org/DropFox

Sports Beat - The Refs Played Well In Two Games

Packers win big, very big.

& Favre passes for more yards than he has ever thrown in his career & the result is an overtime win.

Sports Beat

Badgers win, 34-13. The headline is a bit misleading by using the word "rally" - Jeez Louise, a 21 point win & somehow a rally is needed? Oh well, the did win & are now 8-1.

After coming in from splitting a bunch of firewood, I, in keeping with the new view, watched the end of the LSU-Alabama game. I have strongly disliked Alabama, as a team, for decades. It must have something to do with George Wallace or Easy Rider or the dipshit Sabin or irony, I don't know. Anyway, LSU won, 24-21. It was a good third & fourth quarters.

& I forgot the pro-division last week: The Packers beat the NY Jets 9-0. It was a pretty boring game, 3 field goals is all the offense could muster. I think I read somewhere that this was the first Packer's on-the-road shutout since 1991. I guess there is something to say for that. We'll see how they do tomorrow against the really lousy Dallas Cowboys, another team I don't much like, never have, for that matter. The local sports writers have put together a report card for the Packers at midseason. If you're interested, go read it.

On to the Turner Classic Movies channel, or, truthfully, on to the Arkansas-South Carolina game.  Go Razorbacks, Steve Spurrier is a first class asshat.

From The Progressive

Read Mathew Rothchild's analysis of President Obama's press conference.

He repeatedly mentioned the need for “civility” and “consensus” at a time when it’s more important than ever to slug out the ideological differences.

That's as true a statement as I've heard lately. We can no longer waste any time, emotion, money, or passion in defending, helping, supporting President Obama. He has failed to lead from the very beginning of his administration. What a waste of a potentially positive, progressive presidency. What a waste.

Will It Be Mended? I'm No Longer Sure

Yes, We Dolts & DFH Can Count, But We Could Not Count On You

We can fucking count, out here. We know what 51 means. We know what 257 means. We're not morons. And all the procedural whatsit you argue today, about ConservaDems and Blue Dogs, doesn't mean shit. You had it, and we worked hard to give it to you, and we see you calling things impossible which are just very hard, and we get fucking annoyed, because we don't get to get away with that shit. Not at our jobs and not in our lives.

Athenae is right. My personal solution to what happened Tuesday, at least for awhile, is to watch ESPN & TCM 24/7.  I should have known better than to expect the Democratic Party to actually be a fucking party that gave a shit. I knew President Obama was what we used to call when I was young a moderate RuThug. I've watched this country slide downhill ever since Reagan. I'm sick of making excuses for a leadership that has no idea how to lead. I used to think that there was a real difference between the parties, now I know I was wrong. OK, back to the VA-Tech/GA-Tech game. Man, what a run back. My emphasis.

Is This The End?

The fruition of Alzheimer Ronnie vision of America is apparently happening tonight. In some ways we deserve it, since we did not force the goddamned Democratic Party to actually be the Democratic Party. The powers that be became so afraid of the bullshit pouring out of the mouths of the ReThugs that they became ReThug-lite in many ways. This sure isn't the country I thought it was. Yeah, I'm feeling poorly about myself right now.