Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

McDonalds denies workers comp to heroic employee

In another case of corporate greed ...

I hope that, as is usual with these types of cases, once publicity gets out, McDonald's will back down. McDonald's has denied workers compensation benefits to an employee who was shot when he ejected a customer who had been beating a woman inside the restaurant. Why, you might ask? Well ...

A surveillance video of the incident, which had been posted to YouTube, was taken down after McDonald's charged copyright infringement (AKA, they wanted it pulled because of bad PR). However, TV station KARK has posted video that is not subject to copyright infringement. It's obvious from the video that Nigel Haskett, then aged 21, was a hero.

Read the rest at SNAFU'ed.

The Land of Oz is not so far away


Map of the Land of Oz from the 1970's
Tucked to the side of the highest town on the east coast is a majestic land where one can find their heart, brain, courage or maybe just home. Hidden just a lift ride away from Ski Beech lies Kansas and the Emerald City, also known as the Land of Oz and one weekend a year fans can relive Dorothy’s travels and encounters.

The Land of Oz was the vision of Grover Robbins, who also designed Tweetsie Railroad. His dream was to create a special park for children that could continue the use of the ski mountain year around, bringing people into buy property and providing ongoing jobs for local craftsmen. The designer of the park Jack Pentes worked to keep the environment intact and miraculously only cut down one tree during the building process. Robbins attended the Wizard of Oz auction that MGM held in 1969, picking up actual artifacts from the movie to give the park a more authentic feel. The park opened in 1970 to an outstanding 400,000 customers in the first year, making it the leading tourist attraction in North Carolina overnight.

Sadly, Robbins died six months prior to the park’s opening, leaving ownership to his two brothers, Harry and Spencer Robbins. For the next decade the Land of Oz exceeded the expectations of its visionaries and the Beech Mountain community. Eventually developers began to put their money into other projects across the High Country including the Hound Ears development and Elk River Club, without this money coming in deterioration and maintenance issues arose across the park. With the economic downturn of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, the resort industry took a hit wearing away at the park’s profits. The combination of these factors eventually led to the park closing in 1980. The park was left empty allowing vandals to have free run destroying or taking the few pieces of Oz that were left behind.

Emerald Mountain Realty took ownership of the park in 1990 and began the much-needed maintenance of Dorothy’s farm, the various gazebos, the fountain and patched up the yellow brick road. At the same time, Ski Beech wanted to expand to add more slopes, placing ski slopes that now lead right up to the Land of Oz and changing the balloon gondola ride that many took to enter Oz into a ski lift. The 440-acre project of Emerald Mountain development began shortly after. The development places private mountain top estates along the edges of Oz, creating a unique backyard for the homeowners.

The first weekend of October every year the Land of Oz goes back to the glory days of the 70’s for Autumn at Oz. During this weekend the public is invited to take a stroll down the yellow brick road, visit with the volunteer actors, tour the mini-Oz museum with actual items from the movie, and stop by the homes of Dorothy, the Lion, the Tin-man, the Scarecrow and the Wicked Witch.

“It’s hard to say what the best part of Autumn at Oz is, but it would have to be all the volunteers and folks that are so excited to do it,” said Cindy Keller of Emerald Mountain Realty and Land of Oz property manager. “Their enthusiasm surely carries me through it.”

Tickets for the tour are $15, and proceeds go to the continuing maintenance and upkeep of the park.

Beginning in 2009, the Land of Oz theme park is available for more than just one weekend a year. The public may now rent the park to host personal functions. Whether the event is a birthday, wedding, reunion or a corporate retreat, folks are encouraged to follow the Yellow Brick Road for a memorable event.

“We invite those planning their special occasions to choose this magical spot,” says Keller. “What better place than Oz to host a grand event?”

Available to party-goers is the Fountain of Youth, the Judy Garland Memorial Overlook Gazebo, a patio area, Uncle Henry’s Barn, Dorothy’s house, a small Oz museum, and the 44,000-brick Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy’s house is also available as a vacation rental for overnight stays.

“We envision events from birthday parties to weddings to company gatherings,” Keller said. “Depending on the event tours can be provided, guests can bring their own picnic or we can work something out to cater. Prices will vary depending on how much of the park will be used, whether there will be tours and catering.”

Past generations were able to see the park in its original glory, current and future generations will now be able to create personal visions of Oz exclusive to only them. Although the Land of Oz may not have aged as gracefully as its past owners and visionaries had hoped, Emerald Mountain Realty believes it has aged into a magically unique escape from reality which visitors can now take advantage of more frequently.

Five Stars for the Library

Charlotte-Mecklenburg's public library has received a five star rating from the national library association that rates the nation's libraries.

Only 84 of the over 7000 public libraries in the United States have received this rating.

Stir it up


The Wailers
(featuring Bob Marley and Peter Tosh)

Ice Age Camels Butchered in Colorado

Stone tools found in Boulder, Colorado were used to butcher camels and horses 13,000 years ago, before the beasts became extinct in the region.

A new biochemical analysis of a rare Clovis-era stone tools was done at the University of Colorado at Boulder. It is the first study to identify protein residue from extinct camels on North American stone tools and only the second to identify horse protein residue on a Clovis-age tool, said CU-Boulder Anthropology Professor Douglas Bamforth, who led the work.

The Clovis culture is believed by many archaeologists to coincide with the time the first Americans arrived on the continent from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge, about 13,000 to 13,500 years ago.

Read the rest here.

T-shirt theft at Gastonia mall turns into brawl

Police in Gastonia say the three people who stole clothing from a store Tuesday afternoon at Westfield Eastridge Mall managed to cause quite a ruckus before they fled.

The three became involved in a series of fights with employees at the Hollister Co. clothing store in the mall.

It happened about 3:45 p.m., police say.

A 26-year-old male employee of the store, which sells clothing aimed at teens and young adults, said two men and a woman entered Hollister Co., started a fight with him, and then grabbed 20 T-shirts.

Another employee, a 25-year-old man, saw what was happening and came to help. He got involved in a fight with one of the suspects. Police say that when a third employee, a 26-year-old woman, tried to call mall security, the female suspect jumped on her and began fighting.

Then a fourth employee, a 25-year-old woman, returned to the store after a break, spotted the ruckus, and also tried to call mall security. That woman told police that the female suspect then assaulted her.

The three suspects got away with clothing valued at $485, police say.

Members of 'Bloods' gang are indicted

Fifteen suspected members and associates of the “Bloods” gang have been indicted on federal firearms, drug and robbery charges – the third time in two years that authorities have targeted gangs and their criminal activities in Charlotte.

The 41-count indictment, unsealed Wednesday, alleges that the gang members were selling cocaine, heroin and marijuana, operating a “crack house” on Dundeen Street in Charlotte, committing robberies and illegally using and possessing firearms.

Thirteen of the 15 suspects, with nick names like “Dawg,” “Wad,” “Brother Man,” “B-Dog” and “Monk,” were rounded up Wednesday morning and are in federal custody.

The indictment followed a six-month investigation by the FBI and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

“Today's indictment underscores our ongoing commitment to eradicate violent drug gangs,” U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert said. “Law enforcement partnerships are critical to our success.”

It's the third time since 2007 that federal prosecutors have sought similar indictments against gang members in Charlotte.

In March of 2007, members of the Hidden Valley Kings, Charlotte's most notorious home-grown gang, were indicted in federal court. The gang members were sentenced to long prison terms in December.

Last June, members of MS-13, a violent gang with roots in El Salvador, were indicted. The case is scheduled for trial in June.

“We have shown that when agencies work together, we have the power to bring down entire gangs,” Nathan Gray, who heads the FBI in North Carolina, said. “We will continue to do all we can to make sure people walk through their neighborhoods and not fear gang violence.”

The indictment identified the defendants as members or associates of the Bloods or narcotics suppliers of the gang.

The gang members are accused of conducting the bulk of their drug trafficking and other criminal activity in the area along Beatties Ford Road, between Capps Hill Mine Road and Brookshire Boulevard. They bought and sold narcotics in and around dwellings often referred to by the defendants as “the Spot,” “the Trap,” “Daddy's House,” and “the Dungeon,” according to the indictment.

Another source of the gang's income, the indictment alleges, came from robberies of other drug dealers where both drugs and drug proceeds were obtained by violence and intimidation.

“Today's operation impacts the entire city,” Policed Chief Rodney Monroe said. “The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and all of its law enforcement partners, will continue to work extremely hard to remove the fear and intimidation caused by gangs in our neighborhoods. Our strategy is to root out this type of criminal activity.”

Woman wins house in raffle after husband laid off

Susan Wells was thrilled to learn she'd won a $2 million house in a raffle days after her husband had been laid off from his job. "I'm floored," said Wells, who bought the ticket as a surprise to celebrate the couple's 16th anniversary. "I can't believe this has happened. Needless to say, my husband is very surprised."

The house is in upscale Marin County, just north of San Francisco. The couple already own a home in Danville, a suburb south of San Francisco, and if they don't want to move they have the option of $1.2 million in cash.

They're still deciding what do, but Brad Wells, who had been a sales executive for a Silicon Valley high-tech company, said the winnings are definitely a boost.

"I got laid off on Wednesday and the company went bankrupt on Friday," he said. The couple got word of their win on Saturday. "It's been a really rough ride for the last year. This gives us an unbelievable lift."

The raffle was held by Community Action Marin, which netted about $1.3 million, down from $2 million last year, the first time the event was held.

"In this economy, we're still very pleased," said Russ Hamel, director of development for the group, a private social services organization.

There were 29,000 tickets sold and prizes in addition to the dream house included $200,000 in cash.

Susan Wells said the couple is celebrating by having dinner with their neighbors.

"We're bringing a very good bottle of champagne," she said.

Try at passing old $1,000 bill foils safe-robbers

Authorities say an antique $1,000 bill proved the downfall of three teenagers on the run in Michigan.

The Kalamazoo County sheriff's department says the trio stole a safe containing antique money from one of the youth's parents.

The Kalamazoo Gazette and the Birmingham News say they drove a stolen van to Birmingham, Ala., where an 18-year-old tried to exchange the $1,000 bill Thursday at a Service First Bank branch.

The U.S. Treasury stopped printing $1,000 bills in 1945, so the bank called police. Officers arrested the teen and two 15-year-old companions.

They remained in custody Tuesday in Birmingham awaiting return to Michigan. They're from Texas Township, about 135 miles west of Detroit.

Booze bust in Brunei nets 1,382 beer cans on boat

It was a beer run on the high seas. Brunei's customs officers arrested two men who tried to smuggle 1,382 cans of contraband beer by boat into the Muslim-majority country, a news report said Wednesday.

The men entered Brunei's waters from a neighboring nation Tuesday but tried to flee when they realized they had been spotted, the Borneo Bulletin newspaper reported. It did not identify the neighboring country, but Brunei shares borders with two Malaysian states on Borneo island.

Customs authorities foiled the escape after a high-speed chase, making their biggest seizure of alcohol this year, the report added.

Brunei's laws ban the public sale and consumption of alcohol, though non-Muslim visitors are allowed to bring in limited amounts for private consumption.

Representatives of Brunei's Royal Customs Department could not immediately be reached. The men are expected to be charged with alcohol smuggling, which is typically punished by a fine.

Just a matter of time


John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band

Farmer to take fight over bear carcass to court

A farmer says he's ready to take his fight with the state Department of Natural Resources over a bear carcass to court. Neil Schlough said he was harvesting corn November 26th when he realized he had hit an animal with his combine. He discovered it was a 700-pound bear.

He called a DNR warden, bought a $75 tag from the agency and decided to have his "trophy" bear mounted. But, at the taxidermy, bullets holes were found in the hide.

A man from West Fargo, N.D., later admitted shooting the bear out of season while hunting on land his family owned previously. Charges are pending.

The DNR seized the bear as evidence. But Schlough wants it back. He said the carcass was legally sold to him. He's hired an attorney and plans to sue the DNR for ownership.

Injured good Samaritan ticketed for jaywalking

From the "No good deed goes unpunished" Department:

A good Samaritan who pushed three people out of the path of a pickup before he was struck and injured has been ticketed for jaywalking. Family members say 58-year-old Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm.

Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He was in serious condition Wednesday.

The State Patrol issued the citation. Trooper Ryan Sullivan told the Rocky Mountain News that despite Moffett's intentions, jaywalking caused the accident.

The other good Samaritan was also cited for jaywalking. The pickup driver was cited for careless driving causing injury.

It's not clear if the women were cited. The patrol didn't return calls.

Store to balsamic vinegar thief: 'We will get you'

A sign hangs amid the bottles of vinegar at Newport Avenue Market. It's simple, to the point: "Thanks to the Balsamic Vinegar Thief this area is now under surveillance. We will get you." The last sentence, it should be noted, is underlined. For about a year, a thief pinched bottle after bottle of balsamic vinegar from the store - and not the low-end stuff.

No, this thief was after bottles that go for $30 or $40 a pop. "Thieves with good taste." That's how owner Rudy Dory explains them.

The store figured out what was going on when the order writer noticed he was buying a lot more balsamic vinegar than what the store was actually selling. The market has quite a large balsamic collection, but the thefts were noticeable.

So the sign went up.

A couple months ago, workers caught someone who they think may have been the balsamic bandit. The market didn't press charges, just banned the alleged thief from the store. Dory wouldn't say much about the suspect, just that it was a she.

So we are left to speculate. Maybe she needed that that last little ingredient for her many dinner parties. Maybe she was selling it on some sort of gourmet black market.

Whatever it is, Dory said, "it really irritates you."

"We don't know if we got the person or not," he added. The store has seen a slowdown in balsamic loss, but it hasn't stopped.

For now, the sign stays.

Shoplifting, of course, is a problem not limited to this market. Even so, Steve Esselstyn, community liaison for the Bend Police Department, says the police don't get many calls from grocery stores, and when they do it's typically something along the lines of a kid trying to score beer.

But balsamic vinegar?

"Well," Esselstyn said, "they must be a vegetarian."

Body rots in hearse

Alabama funeral director charged with corpse abuse
DECAYING BODY ARREST

This photograph released by the Etowah County Sheriff's Department in Gadsden, Ala., shows funeral director Harold Watson Sr. following his arrest on a charge of corpse abuse on Tuesday, February 24, 2009. Watson is accused of leaving a woman's body to decay in a parked hearse after her relatives failed to pay the bill.

A funeral director accused of leaving a woman's body to decay in a parked hearse after her relatives failed to pay the bill was arrested on a felony charge of abusing a corpse, police said Wednesday. Watson and Sons Funeral Home embalmed the remains of Edna Kathleen Woods, 52, after she died of natural causes in November 2007, said Gadsden police Sgt. Jeff Wright. Relatives wanted the body cremated but failed to sign the necessary paperwork or pay owner Harold Watson Sr., he said.

After storing the corpse at his funeral home for more than a year, Wright said, the 76-year-old Watson decided to move it because he couldn't reach the woman's family.

Someone complained about a foul smell near downtown Gadsden, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, and officers on Tuesday found the woman's remains in a cardboard box that was inside a locked hearse parked on a piece of property that Watson owns.

Watson was arrested after officers tracked the hearse to him. The body apparently was in the hearse for about two months, and the battery had been removed so no one could move the vehicle, Wright said.

Funeral directors with unclaimed bodies can file a petition to have counties dispose of remains.

"He knows better. The family wouldn't pay him, so he just got rid of it," Wright said.

Watson was free on bond and did not immediately return a message left at his funeral home. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

The head of the state office that regulates Alabama's funeral industry said Watson could lose his director's license if convicted.

"We don't have many cases this bizarre," said Warren Higgins, executive secretary of the Alabama Board of Funeral Service. "We're just waiting to hear more from the authorities in Gadsden."

Police didn't know how much the woman's relatives owed, and it wasn't clear who notified officers about the hearse.

Higgins said the funeral agency had not received any complaints about Watson's work since the early 1980s, when questions arose about whether he could use the name "Watson and Sons" for the business because his sons were not licensed morticians.

Watson was allowed to continue using the name provided he hired a licensed embalmer, Higgins said. Watson is not licensed to embalm bodies.

Let me in


One of MacDuff's cousins.

Antarctic glaciers melting faster than thought

Glaciers in Antarctica are melting faster and across a much wider area than previously thought, a development that threatens to raise sea levels worldwide and force millions of people to flee low-lying areas, scientists said Wednesday.

Researchers once believed that the melting was limited to the Antarctic Peninsula, a narrow tongue of land pointing toward South America. But satellite data and automated weather stations now indicate it is more widespread.

The melting "also extends all the way down to what is called west Antarctica," said Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Britain-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

"That's unusual and unexpected," he said.

Read the rest here.

Happy Birthday

Happy 66th to George Harrison who preached love and peace in this insane world.




Give Me Love

Question and Answer

Question: Why do repugicans lie?

Answer: The truth is their enemy - they have no choice but to lie.

Delusional Dimbulb

"More than 75% of people in a new poll say they are optimistic about the next four years with Obama. I don't believe that! That's not possible! I don't know anybody who's optimistic. Do you?"

~ Lush Dimbulb



Hummm ... I am, dimbulb, you twit ... optimistic that is - and so are most everyone I know. In fact the only ones who aren't are your fellow mendicants and troglodytes of the repugican cadre.

Time to stop playing nice with the Fascist dogs

An overwhelming majority of the American people (79%) say it is time to cease being nice to the repugicans and get on with repairing this country.

Why America Hasn’t Been Attacked Since 9/11

Over at Slate:
Slate has just published a special series from Timothy Noah about why America hasn’t been attacked since 9/11.
For over six weeks, Noah studied literature and interviewed terrorism experts about why the dire predictions of a 9/11 sequel proved untrue.
He concludes that it’s impossible to answer with certainty, but he comes up with eight theories — ranging from mildly mundane to deeply disturbing — on why we haven’t been attacked.

Beginning today and over the next seven days, Noah will explain one theory a day. Today he examines the “Terrorists-Are-Dumb” theory.


Make sure to check them out every day.

Think fast and be happy

A new study suggests that thinking quickly can boost your mood. It's not clear precisely why this is the case, but it seems that people believe that fast thinking is a sign of a good mood.
Also, thinking quickly might trigger the brain's dopamine system which is tied to pleasure.

From Scientific American Mind:

Researchers at Princeton and Harvard universities made research participants think quickly by having them generate as many problem-solving ideas (even bad ones) as possible...
... in 10 minutes, read a series of ideas on a computer screen at a brisk pace or watch an I Love Lucy video clip on fast-forward. Other participants performed similar tasks at a relaxed speed.

Results suggested that thinking fast made participants feel more elated, creative and, to a lesser degree, energetic and powerful. Activities that promote fast thinking, then, such as whip­ping through an easy crossword puzzle or brain-storming quickly about an idea, can boost energy and mood, says psychologist Emily Pronin, the study’s lead author.


*****

Well, this explains why I am so happy all the time ... I am a fast thinker - a very fast thinker.
Also, I think this is why some are forever attacking and attempting to degrade me and put their foibles off on me. (Oh, darn it, there I go sounding uppity)

California measure to legalize and tax pot

California's biggest cash crop is marijuana. San Francisco assemblyman Tom Ammiano wants to legalize it and tax it to help relieve some of the state's financial woes.

From the Los Angeles Times:
"I know the jokes are going to be coming, but this is not a frivolous issue," said Ammiano, a Democrat elected in November after more than a dozen years as a San Francisco supervisor. "California always takes the lead -- on gay marriage, the sanctuary movement, medical marijuana..."

Ammiano's measure, AB 390, would essentially replicate the regulatory structure used for beer, wine and hard liquor, with taxed sales barred to anyone under 21.

The natural world would benefit, too, from the uprooting of environmentally destructive backcountry pot plantations that denude fragile ecosystems, Ammiano said.

But the biggest boon might be to the bottom line. By some estimates, California's pot crop is a $14-billion industry, putting it above vegetables ($5.7 billion) and grapes ($2.6 billion). If so, that could mean upward of $1 billion in tax revenue for the state each year.

Thought for the Day

A poor but humble man who gives nothing to charity is preferable to a rich but haughty man who does.

~ Nachman of Bratslav

Hooked on Facts

By the numbers ...

Today's six facts are:

Indoor pollution is 10 times more toxic than outdoor pollution.

68% of a Hostess Twinkie is air!

Currently, 70% of American businesses do not have a website.

There are only 14 blimps in the world.

A million dollars worth of $100.00 dollar bills only weighs 22 pounds

Less than 3% of the water produced at a large municipal water treatment plant is used for drinking purposes.

Bonus Fact:

The New York Stock Exchange started as a coffee shop!
(And, from what we are seeing now from the Exchange ... it might ought to have stayed a coffee shop!!!!!)

Not a good idea ...

A catfish in a canal in Bavaria learned the hard way that it is not a good idea to try to eat a soccer ball for lunch.
The 6 and 1/2 foot long fish was found dead floating on the surface of a canal with a blue and white soccer ball stuck in its mouth. it appeared to have choked to death.
Karl-Heinz Kuberlein, a spokesman for the police, said the fish looked like it had tried to eat the soccer ball when it became lodged in its mouth.

Catfish normally eat things like algae and insects.
And around these parts worms and chicken livers that all the fishermen are putting on their hoks.

Cocaine


Eric Clapton
(live)

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Don't forget today is

Inconvenience Yourself Today Day.

Further evidence that this is a rough job market.

Topless Coffee Shop Drew 150 Applicants For 10 Positions

Vassalboro, Maine's newest coffee shop is garnering national attention for something other than its $3 a cup coffee. At the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop, the waitresses are, well, topless.

You can read the local paper's report here. The most interesting piece of news is not near the top of the story--it's not the news that many local residents are unhappy, or that other locals are already stopping by (as many as 60 customers on Monday).

The Kennebec Journal reports that the shop's owner Donald Crabtree said that he interviewed 150 people for the positions, "and narrowed the field to 10."

Further evidence that this is a rough job market.

The shop is located in what is described by a local government council as a "rural residential suburb"--population 4,500 or so. It opens at 6 a.m. to serve hot coffee and doughnuts.

One waitress explains her interest to the Journal:

Topless waitress Susie Wiley, 23, of Farmingdale, said she went for the job because it's "something different" and said she's worked in coffee shops since she was a teenager.

Asked whether the shop is degrading to women, Wiley said, "No, I love it. I find it very empowering, not degrading."

Question of the Day

A question for the repugicans

If government is so inept and awful ... why do you want to get and keep jobs in it?

(Could it be they fell comfortable there since inept and awful describe every single one of them.
I wonder???)

Spineless

Iowa's social-services agency acknowledged Tuesday that it looked into a company's treatment of its mentally disabled meatpacking workers as early as the 1970s, but decided it lacked the jurisdiction or enough evidence to act.

...the men lived at a 106-year-old house that locals called the bunkhouse. The city of Atalissa owned the home, and city officials recently acknowledged that some of its doors were padlocked, windows were boarded up and the heating system was broken, leaving only space heaters.

The men worked for Henry's Turkey Service, a Texas company that provided labor for a meatpacking operation near Atalissa in West Liberty. Recent inquiries showed the company diverted much of the mentally disabled men's paychecks and government payments to living expenses, leaving them about $65 a month in wages.

More here

Heads should be rolling as we speak! Talk about a lack of moral fiber and a backbone!

Telling the truth ...

If we discovered that we only had five minutes left to say all that we wanted to say, every telephone booth would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they loved them.

~ Christopher Morley

Priorities: We are not quitters

President Obama spoke to both houses of Congress last night and to the American people outlining the priorities for correcting the errors of the past (especially the last eight years) and setting this nation back on track.

Below are some excerpts from that address.




While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

"The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.


We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.

Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.




The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we’re taking to revive our economy in the short-term. But the only way to fully restore America’s economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.

In the next few days, I will submit a budget to Congress. So often, we have come to view these documents as simply numbers on a page or laundry lists of programs. I see this document differently. I see it as a vision for America – as a blueprint for our future.

My budget does not attempt to solve every problem or address every issue. It reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.

Given these realities, everyone in this chamber – Democrats and Republicans – will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me.

But that does not mean we can afford to ignore our long-term challenges. I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.




Yesterday, I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office. My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we’re starting with the biggest lines. We have already identified two trillion dollars in savings over the next decade.

In this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them. We’ll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use. We will root out the waste, fraud, and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.




I know that we haven’t agreed on every issue thus far, and there are surely times in the future when we will part ways. But I also know that every American who is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed. That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming months, and where we return after those debates are done. That is the foundation on which the American people expect us to build common ground.




But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary.

I think about Leonard Abess, the bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him. He didn’t tell anyone, but when the local newspaper found out, he simply said, ''I knew some of these people since I was 7 years old. I didn't feel right getting the money myself."

I think about Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community – how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay. "The tragedy was terrible," said one of the men who helped them rebuild. "But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity."

And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina – a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.

Human Nature

A gossip is one who talks to you about others, a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself.

~ Lisa Kirk

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House

If you hide income to evade taxes

and you are a repugican seeking to block disclosure of your cheating and not fulfilling your obligations honestly ...

You should be stripped of your citizenship - not be allowed to sue

UBS was sued on Tuesday in a Swiss federal court by wealthy American clients seeking to prevent the disclosure of their identities as part of a tax-evasion investigation by the United States justice department.

More in the New York Times

The Swiss will do the correct thing and laugh these suits out of court and out of the country.

Images of domestic bliss


Images of domestic bliss
(You realize of course that in the rest of the photos she is wearing only the shoes, right?!)

Moments of Ephiphany

The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall.

~ Mitch Hedberg

Darlin' Be Home Soon


The Lovin' Spoonful

Just maybe newspapers aren’t worth saving after all

Responding to a long, righteous article in the New Republic about why the decline of newspaper is going to be bad for democracy, ex-journalist Dan Conover holds forth:

Goose a few newspaper journalists these days and they’re likely to exclaim something about why Americans should care about saving their industry. And it’s likely to sound something like this: “Without us protecting the public as investigative watchdogs, government corruption is going to run amok!”

Which might be a compelling point, were it not for five little things:

1. Watchdogging government is hardly the primary purpose of modern newspapers (it doesn’t even make the Top Three in most outfits), and if Watchdogging ever interferes with Job No. 1 (generating double-digit profit margins for shareholders), Watchdogging is right out;
2. Few newspaper “watchdog” reports are based primarily on original research;
3. Newspaper editors, for all their posturing about government openness, have roughly zero interest in opening up their own processes and decision-making to public inspection;
4. The amount of resources devoted to truly investigative, power-challenging, applecart-upsetting, potentially unpopular stories at the average American newspaper is likely dwarfed by the comics page budget;
5. And finally, this argument assumes without evidence that even if my objections were untrue, newspapers would still be the appropriate place for this important societal function. […]

Ever wonder who does most of the public-policy grunt work in America? For the good guys, it’s typically underpaid crusaders at civic-minded non-profit groups, people who care about clean water and safe food and healthy children other such left-wing nonsense. Newspapers count on these scruffy muckrackers, even though they typically distance themselves from their “radical” agendas.

The bad guys, like the American Petroleum Institute, or, say Envron, hire platoons of well-groomed lobbyists, experts and public-relations specialists to sell their stories. And even though they are deliberately engaged in distorting the truth to protect their interests, these people are treated as respectable, credible media sources.

Much of what passes for watchdog investigative reporting is based on studies conducted by these pesky non-profits, or by anonymous government underlings in some state auditor’s office, or the federal GAO, and so on. They produce the proof, editors build stories around their findings, and each year on press awards night, some reporters get plaques that credit them with the whole enterprise.

Is there newspaper reporting, investigative or otherwise, that takes on a public-policy issue and challenges ruling orthodoxy without a boost from an interest group? Probably. But newspapers generally refuse to poke the status-quo without being able to cite some interest group for raising the issue. Wanna know why? Because the status quo is where the money and power are. Do the math.

One final thing about this weird dance of newspaper reporters and watchdog groups. In the old days, each benefited. Today, the only thing the newspaper gives the watchdog is greater exposure — not the ability to publish, not the credibility to contact influencers and decision-makers. What newspaper people won’t tell you is that their value to the original institutional watchdoggers is declining. Rapidly. […]

These systemic failures do nothing to limit government corruption. Rather, the first-hand knowledge of how easy it is to warp press coverage and spin public opinion has the opposite effect. Through our sloppy standards and the overarching greed of our corporate paymasters, my former profession has encouraged generations of corporate and governmental sleaze. We didn’t watchdog President Bush’s claims about WMDs. We didn’t take seriously the voices that had been warning for years about the impending collapse of the subprime mortgage market. If your local newspaper gives the mayor’s denials of proven but complex facts equal weight with the facts themselves, then your city hall is likely rife with sleek, smug injustice. And so on.

Full Story

Newspaper have abdicated their position as have the broadcast media as 'watchdogs' in favor of becoming 'lapdogs' and as such should die as ignoble a death as possible along with their brethren in the broadcast media.

It is the bloggers who are serving as the 'watchdogs' now and are watching and reporting those who would do harm to mankind such as neo-cons, religio-fanatics, and the ilk - even those claiming to be 'bloggers' but are in fact syncophants of the neo-cons, religio-fanatics, and the ilk trying to obfuscate, distort and otherwise mislead and misinform.

If liberty means anything ...

if liberty means anything

The truth often is found when and where you least expect it.

Golfer's periscope

A NOVEL “skyscraper” periscope shows golfers the blind fairway at the third hole at the Aberoovey golf course in Wales.

The unusual periscope is 30 feet tall. At the third hole of the course the fairway rises so abruptly from the driving tee that golfers can not see the green even though the hole is only 165 yards long. By peering through the periscope, waiting golfers can see in what direction to drive and also note when the putting green is clear.

The periscope is a hollow wood tube fastened to a pole. The top of the instrument is covered with a gabled roof to protect it from rain.

Tall Periscope Aids Golfers (December 1933)

And I Quote

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

~ Victor Borge

Circuit City liquidators selling broken returns

In further proof that Circuit City's liquidators are crooks and liars ...

A reader of Kotaku bought a game.

Inside the box was a disk ripped up by a shredder, with the previous owner's name carved into it.

All sales final!

Banty Raids


Foghorn Leghorn

Science News

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Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Creative thinking has always been your specialty, and today you can use it to make things happen.

Cool Beans!