Sen. Vitter (R-Diaperville)

With apologies to the Bad River Band. Apparently Sonia Sotomayor is too tough on the johns & goes easy on the sex workers. Vitter deserves the dust bin of history with no toilet paper.

Aw, Too Bad

I was hoping Brett Favre would return as a Viking.  & I hate the suckwad Vikings. I hoped he would come back so that he could show up the stupid, evil upper management for the Green Bay Packers. Brett Favre was the ultimate Packer (notwithstanding that he apparently is a ReThug) & deserved way better treatment from McCarty & Thompson.

Leonard Peltier

Mr. Peltier has another parole hearing coming up. Read about it here. For those of you interested in a great book that was initially banned in the good, ol' US of A, read Peter Matthiessen's great book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.  While this is no revelation, Mr. Matthiessen questions the matter of justice on the reservation.

Purchased Justice

Well, it looks like the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is getting the justice is paid for. Many of the decisions being handed down by the Ziegler/Gableman led dipshits have the effect of giving huge victories to the powerful at the expense of the normal person. The purchased elections of Ziegler/Gableman is having the effect the WMC wanted - profits are way more important than people. It will take Wisconsin a long time to recover its dignity & fairness.

Celebration & Lamentation

We are finding more new mammal species while we continue to cause mass extinctions.

Since the last summary of the world’s mammals was published in 2005, tallying the roughly 5,400 mammalian species then known, Dr. Helgen said, an astounding 400 or so new species have been added to the list. “Most people don’t realize this,” he said, “but we are smack-dab in the middle of the age of discovery for mammals.”

Yet as he and other biologists are all too aware, we are also smack-dab in the middle of a great species smack down, an age of mass extinctions for which we humans are largely to blame. Estimates of annual species loss vary widely and are merely crude guesstimates anyway, but most researchers agree that, as a result of habitat destruction, climate volatility, pesticide runoff, ocean dumping, jet-setting invasive species and other “anthropogenic” effects on the environment, the extinction rate is many times above nature’s chronic winnowing. “Our best guess is that it’s hugely above baseline, a hundred times above baseline,” said John Robinson, an executive vice president at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “The problem is, we’ve only described an estimated 15 percent of all species on Earth, so most of what’s going extinct are things we didn’t even know existed.”

NEW

Scientists recently announced the discovery of a small monkey in the Amazon.   It's a small saddleback tamarin monkey.

Completely Dead, Except For Those Living In Zoos

China’s Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus), is listed as extinct in the wild.

My emphases.

Oh-Oh

This is a little too much oink for me. Let's hope there is a vaccine by the fall. I know I'll need it. & fall is only a month away.

In a disturbing new projection, health officials say up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.

My emphasis.

Our Far Flung Correspondent Continues His Corresponding Although I'm A Bit Concerned That Wonderdog Blackie Will Not Be Attending The Picnic

I mean, what's the poor dog going to eat? Maybe Sarah will shoot a moose or something for Blackie. From the comments:

July 23 - received word that Sarah Palin will preside at some sort of picnic as Governor at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer about five miles down the road tomorrow afternoon.

Yours truly and SO will attend - Wonderdog Blackie will not be attending. We plan to assess Sarah's political situation and get some free stuff (this is a very socialist state).

Will add more tomorrow if Sarah does something interesting.

John Dawson, R.I.P.

Obit here.

Pragmatism

I have listened to this argument my entire life & I have come to despise it. It sure doesn't jibe with what we are supposed to stand for. I am also sick to death of being told how naive I am.

“This regime clearly understand that for the United States, democracy is not a priority, freedom of speech is not a priority,” Mr. Beshimov said.

So much for change we can believe in.  My emphasis.

Human Hobbies

Back yard Jupiter watching. I like the last paragraph of this story, it quotes the amateur astronomer who found the impact site.

In another interview, Mr. Wesley told the Sydney Morning Herald that spotting the impact mark on Jupiter made him glad the huge planet is in Earth’s neighborhood: “If anything like that had hit the Earth it would have been curtains for us, so we can feel very happy that Jupiter is doing its vacuum-cleaner job and hoovering up all these large pieces before they come for us.”

I appreciate the image of Jupiter as a really big vacuum cleaner. My emphasis.

Gordon Waller, R.I.P.

I'm late to this, sorry. More can be read here. The original post that I saw is here.

Peter and Gordon

This Is What Happens When You Eat Overly Processed Food & Drive

Via The Journal/Sentinel of Milwaukee, WI.

Don't Want To Be Demented? Eat Fish, But Sadly, Leave The Porterhouse Behind

Well, I just bought two pounds of tribal caught whitefish filets the other day, so it looks like I won't be demented any time soon. Hey, shut up you guys.

Oily fish are rich in omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which some studies suggest are positively related to cognitive function in later life.

Conversely, there is a suggestion from some studies that increased meat consumption may be related to cognitive decline.

Walter Cronkite, R.I.P.

Obit here. I remember him best, of course, for his JFK assassination reporting & his finally turning on the Viet Nam war.

Bailout? How Are You Doing?

A couple of big banks are doing well, thank you taxpayers very much. Lending money to home buyers, car buyers, parents wanting to send their kids to college? Not so much. This show just what is so wrong about the American economy. All of our money spent to "save" the economy only serves to save the very people who fucked it up to begin with. This also shows what a sham our justice system has become.

Both companies continue to rely on a range of federal rescue programs to raise money from investors, a key factor in their strong results.

Yeah, right.