If Only

More Horror

Happy Halloween

Farve Loses

Packers win. Big whoop.

I've Been Up For Awhile Now, But What A Way To "Start" A Cloudy Sunday In Late October

The Sundays - Wild Horses

Sports Beat, Collegiate Division

Badgers win, beat Iowa. Someday, maybe, I'll tell y'all about a weekend in Iowa way back in the day. It did include a football game, among other things.

Let's hope the professional division of the Beat will be as happy tomorrow.

Juan Williams Finally Fired By NPR

The right-wing's favorite "liberal" lap dog, Juan Williams was finally fired by NPR. IMHO, he was fired for being his usual stupid self. This separation took way too long & now Williams can crawl into the hole of Faux News, where he will continue to be welcomed & now he'll be petted & stroked to help assuage the pain inflicted on him by the "liberal" NPR. Their will be no accountability expected of him at Faux. Serves him right.

IWW - Vote Them In Jimmy John's Workers

What an encouraging development, the Industrial Workers of the World is attempting to organize the workers at Jimmy John's sandwich shops in the Minneapolis area. It's great to see this union, which never really went away, exercise some muscle. I sure hope they are successful in their attempt. Nothing to lose but your chains, Jimmy John's sandwich folks.

A Couple Of Dead Guys

Tom Bosley, R.I.P.

Boy, oh, Boy, R.I.P.

Empty Bowls, Warm Soup - Powderhorn Park Edition

Here's something worth the donation, plus you get to pick out & keep the bowl. I am depending on my loyal five, yes five, readers to participate if they can, if not at Powderhorn Park, then at a location near where they reside. I am really happy to be able to say five - 5 - fiverreeno - loyal readers.

Time - Friday, November 5 · 11:00am - 7:00pm

Location - Powderhorn Park Building (please share this event)
35th street & 15th Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55407

Publish Post

For more info here's the Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109756485753294

Thank The Diety Or Non-Diety Or No Diety For This

No disrespect to pregnant women everywhere, but for the rest of humanity this is a precaution we can live with, in fact, a precaution that should become an injunction of the permanent kind.

Corrupt, Worthless Refs Strike Again

Oh, the Packers stink, also.

Sports Beat - Collegiate Division

UW-Madison wins. In fact, they beat the No. 1 ranked OSU Buckeyes. I'm glad, but was happier back in the day when they beat that moron Woody Hayes, what an embarrassment to sports in general. Anyway, big day in Madison yesterday & probably a big night yesterday & this early a.m. Hope no one was poisoned with alcohol & that all love-making was consensual.

Barbara Billingsley, R.I.P.

She's dead.

Stewardess I Speak Jive! - AIRPLANE!

No More Time, Not Even A Little - General Johnson, R.I.P.

I remember that song, clearly. It's funny what I do remember clearly & what I have absolutely no notion of ever having experienced. Here's a brief obit. More from the LA Times, a once good newspaper.

Here's One Reason To Vote For Julie Lassa

The EPA sucks it up & does the good & right thing in regards to the destruction of not only West Virginia's natural world, but our, as in the American, natural world. Notice, too, how the woman spokesperson (why do these asshole corporations all have women spokespersons? What, to soften the insidious nature of their behavior?) absolutely refuses to acknowledge the environmental destruction? It's all about jobs & money, which are clearly important, but that sort of world view will lead us nowhere, & everybody knows that. To me, this world view is what is so damaging to our survival, this inability to lead, as a corporation, to a healthier life, rather than a supposed wealthier life for 250 people. Not a fair trade-off by any means. Good for the EPA. Oh, & don't vote for the pot-smoking(? - it would be criminal not to speculate) Sean "Slick" Duffy. He never met a mountaintop he didn't want to see leveled.

Dick "Dick" Cheney - All You Need To Know About What A Worthless Human Being He Is

Mr. Whittington, the man Dick "Dick" shot, still waits.

Despite his scars, Whittington bears no ill will toward Cheney. He calls him "a very capable and honorable man" and adds, "He's said some very kind things to me."

But did Cheney ever say in private what he didn't say in public? Did he ever apologize?

Whittington, who has been talking about his life and career for hours, suddenly draws silent.

"I'm not going to go into that," he says sharply after a short pause.

Harry Whittington is too gracious to say it out loud, but he doesn't dispute the notion, either.

Nearly five years on, he's still waiting for Dick Cheney to say he's sorry.

My emphasis.

Another Reason Why President Obama & The Democrats Are In Trouble

The half-baked health care bill allows insurance companies to pretty much do whatever they want to do. & hoping that the bill will be changed by 2014, if the weak-kneed, spineless Democrats can rebuff the ReThugs' attempts to dismantle this, the greatest of all health care overhauls. But of course, I'm a DFH & am not a serious person. I think I'm getting sick.

Will The Military & The Executive Brahch Obey The Judiciary?

That would be a dumbass question if it weren't for the fascist wing of the ReThuglican Party?  This is a good ruling. Let's hope it's the end of discrimination in the military.

I'm Sure Happy About This Mining Outcome

Now let's hoped the rest of the operation goes a smoothly. Let's also hope the mining company gets it in the teeth for forcing these men into dangerous quarters for the profit of the shareholders & not the men who are the producers of the shareholder's wealth. The trouble (one of the troubles, I suppose) with mining is that the thinking, study, experimentation to develop alternatives to the actual copper, silver, etc., is retarded by the constant need for basically free profits. I suppose we will never reach a point where gold is irrelevant, since we have come to believe, as a species, apparently, that gold is the ultimate sign of wealth. See the idiotic novel by the sex-starved Ayn Rand for instance with its solid gold dollar sign as the true symbol of the true nation. I read that stupid book when I was seventeen & of course I like it since it gave me the fake opportunity to be a superman & have girls & women & men & boys & trout & salmon falling all over me, just because I was an evil, cutthroat son-of-bitch when it came to accumulating money. As an aside, I'll tell you the limits of free speech - Ayn Rand's awful books - The are the only books I have ever burned in the 61 years of my life & I had a good time doing it, while drinking a Wisco made beer(s) in the evening.

Happy Birthday John Lennon

What a waste.

The BEATLES birthday song

More here & here & here & here.

Damnit. When Will Gary Snyder Win The Nobel Prize For Literature?

Or me, for that matter, but Vargas Llosa? An author who described, in detail, the dumping of six "turds" into the crapper? I also believe he's one of the famous right-wing politicos Latin America, not an admirable title.

Buzz Buzz

Looks like the Army has an interest in solving the great bee die off of the early 21st century. I sure hoped they actually wanted the bees to live for what they have evolved to do: pollinate & make honey, but no, it's about protecting people, read soldiers, from biological agents in the battlefield. So much for hope. I am happy, however, that they may have solved this hive collapse phenomena. Too bad that the nation no longer feels the need to fund this sort of research at public universities without the shadow of the military hovering about. I suppose this is the reason the research center is located in Montana home of some really wonderful people. Oh yeah, hear is another example of trouble in Big Sky Country.

Damn! Norwegians!*

Neither the nonheroicvet nor I won the chemistry Prize. So, far we are zero for however many they've awarded this week. I mean chemistry. I know a lot about chemistry, like how you put gas in a tank & you can drive to Duluth, now that's chemistry.

*Full disclosure: I'm 25% Norwegian.

No Wonder People Don't Read Newspapers Anymore

I just wish these corporate assholes would realize that the people actually can read, 99 percent, the same as North Korea & Canada, for Pete's sake. Instead, they (the corporate assholes) believe we are dumber than posts & appreciate advertising posing as news. It is true that about a third of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim, but that can be associated with the fact that we have little in great journalism anymore. People believing President Obama is a Muslim is a direct result of lousy journalism, & they keep "reporting" on this rather than correcting it. The people can read & hear, we just need to make sure what they are reading & hearing isn't the lies of FOX News, which in itself is an oxymoron.

A Great Achievement & Honor

Dr. Edwards wins the Nobel Prize. I'm sure the ReThugs will claim it's a socialist, Marxist, Democratic, fascist plot led by Ali Hussein Obama.  Here's the face of right-wingers probably hate.

Packers Beat The Lions, The Lions!

Barely. Barely!

Bucky Sucks

Lousy game. It's been my feeling for a few years now that it's not so much that the Wisco players are overrated, it's that the coach, Beilema, is overrated. More here.

Ahead Of Their Time In Fashion

& now they are fossils.

The fossil specimen was a giant bird about five feet tall that had an exceptionally elongated beak with a grooved tip. Its estimated body mass was twice that of today’s emperor penguin, so it was one of the largest penguins that ever lived. The extinct species has been named Inkayacu paracasensis, meaning the water emperor from the Reserva Nacional de Paracus, the place in Peru where the fossils were uncovered.

Another example of why science matters.

Why J.B. Van Hollen Needs To Be Defeated

Van Hollen's political ally, Ken Kratz, was not investigated with the same vengeance as the supposed kingpins of voter fraud. Van Hollen, much like Sean Duffy, is more interested in furthering his career than in doing his job. ReThugs of a feather flock together.

I Don't Think A Lame Apology Is Quite Enough

I knew about Alabama - they called it an experiment. I'll call it what it was - racist murder. Now, something I did not know about, the same "experiment" in Guatemala.

...the National Institutes of Health, even paid for syphilis-infected prostitutes to sleep with prisoners, since Guatemalan prisons allowed such visits. When the prostitutes did not succeed in infecting the men, some prisoners had the bacteria poured onto scrapes made on their penises, faces or arms, and in some cases it was injected by spinal puncture.

Helluva medical protocol. My emphasis. The obvious question: how come none of these experiments involved white guys, like, oh, sailors in San Diego?  OK, some facts:

In World War I, the Army lost nearly 7 million person-days and discharged more than 10,000 men because of STDs. Only the great influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 accounted for more loss of duty during that war.

(10,000, probably all men, - sounds like a research pool to me, ed.)

****
Among World War II draftees, the rates of syphilis varied by region, with a peak prevalence of 11.3 cases per 100 selectees from the southern Atlantic states and a low of 1.1 cases per 100 selectees from New England.

(Goddamned eastern liberals, & you can bet your next paycheck that those soldiers from the southern Atlantic states were white as the day is long ed.)

While doing the research for this post, OK, I Googled, I came across this bit of American intelligence, intelligence similar to the actual thinking that intellectually supported the Tuskegee & Guatemalan travesties:

Q: How many black American soldiers served overseas in World War 2?
A: i have a big penis

(I particularly like the cool lack of punctuation & capitalization trick. All people of color are stupid, don't you know?)

&, of course, we must identify the cause of not only syphilis, but all STDs:

Now we know.

Almost Sanity

Thanks to UW-Superior's most famous graduate, sunny CA moved a bit closer to sanity.

...those caught possessing small amounts of the drug on the same level as those caught speeding on the freeway.

Of Course This Is True

I found myself in a roomful of women just the other day & I can attest tot he accuracy of this report. I have had four upper GI endoscopies in the last two years & each procedure was done by a woman who was assisted completely by women. Everything went extremely well. The type of research discussed in the article is exactly why we need more science, not more religion. More science, less right-wing politics. More science, more science, more science.

A new study co-authored by MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Union College researchers documents the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people who cooperate well, showing that such intelligence extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups' individual members, and that the tendency to cooperate effectively is linked to the number of women in a group.

My emphasis.