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.
Today's horoscope says:
Nobody realizes just how adventurous you really are, since you're so dependable every day.
Surprise the world by shifting gears and throwing yourself into some bold new creative pursuit.
Not all artists are flaky, you know, and not all reliable people lack imagination.
You may be at a crossroads, unsure of which way to turn.
Follow your gut -- it may seem scary at first, but it should lead to more satisfaction (both spiritually and financially).
Some of our readers today have been in:
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Prague, Hlavni Mesto Praha, Czech Republic
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
London, England, United Kingdom
Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Krefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania
Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Athens, Attiki, Greece
Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Seoul, Kyonggi-Do, Korea
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Barquisimeto, Lara, Venezuela
as well as Brazil, and the United States in such cities as Lubbock, Santa Monica, Tomah, Bronx and more
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Weekly Address
Grand Isle, Louisiana
I’m speaking to you from Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana, one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle’s Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.
Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his oyster bed, along the north side of Grand Isle, has likely been destroyed by the spill. Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he’s earned his living during shrimping season – working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year round. But today, the waters where he’s spent his years are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he’ll be able to return to the life he built. “You can put a price on a lost season,” he’s said. “But not a lost heritage.”
The effects of the spill reach beyond the shoreline. I also spoke with Patti Rigaud. For 30 years, she’s owned a small convenience store – a store opened by her father. She depends on the sales generated by tourism each summer. But this year, most of the boats that would line these docks are nowhere to be seen. Dudley Gaspard, who owns the Sand Dollar Marina and Hotel, has been hit hard as well. Normally, this time of year, rooms are filling up and tackle is flying off the shelves. But he too has been devastated by the decline in tourism and the suspension of fishing in the waters off the Louisiana Coast.
Their stories are familiar to many in Grand Isle and throughout the Gulf region. Often families have been here for generations, earning a living, and making a life, that’s tied to the water – that’s tied to the magnificent coasts and natural bounty of this place. Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It’s upended whole communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they’ve lost. They’ve been through tough times before. It’s about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.
These folks work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe – one that’s not their fault and that’s beyond their control – their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It’s brutally unfair. It’s wrong. And what I told these men and women – and what I have said since the beginning of this disaster – is that I’m going to stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are made whole.
That’s why from the beginning, we’ve mobilized on every front to contain and clean up this spill. I’ve authorized the deployment of 17,500 National Guard troops to aid in the response. More than 20,000 people are currently working around the clock to protect waters and coastlines. We’ve convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world. More than 1,900 vessels are in the Gulf assisting in the clean up. More than 4.3 million feet of boom have been deployed with another 2.9 million feet of boom available – enough to stretch over 1,300 miles. And 17 staging areas are in place across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida to rapidly defend sensitive shorelines. In short, this is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.
We’ve also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and we will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf Coast. The Small Business Administration has stepped in to help businesses by approving loans and allowing deferrals of existing loan payments. And this week, the federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In addition, after an emergency safety review, we’re putting in place aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I’ve appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill. If laws are inadequate –laws will be changed. If oversight was lacking – it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken – those responsible will be brought to justice.
Now, over the last few days BP has placed a cap over the well, and it appears they’re making progress in trying to pump oil to the surface to keep it from leaking into the water. But as has been the case since the beginning of this crisis, we are prepared for the worst, even as we hope that BP’s efforts bring better news than we’ve received before. We also know that regardless of the outcome of this attempt, there will still to be some spillage until the relief wells are completed. And there will continue to be a massive cleanup ahead of us.
So we will continue to leverage every resource at our disposal to protect coastlines, to clean up the oil, to hold BP and other companies accountable for damages, to begin to restore the bounty and beauty of this region – and to aid the hardworking people of the Gulf as they rebuild their businesses and communities. And I want to urge all Americans to do what you can as well – including visiting this area. The vast majority of beaches are pristine and open for business.
These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. But what we have also seen these past few weeks is that – even in the face of adversity – the men and women of the Gulf have displayed incredible determination. They have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe the people of this region is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience of all the people I’ve met along the Gulf Coast. That is our mission. And it’s one we will fulfill.
Thank you.
Paul McCartney disses W, and repugicans have a hissy
David Neiwert posted this over at Crooks and Liars:
Sure, Paul may still have to live down "Silly Love Songs." But little moments like these remind us of the puckish rebel of his youth:
McCartney ended the evening taking a baseless cheap shot at former President George W. Bush.
“After the last eight years, it’s great to have a President who knows what a library is,” McCartney quipped.
Repuplicans seem to have forgotten that The Beatles always had a way of poking fun at conservatives -- and they never were compelled to hold their tongues, either.
Which is why Mr. Tanning Bed, John Boehner, immediately put up a big whine:
“Like millions of other Americans, I have always had a good impression of Paul McCartney and thought of him as a classy guy, but I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of grace and respect he displayed at the White House,” Boehner told HUMAN EVENTS. “I hope he'll apologize to the American people for his conduct which demeaned him, the White House and President Obama.”
Not to mention that it also gave John Boehner a big fat opportunity to completely humiliate himself. Again.
You know, we keep hearing from conservatives that we liberals have no sense of humor. They mostly tell us this when they make jokes about rounding us up in concentration camps or directing terrorist attacks our way. But even the most prim-lipped liberal knows better than to be this dumb.
Gotta wonder what Boehner will do if McCartney declines to apologize. Maybe he and his fellow House Republicans can burn Beatles records on the South Lawn or something.
He's a real nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.
(lead guitar)
He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else
lends you a hand.
Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen,
you don't know what your missing
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command
He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.
Swaziland is one of the poorest and most rural nations in the world. Most of the villages have no running water, electricity, or refrigerators. But a new innovation is serving to make life a lot more manageable for rural families in Swaziland. The communal building in many of the villages now has a solar powered fridge. See how these responsible refrigerators are impacting many African villages.
Living by a busy road, these animals aren’t willing to take any chances when it comes to getting across safely.
Instead, a rabbit and a stoat are cleverly using an underground network of drains to make it to the other side. The cute animals scuttle from one side of the road to the other and pop out of drains in order to avoid being hit by traffic.
And a fluffy little owl also uses the same underground network as a home while waiting for its mother to bring food.
Amateur wildlife photographer Paul Bunyard captured the shots while driving on his way to work in Rugby, Warwickshire. The 38-year-old was able to grab a quick photo of the stoat before it popped back into the drain.
A Montana judge says it's not a worker's fault he got mauled by a grizzly bear at a tourist attraction, even if he smoked marijuana before trying to feed the animal.
Note to Stoners: remember that to a grizzly you are the munchie.
On his radio show today, Glenn Beck heralded and promoted the work of Nazi sympathizer Elizabeth Dilling, who spoke at rallies hosted by the leading American Nazi group and praised Hitler. Today, Dilling is heralded by White Supremacists and White Aryans who revere her "fearless" work against Jewish people.
As Media Matters' Simon Maloy noted, Beck had kind words for Dilling's 1934 anti-communist book, The Red Network, saying: "This is a book -- and I'm a getting a ton of these -- from people who were doing what we're doing now. We now are documenting who all of these people are. Well, there were Americans in the first 50 years of this nation that took this seriously, and they documented it." Maloy noted that Dilling has a long history of rabid anti-Semitism, such as calling President Eisenhower "Ike the Kike" and labeling President Kennedy's New Frontier program the "Jew frontier."
Professor Glen Jeansonne and writer David Luhrssen note in the encyclopedia Women and War that Dilling wasn't only anti-Semitic, but a sympathizer and supporter of the Nazis and Hitler:
When World War II began in 1939, Dilling was part of the national network of anti-Semitics, anti-Communists, and Nazi sympathizers such as Father Charles Coughlin, Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith, Reverend Gerald Winrod, and William Dudley Pelley. Material generated by Nazi organizations in Germany to inspire race hated and exploit dissatisfaction in the United States found its way into Dilling's publications. She spoke at rallies hosted by the leading U.S. Nazi organization, the German-American Bund, and had traveled to Germany, pronouncing the country as flourishing under Hitler.
Dilling called for appeasing Germany; she blamed the war on Jews and Communists and accused the Roosevelt administration of being controlled by Jewish Communists. ... After Pearl Harbor, Dilling resisted wartime rationing and denounced the Allies.
So Dilling "spoke at rallies hosted by the leading U.S. Nazi organization, the German-American Bund." Who's the German-American Bund? Let Glenn Beck, Elizabeth Dilling fan, tell you:
BECK: The Bund gathered socially and ran Nazi camps. The camps were advertised as summer retreats where you could escape the city, celebrate German heritage, dance, drink, at places like Camp Nordlund in New Jersey and Camp Siegfried in Long Island. The camps hidden as pro-German/pro- American were attended by adults and families.
On the outside, they looked like any other camp. But the children were indoctrinated in the ideals of Nazism, breeding young Americans to become full-fledged Nazis. They marched, performed drills in Nazi uniforms. And they were taught about their racial superiority, their potential as Aryan youth.
As media scrutiny of the Bund increase, so did anti-Nazi protests, including other Americans who hated the Nazi image and Jewish-American veterans. Instead of quieting down, Bund leader Fritz Kuhn decided to hold the largest rally in their history, Madison Square Garden. These American Nazis showed their true colors, beating a Jewish protester who rushed the stage. Kuhn and other speeches were nothing more than anti-Semitic rants wrapped in the American flag protected by the First Amendment. [Glenn Beck, March 11]
British Professors Christopher Partridge and Ron Geaves wrote that Dilling was a "pro-Nazi anti-Semite" who disseminated Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The ADL describes Protocols as "a classic in paranoid, racist literature. Taken by the gullible as the confidential minutes of a Jewish conclave convened in the last years of the nineteenth century, it has been heralded by anti-Semites as proof that Jews are plotting to take over the world."
Dilling's Nazi sympathies have made her a cult hero among Aryan groups and White Nationalists/Supremacists. For instance, the group Women for Aryan Unity features Dilling in a publication whose purpose is "to honour Aryan Women past and Present."
Simon Maloy has even more horrific details.
This isn't just beyond the pale -- it's probably the most significant major-media endorsement of American fascist ideology since the 1930s.
Now, we know that Beck bought whole into Jonah Goldberg's fraudulent Liberal Fascism thesis, and therefore probably believes that these American Nazis were evil "progressives" at heart. So it's likely he had a huge blind spot about the fact that American fascists of the 1930s were far-right ideologues whose favorite pastime was Red-baiting. People like Elizabeth Dilling.
But at least someone on his staff had to be aware of her background. Most likely it was pointed out to Beck and he ignored it.
At the minimum, Beck needs to renounce his endorsement and apologize for making it. If he refuses, Fox must fire him.
***
Seeing as how he is a NAZI himself this is hardly surprising. One question, though, when are we going to lock this maniac away?
A group of artists has been 'asked' to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity. But the school's principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.
'Nothing to do with political pressure' ...
Yeah, right and the tooth fairy has butterfly wings as well.
China's black market for human organs is endlessly lucrative due to the fact that nearly 1.5 million people require organ transplants every year but according to the Health Ministry, only ten thousand can get what they need.
Miss Ellie, the former World's Ugliest Dog, has died aged 17.
The small, bug-eyed Chinese Crested Hairless dog whose pimples and lolling tongue helped her win Animal Planet's 'World's Ugliest Dog' contest in 2009, passed away in Colorado.
Miss Ellie only had a couple of back teeth, cataracts in both her eyes, several moles and pimples, and limited hair.
A woman who fed a nine-month-old baby a piece of sausage, despite being told not to by the boy's mother, has been jailed after he choked to death. Patryk Bialek died at Westgate Crescent, Slough, Berkshire, after being given the piece of frankfurter by Stella Rekiec in May 2008. She was at a party at the house when the boy's mother went out.
When the mother returned her son was choking. Rekiec was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 18 months. The 28-year-old, who used to reside at the address but now lives in New Malden, south-west London, was sentenced at Reading Crown Court.
Police said on the evening of Patryk's death, the four occupants of the house, including Rekiec and the boy's parents, held a small party in Rekiec's room. The boy's mother left to go to the shops but returned about 15 minutes later to find her son lying motionless on the bed and choking. She attempted to resuscitate him, but he died later in hospital.
Rekiec later admitted that she had fed Patryk the sausage, despite being previously warned not to by his mother. Det Sgt Emma Brown, of Thames Valley Police, said: "Any loss of life is sad, but the death of a young child in such circumstances is particularly tragic. Our thoughts remain with Patryk's parents."
Police in India have arrested a 20-year-old youth for allegedly attacking a 23-year-old man with a chopper at Indira Nagar in Kurla West early on Thursday morning. They have launched a manhunt to find his two accomplices.
According to the police, the accused, Mohammed Dawood Khan, chopped off both the arms and one leg of the victim, Mohammed Wasim Khan. The accused reportedly committed the crime after learning that the victim planned to marry his 19-year-old sister. Investigators said that the accused was against the relationship and would frequently engage in fights with the victim over it. A week ago, he had warned the victim to stop meeting his sister. His sister, though, continued to see Wasim.
On Thursday, at around 2 am, Dawood asked his accomplices to call on Wasim who resides at Kasaiwada in Kurla East and ask Wasim to meet him. Wasim, in his complaint, said, “When I reached the spot, Dawood immediately started abusing me and and the next moment, he attacked me with a chopper and then fled from the spot.”
Neighbours who witnessed the crime rushed Wasim to Sion hospital where he is recuperating from the grievous injuries that he has sustained. “The accused has been booked for attempt to murder. The accused claimed that he had warned the victim in the past and since he did not obey him, he committed the offence,” said Kurla police senior inspector Vijay Bagwe.
An Oklahoma woman said a gym she joined told her to stop using certain equipment because she was too overweight. Five months ago Sandra Ruiz gave birth to her son but with that came some extra weight she wanted to get rid of. Ruiz said she weighs about 385 pounds. "I'm tired of being fat because when I go to the store, I can't find clothes that fit me. I haven't worn jeans in a year," Ruiz said.
Ruiz joined Mademoiselle Fitness Center in south Oklahoma City. During one of her visits, Ruiz said a worker approached her while she was on a stationary bike and told her to get off. "The lady said I couldn't get on the machines because we are overweight," Ruiz said. "Everybody was watching seeing what was going on, and I got very sad because I'm so emotional about my weight right now."
She said the gym told her she could instead use their aerobics room to walk in, but Ruiz said if she wanted to just walk she would do that outside for free. Ruiz said that's what she is now doing and why she wants out of her contract and doesn't feel she should have to pay their cancellation fee.
"If ya'll didn't want big people to get on your machine, ya'll would have told us, and if we would have known, we wouldn't have come here," Ruiz said. The owner of Mademoiselle Fitness Center said Ruiz had been informed from the start that there were certain pieces of equipment she couldn't use for her own safety, and also because of the equipment's weight limit. Ruiz said she was never told that.
Police said a naked man "yelling that he was Jesus" was the catalyst for a five-vehicle accident on I-95 North in Darien, Connecticut, that injured three and slowed traffic for around six hours.
