Knuckle Dragging wingnuts Freak Out Over Hillary Clinton’s Pic with Pussy Riot Going Viral

 

Hillary Clinton        ✔ @HillaryClinton 

Great to meet the strong & brave young women from #PussyRiot, who refuse to let their voices be silenced in #Russia.

Former Secretary of State, Senator, and First Lady Hillary Clinton posted a picture of herself with Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova while at the Women in the World Summit in New York. It went viral, with 9,343 retweets and 11,037 favorites, as pointed out by CNN (several days ago).
Naturally, the dimmest of the lunatic fringe is already freaking out because of the P word and Clinton. As we are in early hours of the articles about her viral post, you best buckle your seat belts.
HillaryClinton wrote: “Great to meet the strong & brave young women from #PussyRiot, who refuse to let their voices be silenced in #Russia.”
So here’s a prelude of what 2016 will bring us from the lunatic fringe. Ben Howe, Contributing Editor at Red State, is already hee-hawing it up locker room style:

Ben Howe @BenHowe Follow

The jokes write themselves --> Hillary Clinton poses with Pussy Riot members http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/07/hillary-clinton-poses-with-pussy-riot-members/ …

Hillary Clinton poses with Pussy Riot members

(CNN) -- A photo of Hillary Clinton and members of the Russian pop band Pussy Riot has gone viral, with more than 9,000 retweets on Twitter and over 10,000 "favorites.

Kevin Liptak @kevinliptakcnn

Because, oh my god, titter, hee-haw, snort, what is funnier than women being sentenced to two years for a song slamming the lunatic fringe’s hero, Putin? Am I right? And then being detained again in Sochi this year. SO FUNNY that Hillary Clinton would care about the freedom of women and girls around the globe.
P word! The jokes, I tell ya’, they are so funny. They write themselves. Also, sometimes people walk into walls because they are too stupid to avoid them.
Scary as this is, Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy had to lay into Ben Howe last year for posting what they viewed as a “sexist” image of Sarah Palin, in which she was photoshopped with Santa.
Howe, knuckles dragging on the ground, cluelessly defended himself/mansplained to the ladies on the right until finally he realized that it was a fake, but still, he announced it wasn’t sexist. Good to know that Ben Howe is the expert on all things sexist and isn’t afraid to tell the ladies what they are allowed to be offended by.
Would jokes about Pussy Riot and Hillary Clinton that “write themselves” be sexist by his standards? I kid. We all know the answer to that one and I don’t think Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy will find this quite as offensive as the image with Sarah Palin and Santa. But in case anyone missed it, it’s not the sexism that’s so offensive. It’s the juvenile stupidity. Not even a faint outline of wit.
I can’t wait for more of this stupidity regarding Ms. Clinton and 2016, especially coming from the folks who insisted that Sarah Palin being asked what she read was sexist. They got outraged when people were concerned that Sarah Palin didn’t understand that the Queen didn’t run England and they wouldn’t be deciding invasions over tea together, but they also don’t think Hillary Clinton is “qualified”, because her husband cheated on her.
… And defining Hillary Clinton by her husband is so not sexist. Never mind her career as a Senator, First Lady, and Secretary of State, which is sort of like quitting your one job midway through only with real responsibilities.
And that is the point here. Instead of discussing Ms. Clinton’s political values, her record, or her policies, we are going to get another crap fest of right wing stupidity, topped off with really ignorant, churlish locker room sniggers about her sex.
Yes, she’s a woman. Get over it, children, before she makes mincemeat out of you.

Neutered repugicans Destroy Their Chances With Women With One Vile Poster

The political trolls at Breitbart released an image today of Nancy Pelosi being dominated by a muscle bound man as she submits with her tongue hanging out to…

 

The genius trolls at Breitbart know how to win the war on women. See below, via Ana Maria Cox’s tweet.
I gotta say, the image in full is even more disgusting than you can see on Twitter. In the full image, a scantily clad Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is being dominated by a muscle bound man (Governor Jerry Brown, I’m told — didn’t recognize him in Arnold’s body) as she submits in with her tongue hanging out to catch his hostile offerings.

This image is the closest thing to a cry for help I can imagine. It’s screaming a Freudian fear of women, and subsequent need to dominate and humiliate them lest they demonstrate the power between their “teeth” by castrating the male. Yes. It’s a castration anxiety (fear of emasculation) image, by the perpetually fearful. No big surprise here.
Because what it actually means is that they find women so powerful, they’re terrified of them. It leads the anxious to avoid being dominated or made insignificant by the feared female. Castration anxiety usually strikes in a child’s “phallic phase”, between the ages of 3-5. The fact that the folks at Breitbart are still trapped at this stage should not surprise anyone.
This is what happens when people can’t defend their cabal’s policies with words based on ideas. This is a good clue that you’re dealing with juvenile, single cell organisms so driven by their own fear that they can’t think.
Women and men with breasts and women with tongues (symbolic of — fill in the blank)… It’s all too much for a wingnut.
But in truth, it’s poor Speaker John Boehner (r-OH) who is dominated by the tea party, whereas former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a leader in every way. She continues to rescue Boehner from his own crazies for the sake of the country. Yes, she’s a powerful woman, and no, turning her into a dominated sex slave in their fevered imagination doesn’t make it so. It only reveals something about the mentality at Breitbart, but then, we already knew this.
After their failed attempt to mansplain away women’s desire for equal pay, this is how wingnuts plan to convince females that there is no repugican cabal policy war on women. Apparently the folks at Breitbart think this is helping the repugican cause. LOL 4eva.
Image: I tried to pick the least offensive picture for the main image to share with this post. So sorry, but this is what conservatives deem appropriate for a political website.

The House Science Committee: a parliament of Creationists, Climate Deniers (and dunces)

Writing in Scientific American, Ashutosh Jogalekar bemoans the famously terrible state of the House Committee on Science, a farcical body stuffed with climate deniers and young Earth creationists. At a recent hearing, committee member Randy Weber (r–TX) implied that science couldn't really make claims about things that happened tens of thousands or millions of years ago, because it couldn't directly observe them. It's a terrifying position for a legislator who sits in a position of power over national science policy to hold. Jogalekar claims the committee is turning into a national embarrassment, but as Chris Baker points out, any notion of the committee changing over time is an Evolutionist lie from Satan, because the committee are exactly as god created them at the beginning of time, 6,321 years ago.

The farce continued with another repugican member trotting out the tired old examples of global cooling and dinosaurs:
“I remember in the ’70s, that [cooling] was the threat, the fear,” Posey recalled. Then he pivoted. “I’ve read that during the period of the dinosaurs, that the Earth’s temperature was 30° warmer. Does that seem fathomable to you?”
From the described exchange it seems that the members have zero interest in knowing the truth or understanding how science works. Sadly this rancor, ignorance and lack of respect for science and scientists is business as usual for repugican members of the House committee. After all, the subcommittee responsible for climate change is, quite appropriately enough, led by a climate change denier (this literally sounds like something out of Orwell). 17 out of 22 members of the larger committee either deny that climate change is happening or question that human activities are responsible for it; the chairman of the committee himself is skeptical about global warming. And of course, let’s not forget committee member Paul Broun who thinks evolution is a “lie from the pit of hell”.
No wonder that scientists like me find it refreshing when we hear about billionaires appreciating and funding basic research. Pretty much all politicians in this country seem to have lost respect not just for the findings of science but for the basic nature of the scientific method, but let’s be clear: one party disproportionately more than the other is holding science back. It’s a little surreal to see people like Weber, Broun and Smith on the science committee but such is the age we live in. Nonetheless, the prevarications, ignorance and feet-dragging in that party reflect poorly on the entire political establishment. When none other than the House Committee on Science is stacked with people who literally live in the Middle Ages in their ignorance of science, hearing a kind word about science coming from any direction is a breath of fresh air.

The House of Representatives Committee on Science is turning into a national embarrassment

Coming Tomorrow

Coming Tomorrow

• Where do tectonic plates come from?
• Guelti d'Archei
• Into the deep
• 24 unusual beaches you've never heard of before

And more ...

This chameleon is our Animal Picture, for today.

The Daily Drift

Isn't that the truth ... ?

 

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Today in History

1471		The Earl of Warwick, who fought on both sides in the War of the Roses, is killed at the Battle of Barnet with the defeat of the Lancastrians.
1543		Bartoleme Ferrelo returns to Spain after discovering a large bay in the New World (San Francisco).
1775		The first abolitionist society in United States is organized in Philadelphia.
1793		A royalist rebellion in Santo Domingo is crushed by French republican troops.
1828		The first edition of Noah Webster's dictionary is published.
1860		The first Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, Missouri.
1865		President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth.
1894		Thomas Edison's kinetoscope is shown to the public for the first time.
1900		The World Exposition opens in Paris.
1912		The passenger liner Titanic–deemed unsinkable–strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and begins to sink. The ship will go under the next day with a loss of 1,500 lives.
1931		King Alfonso XIII of Spain is overthrown.
1945		American B-29 bombers's damage the Imperial Palace during firebombing raid over Tokyo.
1953		The Viet Minh invade Laos with 40,00 troops in their war against French colonial forces.
1959		The Taft Memorial Bell Tower is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1961		The first live broadcast is televised from the Soviet Union.
1969		The first major league baseball game is played in Montreal, Canada.
1981		America's first space shuttle, Columbia, returns to Earth.

Non Sequitur

Stephen Colbert Leaves Comedy Central To Take Over David Letterman’s CBS Show

 

Stephen Colbert is moving to network television. The Comedy Central host has been hired to replace the retiring David Letterman on CBS’ The Late Show.
According to The Wrap, “CBS has named Stephen Colbert as new host of the “Late Show,” effective when David Letterman retires.”
This is obviously a gigantic win for CBS. Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report has been garnering praise from critics over the past two years, and in the view of some has surpassed The Daily Show as the top late night political satire program on Comedy Central.
Jon Stewart had been publicly pushing for Colbert to get the job. Stewart said, “He’s done an amazing job with just that very narrow cast of character, but he’s got a lot more he can show. He’s got some skill sets that are really applicable, interviewing-wise, but also he’s a really, really good actor and also an excellent improvisational comedian. He’s also got great writing skills. He’s got a lot of the different capacities. Being able to expand upon [those] would be exciting.”
The move now leaves 46 year old ABC host Jimmy Kimmel as the dean of late night. It will be interesting to see what Colbert can do on network television. Will he play the Colbert character from his Comedy Central show, or will he become a more traditional late night host? How will Colbert fare in the hourlong format?
If CBS is smart, they will reinvent late night by letting Colbert bring his popular character to the network. Colbert could be hugely successful on CBS. Interestingly, the move to CBS also keeps Colbert out of competition with Jon Stewart.
Regular Colbert Report viewers will be able to watch Stewart at 11, and flip the channel to CBS at 11:35. This is a win-win for CBS and Colbert. The network gets to replace Letterman with someone who already has a huge audience and a unique identity. There will be no worries about filling Dave’s shoes. Colbert will be more than able to stand on his own from day one.
Before Letterman arrived at CBS, the network’s history had been filled with failed late night attempts. Now Colbert will build on what Letterman started, and possibly give Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight show a serious run for its money.
America get ready, because Stephen Colbert is heading to the big time.

***

In a related development:

Lush Dimbulb, reigning King of Wingnutteryland, goes nuts over Stephen Colbert being chosen as David Letterman’s replacement. CBS did not fold under the pressure of Wingnutteryland and anointed Colbert. There is a price, however. Colbert will give up his ‘Colbert Report’, his act that made him so endearing to everyone except those in Wingnutteryland. Maybe they’ve won after all…

The 3 Biggest Lies Employers Tell Their Workers

 by Dominique Rodgers

Everyone likes to think they’re working in the most honest, successful and stable organization around, but let’s face it -- that can’t always be the case. Organizations are made of people and people aren’t always honest. Even when they’re not deliberately deceptive, people may tend to put a positive spin on things.

To look out for your best interests on the job, keep in mind these three common ways employers misrepresent things to employees.

Work-Life Balance

“Work-life balance” is a hot buzzword in business these days because people are tired of giving everything to their employer and losing time with family, friends and hobbies. When a company says it’s important for its employees to have work-life balance, it conjures images of dinner at home every night, weekend soccer games and maybe an annual summer vacation.

Reality is often quite different, though, says Marc DeBoer, a former executive headhunter and current president of A Better Interview, a website devoted to helping job seekers perform better during interviews. “Most companies know that their employees will be working upwards of 60 hours per week as there is still so much uncertainty in the economy. Because the economy is in turmoil, companies have been cutting back on resources.” Layoffs at your office may have forced people to do double duty for a while.
Annual Bonuses

A lot of employees are hired with promises of an annual bonus on top of their regular salary. “If we do well as a company, we all share the rewards” is often a big lie, says Jacob Shriar, growth manager for Officevibe, an employment engagement software company. This may not be an intentional lie, he says. Instead, it’s likely the company just didn’t hit its financial goals and did not have the cash to pay bonuses.

Even the best companies have bad years. To combat any negative effects on your bottom line, you can either budget for the year as if the bonus won’t happen and then have a pleasant surplus if it does, or get specific goals and criteria for your bonus in writing when you negotiate your salary and other benefits.
Advancement Opportunities

When you were hired, it’s entirely possible that your manager wanted you to advance along a certain path. You may have even been promised additional training and resources for your professional development that since haven’t panned out. Yes, it’s possible you were totally lied to, but it’s also possible your supervisor’s timeline just doesn’t match yours, says Stacy Lindenberg, owner of Talent Seed Consulting, an organizational development company.

The solution, says Lindenberg, is simply to ask and be specific. Sit down with your supervisor and restate your desire for advancement. Ask about the anticipated trajectory, timeline and benchmarks.

How the Muppets Created Generation X

Are you a part of the MTV generation? It could be argued that your worldview was shaped more by the Muppets than music videos. After all, Generation X learned so much from Sesame Street and laughed so much at The Muppet Show that they consider Jim Henson and Frank Oz to be members of the family.

From the ’60s on, Jim Henson’s work would reach nearly every child, whether it was “The Muppet Show,” “Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas,” “Fraggle Rock,” “The Storyteller,” the Muppet movies, “John Denver and the Muppets,” “Labyrinth,” “The Dark Crystal,” “The Jim Henson Hour,” or “Muppet Babies.” Unlike Sesame Street, Henson’s later work did not have a “curriculum” created by Harvard psychologists at the Children’s Television Workshop. All the same, each show and movie had purpose.

Henson told his staff that with “Fraggle Rock,” he wanted to make a show that would help “stop war in the world” by teaching conflict resolution. “Muppet Babies” was made to encourage imagination. According to the show’s head writer, “[Henson] wanted children to believe anything is possible. That’s the only thing that’s going to save this planet — the power of imagination.” Though “The Muppet Show” did not have any overt “teaching objectives,” it had the implicit message that all kinds of weirdos and goofballs can work together in peace, give or take a few explosions. Underneath the screwball humor, “The Muppet Show” had a message of brotherhood.

The article goes on to list the values that these shows imparted to children growing up, and the many people who acknowledge the influence the Muppets had on their lives. Read about how Henson’s vision is still evident in his audience, even in middle age, at Salon

The World's Largest Bow Tie Consists of 250 Yards of Fabric

Anyone can look dapper in a bow tie--provided that you're not otherwise naked. But if you want to look extra fancy, then you should wear a big bow tie. The bigger the bow tie, the more elegant the man. Ergo, Zach Barnhorst is the most dapper man on earth. At a recent public event in San Diego, he wore a tie that measured 7 feet tall and 15 feet wide.
Looking sharp is a key part of Barnhorst's lifestyle. He runs a menswear company with a selection of bow ties. He takes bow ties seriously, which is why he didn't cheat by assembling a clip-on tie. His enormous, record-breaking tie is a real tie scaled up. Folding and tying it required several assistants. You can watch a video of them assembling it here.

Batman Isn't Bulletproof. He Doesn't Need to Be

It's hypothetically possible that a bullet could injure Batman. But no bullet has been brave enough to try. Lucas Nascimento reveals an essential difference between Superman and Batman.
This comic reminds me of a great scene from the recent movie Justice League: War:

(Video Link)

Batman doesn't have super powers. Being Batman is a super power.

Violinists can't tell a Stradivarius from a modern violin

Ever wonder if Stradivarius violins are really better than other violins, or if the name just makes them seem better? A recent study blindfolded professional violinists and found that they couldn't tell the difference between violins constructed by 18th-century Italians and those made by modern manufacturers. The results back up the results of a similar study conducted in 2010.

Random Celebrity Photos

Jane Fonda

Urged on by His Mom, Man Impulsively Buys Tank

Back when I was in high school, after the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a lot of cheap Soviet military equipment available on international markets. I briefly schemed to somehow acquire a T-55 tank, which were pretty cheap. Alas, tank ownership--a dream of every man--escaped me.
But Jimmy Johansson, a 23-year old man from Borlänge, Sweden, is now living that dream. He purchased a PBV 401, a Soviet-designed amphibious armored vehicle. It weighs 12 tons and can travel about 50 miles per hour on land. The purchase cost him a mere 76,000 kronor ($11,700 USD).
His saintly mother understood the impulse and supports Johansson's decision. The Local quotes him:

"When I was about to buy it I called my mother and she just started laughing. She said 'Just get it' so I did. And because I can't take it out on the streets we had to take it on the back of a truck to get it home... people couldn't help but stare."

The Poor Man's NASCAR

Inside The Weird World Of Lawn Mower Racing

Head down to a county fair in Texas, and you may find helmeted men racing through dirt tracks at bristling speeds on, of all vehicles, lawn mowers. The pastime is a strange motorsport that began as a joke, according to a July 2013 profile of the sport in the Wall Street Journal.

It was meant to poke fun of the 'slickness' of professional motorsports but eventually became a 'mini-NASCAR' with its own trading cards and advertisers. Found in many parts of the Midwest and South, lawn mower racing has a particularly strong following among old-timers in Texas.

Dad Moved Teen's Messy Room Out on the Driveway

Your teenager has a messy room? So did Craig Schlichenmeyer. But Craig didn't just grumble about it! After his daughter failed to clear out her room, the Long County, Georgia father decided to do it for her ... the extreme way!
Schlichenmeyer moved the daughter's entire room out onto the driveway, with a big sign that read "Haley, room moved to driveway. Clean it next time."
"One day I had enough of it, I picked up her belongings and set her room up in the driveway," Schlichenmeyer said to WTOC. "I just set her room up the same way it's set up upstairs in the driveway. To shock her."
The father said that his daughter is actually a great kid, and that even though she was upset at first, but they'd worked it out in the end. They even took advantage of having all that furniture out of the way: they spent the day painting her room.

Photographer Makes Fun of Outrageous San Francisco Rent Prices

Can you afford to live in San Francisco? Unless you can live in a mailbox, you might have a hard time finding an affordable apartment. Scot Hampton, a photographer who lives in that fair city, created a series of images that satirizes the high rent prices that residents endure. He placed For Rent signs on dumpsters, mailboxes, and manholes along with captions designed to entice prospective tenants. For example, the above image came with this pitch:

Waterfront Condo - $5000
Waterfront condo in the highly desirable, up-and-coming mid-Market area. Luxurious living at its finest! Enjoy the sounds and smells of the UN Plaza fountain as you relax in your condo after a hard day of complaining about the homeless. Close to public transportation, Civic Center Farmers Market, @Twitter, the @Tenderloin and several aggressive seagulls. 33 SQ. FT. Utilities not included, nor available.

All of which is technically accurate!

Random Photos

Eight Headlines the Corporate Mainstream Media Does Not Have the Courage To Print

by Paul Bucheit

The following are all relevant, fact-based issues, the "hard news" stories that the media has a responsibility to report. But the corporate-owned press generally avoids them.
1. U.S. Wealth Up $34 Trillion Since Recession. 93% of You Got Almost None of It.
That's an average of $100,000 for every American. But the people who already own most of the stocks took almost all of it. For them, the average gain was well over a million dollars -- tax-free as long as they don't cash it in. Details available here.
2. Eight Rich Americans Made More Than 3.6 Million Minimum Wage Workers
A recent report stated that no full-time minimum wage worker in the U.S. can afford a one-bedroom or two-bedroom rental at fair market rent. There are 3.6 million such workers, and their total (combined) 2013 earnings is less than the 2013 stock market gains of just eight Americans, all of whom take more than their share from society: the four Waltons, the two Kochs, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett.
3. News Sources Speak for the 5%
It would be refreshing to read an honest editorial: "We dearly value the 5 to 7 percent of our readers who make a lot of money and believe that their growing riches are helping everyone else."
Instead, the business media seems unable to differentiate between the top 5 percent and the rest of society. The Wall Street Journal exclaimed, "Middle-class Americans have more buying power than ever before," and then went on to sputter: "What Recession?...The economy has bounced back from recession, unemployment has declined.."
The Chicago Tribune may be even further out of touch with its less privileged readers, asking them: "What's so terrible about the infusion of so much money into the presidential campaign?"
4. TV News Dumbed Down for American Viewers
A 2009 survey by the European Journal of Communication compared the U.S. to Denmark, Finland, and the UK in the awareness and reporting of domestic vs. international news, and of 'hard' news (politics, public administration, the economy, science, technology) vs. 'soft' news (celebrities, human interest, sport and entertainment). The results:
-- Americans [are] especially uninformed about international public affairs.
-- American respondents also underperformed in relation to domestic-related hard news stories.
-- American television reports much less international news than Finnish, Danish and British television;
-- American television network newscasts also report much less hard news than Finnish and Danish television.
Surprisingly, the report states that "our sample of American newspapers was more oriented towards hard news than their counterparts in the European countries." Too bad Americans are reading less newspapers.
5. News Execs among White Male Boomers Who Owe Trillions to Society
The hype about the "self-made man" is fantasy. In the early 1970s, we privileged white males were spirited out of college to waiting jobs in management and finance, technology was inventing new ways for us to make money, tax rates were about to tumble, and visions of bonuses and capital gains danced in our heads.
While we were in school the Defense Department had been preparing the Internet for Microsoft and Apple, the National Science Foundation was funding the Digital Library Initiative research that would be adopted as the Google model, and theNational Institute of Health was doing the early laboratory testing for companies like Merck and Pfizer. Government research labs and public universities trained thousands of chemists, physicists, chip designers, programmers, engineers, production line workers, market analysts, testers, troubleshooters, etc., etc.
All we created on our own was a disdainful attitude, like that of Steve Jobs: "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
6. Funding Plummets for Schools and Pensions as Corporations Stop Paying Taxes
Threeseparatestudies have shown that corporations pay less than half of their required state taxes, which are the main source of K-12 educational funding and a significant part of pension funding. Most recently, the report "The Disappearing Corporate Tax Base" found that the percentage of corporate profits paid as state income taxes has dropped from 7 percent in 1980 to about 3 percent today.
7. Companies Based in the U.S. Paying Most of their Taxes Overseas
Citigroup had 42% of its 2011-13 revenue in North America (almost all U.S.) and made $32 billion in profits, but received a U.S. current income tax benefit all three years.
Pfizer had 40% of its 2011-13 revenues and nearly half of its physical assets in the U.S., but declared almost $10 billion in U.S. losses to go along with nearly $50 billion in foreign profits.
In 2013 Exxon had about 43% of management, 36% of sales, 40% of long-lived assets, and 70-90% of its productive oil and gas wells in the U.S., yet only paid about 2 percent of its total income in U.S. income taxes, and most of that was something called a "theoretical" tax.
8. Restaurant Servers Go Without Raise for 30 Years
An evaluation by Michelle Chen showed that the minimum wage for tipped workers has been approximately $2 an hour since the 1980s. She also notes that about 40 percent of these workers are people of color, and about two-thirds are women.

***

Here's one more possible and welcome headline: Progressives Unite Behind Wealth and Wall Street Taxes.

NSA spies on human rights groups, including those in the USA

During video testimony to the Council of Europe, whistleblower Edward Snowden reiterated that the NSA targets human rights groups, including those in the USA, for surveillance. It uses its Xkeyscore technology to "fingerprint" communications from these groups and targets them for deep surveillance. Groups that have been targeted in this way include UNICEF and many others.

Prosecutors wage war on judges who insist on fairness

When South Carolina State Supreme Court Justice Donald Beatty told a convention of prosecutors that judges would not permit "unethical conduct, such as witness tampering, selective and retaliatory prosecutions, perjury and suppression of evidence," prosecutors revolted, vilifying him. They're following the lead of San Diego prosecutors, who boycott judges who are to "pro-Fourth Amendment." And in Arizona, prosecutors are fighting an ethics rule that would require them to disclose "new, credible, and material evidence" of wrongful convictions.

LAPD officers sabotage their own voice-recorders: nothing to hide, nothing to fear?

The Los Angeles Police Department is trying to do something about its notoriously bad human rights record: it has equipped officers with belt-worn voice-recorders that feed tamper-evident uploading stations in their cruisers. Unfortunately for anyone who advocates for the basic honesty of the LAPD, these have been widely sabotaged by officers, with more than half of the receiver antennas being vandalized or removed, which sharply reduces the recorders' range. Boston cops reacted the same way when logging GPSes were added to their cars. As Washington University law prof Neil Richards notes, it's a pretty ironic turn, in that the cops apparently feel like being surveilled while going about their normal business is an unreasonable impingement on their freedom.

Ziggy

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Brunch Ring

Crescent dough is the base for this cheesy egg dish that looks impressive but is a cinch to make.

Step 1

Unroll the crescent dough; separate into 8 triangles. On a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, arrange the triangles in a star shape, with short ends meeting in the center and slightly overlapping. (Leave a 4-inch circle open in the center.) Lay 1 bacon strip lengthwise down the center of each triangle.

Step 2

Sprinkle the widest part of the triangles with 1/3 cup of the cheese. Top with the egg mixture; sprinkle with another 1/3 cup of the cheese.

Step 3

Pull the points of triangles over the eggs and cheese. Tuck the dough under to form a ring (the filling will still be visible).

Brush the dough with milk and sprinkle with remaining cheese, then bake the ring according the recipe directions—and enjoy!

Ingredients

• • 4 slices bacon, cut in half crosswise
  • 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
  • 4 eggs, slightly beaten
  • Salt and pepper, if desired
  • 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
  • 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend (4 oz)
  • Chopped fresh cilantro, if desired
  • 1 cup Old El Paso® Thick 'n Chunky salsa, if desired

Steps

• 1 Heat oven to 375°F. Line large cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper. In 10-inch skillet, cook bacon over medium heat about 4 minutes or until cooked but not crisp, turning once. (It will continue to cook in oven.) Set bacon aside; drain all except 2 teaspoons bacon drippings from skillet.
• 2 In medium bowl, beat 1/3 cup of the milk, the eggs, salt and pepper with fork or whisk until well mixed. Stir in bell pepper. Pour egg mixture into skillet. As mixture heats, portions of eggs will begin to set. Gently push cooked portions with metal spatula to outside edge of skillet. Avoid stirring constantly. As more egg sets, push it to the edge and place it on top of the already set egg mixture. Cook 5 to 6 minutes or until eggs are thickened throughout but still moist.
• 3 Unroll dough; separate into 8 triangles. On parchment-lined cookie sheet, arrange triangles with shortest sides toward center, overlapping in star shape and leaving 4-inch round circle open in center (see diagram). Crescent dough points may hang over edge of cookie sheet. Press overlapping dough to flatten.
• 4 Place bacon on each of the triangles. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of the cheese onto widest part of dough. Spoon eggs over cheese. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup of the cheese. Pull points of triangles over eggs and cheese, and tuck under dough to form ring (filling will be visible). Carefully brush dough with remaining 1 tablespoon milk; sprinkle with remaining 1/3 cup cheese.
• 5 Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool 2 minutes. With broad spatula, carefully loosen ring from cookie sheet; slide onto serving platter. Garnish with cilantro and salsa.

Presto Power Pop Microwave Corn Popper

I do love popcorn, but usually don’t like to pop commercial microwave bags in the office. Although their contents are delicious when popped, commercial microwave bags release a cloud of buttery esters into the local environment for all to smell. They have a TON of added fat and salt, and one has no control over the contents.
There’s also a great deal of debate over the safety and stability of polyunsaturated fats in high-heat cooking, and corn popping is a very high-heat process.
Hot-air poppers aren’t suitable for an office environment, and anyway I haven’t found one that doesn’t eventually make the popped corn taste like it came out of a hair dryer.
I have used the Presto Power Pop corn popper ($16) for at least a decade, and found it to be an excellent solution to light snacking in the office. It doesn’t smell strongly of anything but the corn, and that can be controlled by keeping the lid on until I’m back at my cube. I can control the amount of salt or oil I use, if any. It acts as a serving bowl for the popcorn, and is easy to keep clean once emptied. It does an excellent job of popping most of the corn, even in lower-power microwaves. It typically will pop a batch in under two minutes, not three to four like commercial bags. (Which makes one wonder how much of the mass inside commercial bags is popcorn, and how much is just colored fat.)
Its construction is fairly simple: a bowl, a detachable base with a metal reflector disc inside it, and a paper/foil heater cup. The cups are replaceable, but last a long time for me. I’m just finishing my first 8-pack of them after 10+ years. Granted, using oil in the popper will make them deteriorate more quickly. Also, as microwaves have increased in power over the years, I notice the cups burn more quickly. Replacements are available in many big box stores and at Amazon.
About Corn Popping:
Use fresh popcorn, and keep it hydrated so it pops well. Every few weeks, if your bag of popcorn lasts that long, open the bag and sprinkle maybe a half teaspoon of water into it. Close the bag, turn/roll it over a few times to distribute the water, and then let it sit. You don’t want a lot of water: just enough to keep the corn from drying out, not enough to make it germinate.
The best salt to use is superfine salt, like the movie theaters use. There’s something about that initial super-salty hit from extra-fine salt, that quickly fades into the mellow sweetness of popped corn. That salt/sweet balancing act is a visceral trigger that has kept us coming back for more for centuries.
Don’t get the popcorn salt with yellow coloring, it’s just dye. Easiest and cheapest is to make your own fine salt in a coffee or spice grinder.
Salt doesn’t often stick well without a little oil. Very, very little oil is actually needed. So I made a recipe:
Popcorn Salt/Oil Mix
~1 Tbsp. Table Salt
~1 tsp. Oil (Coconut oil preferred, it’s most stable long-term and at high heat) Coffee/Spice Grinder
Put a few teaspoons of regular salt into the coffee grinder. Grind it for a few seconds until it is a fine powder. Repeat until you have a tablespoon or so. In a very small container (1 oz.), put the salt and about a teaspoon of oil on top. Let it soak in. If it’s coconut oil, it’s OK if it’s solid; it will soak in.
What you’re looking for is a dry crumble of salt/oil. Use ¼ teaspoon for a batch of popcorn. Just place it on top of the corn; the popping action will distribute it fairly well.

Fucking awesome sandwich shop soon to open in Sweden

A new sandwich shop soon to open in Gothenburg uses a coarse English swear word in its name and marketing. The owner says it's a question of humor.

Two brothers are set to open the new eatery in Gothenburg in the spring and have given their venture the name "A Fucking Awesome Sandwich." Co-owner Christian Ingber says he often heard the cuss word used in a positive sense during his years living in New York. Ingber, who also owns the restaurant Puta Madre, which means "Your mother is a prostitute" in Spanish, said the name was not to be taken too taken too seriously.
"It's not the F word in a negative context," he said. "It could be a question of humor, we thought it was a fun name. My seven-year-old daughter is not allowed to swear, but she knows how to use 'fucking' in the right context." Ingber, whose daughter took part in the promotional video, said that several children in the video had American parents, and had attended a local English-language daycare center where the teachers gave the video positive feedback.

YouTube link.

"If anyone were to protest, it would be those teachers," Ingber said. "They called us silly." Ingber said he hoped there would be less focus on the name and more on the food. "To see the word rather than the product, that almost makes me a bit annoyed," he said. "I bet that 90 percent of those that grumble about us letting a child say fuck take their children to be poisoned at McDonald's."

Sriracha Factory In California Declared Public Nuisance

In the last decade Sriracha has gone from that sauce you see on the table at Asian restaurants to a spicy staple in many homes, rivaling the fame enjoyed by spicy celebrities Tapatio and Cholula. People like Sriracha so much that Lay's even made Sriracha flavored chips, although their recipe could have used a little more Sriracha.
Recently, a Sriracha factory in Irwindale, California was declared a public nuisance by the South Coast Air Quality Management District after nearby residents complained of burning eyes and throats due to the odor emanating from the factory.
So, is the spice going to disappear from our lives? Huy Fong Foods, makers of Sriracha, have until June 1st to install carbon filters in their factory or it's bye-bye red rooster sauce.

Daily Comic Relief

Where Everyone In The World Is Migrating

It's no secret that the world's population is on the move, but it's rare to get a glimpse of where that flow is happening. In a study released in Science, a team of geographers used data snapshots to create a broad analysis of global migrations over 20 years.

Watch Every Cyber Attack In The World In Real Time

Kasperkspy Labs launched a beautifully terrifying interactive map that shows online threats arounds the world in real time. It's a global visualization of cyber attacks. The data displayed on the map all comes from Kaspersky's malware monitoring software.

The United States, for instance, is an especially high risk area - it's the fourth most popular target for malware - but Russia is the most infected country. The different colored lines that connect attackers and victims represent different kinds of attacks, a feature that should help you decide how to protect yourself.

Printing Wikipedia

A German-based group called PediaPress is trying to raise enough money to make a print copy of all of Wikipedia. That's right, Wikipedia, the ever-evolving, always-changing, inherently digital encyclopedia of information gathered by contributors all over the world. To say this would be a massive project is an understatement.
One thousand volumes, 1,200 pages each - more than one million pages in all - about 80 meters of shelf space. That's what it would take to make a printed version of Wikipedia. The idea is to let people see just how much information is in the online encyclopedia, says Christoph Kepper and his partners at Pediapress.

$150,000 "Black Beauty" Manganite specimen to be auctioned

 

Here's a nice looking "whopper of a Manganite group." With an estimated value between $150,000 and $175,000, it has an opening bid of $75,000. It's one of over 300 gems and minerals being auctioned by Heritage.

Ilfeld, Nordhausen, Harz, Thuringia, Germany
If it wasn't for the Ilfeld Manganese mines, Manganite would be relegated to back row status in the Pantheon of Fine Minerals. Fortunately, Manganite was rescued from obscurity by the brilliant, midnight-black crystal groups found in this part of the Harz Mountains. Of the various Manganite groups known, the one seen here is arguably in the top 5. Single crystals run riot over the upper surface of a massive Manganite/Pyrolusite matrix, with thin layers of the original wall rock visible on the absolute bottom of the specimen. Many of the crystals are over one inch, and some are much larger: up to 1.88 inches (4.74 cm). At better than 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) in length, this is not a small example of this mineral; it is a whopper of a Manganite group. The condition of this 'black beauty' is absolutely pristine with no visible damage. As befits a world-class specimen of Ilfeld Manganite, it comes with a custom acrylic base. Overall Measurements: 6.49 x 3.34 x 2.65 inches (16.5 x 8.5 x 6.74 cm)

I've got my eye on this hunk of heulandite on chalcedony, which "looks like Godzilla as a hockey goalie," and has a current high bid of $1.

Heritage Auctions gems and minerals

Coming Tomorrow

Coming Tomorrow

• Nuetered repugicans destroy their chances with women with one vile poster
• White wingnut terrorist busted ... and not a peep
• Wingnut food companies
• Justices For Sale! Buy Yours Here!

And more ...

This blue birdie is our Animal Picture, for today.

The Daily Drift

Facts are great ... ?

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 197 countries around the world daily.   

 Hands up ... !

Today is - World Youth Day

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Today in History

1598		The Edict of Nantes grants political rights to French Huguenots.
1775		Lord North extends the New England Restraining Act to South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act forbids trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.
1861		After 34 hours of bombardment, Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.
1865		Union forces under Gen. Sherman begin their devastating march through Georgia.
1902		J.C. Penny opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
1919		British forces kill hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.
1933		The first flight over Mount Everest is completed by Lord Clydesdale.
1941		German troops capture Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
1943		Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.
1945		Vienna falls to Soviet troops.
1960		The first navigational satellite is launched into Earth's orbit.
1961		The U.N. General Assembly condemns South Africa because of apartheid.
1964		Sidney Poitier becomes the first black to win an Oscar for best actor.
1970		An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing and jeopardizing the lives of the three-man crew.
1976		The U.S. Federal Reserve begins issuing $2 bicentennial notes.
1979		The world's longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours.

Non Sequitur