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.
They're called "Lazarus species" — creatures that have disappeared, sometimes for millions of years, only to miraculously be rediscovered again in modern times. Their rediscoveries are a bewildering reminder that when given a chance, life finds a way to survive.
Here's a short list of 13 animals long-feared extinct that, in fact, have been rediscovered.
The United States was seen as the ideal place for business, one of the top places for families, shopping and quality products, as well as one of the countries people wanted to visit whether for the first time or again.
The FutureBrand survey echoes a similar poll which showed that the United States was the most admired country globally, largely thanks to Obama's global popularity.
Regulators on Friday shut banks in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and California, bringing the number of bank failures this year to 120 amid the struggling economy and a cascade of defaults on loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over United Commercial Bank in San Francisco, with $11.2 billion in assets and $7.5 billion in deposits. East West Bancorp Inc., parent company of East West Bank based in Pasadena, Calif., is buying all of the deposits and most of the failed bank's assets.
As noted by PR Watch : "According to a 2008 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, firearms are the second most common cause of violent deaths of women, accounting for 29.2% of all violent deaths among females in the U.S. in 2008."
Carolina Naturally has been nominated for best small blog (authority between 101 and 200). If you would be so inclined, please throw a vote our way. Or maybe a couple of them.
Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders -- and tattoos -- exposed.
"All Americans have health care, every single one."
~ Steve King
Perhaps in an alternative universe all Americans have health care. In this universe we do not have universal health care. The repugicans have been making that factually inaccurate statement for months now but King is in fantasy land.
Don't laugh, at least not yet. There was a time when 7-11 coffee was looked down upon, but now, not so much. Let's not forget that McDonald's as well is making inroads into Starbucks' market share. So what's wrong with 7-11 wine?
Actually a lot of things are wrong with this, but that is another blurb.
A Somalian man has been stoned to death after being convicted of adultery. His pregnant girlfriend has been spared. However, that mercy will only last until she gives birth.
With the technology industry looking on, the Supreme Court on Monday will explore what types of inventions should be eligible for a patent in a pivotal case that could undermine such legal protections for software.
The wingnut media (as well as corporate media), would have you believe that the repugicans 'winning' the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey this past Tuesday was a mandate for the repugican party and Nazism.
However, the total destruction of the repugican candidates in two special elections in New York and California are not mentioned except in passing if even then.
First of all the state of Virginia has a sacred tradition of electing a governor from another party other than the party of the sitting president since the inception of this nation and it has been a certainty for the past 150 years or so that they did so (prior to that governors of the same party did rarely make it to the governor's mansion), so no surprise or 'mandate' there. Sorry wingnuts you still have no future.
Then there is New Jersey - where an unpopular governor who would have lost to a bag of shit (oh, wait he did), even if he was running for re-election unopposed by anyone. Sorry wingnuts you still have no future.
And what about New York? In New York's 23rd District, national support for a wingnut candidate led to a Democratic victory in an area that had voted repugican since 1852. Sorry wingnuts you still have no future.
Out in California the same thing happened as did in New York - support the wingnut candidate and lose the election in a big way. Sorry wingnuts you still have no future.
And here in North Carolina the city of Charlotte threw out the wingnuts and elected a young Democrat as mayor - and to top it off he is not a WASP. Sorry wingnuts you still have no future.
The 'Mandate' is that the real American people are tired of the wingnuts and are throwing them out like yesterday's smelly fish.
The exchange was recorded and was first published on Khamenei's website. Lots of buzz about this story but for now, it's more of a mystery to be answered later.
He may be the bravest student in Iran or an unwitting stooge of the Islamic regime – or both. Either way, Mahmoud Vahidnia has gained instant fame after breaking a taboo by criticizing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to his face.
The 25-year-old maths student has been lauded by opposition websites after reportedly telling Khamenei that he had been turned into a "grand idol" who was above criticism. But in a twist demonstrating the inscrutable nature of Iranian politics, the incident has been used by Khamenei's supporters to show how he embraces criticism. Vahidnia has remained unmolested since his 10-minute critique, which condemned the recent brutal post-election crackdown and denounced the state broadcaster, IRIB, for biased coverage. But his most remarkable comments were reserved for Khamenei himself.
Not happy with just ruining the lives of same-sex couples in Maine this week, the Catholic Bishops are trying to bring down health insurance reform in the House over the abortion issue. What really sucks is that members of the House are willing to let the Catholic Bishops, who enabled rampant sex abuse of children, to impose their theocratic view on this issue:
Under the agreement, anti-abortion Democrats will be permitted to offer an amendment on the House floor to the health-care overhaul bill. The amendment would prohibit a new government-run insurance plan created by the health-care bill from offering to cover abortion services, congressional sources said. It would also block people who received federal subsidies for the purchase of health insurance from buying policies that offered coverage for abortions.
The deal clears the way for the dozens of Democratic lawmakers who oppose abortion to lend their support to the health care package, the most dramatic expansion of health coverage in more than 40 years. It also satisfies the demands of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had threatened to oppose the House bill.
If the amendment from Rep. Bart Stupak (d-Mich.) passes, said Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the bishops conference, "we become enthusiastic advocates for moving forward with health care reform."
Who cares if the Bishops support health insurance reform? It's dangerous that the House is letting the Bishops dictate any kind of policy.
Does anyone on the Hill know the history of the Catholic Bishops Conference and the horrors they allowed to be inflicted on children? How can those Bishops speak with any moral authority? The Catholic Bishops protected and enabled pedophiles and child abusers. And, it's costing them. Last month, the Diocese of Wilmington became the seventh Diocese to file bankruptcy:
It joins a list of six other dioceses in the United States that have filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy laws in what lawyers said is an attempt to manage an avalanche of clergy sexual-abuse litigation.
But, in the warped world of DC, a group that is going bankrupt because it protected pedophiles and sexual abusers speaks with moral authority.
If I were on the Hill, I'd make this a debate about the Catholic Bishops and what they've done to children. Those hypocrites can't talk about the "sanctity of life" when they've destroyed so many. Check out the website of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and ask if you want the Catholic Bishops setting policy for America.
If you don't want the Bishops dictating policy, call the House and urge your member to oppose the Stupak Amendment. The main number is 202-224-3121.
Can you say 'childish'?A group of male repugican House members, just tried to repeatedly block a group of female Democratic House members from speaking on the House floor. The Democrats wanted to speak about how Health Care Reform was important for women. The little boys would have nothing of it. Typical. Oh, did I just hear the "socialist" word?
A Mexican mother has been reunited with her one-year-old daughter after the baby girl was allegedly sold to another woman by a baby-selling ring in Mexico City.
From 1938: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy construct the ship "Queen Minnie" from folding component parts. When Minnie launches the ship by hitting it with a champagne bottle, she whacks it so hard that, once out at sea, it separates into its parts again.
A British corporate law firm has created a new unit that will help easily offended corporate giants track down and sue anonymous Internet forum posters. They will also target whistle-blowers. They specialize in figuring out how to get ISPs to turn over their subscribers' personal information.
A spokeswoman for Wragge said: "Courts can compel Internet Service Providers or telephone service providers to make information available regarding registered names, email addresses and other key account holder information.
One growth area is identifying individuals involved in leaking confidential information, such as client or financial details, to competitor companies. With the help of employment law specialists, the team can assist both in finding the source of such leaks and advising on any subsequent employment aspects."
Anthony Foxx makes victory speech Tuesday. Former Mayor Harvey Gantt is at right.
Amid the wingnut self fellatio-fest following Tuesday's election, Charlotte's mayoral election flew under the national political radar.
Wrap your mind around this: A young African-American Democrat, raised by a single mom and his grandparents, now a successful lawyer, aims for a seat that's been repugicans for years. He mobilizes young and African-American voters and wins in a strong showing. Sound familiar?
If that isn't a good enough political story, consider that the last Democratic mayor in this Southern banking citadel was Harvey Gantt, the African-American architect who won fame for trying, twice, to unseat the black prince of darkness himself, Jesse Helms.
The national media didn't notice. A Nexis.com check of news reports found a few paragraphs in USA Today and the Washington Times, a few political blog mentions and a paragraph in the Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune from a roundup on how streetcar advocates did in mayoral races. (They won, including here).
Yet Democrat Anthony Foxx's win over repugican John Lassiter is not an insignificant anthill on the political landscape. The largest city in the nation's 10th largest state elected its first Democratic mayor in 22 years, an African-American in a majority-white Southern city, a progressive mass transit supporter and an environmentalist.
Many naive repugicans, of course, quickly began pretending the city of Charlotte had ducked under Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. They focused on repugican gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia. N.C. repugican party chair Tom Fetzer, in spinning Tuesday's results, also pointed to wins by conservative candidates for Wake County school board and repugican mayoral victories in Greensboro and Kinston. He didn't mention his state's largest city. (He had said in September that the state repugican party was closely watching the Foxx-Lassiter race, and that a Lassiter loss would be a blow to the party.)
One theory in wingnut circles is that the election's relatively low turnout here (21 percent, compared with 24 percent in 2007) proves Lassiter lost because he wasn't wingnut enough. A bit delusional on their part - after all, the three wingnut repugicans who ran for City Council at-large seats lost as well.
"All politics is local," the late U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill said. Of course national issues color local and state elections, but elections also reflect local personalities and situations. That often doesn't dovetail with whatever prevailing national political narratives are being offered up by the Sunday morning talking heads.
Remarks of President Barack Obama As Prepared for Delivery Weekly Address Saturday, November 7, 2009
I’d like to speak with you for a few minutes today about the tragedy that took place at Ft. Hood. This past Thursday, on a clear Texas afternoon, an Army psychiatrist walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, and began shooting his fellow soldiers.
It is an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America. It is a crime that would have horrified us had its victims been Americans of any background. But it’s all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.
The SRP is where our men and women in uniform go before getting deployed. It’s where they get their teeth checked and their medical records updated and make sure everything is in order before getting shipped out. It was in this place, on a base where our soldiers ought to feel most safe, where those brave Americans who are preparing to risk their lives in defense of our nation, lost their lives in a crime against our nation.
Soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world called and emailed loved ones at Ft. Hood, all expressing the same stunned reaction: I’m supposed to be the one in harm’s way, not you.
Thursday’s shooting was one of the most devastating ever committed on an American military base. And yet, even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America. We saw soldiers and civilians alike rushing to aid fallen comrades; tearing off bullet-riddled clothes to treat the injured; using blouses as tourniquets; taking down the shooter even as they bore wounds themselves.
We saw soldiers bringing to bear on our own soil the skills they had been trained to use abroad; skills that been honed through years of determined effort for one purpose and one purpose only: to protect and defend the United States of America.
We saw the valor, selflessness, and unity of purpose that make our servicemen and women the finest fighting force on Earth; that make the United States military the best the world has ever known; and that make all of us proud to be Americans.
On Friday, I met with FBI Director Mueller, Defense Secretary Gates, and representatives of the relevant agencies to discuss their ongoing investigation into what led to this terrible crime. And I’ll continue to be in close contact with them as new information comes in.
We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing. But what we do know is that our thoughts are with every single one of the men and women who were injured at Ft. Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who’ve lost a loved one in this national tragedy. And our thoughts are with all the Americans who wear – or who’ve worn – the proud uniform of the United States of America; our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and coast guardsmen, and the military families who love and support them.
In tribute to those who fell at Ft. Hood, I’ve ordered flags flying over the White House, and other federal buildings to be lowered to half-staff from now until Veterans Day next Wednesday. Veterans Day is our chance to honor those Americans who’ve served on battlefields from Lexington to Antietam, Normandy to Manila, Inchon to Khe Sanh, Ramadi to Kandahar.
They are Americans of every race, faith, and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendents of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other. What they share is a commitment to country that has been tested and proved worthy. What they share is the same unflinching courage, unblinking compassion, and uncommon camaraderie that the soldiers and civilians of Ft. Hood showed America and showed the world.
These are the men and women we honor today. These are the men and women we’ll honor on Veterans Day. And these are the men and women we shall honor every day, in times of war and times of peace, so long as our nation endures.
Berlin, Berlin, Germany Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Budapest, Budapest, Hungary Seoul, Kyonggi-Do, Korea London, England, United Kingdom Montreal, Quebec, Canada Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom Wakeflied, England, United Kingdom
Today you need to move forward with purpose -- even if you don't know what that purpose is. You finally have a chance to do something that will change your life -- all you have to do is greet it with an open mind and lots of willingness. It could be disguised as a new friend, an old foe or even a chance encounter. Don't be afraid and don't let yourself get stressed out with opinions and bogus information.
Encephalitis is an emerging disease that can develop in children with H1N1.
