President Obama's weekly address

The text of the address is below:

Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama
Holiday Radio Address
December 27, 2008

Good morning. This week, Americans are gathering with family and friends across the country to celebrate the blessings of Christmas and the holiday season.

As we celebrate this joyous time of year, our thoughts turn to the brave men and women who serve our country far from home. Their extraordinary and selfless sacrifice is an inspiration to us all, and part of the unbroken line of heroism that has made our freedom and prosperity possible for over two centuries.

Many troops are serving their second, third, or fourth tour of duty. And we are reminded that they are more than dedicated Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard – they are devoted fathers and mothers; husbands and wives; sons and daughters; and sisters and brothers.

This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent, and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home.

Our troops and military families have won the respect and gratitude of their broader American family. Michelle and I have them in our prayers this Christmas, and we must all continue to offer them our full support in the weeks and months to come. .

These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy. As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don’t have a job. Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain.

That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans – that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.

That is the spirit that will guide my Administration in the New Year. If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction. That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.

After all, that is what Americans have always done.

232 years ago, when America was newly born as a nation, George Washington and his Army faced impossible odds as they struggled to free themselves from the grip of an empire.

It was Christmas Day—December 25th, 1776 – that they fought through ice and cold to make an improbable crossing of the Delaware River. They caught the enemy off guard, won victories in Trenton and Princeton, and gave new momentum to a beleaguered Army and new hope to the cause of Independence.

Many ages have passed since that first American Christmas. We have crossed many rivers as a people. But the lessons that have carried us through are the same lessons that we celebrate every Christmas season—the same lessons that guide us to this very day: that hope endures, and that a new birth of peace is always possible.

Questions linger after shrub withdraws pardon

Questions continue to swirl today over the shrub's decision to withdraw a pardon for a New York developer involved in a Long Island mortgage fraud scheme.

Isaac Toussie, 36, was convicted in 2001 of mail fraud and of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development that stemmed from the mortgage scheme.

The White House initially announced the pardon Tuesday afternoon, immediately setting off a firestorm of criticism from angry homeowners and investors, as well as government watchdog organizations quick to note Toussie's ties to prominent repugicans.

Among the questions now being asked are:

• Why didn't the White House conduct a more thorough investigation of Toussie's background?

• Why did White House Counsel Fred Fielding circumvent the typical pardon application process by directly considering Toussie's clemency request instead of leaving it to the Justice Department?

• Did Toussie get special treatment because of his political connections?

And I Quote

We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.

~ President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Confused says ...

Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

Project Censored

The News that didn't make the News: 2009

PROJECT CENSORED

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009

#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

# 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA

# 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business

# 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?

# 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets

# 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

# 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking

# 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly

#9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify

# 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture

# 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror

# 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind

# 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq

# 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste

# 15 Worldwide Slavery

# 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights

# 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights

# 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers

# 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction

# 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record

# 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option

# 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid

# 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs

# 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror

# 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer

Details of Palin's boyfriend's mom arrest

Alaska authorities say the mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages to two police informants discussing drug transactions before her arrest on felony drug charges.

An affidavit filed Wednesday says Sherry L. Johnston sent text messages referring to "coffee" as a code for the drug OxyContin.

The 42-year-old Johnston was arrested last week after state troopers served a search warrant at her Wasilla home.

She is out on bail.

Johnston is the mother of 18-year-old Levi Johnston.

Governor Sarah Palin announced in September that her 18-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant and Johnston was the father.

*****

And these are the 'family values' people?!?

Our newest readers

Carolina Naturally welcomes our newest readers from our newest country: Paraguay.

A Freeloader Christmas

Red Skelton and Bob Hope doing what they do best. This improve comedy from Red's television series is what talent really is - something many of the 'stars' of today need to have but do not.

This was recorded LIVE folks. No retakes or rehearsals. Just one liner after one liner and a few good technical guys coming in with sound effects at opportune moments and the two not missing a beat ... all the while Red and Bob laughing at their own gags and gaffs.

Parents of slain rabbi light menorah in Mumbai

The parents of a rabbi and his wife killed in last month's terror attacks in Mumbai lit a 16-foot (5-meter) public menorah outside the building where their children lived in the Indian city.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, were among scores killed last month in a rampage by suspected Islamic militants.
The couple ran a center in Mumbai for the Orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement.

Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and his wife, Frida, were accompanied by Rivka's parents, Yehudit and Shimon Rosenberg, and several friends and relatives at the lighting ceremony.

The slain Holtzbergs, who moved to Mumbai in 2003, used to light a menorah every year outside the Jewish center also known as Nariman House.
Thursday is the fifth night of Hanukkah.

The relatives went inside the building, badly damaged by the attackers and the Indian rescue operations that followed, and also visited the room where Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife were killed.
The Holtzbergs and Rosenbergs are also expected to light a menorah at the Gateway of India, a ceremonial archway on Mumbai's seafront, a short distance from the Chabad center.

The Holtzberg's 2-year-old son, Moshe, survived the attack on the building that killed his parents and four others - all Jewish foreigners.

Daily Funny

A monkey is sitting in a tree, smoking a joint, when a lizard walks past.
The lizard looks up and says to the monkey "Hey! What are you doing?"
The monkey says "Smoking a joint, come up and join me, my cold-blooded friend."
So the lizard climbs up and sits next to the monkey and they have another joint.
After a while the lizard says his mouth is 'dry', and that he's going to get a drink from the river.
At the riverbank, the lizard is so stoned that he leans too far over and falls in.
A Crocodile sees this and swims over to the stoned lizard, helping him to the side.
He then asks the lizard, "What's the matter with you?!"
The lizard explains to the crocodile that he was sitting in the tree, smoking a joint with his new monkey friend.
He then explained how his mouth got dry, and that he was so wasted that, when he went to get a drink from the river, he fell in!
The inquisitive crocodile says he has to check this out.
He walks into the jungle and finds the tree where the monkey is sitting, finishing a joint.
He looks up and says "Hey, MONKEY!"
The Monkey looks down and says "FUUUUUCK, DUDE....... how much water did you drink?"

Elbow Room

School House Rock

Remember those old 'educational ditties' from back in the day! School House Rock Rocks!

Growing Pains

Foghorn Leghorn

Man to receive 'GETOSAMA' plates by Christmas

A New York man is excited to receive his "GETOSAMA" license plates in time for Christmas.

Retired NYPD officer Arno Herwerth said Tuesday that he ordered the vanity plates in 2007 as a reminder that Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden remains at large.

The plates were delivered, but the state Department of Motor Vehicles quickly ordered them returned, saying the plates could be considered objectionable.

The Long Island resident filed a federal complaint, and the DMV relented in February.

Herwerth initially rejected the offer because the DMV wouldn't pay attorney's fees, but he eventually decided to settle the case.

He says the DMV is overnighting his registration so he can put the plates on for Christmas.

Police use tobacco spit to nab burglary suspect

A trail of tobacco spit has led investigators to a suspect in at least five burglaries across eastern Oklahoma, police said.

Randy Lee Shoopman Jr., 33, was charged with 11 counts of second-degree burglary after a sample of his DNA matched that taken from expectorant left behind at the scene of several burglaries in Oklahoma, said officer Brad Robertson, a spokesman for the Tahlequah police department.

Shoopman was taken into custody Friday in Merced, Calif., on an unrelated stolen property charge, Robertson said.

Investigators also said Shoopman may be involved in break-ins at businesses across eastern Oklahoma and in Missouri.

Stilwell police detective Chad Smith said he was investigating the burglary of an insurance company in September when he noticed a tobacco stain on papers in the ransacked office.

"None of the ladies that worked there chewed tobacco," Smith said. "You could tell that the stains were from the suspect."

Smith said he sent a sample of the spit to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for testing. Detectives in Tahlequah who were investigating Shoopman as a possible suspect in a string of burglaries obtained a warrant to get a DNA sample from him.

The sample linked him to at least five burglaries in which the suspect also left behind tobacco spit, Robertson said. Shoopman was released on bail before the DNA match was obtained.

The evidence helps build a strong case for prosecutors, said Shannon Otteson, assistant district attorney in Adair County.

"Eyewitness testimony is unreliable at best. Even video tape surveillance is sometimes grainy. But this is pretty good," Otteson said. "Through this guy's bad habit, we could possibly solve several different burglaries."

Oklahoma officials hoped to have Shoopman extradited from California soon to face charges, said Otteson.

Giant snowman rises again in Alaska

A giant snowman named Snowzilla has mysteriously appeared again this year - despite the city's cease-and-desist order.

Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers' front yard in an east Anchorage neighborhood. Snowzilla reappeared before dawn Tuesday.

Powers is not taking credit. When questioned Tuesday afternoon, he insisted Snowzilla just somehow happened, again.

For the last three years, Snowzilla - to the delight of some and the chagrin of others - has been a very large feature in Powers' yard. In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He's wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.

"Have you seen him?" Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. "He's handsome."

Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers' modest home. His children - he is the father of seven - collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.

Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers' door.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

The mayor's office on Tuesday issued a statement defending its move against Snowzilla.

"This property owner has repeatedly ignored city attempts to find ways to accommodate his desire to build a giant snowman without affecting the quiet, residential quality of the neighborhood," said the statement from Mayor Mark Begich's office. "This is a neighborhood of small homes on small lots connected by small streets. It can't support the volume of traffic and revelers that are interested in Snowzilla."

The mayor's office says Powers appears to run a large junk and salvage operation from his home. He has violated land use codes for 13 years, the city said. He owes the city more than $100,000 in fines and other assessments.

Powers said it is the city that has been difficult, not him.

"I have tried to jump through every goofy hoop they have sent to me. I have never been confrontational and it goes on and on and on and it is so goofy," he said. "Some of it is unfounded, some is just outrageous."

The city said it did not expect to take any further action until after Christmas.

Sunken Soviet sub needs buyer _ or it's scrapped

This Friday, July 25, 2008 photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows Soviet submarine Juliett 484 coming to the surface of the Providence River in Providence, R.I. The former Soviet cruise missile submarine that sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it. The 282-foot-long sub had served as a floating educational museum until it went down in a powerful Nor'easter in April 2007.

A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film and sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it, the president of the foundation that owns it said Wednesday.

The 282-foot submarine, also known as Juliett 484, began serving as a floating educational museum in 2002, until it went down during a powerful nor'easter in April 2007.

Army and Navy dive crews raised the sub in a training exercise last July, and inspections showed the vessel had deteriorated and corroded during its 15 months underwater.

Restoring it to an operational museum would have cost more than $1 million, said Frank Lennon, director of the Russian Sub Museum and president of the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, a private, nonprofit group.

"Based on the input we received from experts, the cost of restoring it was beyond our capabilities," Lennon said.

A local company, Rhode Island Metals Recycling, LLC, has agreed to move the sub downriver and eventually dismantle it for scrap metal if no one offers to buy it intact by the end of January.

"We remain hopeful that someone will step forward who might be interested in taking over the stewardship of this very interesting Cold War relic," Lennon said.

The sub, alternatively designated as K-77, was launched in 1965 as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet. The Juliett class was initially planned as a nuclear missile platform for strikes against the United States and later tracked U.S. aircraft carriers.

The sub was used in the 1990s as a restaurant and vodka bar in Helsinki, Finland, and as a set for the 2002 Harrison Ford movie "K-19: The Widowmaker" before being acquired by the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation.

It opened as a museum in Providence in 2002 and drew tens of thousands of tourists over the years.

Lennon said the museum would remove artifacts such as periscopes, torpedo tube doors, missile firing stations and other items before the sub is dismantled.

He said he had received inquiries about the sub, including one from an Australian group that wanted to sink it and use it as a reef, but no serious offers.

Manslaughter charge dropped against teen

A judge has dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against a 16-year-old girl who was holding a gun when it fired, killing her boyfriend who had been fighting another teen over her affection.

Meredith Kandies still faces weapons charges in the shooting of Jeremy McMillan. But Randolph County District Court Judge William Neely ruled prosecutors didn't present enough evidence to show Kandies intended to kill the 16-year-old McMillan.

Kandies, the daughter of a man convicted in one of Asheboro's most shocking murders, was holding the gun McMillan brought to the fight outside an elementary school December 12, 2009. The gun fired by accident as McMillan tried to wrestle it back after he lost the fight, according to testimony.

Forensic tests confirmed the 9 mm Glock pistol recovered near the shooting was discharged in a struggle, police said.

“She's pretty much in shock,” Kandies' attorney, Jonathan Megerian, said after the hearing. “She was 16, in love with this guy. It is very, very sad.”

S.C. hunters find human remains

Authorities say two South Carolina hunters have found human skeletal remains along a dirt path in the woods.

Horry County police spokesman Robert Keglar says the hunters alerted police around noon Wednesday that they'd found human remains in Conway, near state Highway 378.

Keglar told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach the bones were scattered, but authorities believe they belong to one person.

It's not yet known how long the remains have been there. Keglar says tests on the bones will also determine the person's gender and age

*****

Also human remains found in Charlotte:

Workers find human bones at construction site

Construction workers in southwest Charlotte found human bones at a site off Shopton Road on Wednesday afternoon, and officers are treating the case as a homicide.

Someone called police just before 1:30 p.m. about a human skull that had been found in the 5200 block of Dixie River Road. When officers got there, they found other human bones and began an investigation.

Homicide detectives are combing missing person reports to identify potential leads.

If classified as a homicide, the case would be the 83rd officers have investigated this year and the ninth in the month of December. The total number of homicides this year has already surpassed the total for all of last year.

Now, this was a fine 'how-do-you-do' for the holidays ...

Three dead after man in Santa suit opens fire at party

Police in Covina, Califonia say three people are dead after a man in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a Christmas Eve party in a home in suburban Los Angeles that subsequently caught fire.

Covina police Lt. Pat Buchanan says the man arrived at the party late Wednesday and immediately opened fire with a handgun.

Buchanan says three bodies were found after the fire was put out. He could not say how the fire started or how the three people died.

Buchanan says three other people were injured, including two who were shot.He says officers were still hearing gunshots after they arrived and found the house in flames.

Shooting suspect dies

A former Utah state trooper suspected in a series of Dallas-area roadway shootings died on Christmas Eve, a day after police said he turned a gun on himself following a brief standoff.

Brian Smith, 37, had been in critical condition on life support from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police said he shot himself in the head Tuesday, more than six hours after the roadway shooting spree ended.

Smith died Wednesday night at Parkland Hospital, nursing supervisor Arthur Clarke said.

Authorities were working to confirm that Smith was the gunman in separate fatal shootings minutes apart Monday on a Garland street and a Dallas interstate, Dallas police Lt. Craig Miller said.

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Follow through on your plans, and everything goes smoothly.

That's just as it should be.

Just in case you missed it ...

It's Xmas!

And if you're really all that interested, it's also my birthday.

Woman: Buried in snow for three days is alive

No one expected to find Donna Molnar alive.

Searchers had combed the brutal back country of rural Ontario for the housewife from the city of Hamilton, who had left her home three days earlier in the middle of a blizzard to grocery shop.

Alongside his search-and-rescue dog Ace, Ray Lau on Monday tramped through the thick, ice-covered brush of a farmer's field, not far from where Molnar's van had been found a day earlier.

He kept thinking: Negative-20 winds? This is a search for a body.

"Then, oh, all of a sudden, Ace bolted off," said Lau. "He stooped and looked down at the snow and just barked, barked, barked."

Lau rushed to his Dutch shepherd's side.

"There she was, there was Donna, her face was almost totally covered except for one eye staring back at me!" he said. "That was, 'Wow!' There was a thousand thoughts going through my head. It was over the top."

With one ungloved hand near her neck, Molnar, 55, mumbled and tried to scream as Lau yelled to other rescuers. Dressed in a leather coat, sweater, slacks and winter boots, Molnar was carefully extracted from a 3-foot-deep mound of snow that had apparently helped to insulate her.

Then, rescuers got their second shock.

"She was lucid, and said, 'Wow. I've been here a long time!' and then she apologized and said, 'I just wanted to take a walk, I'm sorry to have caused you any trouble,' " said Staff Sgt. Mark Cox of the Hamilton Police Department, one of the leaders in the hunt. "And we're all thinking this is incredible, this is really something."

"I've been doing search and rescue for seven years, and this is the wildest case I've had in finding someone alive," he said.

She was rushed to a hospital and immediately sedated to begin the agonizing steps of hypothermia treatment.

"I think the snow must have worked to trap her body heat, and that's what really saved her," Cox said. "This really speaks to what's possible."

Today's readers

Readers in:

Dublin, Hyderabad, Apeldoorn, Helsinki, Riyadh, Semarang, Sint-Truiden, Andorra La Villa, Sorel and Paris ...

as well as ...

Wentzville, Nashville, Fargo, Schenectady, Chapel Hill, Baton Rouge, Folsom, Orlando, Peachtree City and Cary ...

have all dropped by today to see what was what on Carolina Naturally.

Slavic Mayan obession

Here are the four Queens of a Soviet Era deck of cards with, for whatever reason, a Mayan Motif.

See more at English Russian.

Shrub to re-examine pardon

The shrub ordered one of 19 presidential pardons he granted earlier in the week to be re-examined.

The pardon was for Isaac R. Toussie, a 36-year-old New York developer who pleaded guilty in 2001 to making false statements in a Long Island mortgage fraud scheme.

Toussie and his father, also a developer, had previously been accused of conspiring with lenders and others to build and sell substandard homes -- a charge they denied.

According to a senior cabal official, the White House learned more about Toussie's case Tuesday night -- only hours after announcing his pardon.

Specifically, the White House learned, according to the official, "additional information about the nature of fraud [Toussie] carried out."

The White House also learned Toussie's father made numerous contributions to leading repugican politicians.

In 2008, Toussie's father donated almost $40,000 to Arizona Senator John McCain, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, and Virginia Representative Eric Cantor.

"Based on information that has subsequently come to light, the shrub has directed the [Justice Department's] pardon attorney not to execute and deliver a grant of clemency to Mr. Toussie," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a written statement.

"The pardon attorney has not provided a recommendation on Mr. Toussie's case because it was filed less than five years from completion of his sentence. The shrub believes that the pardon attorney should have an opportunity to review this case before a decision on clemency is made."

Bradford Berenson, Toussie's lawyer, issued a statement saying, "Isaac Toussie is deeply grateful that both the counsel to the shrub and the shrub himself found Mr. Toussie's pardon application to have sufficient merit to be granted.

"Mr. Toussie looks forward to the pardon attorney's expeditious review of the application and remains confident that the pardon attorney will agree with the shrub and the White House counsel."

Under Justice Department guidelines, an application for a presidential pardon will not be considered by the department's pardon attorney until a convict has been out of prison for five years.

Toussie was sentenced in September 2003 to a five-month prison sentence, as well as three years of supervised release.

CNN's attempts to reach Toussie's lawyers on Wednesday have been unsuccessful.

The Presidential pardon lists are being closely monitored in the final weeks of the shrub's and cabal's junta, particularly to see whether Lewis "Scooter" Libby will be granted the presidential favor.

Other notables who asked for pardons include former Representative Randall "Duke" Cunningham, a repugican from California, who was convicted of receiving bribes; publishing executive Conrad Black, convicted of fraud; former junk bold salesman Michael Milken; former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, convicted of accounting fraud; and Taliban American John Walker Lindh.

Charles Winters, who died almost 25 years ago, was one of the 19 people given a pardon earlier in the week. His son worked towards a presidential pardon for his dad, who had helped smuggle weapons to Jews fighting in what was then Palestine in the late 1940s.

A Protestant from Boston, Massachusetts, Winters spent 18 months behind bars. He was the only U.S. citizen to serve time for helping fly weapons to Jews struggling to create Israel.

A 20th person received a commutation of a life sentence for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. That individual, Reed Raymond Prior, was ordered released from prison in February 2009. He will have served more than 12 years.

Do you smell fish?

Do you smell fish or Through the Looking Glass Darkly.

Connell was told his plane may be SABOTAGED !!! Threats from Rove over Ohio Election Fraud Case

Curiouser and curiouser, just curiouser and curiouser!


And ... the plot gets thicker.

Some live to tell their story:

National News Briefs; Senator Lands Airplane After Propeller Falls Off

Senator Lands Airplane After Propeller Falls Off

Published: May 10, 1999

Senator James M. Inhofe made an emergency landing on Saturday after the propeller of the small airplane he was flying fell off.

Mr. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, was not injured, said his press secretary, Danny Finnerty.

Mr. Inhofe said he had been in the air about 10 minutes when the propeller dropped off.

Mr. Inhofe, who has been a pilot for 41 years, glided for about eight miles before landing at an airport here.

Mr. Finnerty said the F.B.I. had been asked to investigate because ''propellers don't just fly off airplanes every day.''

Also, Rove Threat to Blackmail GOP IT Mastermind Triggers Immunity Request to Ohio AG by Election Lawyers

Shrub pardons Toussie

The shrub has pardoned Isaac Toussie, who five years ago scammed hundreds of families in an illegal mortgage scheme.

It's perfect symbolism for the shrub's 'legacy', and it won't be among the top ten of the insane pardons we'll see from this White House before January 20th.

Read month at Washington Monthly.

The Occupation of Iraq

Iraqis, tired of the American occupation are looking into legal action against Americans under the new agreement signed by the shrub.

The families of three men who were killed last week during a search of a grain warehouse want to press charges against American soldiers under the terms of a new security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq.

The security document protects American soldiers so long as they're on U.S. bases or on missions, so it's unlikely that the families can base their claims on it, though they plan to press their case with the help of international lawyers.

Nonetheless, their charges are a preview of some of the nettlesome questions that are likely to arise as the U.S. yields more authority to Iraq under the terms of the pact, which takes effect January 1, 2009.

It's questionable whether this will be allowed, and of course, it's questionable whether America will abide by the terms of the agreement.

Read more in the McClatchy Newspapers.

Soldiers bring suit

16 American soldiers have filed suit against former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, alleging that the war profiteer knowingly exposed US troops to carcinogens.

Read more at ThinkProgess.

They just keep on fucking us!

The shrub and the cabal have found some more Americans they can fuck over -- survivors of Americans killed by Libyan terrorists nineteen years ago.
Family members sued and won, but the Bush-Cheney State Department has nullified the lawsuit to help cozy up relations with the new, improved Libya.

Read the rest in the Washington Post.

This is too RICH!

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (r) says McCain's biggest campaign mistake was shielding her from the press.
And she doesn't return the shrub's calls.

Raise your hand if you want Palin to run for President in 2012. Oh, if the repugicans would be so kind as to oblige!

Read more at Crooks & Liars

Warning: Uncontrollable fits of hilarious laughter will ensue spontaneously while reading the rest of this joke ... er, excuse me news story.

Science News

Professor pioneers DIY adjustable glasses that do not need an optician

It was a chance conversation on March 23 1985 ("in the afternoon, as I recall") that first started Josh Silver on his quest to make the world's poor see. A professor of physics at Oxford University, Silver was idly discussing optical lenses with a colleague, wondering whether they might be adjusted without the need for expensive specialist equipment, when the lightbulb of inspiration first flickered above his head.

What if it were possible, he thought, to make a pair of glasses which, instead of requiring an optician, could be "tuned" by the wearer to correct his or her own vision? Might it be possible to bring affordable spectacles to millions who would never otherwise have them?

More than two decades after posing that question, Silver now feels he has the answer. The British inventor has embarked on a quest that is breathtakingly ambitious, but which he insists is achievable - to offer glasses to a billion of the world's poorest people by 2020.

Read the rest here.

Cousin Marriage OK by Science

In an age of sexual liberation, marriage between cousins remains taboo, at least in the United States — and from a scientific perspective, laws against the unions are a socially legitimized form of genetic and sexual discrimination.

That argument, raised Monday in an editorial in Public Library of Science Biology, may turn the stomachs of people raised to disapprove of any form of incest. But dispassioned analysis suggests that cousin marriage is no more troubling than childbearing by middle-aged women.

"Women over the age of 40 are not prevented from childbearing, nor is anyone suggesting they should be, despite an equivalent risk of birth defects," write zoologists Hamish Spencer and Diane Paul. Bans against cousin marriage, they say, should be repealed, "because neither the scientific nor social assumptions that informed them are any longer defensible."

Thirty-one states outlaw marriage between first cousins, making the United States the only developed country in which the practice is regularly banned. Most were passed in the Civil War's aftermath — not, say Spencer and Paul, to reduce the chance of defects caused by combination of deleterious genes, but as part of a radical expansion of government authority over private lives.

Read the rest here.

Lusitania

Divers at the wreck of the Lusitania have found four million rounds of US-made bullets in the ship's holds.

So it appears that the Germans were telling the truth, 94 years ago.
When the passenger ship Lusitania went down in May 1915, western media and politicians portrayed it as an attack on a passenger ship, the slaughter of innocent citizens.
Germany maintained that the ship was carrying weaponry as well as passengers, making it a legitimate military target.

The German position, of course, has always been dismissed.
In addition to infuriating the English and becoming a central theme in military recruiting drives, the attack on the Lusitania helped gain Americans' sympathies for the British, culminating in the US entry into the war.

For generations, the sinking of the Lusitania has been taught to schoolchildren as, basically, well a war crime.
That was yesterday's story and, no doubt, and that will be tomorrow's story, but today the facts suggest something different.

Read more in the London Daily Mail

Clown made to remove costume, hand over toy handcuffs

David Vaughan, aka PC Konk the clown, was made to strip down to his underwear at Birmingham Airport, England when his costume set off the metal detectors. He was booked to do an in-air charity show for disadvantaged children. Apparently, PC Konk was good humored about it. From The Guardian:

A piece of metal on his costume set off the security alarm, prompting security guards to confiscate his plastic handcuffs and order him to strip down to his shorts and T-shirt.

Staff also demanded he put the liquid for his plastic bubble-blowing saxophone into a clear sealed plastic bag.

"I'd made sure I'd bought plastic handcuffs and a plastic whistle but I hadn't realised that the costume had a metal band – I thought it was plastic," said Mr Vaughan, from Shard End, Birmingham.

Clown strip-searched before children's charity flight

Traveling by air this holiday.

It could be annoying if you are to meet any of the following according to a USAToday poll:

The most annoying people to adults are ...

Those that let their kids run around - 59%

Thrust back their seat during meal - 46%

Insist on chatting - 45%

Smell of strong perfume/cologne - 39%
(Funny ... body odor wasn't on the list)

Are not prepared at security checkpoint - 37%

Today's horoscope says:

You'll get more done in minutes now than you did in hours before.

Cool.

Daily Conundrum

Talk about Irony!
If you read the sign to know not to read it you have broken the law.
Whereas if you ignore the sign (as most people do ignore signs) then you have complied with the law.
Or is this another of those Conundrum things?!

Mexican beauty queen arrested in gun-filled truck

A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition, police said Tuesday.

Miss Sinaloa 2008 Laura Zuniga stared at the ground, with her flowing dark hair concealing her face, as she stood squeezed between seven alleged gunmen lined up before journalists.
Soldiers wearing ski masks guarded the 23-year-old model and the suspects.

Zuniga was arrested shortly before midnight on Monday at a military checkpoint in Zapopan, just outside the colonial city of Guadalajara, said Jalisco state police director, Francisco Alejandro Solorio.

Zuniga was riding in one of two trucks, where soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in U.S. currency, Solorio said.

State police identified one of the men caught with her as the brother of an alleged drug trafficker from Ciudad Juarez, a city on the U.S. border, and said the man appeared to have been her boyfriend.

Zuniga told police that she was planning on traveling to Bolivia and Colombia with the men to go shopping, Solorio said.

American Express Denied

Kevin D. Johnson returned from a dreamy Jamaican honeymoon in October eager to check out wedding photos and help his new wife open stacks of beautifully wrapped wedding gifts.

Before getting distracted by the fun stuff, the 29-year-old entrepreneur opened the mail. Johnson’s mood soured when he got to a letter from American Express, saying it had slashed the credit limit on his account.

Johnson was surprised, since he has a perfect payment history and a high credit score. and he was floored by one of the reasons American Express cited: it didn’t like where he shopped.

“Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express,” the letter said. Johnson complained to American Express by phone and letter.

...American Express declined to discuss Johnson’s account.

But it confirmed that it examines spending patterns. It’s just one of many tactics that credit card companies are using to try to keep default rates from growing higher. Along with studying shopping habits, American Express considers which mortgage lender a customer uses and whether the customer owns a home in an area where housing prices are declining.

More in the Atlanta Journal Constitution

39 Days, 7 Hours, 49 Minutes:

Todd Carmichael Officially Breaks Hannah McKeand’s South Pole World Speed Record

“Todd Carmichael has officially set a new solo and unsupported world speed record to the South Pole. His time of 39 days, 7 hours, and 33 minutes bested former world record holder Hannah McKeand’s time of 39 days, 9 hours, and 33 minutes set back in 2006. This is an official time coming from Todd’s tracking equipment and being reported by ExplorersWeb. How close was it? The difference between Todd and Hannah is 1 hour and 44 minutes - or less than 0.2% of the time on the ice. If the same difference was applied to a 100 meter dash, it would equal less than 0.02 seconds - just barely measurable with modern time keeping.

Along with gaining the new official solo and unsupported world speed record, Todd Carmichael has also become the first American to go solo and unsupported to the South Pole. It is still undecided if Todd will gain the record for going the longest distance on foot. When I first interviewed Todd before this journey, becoming the first American to go solo and unsupported was his biggest priority. A week before he set foot on the ice, I got an email that nonchalently stated “I might as well go for the world speed record while I’m at it. What do you think?” Todd felt that his conditioning and preparation for this journey were miles ahead of where he was with his unsuccessful South Pole expedition last year. Obviously, we can now see how far ahead Todd was.”

The Adventurist

Special Delivery: The 72-year-old milkman who delivered cannabis with the daily pint

“Robert Holding was the sort of milkman who always liked to help his customers - particularly the elderly ones. So if they left him a little note asking for something extra, he tried to get it for them. But some of their requests went beyond the usual dozen eggs or bottle of orange juice. Holding, 72, has admitted supplying cannabis to some of his older customers.

He was caught placing small bars of cannabis resin into empty egg cartons, and leaving them on doorsteps. When he was confronted by police, Holding told officers he would only ever supply pensioners with the drug to help them with their ‘aches and pains’. Cannabis has been shown in studies to help ease pain in arthritis and other conditions.

But a judge told the elderly milkman his special delivery service would inevitably lead to a spell behind bars. Burnley Crown Court has heard that Holding only delivered to pensioners on his delivery round who had found out about his extra service by word of mouth. The grandfather had 17 drug customers who would regularly ask for cannabis.”

The Daily Mail

"They say I'm crazy"

The original 1941 Woody Woodpecker.

Cats as food in Guangdong

The LA Times has an article about how cats are popular as food in the Guangdong province.

Dog is eaten in many parts of China, but only in Guangdong do people eat cat. It is rare to see a stray wandering the streets. Many cats served for supper here are shipped down from the north.

The Small Animal Protection Assn. says one Guangzhou-based business captures up to 10,000 cats per day from different parts of China. The cat snatchers are typically formerly unemployed people who use large fishing nets and are paid $1.50 per cat.

"They've eaten all their cats so they have to take ours from Beijing. People don't want to let their cats go out on the street," said Zhao Ming, a 55-year-old physician who was among about 40 people demonstrating in Beijing.

The cat trade thrives in a seemingly boundless gray area of commerce. Police are reluctant to charge the cat catchers with theft because many of the cats involved live outside and, in the famously independent way of cats, are not technically owned by humans, merely fed and nurtured.

Chinese seek to pull cats from the menu

Purple squirrel in England

This purple squirrel has been hanging around Meoncross School in Stubbington, England. Nobody is quite sure where it's unusual fur color comes from, but the school's registrar Lorraine Orridge has a suspicion.

From The Telegraph:

"We don't think he is a mutant squirrel but he may have had a mishap around the school. "The old building where we have seen him nipping in and out is a bit of a graveyard for computer printers. He may have found some printer toners in there.

Purple squirrel baffles experts

Illinois health department throws one sick Christmas party

Some health department workers in southern Illinois think they may have discovered some contaminated food - at their own office Christmas gathering.

After the Lawrence County Health Department had a buffet for 72 people at a restaurant last week, 42 of the attendees suffered stomach problems, including the head of the department, Phyllis Wells.

"I'm telling you, it got me down. I about passed out and everything else," Wells said Monday. "It's not been funny. It's taken the punch out of my whole Christmas."

Wells says the cause of the outbreak hasn't been pinpointed. But she suspects the culprit was a norovirus - something people get from contact with those infected, ingesting contaminated food or drink, or by touching contaminated items and then their mouths.

For now, Wells says the common denominator appears to be cold diced ham served in the salad bar.

"It may be that just a food handler was sick at the time and handled some of the food they prepped for the meal," she said. "Or maybe it was somebody who was sick who came to it and touched the handle and contaminated it."

Wells says it isn't lost on her that state health officials are now investigating a restaurant where food-inspection and other public health workers got sick.

"It's just my luck," she said, mustering a laugh. "Usually, it's our job to investigate other things. But us getting sick is ironic."

There was no answer Monday at the restaurant. Wells says it's her understanding the business hasn't reopened since the outbreak.

Some player could take lessons

A spectator who tackled New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau on the sidelines during the team's 47-7 win over Arizona has been charged with trespassing and assault and battery.

Thirty-one-year-old Todd Kobus, of Attleboro, made an initial court appearance Monday in Wrentham District Court, where a pretrial hearing was set for February 17.

The Patriots said the fan was removed from the stadium and arrested by police after Seau was tackled during the fourth quarter of Sunday's game.

Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowler, had sat out the season before rejoining New England for its game at Seattle on Dec. 7. He was their leading tackler Sunday in his third game with the team this season.

Alaska pulls plug on Snowzilla the giant snowman

Snowzilla is no more.

Municipal officials in Anchorage have given a cease-and-desist order to builders of the giant snowman that made appearances the last three years in an east Anchorage neighborhood. The giant snowman was a favorite for photographers and camera crews from Russia and Japan filmed the temporary sculpture. Snowzilla in 2005 rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

He was built in the front yard of the Powers family home and Billy Powers said his children collected snow from neighbors homes to add to the height and breadth.

The snowman was built even higher in succeeding years, but not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard.

A few weeks ago, code enforcers left red signs at Snowzilla's bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist. The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers home.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn't have a full torso or head.

"The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it," Billy Powers said Sunday.

Now, Snowzilla is just a big pile of snow rubble.

Mom accused of smoking marijuana with teen kids

Now Nevada is getting in on the 'stupid adults and kids' game ...

A 39-year-old woman was arrested last week on suspicion of smoking marijuana with her two teenage children. Douglas County sheriff's deputies said the woman was detained after they responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle. Deputies said the woman told them that she was teaching her son to drive, but they smelled marijuana emanating from the vehicle.

The suspect's son, whose age was unavailable, and 14-year-old daughter told deputies they had shared two bowls of marijuana with their mother.

The woman was booked into jail Tuesday on charges of child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of a drug.

The 14-year-old was released to Child and Protective Services, while the boy was placed in juvenile detention.

Massachusetts man melting snow with blowtorch ignites home

This is why the rest of us know Yankees aren't too bright ...

Fire officials in New Bedford, Massachusetts, say a man using a blowtorch to melt ice on his back porch ended up setting his house on fire, causing up to $30,000 in damage.

Fire Capt. Scott Kruger said that no on was injured during Monday's incident at the three-story home.

Kruger says the man was using a torch hooked up to a 20-pound propane cylinder. He got too close to the building's wood frame and ignited the vinyl siding. The fire quickly spread into the building's second- and third-floor apartments.

It took 25 firefighters to subdue the blaze that damaged bedrooms in the upstairs units, and caused damage to the structure and wiring.

The homeowner will not be charged.

*****

Au contraire ... he will be charged (and laughed at) by the contractor who repairs his home.

ACLU sues Laguna Beach over treatment of homeless

Civil rights attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against this exclusive coastal town and accused its leadership of engaging in a campaign of harassment against the disabled homeless.

The American Civil Liberties Union alleged in its lawsuit that a city ban on sleeping on the street is unconstitutional, particularly because there are no year-round city-sponsored shelters.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

"There are even more art galleries than homeless residents," said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU's legal director for Southern California.
"Yet city leaders have chosen to attempt to eliminate the homeless, rather than eliminate homelessness."

The lawsuit seeks a change in policy, but no money for the homeless, Rosenbaum said. It deals with mentally and physically disabled homeless - terms that defines a majority of the town's homeless population, Rosenbaum said.

New Readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers from our newest country: Andorra.

As of this moment ...

4213 Brave men and women will NOT be returning from Iraq
ALIVE!

Take it for what it's worth ...

You had to know it would involve Wal-Mart!

In someplace called Mountain View at the Wal-Mart police arrived to investigate a report of a newborn infant found in a trash can only to find it was a burrito.

Just building steam

3000 posts and just building steam!

Huge water main break traps drivers

Rescue crews in Bethesda, Maryland, scrambled to rescue motorists stranded in at least four feet of rushing water unleashed by a massive water main break early today just outside Washington, D.C.

Television images showed two people in a minivan climbing into a basket that was lowered from a helicopter flying overhead.

A boat also was being used as rescuers attempted to reach motorists in the frigid water.

Montgomery County fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said at least a dozen people had been rescued from their vehicles as crews struggled with the swift water to reach more cars.

No injuries have been reported.

Authorities said it was a 66-inch water main that broke on River Road near the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda.

Morning temperatures are well below freezing all along the east coast, which are not helping.

How to be rid of telemarketers forever

When one calls and starts their spiel interrupt them and say quietly but firmly " this number is classified...how did you acquire it? Never mind ... remain where you are and somebody from Homeland Security will be with you in ten minutes"

Word will get around fast and calls to your number will cease!

For the deaf ones (you know the ones who won't shut up long enough to breathe, let alone hear what you say) the bullhorn blasted directly into the mouthpiece at full amplification works fine.

This too causes word to spread and calls dry up fast!

Warming trend

We are experiencing one hell of a warming trend today after yesterday!
We are at a torrid 27 degrees Fahrenheit right now!

Well, it is better than 25 degrees Fahrenheit, now isn't it?

Only Two More Days

Only Two More Days!

That's right, folks you have only today and tomorrow to do all that 'shopping' you are required to do this time of year!

Remember only you can line the pockets of the rich and provide for their comfort. And we know they need their pockets lined and their comfort, lawdy they do!

*****

Here's a thought.

Why not return to the traditional reason for the holiday season - gathering with friends and family to celebrate friends and family. Maybe exchanging small handcrafted gifts and recipes. Leaving the religious and commercial (all too damn, successful) attempts to steal the holiday away from it's true meanings behind.

What do you say ... want to celebrate the holiday as it is supposed to be celebrated?!

No Quonking Please

That's quonking - not honking -and it's something people should avoid if they are on radio or television.

Quonking ... the extra sounds, like throat clearing and sighing, that can be picked up by the microphone or that may distract the announcer or guest.

So, as of now, Carolina Naturally - ahem - has been declared a 'No Quonking Zone'!

Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio

The Ramones

This is sad ... very sad

And you wonder why the world laughs at Americans ...

More Americans Believe in the Devil, Hell and Angels than in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

That very large majorities of the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise. What may be more surprising is that substantial minorities believe in ghosts, UFOs, witches, astrology, and the belief that they themselves were once other people. Overall, more people believe in the devil, hell and angels than believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a new nationwide survey of 2,126 U.S. adults surveyed online between November 10 and 17, 2008 by Harris Interactive®.

Harris Interactive

Good to see ignorance and superstition still reign supreme isn't it! When will the USA join the current century?

Science Behind Mysterious 'Fifth Taste' Revealed

It’s appetizing news for anyone who’s ever wanted the savory taste of meats and cheeses without actually having to eat them: chemists have identified molecular mechanisms underlying the sensation of umami, also known as the fifth taste.

The much-loved but historically unappreciated taste is produced by two interacting sets of molecules, each of which is needed to trigger cellular receptors on a tongue’s surface.

“This opens the door to designing better, more potent and more selective umami enhancers,” said Xiaodong Li, a chemist at San Diego-based food-additive company Senomyx. Li co-authored the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Four other basic tastes — bitter, sweet, salty and sour — were identified 2,400 years ago by the Greek philosopher Democritus, and became central to the western gastronomic canon.

In the late 19th century, French chef and veal-stock inventor Auguste Escoffier suggested that a fifth taste was responsible for his mouth-watering brew. Though Escoffier's dishes were popular, his theories were dismissed until 1908, when Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda showed that an amino acid called glutamate underlies the taste of a hearty variety of seaweed soup.

Read the rest here.

Welcome new readers

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in our 155th country: Niger

Men convicted of conspiracy to kill US soldiers

Five Muslim immigrants accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were convicted of conspiracy Monday.

The case tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist plots in their earliest stages.

The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April.

The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel.

But they were acquitted of attempted murder after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack and did not necessarily have a specific plan.

Four defendants were also convicted of weapons charges.

The federal jury deliberated for 38 hours over six days.

The government said after the arrests in 2007 that the case underscored the dangers of terrorist plots hatched on U.S. soil.

Although investigators said the conspirators were inspired by Osama bin Laden, they were not accused of any ties to foreign terror groups.

Abrupt Climate Shifts May Come Sooner, Not Later

The United States could suffer the effects of abrupt climate changes within decades—sooner than some previously thought--says a new government report.

Percent of area affected by drought in the western United States over time. Examples of “mega-droughts” are indicated by the red arrows. The modern era is highlighted in yellow for comparison.

Read the rest here.

Topics: Diabetic heart disease

A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on 16 December 2008 has found that those with type 2 diabetes who had a diet high in low-glycemic foods such as nuts, beans and lentils had greater improvement in glycemic control and risk factors for coronary heart disease than those on a diet with an emphasis on high-cereal fibre.

The study gives further weight to the lifestyle advice currently recommended for the control of diabetes, says Professor Lars Ryden (Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden), ESC Spokesperson for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, who adds: “Treatment of type 2 diabetes should always be initiated with structured life-style advice. This is clearly highlighted in the ESC/EASD Guidelines for diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Results from the JAMA study suggest that such advice may be as effective as some drug interventions.

“The JAMA study also shows that a well balanced diet will improve not only blood glucose tolerance but also blood lipid levels, which are of great importance in decreasing cardiovascular complications. If drugs are still needed in these circumstances, their dose and number may be lower.

“Subjects with type 2 diabetes should also be aware that it is important to avoid excess weight, and the diet described in the study may help achieve this goal.”

Speaking specifically about the study Professor Joep Perk (Oskarshamn District Hospital, Sweden), an ESC spokesperson on the subject of cardiovascular prevention, said that the study was of relatively short duration (six months) in 210 patients; a diet high in low-glycemic foods resulted in a modest decrease in HbA1c levels when compared to a high-cereal fibre diet.

”The main finding of the study – a significant increase of HDL levels and a greater reduction in the LDL/HDL ratio - may provide the rationale for long-term interventional studies. However, in the absence of these studies it is still premature to change the current practice of dietary counseling for type 2 diabetes patients,” said Professor Perk.

Check out more here.

This just might explain it

A study of WWII soldiers who all took the same IQ tests when they were children suggests that more intelligent soldiers are more likely to die in battle. This would mean that -- logically speaking -- the more wars we have, the more of our best and brightest are killed. Hmm. From an evolutionary perspective, that would seem to suggest that the more wars we have, the dumber we all become, since only the dumber people are left to breed.

I guess that could explain why America -- which has insisted on staying on a more or less constant war footing since the end of WWII -- ended up allowing Republican politics to dominate it so much since. We're literally becoming too stupid to vote for smart choices in many of our elections. And so stupid that too many of us actually believe the lies spewed by entities like Fox News. So that a single rich and ill-intentioned man like Rupert Murdoch can come very close to simply buying many elections by way of propaganda.

If America's war footing truly has been causing us to 'devolve' in this manner, that would also help explain the increasingly frail health and stunted height of many Americans today, compared to Americans in the days before our policies of perpetual war. For we'd not only be dumber on average, but smaller and more frail too, if mostly the substandard among us are left to breed after the best of us have been spent on war.

University of Edinburgh, via NewScientist

Now, this does not completely true. This old war horse made it through and his IQ scores are above quite (and quite above, to boot), a few others. So further extrapolation of this theory would indicate that the most intelligent soldiers would make it through a war alive. But, then again they're only a few of us to begin with ...

Daily Horoscope

My horoscope for the day says:

You concentrate on producing results, and you're good at that.

Now, just aren't I though!

Twenty-five Degrees

It's cold! It is 25 degrees Fahrenheit outside right now and it was 25 degrees Fahrenheit exactly 12 hours ago ... it hasn't changed all bloody day!
OK it was 19 degrees Fahrenheit 16 hours ago , so I guess we DID have a warming spell today.

For all you metric system users out there those temperatures are below Zero for you!

All this in the land of liquid asphalt in August where is is so hot the roads literally revert to their more viscous form and the humidity hits you like a ton of bricks and instantly make you wetter than you ware just stepping out of the shower.

We ain't used to this ...

Millions of Monkeys

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each!

However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.’

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how the WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WILL WORK !!!!

Read more at Guerrilla News Network.

Carnegie Heroes awards 19 medals

A Wisconsin man who lunged in front of a train to save a 3-year-old from certain death and two men who entered a burning building to rescue two little girls were among 19 people awarded Carnegie medals for their courage.

Merlin Harn, 40, and his wife were driving by a railroad track on Sept. 1, 2007, in their hometown of Menasha, Wisconsin, when they saw an unattended 3-year-old boy wandering on the tracks.
Before police arrived, the crossing lights, bells and whistles went off.
Harn ran to the boy, grabbed him under the arms and carried him to safety seconds before the train passed them, its emergency brake activated.

The Carnegie Heroes Fund gave its fourth group of awards this year to 19 people who risked their own lives to save others.
Some of the people died or were injured rescuing others who were drowning, being attacked or were trapped in fires.

Another of the heroes, James Carpenter, was at his home in Gloversville, New York, when he noticed the house next door had gone up in flames.
Running into the burning building, Carpenter, 28, made his way through dense smoke and found two girls trapped on the second floor.
He grabbed 5-year-old Chelsea and made his way out of the house with her, but her 3-year-old sister, Jocelyn, remained inside.
Leanue Davis Jr., who lived in the burning home, then entered, ran upstairs and called for the little girl.
Grabbing Jocelyn, Davis realized the stairs were impassable.
He went into a bedroom and lowered her out the window into the arms of two men outside.

Fire and drownings accounted for most of the disasters leading to heroism.
Among the other heroes was Walter Rosenthal, 58, of Toms Place, California.
He died trying to save James J. Juarez and John S. McAndrews from suffocation after they were buried by snow at a resort in Mammoth Lakes, California, on April 6, 2006.

Steel baron Andrew Carnegie launched the hero fund in 1904 after hearing about rescue stories from a mine disaster that had killed 181 people.
Since then, $31.1 million has been awarded to 9,243 people.
Each recipient, or their heirs, receives $6,000 and a medal.

Been good haven't you!?

He's back! And he's taking names!

Important Accomplishments

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

~ Dale Carnegie.

'Sopranos' actor cleared of murder in police death

Lillo Brancato, who played a bumbling aspiring mobster on "The Sopranos," was cleared Monday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of an off-duty policeman during a drunken, late-night search for drugs.

The jury convicted Brancato of a lesser charge of attempted burglary.
He faces from three to 15 years in prison; the former actor could get credit for time served because he has been behind bars nearly three years.

Eighteen and she wants more?

You would think they would have learned what causes this by now!

Michelle Duggar gave birth to her 18th child,
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008.

Full Story.

Speaking of Shoes and Throwing

Pie Throwers Union Sue Shoe Thrower, Claim Monopoly On Public Acts of Humiliation

In a move that will forever define the acceptable means of public humiliation through projectiles, the Pie Throwers Union of America, chapter 301, has brought a lawsuit against Muntazer al-Zaidi, the notorious Bush shoe thrower who assaulted the President with his flung footwear on Sunday.

“Pie throwing is a pre-meditated act that involves both baking and aiming” said union leader Brent Clarke “it is an art that pre-dates the three stooges”

When asked about the merits of shoe throwing, Clarke scoffed: “Shoe throwing is a spontaneous act that might have as much to do with itchy feet as it has to do with bad foreign policy”.

It is unclear which court will hear the case, as many potential judges have expressed fear over presiding without some protection from errant shoes and pies.

Pie Throwing: Public Humilation The Way Your Parents Remember It

Thanks to Apoliticus for this one.

And I Quote

Speaking about shoes ...

"Bush moved pretty quickly... He reacted pretty good when you see him...
Too bad he didn't react that way with bin laden or Katrina...or the mortgage crisis
...or Lehman Brothers...I don't think Bush really has dodged anything like that,
well, since the Vietnam War."

~ Letterman

Shrub to Mugabe - Resign

Over a year and a half ago Barack Obama introduced a resolution condemning Mugabe's actions in Zimbabwe. and the shrub did nothing.

Now the cabal is calling for Mugabe to resign citing a failed economy and the government's penchant for torturing and extraordinary rendition as the reason.

Why the sudden interest from the shrub and the cabal now?

Could it be that Voice of America reports:

Mr. Mugabe said he had taken control of agriculture by seizing nearly all white-owned farms, and that it is now time to take over all foreign companies, in particular foreign-owned banks.

Call us cynical but seems a bit strange in the timing here. Also a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, as well.

Can you believe this horseshit?!

Look at the horseshit the wing-nuts are spewing now ...

Dimbulb: Democrats Started The Economic Crisis To Help Elect Obama

Today, the New York Times had an article about how right-wing talk radio is gearing up to aggressively go after President-elect Obama over the next four years. Lush Dimbulb demonstrated his commitment to this crusade today on his radio show by blaming Democrats — especially Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — for starting the current economic crisis.

Here’s how Dimbulb’s conspiracy theory goes: Schumer caused on run on IndyMac bank in California this summer, in order to create a feeling of financial panic amongst the public. Democrats then capitalized on this panic with electoral wins in the White House and Congress. The purpose of gaining this power, according to Limbaugh, was to nationalize U.S. industries:

Dimbulb: Who’s benefiting? Aside from the people being bailed out. The Democrat party and Barack Obama are benefiting.

Read The Full Story At Think Progress

What is so tragic is some morons will believe this horseshit ...

Smart kids more likely to be heavy drinkers

The Colony Club in Soho has been a watering hole for hard-drinking creative types since it was founded by Muriel Belcher in the late 1940s. It is a reasonable bet that her confidants - Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Jeffrey and Bruce Bernard, Michael Andrews, Eduardo Paolozzi and other regulars from the art and entertainment world - would have had high IQs. Some members may have been nightmare clients for their bank managers, exasperating husbands, wives or lovers, but no one would doubt their talents, originality and intellectual ability.

Research has now shown a link between high childhood IQ and an adult enthusiasm for alcohol that leads in some cases to problem drinking.

Parents may be aware that the easiest children to have around the house, and those who are also the most likely to have a predictable, comfortable lifestyle when adults, are those with a slightly above average intelligence, neither too clever, nor stupid.

Full Story

As of this moment ...

4212 brave men and women will not be returning from Iraq
Alive!

Science News

4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs unveiled near Cairo

A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt's top archaeologist said.

The rock-cut tombs were built for high officials - one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and another for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs.

"We announce today a major, important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300 years ago," said Zahi Hawass, as he showed reporters around the site.
"The discovery of the two tombs are the beginning of a big, large cemetery."

The discovery indicates that there is even more to the vast necropolis of Saqqara, located 12 miles south of the capital, Cairo, he added.

In the past, excavations have focused on just one side of the two nearby pyramids - the Step Pyramid of King Djoser and that of Unas, the last king of the 5th Dynasty.
The area where the two tombs were found, to the southwest, has been largely untouched.

Our 154th Country

Carolina Naturally would like to welcome our newest readers in our 154th country : British Virgin Islands.

And then it happened ...

A man was sailing down a winding mountain road when a car swerved around a curve he was approaching. Its driver, a woman, rolled down her window, stuck her head out, and yelled "Pig!" at him. Thinking fast, the man put his head out and yelled after her "Bitch!" Complimenting himself on thinking fast for once, he tooled around the curve and into a large hog standing in the middle of the road ...

*****

A rich man died and went to The Judgment. St. Peter met him at the Gates of Heaven and said, "Before you meet with God, I thought I should tell you - we've looked at your life, and your really didn't do anything particularly good or bad. We're not at all sure what to do with you. Can you tell us anything you did that can help us make a decision?"

The man thought for a moment and replied, "Yeah, once I was driving along in my Ferrari and came upon a woman who was being harassed by a group of bikers. So I pulled over, got out my tire iron, and went up to the leader of the bikers. He was a big, muscular, hairy guy with tattoos all over his body and a ring pierced through his nose. Well, I tore the nose ring out of his nose, and told him he and his gang had better stop bothering the woman or they would have to deal with me!"

"I'm impressed," St. Peter responded, "When did this happen?"
"About two minutes ago," came the reply.

*****

Casey came home from the doctor looking very worried. His wife said, "What's the problem?" He said, "The doctor told me I have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life." She said, "So what? Lots of people have to take a pill every day their whole lives." He said, "I know, but he only gave me four pills"

Train Travrel

Three lawyers and three engineers are traveling by train to a conference.
At the station, the three lawyers each buy tickets and watch as the three
engineers buy only a single ticket.

"How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks a lawyer.

"Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer.

They all board the train. The lawyers take their respective seats but all
three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting
tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please." The
door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand.
The conductor takes it and moves on.

The lawyers see this and agree that it is quite a clever idea so, after the
conference, they decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and save
some money (recognizing the engineers' superior intellect).

When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip.
To their astonishment, the engineers don't buy a ticket at all.

"How are you going to travel without a ticket?" says one perplexed lawyer.

"Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer.

When they board the train the three lawyers cram into a restroom and the
three engineers cram into another one nearby.

The train departs.

Shortly afterward, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over
to the restroom where the lawyers are hiding. He knocks on the door and
says, "Ticket, please."

Winners share $3 billion in Spain's El Gordo lottery

Economic pain eased for many in Spain today (Monday, December 22, 2008) as the Christmas lottery - billed among the world's richest - dished out some $3.23 billion (euro2.32 billion) in prizes.

The top prize of the lottery dubbed El Gordo (The Fat One) went to holders of tickets bearing the number 32365.

The winning number appears on 1,950 tickets, each of which wins $418,000 (euro300,000).

*****

OK, where is my share!? Congratulations to the lucky ones in El Gordo for 2008

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Daily Horoscope

The day's horoscope says:

A gathering goes better than expected.

That's nice.