"It doesn't pay to say too much when you are mad enough to choke. For the word that stings the deepest is the word that is never spoke, Let the other fellow wrangle till the storm has blown away, then he'...ll do a heap of thinking about the things you didn't say." (James Whitcomb Riley)

This is why so many people roll their eyes behind the backs of so-called "born again" Christians when start opening their yaps when they impose themselves on others as "holier than thou" and start to impose their view of the world on everybody as though they have "the truth."

"Evolution" has NOTHING to do with religion.

Man, this is irritating...

School yanks T-shirts over evolution theme

The Associated Press

Monday, Aug. 31 2009
SEDALIA, Mo. — T-shirts promoting the Smith-Cotton High School band's fall
program have been recalled because of concerns about the shirt's evolution
theme.

Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt said parents complained to him after the
band marched in the Missouri State Fair parade. Though the shirts don't violate
the school's dress code, Pollitt noted that the district is required by law to
remain neutral on religion.

The light gray shirts feature an image of a monkey progressing through various
stages of evolution until eventually becoming a human. Each figure holds a
brass instrument that also evolves, illustrating the theme "Brass Evolutions."

"I was disappointed with the image on the shirt," said Sherry Melby, a band
parent who teaches in the district. "I don't think evolution should be
associated with our school."

But other parents were just as dismayed that the shirts were taken away from
students at the Sedalia school.

Sophomore band member Denyel Luke said the reaction by some to the evolution
theme was a little extreme.

"It's not like we are saying God is bad," Luke said. "We aren't promoting
evolution."

The district will have to absorb the $700 cost of the shirts, which will be
replaced as soon as administrators approve a design for the new ones.

It occurred to me tonight that Pres. Obama seems to be having more trouble with his black acquaintances than with whites.

It was that Reverend Jeremiah Wright who took attention away from Obama's campaign with his outrageously racist remarks against whites during his campaign, and now he has to deal with another loudmouth -- an alleged Harvard scholar Louis Gates -- who derailed Obama's healthcare reform initiative two weeks ago. Then the President tried to bring this whole thing to a climax with the famous "beer summit" last Thursday. Now tonight, Louis Gates is once again trying to grab the media spotlight with his statement tonight claiming that he had received death threats.

In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with President Obama and Police Sgt. James Crowley, who is white, Gates, who is black, said the debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run "profoundly deep" in the United States.

"They have not been resolved at all," he told a crowd of more than 150 who came to see him at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival. Gates said he had to shut down his public e-mail and change his cell-phone number after receiving numerous death and bomb threats.

You know, it is old black men like Louis Gates, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, who apparently don't have anything better to do than to rant and rave about race and the racial divide between blacks and whites because they have become obsessed and infatuated with the glare of the media...cameras, lights, and microphones.

Part of being "scholarly" is knowing when to speak up, and when to shut up.

During the last presidential campaign, a suggestion came out of the possibility that Pres. Obama would be another Jimmy Carter, a case of an overly smart guy (a nuclear physicist) who had real trouble handling the simple things around his presidency. I am getting the real impression that the person who made this suggestion was not far off.

From day one, despite being dubbed as "The Messiah" and the man who would save the world, his administration has been nothing but one misstep after another. While Pres. Bush, the younger, constantly fell over himself via his malapropisms, Pres. Obama seems to have no concept on real leadership by all of his etiquette missteps...his inability to speak or say the right thing at the right time.

At the beginning of his administration, during his visit to Great Britain, he gave as a gift a box of NTSC (American TV standard) standard DVDs of American movies. He ordered a bust of Sir Winston Churchill given to the United States after 9/11 to be returned to England, to the Brits great shock. Then we have the incident when First Lady Michelle Obama actually "touched" Queen Elizabeth...which is another no-no. So while we have our newest version of Vice President Dan Quayle in Vice President Biden, the President....a Harvard-educated attorney...laying and SERIOUSLY misspeaking on the whole issue of the Harvard professor who DID NOT act like an educated man when he messed and acted suspiciously with a Cambridge, MA police officer, accusing the police department and the officer while an ongoing investigation was going on...

And now we have his "Cash for Clunkers" fiasco which fell apart after one week of being implemented, followed by a news story this morning that The Messiah had invited the CEOs of the top U.S. corporations for a working lunch at the White House, and then asks these people for their credit card numbers after the fact, and after they had been "invited." It is common for White House visitors to be charged for food they consume at the same rate charged by restaurants, but c'mon, Barack, get yourself in order!

Hillary Clinton always talks about hitting the "reset" button in relationships.

I think Pres. Obama needs to hit the "reset" button in his presidency.

THis excellent commercial for Volkswagen features a good friend of mine...

This small news clip in today's San Diego Union-Tribune really got me thinking about the fragility of life, especially when we assume that someone close to us, someone we share mental images with, someone we love is abruptly taken home by our Maker. This is not some metaphysical question, it is REALITY. It is one thing if someone is sick or in poor health. But this guy obviously was in the prime of life. And when he got up this morning, he undoubtedly thought about all the things he has to do, people he has to see, situations he has to clarify and find solutions to.

IT BEGS THE QUESTION....

When was the last time you hugged that person?
When was the last time you shared a laugh, shared a tear with that person?
How do you know that the last time you did those things won't be the last time you ever see them alive? Last time you hear the sound of their voice?
Before this man collapsed, what was the last thing he thought about it?
Who did he irrationally love? What was his passion?
How will he be remembered by others who are left behind knowing that this life on this earth has been extinguished?
How would you remember that person?
How would you be remembered if you were suddenly taken from this earth? This life?

Man dies at Seaport Village; no ID

The Medical Examiner's Office is asking for the public's help to identify a man who collapsed at Seaport Village this morning and died.

The man was exercising when he collapsed. He died at 10:45 a.m. at UCSD Medical Center.

He is described as white, in his 40s, about 6 feet tall and 195 pounds. He had salt-and-pepper hair and green eyes. He had no tattoos or noticeable scars. He was wearing athletic shorts and red and silver Asics gel running shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call the medical examiner at (858) 694-2895.

So, Cardin asked the nominee: Don't courts have to take such factors as race into account?

Sotomayor paused. "Well," she replied, "it depends on the context of the case that you're looking at."

The hearings were a moment of history that liberals had awaited for 15 years: an opportunity for a Democratic president's Supreme Court nominee to inject into the public dialogue fresh ideas about the Constitution and the law, beginning to recalibrate a court that has gravitated to the right.

OH MY GOD....what are the liberal political zealots going to do now....imagine...a court decision based on FACTS and NOT ideology?

Burn Judge Sotomayor on the stake!

NOT!

As someone who considers himself to be a political atheist, the Democrats are really doing their part to alienate me from any agenda they pursue. While some of my friends take their participation and belief in the Democratic party with the same zeal as a religion, I am looking upon them more and more these days as a bunch of lying, cheating, hypocrites.

Pres. Barack Obama LIED to the gay community about his commitment to actively working towards ending Bill Clinton's nothing-short-of-disastrous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy towards the military. Yet, he gladly took the community's money during the campaign.

Pres. Barack Obama LIED to the American people about conducting a healthy open debate about a reform of the broken health care system resorting to subterfuge and clandestine meetings.

Pres. Obama has talked big about "transparency like has never been seen before in an American administration."

And now the latest: Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., head of the intelligence committee, suggested that the George W. Bush administration broke the law by concealing a CIA counterterrorism program from Congress. "Congress should investigate the secrecy because "it could be illegal," Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said." (Associated Press)

Why oh why if we are so concerned about secrecy are the Democrats PROTECTING and doing what they can to HIDE the dirty politics of the exalted Kennedy family and the resulting coverup of the murder of a campaign worker by Sen. Ted Kennedy? And why are the Republicans coddling this waddling two-legged bastion of alcohol and drug abuse and womanzing? What about "transparency" in that?

Yes, the prospect of having former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the U.S. presidency scares the bejesus out of me. But at least we would have a professional leader sitting in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, not a President who is right now very quickly working towards copying the mistakes of another failed Democratic President, Jimmmy Carter (who guy really nobody these days seems to like) for his antisemitic stance towards Israel and an obsession with the Palestinians who seem not to have anything to do these days than throw rocks and lob missiles towards sovereign countries.

I'm not a big fan of either President Bush, but at least they kept our country safe after three thousand of our fellow citizens were murdered by Middle Eastern terrorists, people envious of what we have accomplished in our country....no thanks to them.

QUESTION OF THE DAY (Courtesy of JD):

If the rapture took place, would Jesus Christ be really pleased and feel comfortable with people around him wearing crosses around their necks???

AP Photo/Damian Dovargane

I said the same thing about three weeks ago....

President Obama betrays the gay community
We supported you. Time to live up to your promises

By John Aravosis

Jun. 17, 2009 |

Team Obama keeps telling lesbian and gay Americans like me to be patient. If we just wait a little longer, administration officials whisper to us lovingly (and out of earshot of the media), after the White House finishes with healthcare reform and getting the troops out of Iraq, your time will come. In the meantime, cheer up -- we put a gay band in the inaugural parade!

Everyone loves a parade, but we don't like being betrayed. And while gay and lesbian Americans were initially willing to cut our new president some slack, the president's now-clear reticence to follow through on even one of his many campaign promises to the gay community has put the Democratic Party on the precipice of an ugly and very public divorce with this once-solid constituency.

During the presidential primaries, then-candidate Obama promoted himself as the biggest defender of gay rights since Harvey Milk. He would be a "fierce advocate" for our rights, he promised, and he even out-gayed Hillary Clinton: telling gay and lesbian voters that while she was for a partial repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), he'd get rid of the whole damn thing.

And there was much rejoicing.

Then, not so much.

About a year before the November election, primary challenger Obama invited Donnie McClurkin, a homophobic gospel singer who claims to have been "cured" of his own homosexuality, to lead a series of concerts in the South in order to woo the black vote. The gays were not amused, but candidate Obama held firm. The gays forgave the Big O until a year later, when then-President-elect Obama chose evangelical preacher (and well-known homophobe) Rick Warren to give the inaugural prayer. Again, the gays expressed their ire, Obama wouldn't budge, and his advisors continued to whisper sweet nothings in our ears about how glorious the future would be once Dear Leader was finally in office.....

Read the complete editorial here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/17/gay_rights/index.html

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Are dental office employees universally hired for how STUPID and TOTALLY INCOMPETENT they are?

An acquaintance called me early Tuesday afternoon.

He called me once...didn't leave a message.

He called again...didn't leave a message.

He called me again five minutes later and then I relented and answered my phone.

"Ivars, did you hear it, did you hear it?" he said to me breathlessly.

Before I could make an attempt to respond to him, gasping for air, he went on.

"New Hampshire just signed on as the sixth state to approve gay marriage. Can you believe it...can you believe it," he continued.

Being the damp blanket I can be responded, "That's nice."

"That's all you can say? What's wrong with you?" Before I got a chance to continue he hanged up on me.

What I wanted to really say was "big whoop." What is all the excitement all about? O.K., it is nice to see another state to recognize same-sex couples as having "equal rights," but the fact is that it means NOTHING. Despite all of the hoopla, there seems to be a total disconnect on these pronouncements when you look at the basic fact that until the basic attitudes towards gay people in general changes, gays and lesbians will continue to be discriminated. Maybe they won't be openly discriminated against as they have been in the past, but there is nothing to stop gays and lesbians to be discriminated against in less obvious and underhanded ways. And then you have the right-wing Bible bangers (actually hypocrites who will proclaim that only God can "judge"), who themselves are making judgment by citing and pigeonholing even the most ridiculous Bible passage with "their interpretation" in order to justify their homophobic paradigms. (My favorite excuse by far has to be when Bible-bangers run out of Bible passages by saying, "If God had intended there to be same-sex marriage, He would have created Adam and Steve and not Adam and Eve.")

The bottom line is that only when President Obama actually takes a real stand on an issue (Heaven forbid) and signs the executive order ending fellow Democrat President Bill Clinton's disastrous "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Then I will share in my acquaintance's breathless excitement and agree that the gay community will have made a significant stride in social justice.

No truer words have been spoken....from all places...but from the editorial page of PRAVDA...the Russian newspaper which used to be the propaganda arm of the Russian Communist Party!

American capitalism gone with a whimper

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

There comes a time when certain people are called for leadership, they seize the day, and just plain lead. Then here are those who talk the talk, yet fail in the end to walk the walk. Such is the case of President Barack Obama.

He has a million dollar smile, he talks big, he loves to trot out in front of the TV cameras and the lights with his lady love. But when you get right down to it, he really has not really begun to take the lead on any issue, although the media establishment tries to set in place a breast enhancing wonderbra trying to tell us that he is still "the one" or "the messiah." Or in the spirit of the old Clara Peller 1980's Wendy's commercial, it is all coming down to "Where's the beef."

Rather than take control of issues, Barack Obama has allowed issues to control him. What hasn't helped is that he has surrounded himself with an incredible cadre of incompetent goons, led by former Senator Joe Biden. While Biden shows that he needs a license to "drive" his mouth after all of Bushisms, Attorney General Eric Holder continues to be an embarrassment with his race baiting comments, and Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has never lived down her comments about returning Iraqi war vets as being a bunch of right-wind racists capable of domestic terrorism and her misstatement that the 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada. And when he has attempted to take control of an issue like the controversial idea about closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, it was his own Democratic party in the Senate which quashed any notion of allowing it to happen by refusing to fund any closure by a 90-6 vote. It is almost like the tail wagging the dog rather than the dog wagging its tail.

And you know things are not good on the homefront for President Obama when left-wing political pundits as Rachel Maddow have hit him hard nightly over his failure reverse the U.S.'s archaic position on gays and lesbians being allowed to openly serve in the military, as the military continues to spew out gay Arabic linguists and other incredibly talented military people just because of their sexual orientation. Again, the tail wagging the dog. And then there is the incredible case of Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach which President Obama is IGNORING. (Obama's point man on the issue, Rep. Barney Frank, has stated that dealing with the issue won't come for at least another two years. Whoopee! The very people that we need to carry out the war on terrorism are being cast out out to sea. The Democrats love to play the "progressive thinking" card with the gay community when it comes to fundraising to which the community runs to them panting. Yet when it has come to actually DOING SOMETHING and getting past the "talk," the Democratic party has FAILED MISERABLY. Am I wrong? If so, please let me know.)

Ghe fact is that Pres. Obama has never developed any momentum since taking office in January, something which is needed if one is to position oneself as a leader from the getgo. He needs to position himself as a take charge leader if he is to even begin to fulfill his campaign promise of "bringing change we can believe in." The only change we have had for now is all of the spare change he is and will be pickpocketing from the American people in his own spree of government spending which our country is going to have to deal with one way or another.

I'm starting to miss G-dub dangling his participles...


"I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House." --George W. Bush, referring to White House chef Cristeta Comerford while meeting with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Washington, D.C., June 24, 2008

I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 26, 2008

"I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." -George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

"The German asparagus are fabulous." --George W. Bush, Meseberg, Germany, June 11, 2008

What in the heck happened to the concept of DIVERSITY OF OPINION?

I never thought I would be stooping to the level of defending a Miss USA contest, but I will because it illustrates the mindset we are now seemingly endorsing in our country...that if don't agree with the status quo belief, then you are dogged and eviscerated by popular culture. The latest controversy flareup occurred the other night when Carrie Prejean - Miss California - said she believed that "a marriage should be between a man and a woman." She had been asked for her views on the subject by one of the judges, celebrity gay blogger Perez Hilton.

Ms. Prejean said that "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage," in an interview section of the show. "I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman," she continued. "No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised." The remarks drew a mixture of booing and applause from the audience.

Speaking after the show, which was broadcast on Sunday evening in the US, Ms Prejean said: "I wouldn't have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that's all I can do." Hilton said he had been "floored" by Ms Prejean's answer, which, he said, "alienated millions of gay and lesbian Americans, their families and their supporters."

The gay community in the U.S., by the way they are going by wetting their pants when somebody dares to have a contrary opinion, is going to set itself back just as the illegal immigrant Mexican community put itself back and swayed public opinion against them several years ago by parading down the streets of Los Angeles waving Mexican flags and hollering "Si se puede." (On their next protest they quickly switched from paper Mexican flags to the red, white, and blue.)

Our country was built on diversity of ideas and thoughts. No group -- minority or otherwise -- has the right to judge whether someone's views are right or wrong...just accept them and go on. Personally I really don't care about the opinions being expressed by someone who has gained notoriety through YouTube clip rather than doing it the old fashioned way....by EARNING it....

No joking here.......Today I learned about a new term in made for TV movies referring to the genre of movies aired on Lifetime (no kidding!) as "JEP movies" which is short for "Women in Jeopardy" movies, or "WIP" -- which is short for "Women in Peril."

And yes, they're invariably the movies of a woman being roughed up by some guy named "Zack," who wears the obligatory wife-beater t-shirt under his sport coat and who cheats on each one with all the others.

Usually they star Meredith Baxter, Tracey Gold, Nancy McKeon, Victoria Principal, Delta Burke and very special guest, Valerie Bertinelli, starring in a VERy SPECIAL movie event entitled, "This Is The Only Work We Could Get: The Lifetime Movie Story."

To paraphrase what a friend said to me tonight.....which makes sooooo much sense...

Why are there so many "born again" Christians who feel they have a free ride to a glorious afterlife, but don't they think they don't have to have the courage and effort it takes to take the high road and do "the right thing" in their daily lives in this one.

What an amateur....

SOOOO bizarre....

I can't wait to see this!

Bruno Official Trailer (R-rated!)

Oh, we're in such good hands.....

The walking haunted tree, Sen. John Kerrey, now wants to hold hearings on the terrorists. Great. The end result will be NOTHING...just a lot of meandering "it's so nice to be nice" words and no results.

That poor Captain of the Alabama is either going to end up being held hostage for a very long time or killed...meanwhile...Sen. Kerrey, the master of doublespeak, goes around Washington and does all of the media chat shows with his zombie-like face saying absolutely nothing.

I will always remember Sen. Kerrey during his White House campaign being asked, after a 45-minute speech telling the world how George Bush had raped the land and environment with his policies, whether he drove a SUV on a daily basis. "No, I don't drive one but my family does," he said, with his characteristic stone face and eccentric "I want to sound incredibly cultured" monotone voice.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for hearings on the mounting piracy threat as the fate of an American cargo-ship captain remained in limbo Thursday.

"These acts of piracy off of Somalia’s coastline may seem surreal, but they’re all too real and a thorough policy debate is long overdue," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a statement. "When Americans, including at least one from Massachusetts, are endangered, you’ve got a complicated and dangerous international situation brewing, and that includes questions about a hot-pursuit policy on Somalia’s coastline."

The 20-member crew of the Maersk Alabama, which was carrying food from the World Food Program and the United States Agency for International Development to Kenya, managed to wrest control of the ship from the pirates after the Wednesday hijacking, but the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, was taken by pirates into a lifeboat that was drifting near the Alabama and the USS Bainbridge guided missile destoyer, which had arrived on scene to aid the ship.

On Thursday, the FBI had joined Department of Defense efforts to secure Phillips's release.

One of the main headlines this morning on the BBC's news website is, "How can pirates be stopped?"

Why is this a question at all? Although this will never happen under the presidency of President Barack "I'm sorry-I'm not worthy" Obama, the bottom line is that we need to drop a megabomb outside of Mogadishu and show the Somalis that if they can't control their homegrown terrorists, then we'll do it for them, and send them back to the 2nd century B.C. in the process. I cannot even begin to fathom how we have gotten into a mindset to allow the turds of the world (read Somalia and Iran and North Korea) make the major world powers bristle and shake in their white kneehighs and MaryJanes. Is this the "change" we voted for?

I still remember in the years of Ronald Reagan that Libya was making a nuisance of itself by terrorizing the international skies. The United States went in, gave sufficient warning for the Libyans to "cut it out or else." The Libyans didn't. Instead of speaking softly (that is, babbling continuously incoherently) and threatening to carry a big stick, we simply went in, gave the Libyans sufficient warning that they were about to be attacked, and spoke very loudly with a very large bomb that decimated the country's Navy and other installations. The Libyans responded by shooting off some SCUD missiles with a peashooter which missed horribly. The Libyans eventually came to their senses that they could get whacked again, acknowledged their wrongdoings and themselves went after international terrorist, Abu Nidal, and compensated the victims of their terrorist acts. And now, since they have shown their civility, Libya is prospering as it enters the normal world of civilized countries.

The United States still has a score to settle with Somalia after the torture and killing of several American soldiers in 1993 in the Battle of Moghadishu where a Blackhawk helicopter was downed and the soldiers aboard were taken hostage and tied to the back of a jeep and dragged to their deaths through Moghadishu.

But of course, now that we have evidence that our esteemed President is more interested in giving landmark speeches in the middle of marketplaces throughout Europe with well-written applause lines to gain him the adoration of the unwashed masses, saying how the U.S. is a horrible and arrogant country, and bows to misogynist rulers (King Fahd of Saudia Arabia) of misogynist countries, I don't see the situation with the Somali pirates ending anytime soon, or anytime positively.

How can pirates be stopped?

An American warship, the USS Bainbridge, has reached the area off the coast of Somalia where a cargo ship was seized by pirates a day earlier. How can the pirates be defeated?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the government was following the situation very closely and urged the world to act to end the "scourge" of piracy.

Pirate attacks have been increasing rapidly in recent years - more than 130 incidents were reported in 2008, which has cost the world an estimated $60 - 70m.

How can one of the world's most important shipping lanes be protected? What's the long-term solution to the problem?

Whatever President Obama's advisers are smokin'....I want some of it.

The latest "idea" suggests that we "geoengineer" earth's atmosphere by shooting reflectorized particles into the atmosphere to reduce the supposed affects of "global warming." Notwithstanding the debate that has ensued whether carbon dioxide emissions are causing the earth's atmosphere or not, I think the first thing that should be done is to put a plug on the hot methane gas being emitted into the air by Washington DC politicians (starting with Sen. Ted Kennedy and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi).

I like creative ideas in the quest for creative solutions to problems, but I think that this whole idea is on the same level when suggestions are made to fill raging volcanoes with baking soda to quench the fiery cauldrons of magma. This solution is no different than some-people-with-too-much-time-and-too-much-money who insist on feeding their dog "FeeFee" a vegan/vegetarian diet and make their family and friends endure Feefee's flatulence (another source of CO2).

We need to get past the Al Gore junk science being promoted by political extremists in order to give legs to whatever political cause they are pushing. We need to put back into the attic whackjobs like Pres. Obama's "science adviser" with their so-called "bright ideas" to solve a questionable problem.

WASHINGTON -- The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told the Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Mr. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

Mr. Holdren outlined several "tipping points" involving global warming that could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of "really intolerable consequences," he said.

Twice in a half-hour interview, Mr. Holdren compared global warming to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."

At first, Mr. Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.

Mr. Holdren, a 65-year-old physicist, is far from alone in taking geoengineering more seriously. The National Academy of Science is making climate tinkering the subject of its first workshop in its new multidiscipline climate challenges program. The British parliament has also discussed the idea.

The American Meteorological Society is crafting a policy statement on geoengineering that says "it is prudent to consider geoengineering's potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment."

Last week, Princeton scientist Robert Socolow told the National Academy that geoengineering should be an available option in case climate worsens dramatically.

But Mr. Holdren noted that shooting particles into the air -- making an artificial volcano as one Nobel laureate has suggested -- could have grave side effects and would not completely solve all the problems from soaring greenhouse gas emissions. So such actions could not be taken lightly, he said.

Still, "we might get desperate enough to want to use it," he added.

Another geoengineering option he mentioned was the use of so-called artificial trees to suck carbon dioxide -- the chief human-caused greenhouse gas -- out of the air and store it. At first that seemed prohibitively expensive, but a re-examination of the approach shows it might be less costly, he said.

Now THIS is good and the TRUTH!

Now, like never before, my support for Pres. Barack "The Messiah" Obama, has never been so tepid, and he really is testing my beliefs as an independent voter.

Not only am I getting really tired of what I see as his "People Magazine" moments posing with the Queen of England and world leaders, I'm really getting steamed at his brown-nosing of the Islamic world and putting the United States down as "arrogant and derisive." I guess having 3000 Americans murdered at the hands of Islamic terrorists means nothing to him. Well, it means something to me. I have tolerance and respect for different belief systems (I have very good friends who are Muslim), but to go around the world as Pres. Obama has in the past two weeks (it feels like a month!) as he has is short of disgusting.

Hey, Barack, why not come back to Washington DC and actually try to get some work done, huh?

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Barack Obama, making his first visit to a Muslim nation as president, declared Monday the United States "is not and will never be at war with Islam."

Calling for a greater partnership with the Islamic world in an address to the Turkish parliament, Obama called the country an important U.S. ally in many areas, including the fight against terrorism. He devoted much of his speech to urging a greater bond between Americans and Muslims, portraying terrorist groups such as al Qaida as extremists who did not represent the vast majority of Muslims.

"Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical ... in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject."

The U.S. president is trying to mend fences with a Muslim world that felt it had been blamed by America for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

OBAMA: OUR OWN HUGO CHAVEZ?

I'm very troubled with the news tonight that General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner resigned under pressure from the White House and Pres. Obama. While the U.S. Government might try to have a say how the bailout of GM and the other automakers goes, it troubles me that Pres. Obama goes around making pronouncements of this type. That is being a DICTATOR. Here he is loading up the American taxpayers with a frightful debt so that he can pursue his social/leadership agenda and now he is playing King.

As a Republican who after the fact has come to support Pres. Obama, I'm not sure how much longer I can support him. On one level he is doing the cheezy press junkets (Jay Leno, etc.), yet he is on the other leading us into uncharted waters with his agenda. What is he going to do next, order the slaughter of anyone who opposes him?

Pres. Obama has 1.5 years to get things right, just as the fickle American people supported him by bringing in more Democrats to support his agenda, if he messes up, there is no telling that his Democratic majorities can be sustained.

Only time will tell.

Simply brilliant.


Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

This is evidence that I'm right on my point about the Mormon Church and their positions on legislating how other people should live. They are no different than the Muslims who come to the United States (for reasons beyond me), and try to change the fabric and attitudes of our country.

To be "diverse" we don't have to accept every language and culture which someone thinks we should embrace without question.

WHAT HYPOCRITES!

Tonight was the much vaunted (you don't know how long I've wanted a reason to use that word) episode of the HBO Mini-series "Big Love" about a fundamentalist polygamist Mormon family, where a hereto sacred secret rite of the Mormon Church was depicted featuring the show's main female star, Jeanne Tripplehorn. According to the show's producers, the scenes were written with great attention to accuracy down to the white veils worn by the women.

During the past week, the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Voiceover here: "The Mormons") wrangled in the media how they felt it was "offensive" to Mormons to have this rite being shown on television...although the depictions of the rite are readily found on the good ol' Internet. HBO did the corporate thing by "apologizing" (read: "appeasing") the Mormons although they continued with their plans to show it. On the other hand, the official position of the LDS church was not to ask for an official boycott of HBO and its corporate daddy, Time Warner. It was the same kind of PR mud wrestling that the Catholics blustered over with the release of "The Da Vinci Code" -- which I found to be a VERY boring and wandering movie. (Of course, the other little untold story that "Big Love"'s executive producers, Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, are a gay couple, and I wouldn't put it past them that this was their way of retribution against the Mormons for their less-than-Godly conduct in California politics.)

Notwithstanding, my suggestion to the Mormons at this point would be for them to FUCKING SHUT UP. The official image of the Mormons would be for them to be a God-fearing goody-two shoed Shirley Temple/Mrs. Brady-like religious faith. But in actuality, as someone who almost joined the sect, the Mormons are a faith/belief system bred in a dark mythology wrought with politics and very strange rites.

I find it very interesting on one hand the Mormons are screaming and yelling about how the sanctity and privacy of one of their religious rites. Yet, the Mormons think nothing about prying and legislating themselves into the sanctity of private bedrooms of gay Californians by spending tens of millions of dollars to bring to victory a California state proposition which effectively bans homosexual marriages.

Mmmmmmmmm....somehow the old wise saw, "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks," comes to mind...especially apropos for a religious sect who loves to build big glass temples....and delights with the concept of stoning a group of people which it deems as not worthy to breath air, much less, love as their hearts leads them to love.

Just as she was accused of "driving without a license" diplomatically many years ago when she allowed Suha Arafat to speak at a women's conference in the middle east where she accused Israel of actively engaging in Palestinian infanticide, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is once again showing she should be home watching over Bill rather than trying to make her mark as U.S. Secretary of State.

On her first trip abroad, she "gets in bed" with the Palestinians much to the chagrin of Israel by supporting the Hamas-led infitada, and then makes a gaffe at the European parliament by stating that American democracy has a longer history than European democracy. I guess the Greeks don't count.

The article doesn't mention her gaffe with the Russian Foreign Minister when she gave him a gift of a red "reset" button with a Russian printed on it which means "overcharge" or "overload."

I'm tending to believe these days that Pres. Barack Obama brought on Hillary Clinton not because of her White House and Democratic party ties, but rather to keep his sworn enemies closer.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.

Clinton has set herself a grueling pace on visits to Egypt, Israel and Brussels soon after touring the Far East, attending dozens of meetings and giving speech after speech, with little time worked into her schedule for sleep.

Tiredness appeared to show Friday when she answered questions in front of 500 young Europeans at the European Parliament, where she was the highest-ranking U.S. visitor since the late President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding:

"I have never understood multiparty democracy.

"It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy."

The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.

One working lunch later with EU leaders, Clinton raised more eyebrows when she referred to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who stood beside her, as "High Representative Solano."

She also dubbed European Commission External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as "Benito."

Still, Clinton has been well received in Brussels, where the Obama administration has been viewed as a breath of fresh air after the unpopular leadership of George W. Bush. His secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, often drew protests on her travels.

Fellow foreign ministers stood and applauded Clinton's presentation at a meeting with NATO counterparts Thursday and extra space had to be set aside for a spillover audience of 800 at the European Parliament.

Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again "share the same values."

"What you said mostly could have been said by a European," he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an "I love Hillary" t-shirt.

So many things lately, watching the turmoil amongst the Democrats, the turmoil amongst the Republicans, the turmoil amongs the American people which reminded me of one of the BEST openings of a novel, specifically, Charles Dickens' "The Tale of Two Cities" :

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

"Tolerance is a noble virtue. Consideration is a better one."

Talking about having a shitty day.........

Robbery trial comes to abrupt end

UNION-TRIBUNE

6:30 p.m. January 27, 2009

SAN DIEGO – A robbery trial ended abruptly Monday when a defendant smeared feces on his lawyer and threw it at jurors, authorities said.

Weusi McGowan, 37, had apparently smuggled a plastic bag filled with excrement into the San Diego Superior Court building, said Paul Levikow, spokesman for the District Attorney's Office.

As the jurors stood to leave for their mid-morning break, McGowan smeared the feces in the face and hair of his attorney, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jeffrey Martin, and threw it at the jury box. It did not hit any of the jurors.

Judge Jeffrey Fraser declared a mistrial.

Levikow said McGowan was apparently upset because the judge had previously denied his request to dismiss his lawyer.

McGowan faces charges including kidnapping and assault in connection with a robbery in Barrio Logan in October 2007. He is accused of hitting a 54-year-old man with a rock in a sock and demanding money and drugs.

McGowan is also accused of tying up the man, ransacking his apartment and stealing his 1994 Ford Taurus

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is receptive to the idea of prosecuting some Bush administration officials, while letting others who are accused of misdeeds leave office without prosecution, she told Chris Wallace in an interview on "FOX News Sunday."

"I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it," the California Democrat said. "And other things that are maybe time that is spent better looking to the future rather than to the past."

Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced Friday he wants to set up a commission to look into whether the Bush administration broke the law by taking the nation to war against Iraq and instituting aggressive anti-terror initiatives. The Michigan Democrat called for an "independent criminal probe into whether any laws were broken in connection with these activities."

President-elect Barack Obama has not closed off the possibility of prosecutions, but hinted he does not favor them.

Perhaps at the same time we need to initiate a criminal probe of Senator Edward Kennedy and his culpability in the murder of his campaign worker, Mary Jo Kopechne.

Oh....forgot...silly me...he needs to be excused that, one, he is a "Kennedy," and, two, he has brain cancer. Those are two good reasons.

And of course, we have nothing else dire to take care of in this country.

Now what chapter of the classic book "How To Make Friends And Influence Others" by Dale Carnegie did Venezuelan dictator miss in his read and study?

Venezuela's Chavez says Obama has "stench" of Bush

Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:44pm EST

CAMPO CARABOBO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday Barack Obama had the "stench" of his predecessor as U.S. president and was at risk of being killed if he tries to change the American "empire."

Most world leaders expect a new era of U.S. foreign relations when Obama, a Democrat, is sworn in as president on Tuesday after Republican George W. Bush's eight years in the White House.

But Chavez said frayed ties with Washington were unlikely to improve despite the departure of Bush, who the Venezuelan leader has often called the "devil."

"I hope I am wrong, but I believe Obama brings the same stench, to not say another word," Chavez said at a political rally on a historic Venezuelan battlefield.

"If Obama as president of the United States does not obey the orders of the empire, they will kill him, like they killed Kennedy, like they killed Martin Luther King, or Lincoln, who freed the blacks and paid with his life."

Obama, who will be the first black president in U.S. history, was given Secret Service protection on the campaign trail earlier than is customary for candidates and security for Tuesday's inauguration is extremely tight.

Venezuela is a leading supplier of oil to the United States and the two countries once enjoyed close ties.

Relations deteriorated after Chavez first won election in 1998 as he took on U.S. companies as part of his socialist agenda of nationalization of various industries and accused Washington of backing a brief coup against him.

Last year, he expelled the U.S. ambassador from Venezuela.

Chavez's foreign policy is based on countering U.S. global influence and promoting countries like Russia and China as world leaders. He has close ties to U.S. foes Cuba and Iran.

Until recently, Chavez had said he hoped relations with Washington could improve. But in the last few days, he has picked up on comments he attributes to Obama accusing him of obstructing progress in Latin America and exporting terrorism.

For the past four days I have been suffering a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic I was taking for two weeks for a nasty sinus infection over Christmas and New Year's. I'm not even going to go through the details of what I looked like, but suffice it to say that I was covered with very red splotches on my Scandinavian bluish-white skin on my entire body...with a miserable feeling of almost best described as a severe sunburn that itches from the inside and the outside. I saw it coming on so I was able to get the proper care before the total onset of the severe allergic reaction. Still, I was so beaten down emotionally with being alone, feeling woozy from the meds, and with my skin breaking out. I was one total piece of mess. (I have to say a couple of friends did call to keep check on me however they could...something which I so appreciated.)

Anyway.......True to my luck, in the midst of the bout I received the following very comforting advertising letter with the appropriate soothing pink printed paper with serene images of flowers and things associated with death from a local crematorium. And best of all, they are offering me a deal I simply can't refuse!

I don't know how they figure it out, but everytime I come down with an illness which beats me down with a Rocky Balboa-like knockout punch, I ALWAYS get these kinds of letters. (I think they must have some triggering mechanism with my local Target pharmacy.)

In the words of Charlie Brown, "Good grief...."

ROURKE: 'BUSH WAS IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME'

Monday January 12,2009
London Daily Express

Actor MICKEY ROURKE sympathises with U.S. President GEORGE W. BUSH - insisting he doesn't know how any politician could have successfully navigated America after the 9/11 attacks on New York.

The Hollywood tough-guy spoke out about his political views in a candid interview with Britain's GQ magazine, and admits he doesn't understand why so many people blame Bush for a string of world issues - including Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the West.

And the actor, who claims he didn't follow last year's (08) historic U.S. election battle between Barack Obama and John McCain, urges the public to consider the tremendous pressure the controversial president was under following the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.

He tells the publication, "President Bush was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don't know how anyone could have handled this situation.

"I don't give a f**k who's in office, Bush or whoever, there is no simple solution to this problem... I'm not one of those who blames Bush for everything. This s**t between Christians and Muslims goes back to the Crusades, doesn't it.

"It's too easy to blame everything on one guy. These are unpredictable, dangerous times, and I don't think that anyone really knows quite what to do."

Rourke also confesses he was so angry after 9/11, he wanted to fight the war on terror himself.

He adds, "I'm not politically educated. But I do know that after 9/11 I wanted to go over there, you know what I'm saying?"

And the star is baffled by the U.K.'s approach to fundamentalists - insisting he was taken aback by the freedom of speech allowed in the U.K.

He explains, "I was in London recently and I couldn't believe all these hate-talking fanatics you have over here who are allowed to carry on doing their thing even when a bus full of women and children gets blown to pieces.

"I know you've deported one or two of them, but it seems crazy. I think there is worse to come, something terrible will happen to either America or the U.K., or France even. I don't think these fundamentalists should be allowed to talk all this crap, and brainwashing these young kids."

THERE IS apparently some intelligence in Hollywood....

I made this very point the other day about President Bush's performance over the past eight years to a friend of mine.

I find it interesting when my "blue friends" get more than a bit uncomfortable and unnerved and suddenly change th conversation when I make the suggestion when President-elect Barack Obama is really going back to center and is already bucking heads with the liberal Democrats.

So many Democrats have taken snippets of what President-elect Obama has said during the campaign and used "projection" to make it mean what they think it means. Believe me, I see it at as great vision that Pres. Obama is going to be disappointing a lot of liberal Democrats when he takes office next week. He said he wants to close Gitmo....like John McCain...but it could be YEARS before that actually happens. And while gay activists march around with placards with Obama's campaign logo in rainbow colors, he has made it very clear that he is against gay marriage and will not support it in anyway...yet the gay community rallies around Pres.-elect Obama as though he is their biggest ally.

To say the very least, methinks it's going to be an interesting three-and-half years.

I didn't vote for President-elect Obama, but I'm going to be his biggest supporter...because he represents a major "change" -- for better or worse. And that's good news for the greatest country in the world.

Magnetosphere revisited (audio by Tosca) from flight404 on Vimeo.