Welcome wagon ....

Plus... igloos!!!!

Thursday funnies ...

This is really, really, really creepy ...

It reminds me of an old classic Hepburn/Tracy flick "Keeper of the Flame" (1942). ALL HEIL! All shall be revealed. O!

In other news ......

" ... Russia passed a 2006 law widening the definition of extremism to include "the abasement of national dignity" and "inciting religious and national hatred," which backers say was needed to stem a wave of violence aimed at ethnic minorities."

Canada Post's crack kit ...

Some people go to their mail boxes and get bills, letters, maybe a flyer advertising what is on sale at the grocery store or at Canadian Tire but I am a citizen living in the centre of the universe - dead centre ......... True story.

S.T.F.U ... I mean ... really ... just S.T.F.U.

... A divorce lawyer from Lethbridge [Alberta] with a second-rate patronage job just ordered a Canadian pastor to stop communicating to anyone, ever, about gays. Not to stop "hate speech" -- whatever that malleable legal definition is. She just told him to shut up, period. And then she orders that Rev. Boissoin and his group are: ...prohibited from making disparaging remarks in the future about Dr. Lund or Dr. Lund's witnesses relating to their involvement in this complaint.. Again, not banned from "hate speech", whatever that is today; but banned from disparaging remarks about Lund, an anti-Christian activist, who now is "protected" not just from Rev. Boissoin's alleged anti-gay remarks, but from his political criticism of his own tormentor. Apparently, being a busy-body human rights complainant-of-fortune is a new "protected ground" of hate speech. Become one, and no-one can ever say anything "disparaging" about you again. Ever. Not even in an e-mail. ... I'll do it, and I'll say it: IMO, Lori Andreachuk is a moron.

Garden Nazis ....

Dear [name redacted], [name redacted], and [name redacted] and other Members of the Board of Directors of Carleton Condominium Corporation [number redacted] Re: Gardening areas per your note of May 28, 2008 Thank you for responding so quickly, however, I have a few questions: You wrote: Your plans for hostas and impatiens along the back path, north to the gate of #5, are aligned with our original plan, as discussed on Sunday. Throughout the grounds, we tend to use white and several shades of pink impatiens – we’ll drop off a plug or two to illustrate, but any shades of pink and/or white would align well with the common grounds impatiens. (We prefer to avoid orange impatiens.) So … what about the orange nasturtiums? What about fruity nasturtium which often gets pickled? Can they be supplanted by any other colour? What’s so great about white or pink impatiens? What have you got against orange impatiens? What about peach impatiens? If I didn’t hope for a better future, I’d call you garden variety racists. Very best regards, c.c. [good neighbours, so I’ll keep them out of it]

"Panties for Peace!"

..... Organizers say they want Canadian women to gather their panties and send them to Burma's embassy in Ottawa to help the Burmese people achieve democracy. Only in Canada! Good GOD!

Ode to the Nanny State ....

Governments have changed. War erupted and ended. Neighbours had children, and then grandchildren. But Hedviga Golik never left her tiny apartment in Croatia's capital - until her mummified body was carried out this week, 35 years after she died. [...] Neighbours now argue the apartment should be divided among the remaining tenants.

Water Wings !!!

Priorities in order, the UN sends 200,000 condoms to Myanmar, which the government has accepted. Perhaps those poor people can inflate them, tie them together and float out of there on them. ........... It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.

This just in...

Sue-happy idiots are not exclusive to the US! A Chinese primary school teacher and a beautician have filed a suit against CNN in New York over remarks they say insulted the Chinese people. They want $1.37 billion in compensation - $1.06 per person in China, a Hong Kong newspaper reports. I'm planning on suing Hugo Chavez for offending me and insulting Americans. $1.06 per American seems to be the going rate. I figure I'll have much more time to post on FIU when I'm not working because of my nine-figure "retirement" bankroll. Dulce!

And then there were breastses ...

MT. LAUREL, N.J. – The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA), which represents the leading manufacturers of baby bottles in the United States, stands by the scientific research indicating that plastic baby bottles are safe. JPMA supports the rigorous scientific evaluation process of the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction. Does anyone ... anyone .... remember when we suckled our young? h/t Did I win?

Short-bussted ...

"When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that's the dictator, because he speaks for all the people." via

"Jimmy Carter Is The Secret Love Child Of Helen Thomas"

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

Do not want

In the age of the intertubez you'd think these ladies would know better. Options: free internet pics of nekked attractive women this And to take another popular cliche from the internet: FAIL

The end of times

Today was my last day at work and my first day in unemployment, at least until monday. To celebrate I got a really strong buzz and went to the Stars Game with my brother and his friend and his girlfriend. The result: The Stars lost. I probably embarassed my bro. I drank a lot of beer and yelled at the refs. My wife and child were asleep when i can home. I almost.... I almost feel like JR....

Pot vs kettle

One of today's big stories is that Congress has three CEOs of major banking corporations defending their personal pay in the face of the current mortgage woes. Give that a second and consider the irony. Congress, and by that I mean "CONGRESS", has the huevos to challenge these guy's pay scale because of the market? Check the mirror in the morning much, guys? There is a reason that congressional approval is at 24%. I'm pretty sure the American people would love to see Congress give a justification of their pay in the face of our current legislative quagmire. Unlike you guys, they don't have the power to compel people to sign deal and buy houses. You guy pass laws that force our hands each day. If this is your idea of fixing the mortgage problem then a lot of people are gonna be pissed that you're wasting people's time. Oh wait, 75% of us have already expressed that.

Andrew Leonard, writing in Salon ...

... if you Yankees think you can wave a magic wand and "renegotiate NAFTA" so as to be more beneficial to Americans at the expense of Canada's interests, think again, because we'd be happy to close off the oil spigot and sell our crude, to, oh, I don't know, China. Don't mess with Canada! It's not as though we manufacture much. We mostly sell our natural resources. Besides, I'd miss Home Depot, Walmart and The Olive Garden.

Idiots in action

Sometimes, the little details need to be pointed out. Let me highlight a few. A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence. The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil Corporation, eight other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco. Kivalina is a traditional Inuit Eskimo village of about 390 people about 625 miles northwest of Anchorage. It's built on an 8-mile barrier reef between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River. Sea ice traditionally protected the community, whose economy is based in part on salmon fishing plus subsistence hunting of whale, seal, walrus, and caribou. But sea ice that forms later and melts sooner because of higher temperatures has left the community unprotected from fall and winter storm waves and surges that lash coastal communities. "We are seeing accelerated erosion because of the loss of sea ice," City Administrator Janet Mitchell said in a statement. "We normally have ice starting in October, but now we have open water even into December so our island is not protected from the storms." Relocation costs have been estimated at $400 million or more. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kivalina by two nonprofit legal organizations -- The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment and the Native American Rights Fund -- plus six law firms. What you have here is a news story ignoring that this is simply a bullshit, shakedown lawsuit made by a bunch of opportunistic law firms. If it's anything other than that, I want to see the written contract from each of these non-profit companies that says that they will not tame one shiny nickel of money of any future settlement of bill anyone for any costs. Now, good luck in finding that. Aside from the facts that A) global warming has not been proven to be anthropomorphic, B) there largest creator of CO2 emissions are everyday people in cars and C) that the formation of ice in the ocean is more tied to currents than air temperature, they are missing one key factor: You live on a fucking barrier reef. What do you think barrier reefs do, if not erode? The only barrier reefs that haven eroded are the ones that were buried in dirt and became fossils. Just a refresher on chemistry, Calcium carbonate will react with water and carbon dioxide to form the soluble calcium bicarbonate. CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O → Ca(HCO3)2 That's one of those reactions that have been around since, say, 85 million years ago when creatures developed hard shells and, oh yeah, made barrier reefs that dissolve into the ocean. This is the kind of crap that not only needs to get a case dismissed, but dismissed with prejudice and maybe even stem a few damage counter-suits for frivolous law suits.

He was just kidding!! *wink* *wink*

We've seen this gag before: Leftist a-hole makes genuine comment that, once it hits the presses and gets major airplay and blowback, is immediately written off as a joke or hyperbole. (see Sheryl Crow and her toilet paper comment or John Kerry and his "if you don't do well in school you join the moron-Armed Forces crack) But remember, kids - it's not the right that wants to lock people up or pass laws against the speech of those who disagree with them. Google Ezra Levant in case you haven't heard of his recent run-in with "speech codes" and "human rights" abuses.

I love this

So last night I'm watching the Republican debate on MSNBC. To say this was a conflagration of "Have you stopped beating your wife yet" questions is a bit of an understatement. However, since Fred jettisoned my candidate of choice, I figured I could sit through it and tough out Tim Russert acting like a douche nozzle. During the debate, I saw something that, the instant it happened, I knew was going to be on youtube. It was one of those perfect moments that you know the tin foil hat brigade were going to flip out over. Sure enough, it has. Here is the video in question along with a guy presenting it that, to be honest, that supersedes anything I could have imagined running with this. "Dude...." I mean, really, he nails it doesn't he? That says it all. I hate to break it to him but I'm pretty sure that voice was Russert himself. Now, I'm not sure if some sound engineer dropped his mike level too early in the mix or if Russert was trying a Jedi mind trick. Still, the fact that Romney seemed to answer directly, without flinching, seems to indicate nothing is awry. Likewise, if someone was getting prompts and it was that noticeable to the camera, you know the other candidates would berate that guy into oblivion. Justifiably so. That being said, it's nice to know that the moonbats can still find a nice conspiracy in the simplest of things.

I couldn't help myself ...

I watched the FNC South Carolina debates tonight. Who is this man ... Ron Paul? The poor bastard's been blinkered.

Home is where the heart is ....

" ... In Britain, the National Health Service is planning to make people do their own health care to save money. OK, not appendectomies. But, the Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday: "Millions of people with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a government plan to save billions of pounds from the NHS budget ..." The report says patients will find themselves: "Monitoring their own heart activity, blood pressure and lung capacity using equipment installed in the home; reporting medical information to doctors remotely by telephone or computer; administering their own drugs and other treatment to 'manage pain' and assessing the significance of changes in their condition; using relaxation techniques to relieve stress and avoid 'panic' visits to emergency wards." New prime minister Gordon Brown naturally spun it as giving "all of those with long-term or chronic conditions the choice of greater support, information and advice, allowing them to play a far more active role in managing their own condition." But a document obtained by the Daily Telegraph indicates that while the public rhetoric is about empowerment, the private incentive is to save money. It would be. It's curious that people attack private markets because providers think about money, but never admit that it's bad when governments don't and often worse when they do. A company that cuts costs so much it can't provide decent service goes out of business. Governments face no such incentives, and it matters. ......... " Bah! Humbug.

I hate my city government more than anything in the world at this second. Even more than the damn Philly Eagles.

It sucks to be a light sleeper. It sucks to be an insomniac. This, however, sucks more. It's not that I expect everyone to care. Hell, I honestly expect some of you to laughingly admit that his sucks, but mostly laugh. I just figured that you guys deserved to be able to get a decent feed of my late night sarcasm in full bloom. While not to be confused with my finer traits, it is one of the corner posts of my character, or lack thereof. At 1:30, when I want to sleep and they're going all Discovery Channel "Loud week" on "Dirty Jobs" in front of my house, it's a pretty big part of who I am. p.s. Go Fred. Don't be surprised, but I'll probably ratchet up my pro-Fred a few notches because he's the top guy in my book. No reason to be apologetic about it. So expect me to go into full "Fred" mode because for my two cents, after giving them all a solid shot at impressing, he's the only real Conservative.

The Big One Zero Zero: Ca-Ching

Today, for the first time, oil hit $100 dollars a barrel. What caused today's jump to this historic high? ~ 1st: In Nigeria, bands of armed men invaded Port Harcourt, the center the oil industry Tuesday, attacking two police stations and raiding the lobby of a major hotel ~ 2nd: A surprise fall in manufacturing activity sparked fears of yet another interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve. Interest rate cuts generally cause the dollar to fall - and oil prices rise - as investors bail out of U.S. stocks and bonds and into commodities. ~ 3rd: One trader said word among traders on Wednesday was that Mexico plans to temporarily halt oil exports, although the reason was unclear. The Associated Press reported that several Mexican ports were closed due to rough weather. PEMEX, the Mexican state oil company, could not be immediately reached for comment. ~ 4th: Analysts are expecting the latest government inventory report - set for release Thursday, to show a 1.8 million barrel decline in crude supplies, according to a Dow Jones poll. It would mark the seventh straight week U.S. crude stocks have dropped. So, in summary, oil is up because commodities traders are taking a militia attack in Nigeria, fears of an interest rate cut, a rumor about Mexican oil and an unsubstantiated expectation of US oil inventory to drive speculation. Well allow me to sound a little like Eddie Murphy from "trading places" but what is really happening here is that a bunch of brokers realized that they pissed away too much money over the Christmas holiday, they're worried about the shortfall on their personal income taxes and they are trying to put some numbers on the board to protect their corner offices from the new hires and December graduates. Really, this whole commodities process is about as scientific as reading tea leaves and doing blood auguries. But, by all means let's just toss our hands in the air and panic! $100 dollars a barrel. The end is nigh.

Do you hear what I hear?

Hark! Is that the sound of stepmothers, step familiy and forced chemistry?! It IS! (all I can hope for is that this year I only have to endure 12 snide remarks because this year 13 would make me snap. I'm SO going to spike the egg nog this year.)

Enviros: The crap they worry about

This comes to us via Scribal Terror. Read it and be amazed by "the stupid."

Sometimes I kick antpiles just because I can

One of my favorite scenes of cinema is from Braveheart. Sure that "they can't take our freedom" line is good and he says a lot of romantic stuff to the female lead but my favorite line was a throw away line. His friend calls to William Wallace, after his inspirational speech to the Scots, as he turns his horse out to the center of the field of battle. He says "Where are you going?" And Wallace replies, "I'm going to pick a fight." Well, I'm posting this to pick a fight. Just like Wallace rode out there and delivered stinging insults to taunt the generals into battle let me issue mine. Anyone that tries to "save the planet" is a fool. In fact, anyone that tries to save a species is an even bigger fool. The ebb and flow of popular ecological environmentalism is based off of equal parts of emotion and stupidity. This is evident in the hubris of it's presentation, the blind obedience of method and the willful ignorance of most of it's followers. As a result, it is an armchair pseudo-science that is fostered and manipulated by salesmen and politicians. The presentation of environmentalism to the masses has been marketed with all the sentiment of a Hallmark card in a shiny green envelope. The message underlying the efforts of environmental education to the public are variations of the following: "The earth is interconnected. X is an important thing. Your lifestyle/humans/energy/food/whatever is killing X. Your money can save X so you can be guilt free." The problem is that contrary to the picture that environmentalist paint, not all earth systems cooperative despite however much you give. Additionally, more often than not, it's not a single pressure kills of a species. More often than not, any species near the edge of dying was there for a reason besides us. More often that not, environmentalist never point out the humanistic moral query of consequence: Even if we can save, say the "Horned Owl", is it our place to? Environmentalist always talk about biodiversity as if its a good thing. After all, more types of bug lead to more evolution of bugs. Great. However, what if we save a species that would have died otherwise and then later discover that it spreads cancer? Was there a moral reason to save it? On the counter point, what if we save a bug that would have died otherwise and would have had it's niche replaced with a bug that adapted to fill that niche and in the effort of evolution generated a sting that cures cancer? Once again, was there a moral reason to save it? If the possible ability of the bug doesn't matter then we should be saving anything from our presence because we are part of the biota? If it does matter, then how do we account for the unintended consequences of preservation? Even deeper, who is to say that our efforts to save one species doesn't doom that species if there is an environmental change. Likewise, who is to say that in saving one species that we don't doom another? For that matter, the H-bomb of these questions is this, who is to say that the animal, and even the environment, need some form of salvation from our presence when they have preexisted our presence for billions of years? To say we are morally bound to tinker with life is an arrogance that knows no bounds. Another reason that environmentalism is a fools errand is that it has such a blind obedience to methodology that ignores basic thinking for emotional solutions. A perfect example is the Greenpeace movement and it's save the whales platform. Forgoing the basic question of whether the whales are suited to survive long term, we are struck with the more basic question: Why? Why save the whales? Just because we kill them? Is it because they are a needed component of the food net we are a part of? When asked people typically respond with discussion about the brutality of whaling or how docile and peaceful whales are. Right. Whales may be docile but then so are cows. If docility and the brutality of slaughter are the main reasons why not "save the cows." The reason is that whales, quite simply are foreign and evoke an emotional reaction. Cows are more common and evoke cow paddies. As Denis Leary pointed out, we only save the cute ones.( ahem...9:10 on the video) Additionally, why not save the killer whales? Oh yeah, because they are less cute and more "killer." This brings me to my final point. So many of the people that are clearly concerned with saving the environment are also clearly ignorant of the thing that live within it and their interactions. What they are sure about is that saving the planet is good, or at least it makes them feel good. Despite toxic air and global warming she seems to breath so well on the cold wintry day. Let's look at today's primary scare: CO2 driven global warming. If CO2 causes global warming, by trapping the sun's heat and all it takes is the exhaust from fossil fuel to shift the balance then we need to accept that we are more than likely already dead. Why? Because man made CO2 is just a fraction of total CO2. Most of our CO2 comes from volcanoes. That would suggest that we are just a few eruptions away from tipping the scale too far. But wait, there has been thousands of volcanic eruptions over human history and we are still here. Why? I suggest it's because of the fact that water vapor and CO2 and Sunlight, the three global warming culprits, are also the three things used in photosynthesis. It's called biofeedback and it works because plants can grow pretty fast. Environmentalism is, at it's essence, stupid. It is stupid because it presumes that we can stop change. It is stupid because it believes that we can deny entropy. It is also stupid because it believes that where we are right now is the best it can be, that we won't be forced to evolve by a planet that has a consistent history of forcing evolution and that we can control and predict a systems makeup thousands of years from now with technology that can't reliably predict the weather tomorrow. So why does it persist? It persist because it feels good to think that you are being moral. It persists because it's a wonderful political point to say you are "for the earth" because who really wants to campaign as being "against the earth." It persists because most people don't want to understand the world around them, they just want things to stay the same. And as long as that continues, the Al Gores of this world will continue to whip up fear over a process that very few every truly investigate while he makes investments in the green technologies. I guess that saving the earth is in every body's best interest but some of us profit off of it more than others.

Making a point about waterboarding

Below I've linked a video I found that was simply too much to not opine on. The video is of a student demonstration at UC Berkley. I'll tell you what happens if you don't want to watch the video because it's kind of long (10+ minutes) and poorly shot. In the video, a student reads a statement about torture and the US and typical liberal rhetoric. Then to prove the point that "water boarding is torture" two guys in the crowd grab a third, dramatized to make it look random but obviously a plant, and they get him in a jumpsuit and water board him right there. This is then followed by the bullhorn guy spouting off again. Here's the video, if you want to watch it. Now, all of the legal debate of the definition of torture aside, because I'm not a legal expert, I want to ask a few questions and I'd love to have some input on this. 1. If you were trying to convince people that water boarding is torture, did they do this at the right venue? I don't think they did because, honestly, I doubt that Berkley is a CIA recruiting hotbed. Therefore, I doubt that any of those students would ever be put in that position. As far as forming a political opinion on the subject, I doubt that there is a high enough level of difference of political opinion to justify doing it at Berkley either. The Citadel or the Army War college might actually be a more effective place. For that matter, why not in front of a government building for the DOD or CIA? Considering that they are the ones most likely to face that decision wouldn't that be a more effective audience. 2. If water boarding is torture, why torture someone to make a point? If the argument that water boarding in the name of national security and to save American lives is supposedly inferior to the treatment that we should allow even terrorist, then why water board a US citizen? Doesn't that mean that you tortured a person, willing or not, to make a statement. That's a considerably less noble reason than to save lives. 3. If water boarding is torture, then why was this demonstration allowed to continue by campus authorities? With torture being considering illegal, free speech doesn't protect it. Each one of those people should have been arrested and charged according to criminal law. If students can be arrested for hazing then they should be able to be arrested for torture. 4. If water boarding is torture, why would a person willingly submit to it? In Iraq, people under Saddam were caned, doused with chemicals, raped, electrocuted and beaten. In each case physical damage was done. If this is torture and even the danger of physical damage is a possibility then the point that you are trying to make is overridden by the very act of committing it, even if on a willing person. The video and the response to it by the people watching and the logic used by the people making it create some simple observations about both the act and the people doing it and the people protesting it. Obviously, one can see that water boarding is extremely unpleasant. No reasonable person would choose to be water boarded. However, water boarding is clearly not equivalent to other forms of torture in that if those student were, as a demonstration, canning, doused people with chemicals, raping, electrocuting or beating a person they would have been arrested. Additionally, unless Berkley has expelled or prosecuted these students, they consider water boarding, which they equate to torture, to reside in a less important class of student protection than hazing. And finally, in the efforts to defame the military, the government and specifically George Bush, some liberals will go to the point to submitting themselves to torture in order to protest them. This begs the question of whether it is actually torture at all and whether they really care about the protections of the American Constitution and the rule of law when they are willing to violate them to merely make a point.

Hey Hood

When you got tagged was it anything like this...

Planning a party

A certain FIU'er is getting married soon and is having a bachelor party this weekend. Sadly, the fact that I'm married with kids and have 2 impending tests, is going to keep me from going. However, I feel that it's unfair that we have to all miss out on the last "Huzza" of Hoodlumman's single life. As a result, I say that we throw him a virtual bachelor party. It's time to get drunk and post your best advice/wishes along with the classic sign of being wasted. Yes, you need to end it with "I love you, man." To get this thing ready, I'll need some help: JR, you get the tequila, 2 tanks of nitrous, 1 combat boot, a package of ping pong balls and a kiddie pool. Diana ,you get 200 pounds of velvetta cheese, a left handed stripper, a copy of "Fiddler on the Roof" and exactly 9 ft of 8 guage copper wire. Dave, you bring the cordite, as much axle grease as you can put your hands on, two wheel chair maniquins, a 5-6 lb cactus and carnuba wax. I'll get the chili, the midgets, 100 lbs of chicken feathers, a disposable camera, correct postage for a 200 lb package to Madagascar, a tattoo gun and black tar herion. I already have the slip'n'slide, the 18v drill and the 1200w portable generator for the microwave and the power washer. In the mean time, you guy start out with these val-u-rite vodka jello shots and get with the practical knowledge.... and the naked pictures because it's not like bandwidth is free.

Raising your green awareness

Last night, the NBC halftime show between that Cowboys and the Eagles was done by candle light in order to raise awareness of NBC's focus on the environment. To say that I found it to be stupid is an understatement. I can't trust Chris Collingsworth to not be a marginally intelligent on the subject of football and your going to let him explain the environmental impact of energy conservation to me? Please, don't waste my time. However, I felt compelled to do the math that the true eco-warriors would really want to show you is their final goal, if the PR spin didn't kill them. The average person takes roughly 10 4.6 liter breaths of air a minute. In return they expel roughly 4.6 liters of CO2. That translates to 2760 liters of CO2 a hour, 66,240 liters a day, 463,680 liters a week and 24,111,360 liters a year per person. That translates to 24.111 kg of CO2 per average person per year by just breathing. Considering that there are an estimated 6.6 billion people on the planet, we generate 159,135,000,000 kg of CO2 a year by just breathing. Adding no activity at all, the human race dumps the equivalent of 3% of the earths total atmospheric volume in pure CO2 a year. This would seem to suggest that by merely breathing we will overcome the O2 volume of the atmosphere in under 7 years. Wow, it's a shocker that we aren't all dead already. Yet, when we look at the atmosphere we see that CO2 comprised .038 of the atmosphere. Odd isn't it? I mean, how could that be? Consider what I just showed you. I just showed you that humans will kill themselves by just breathing in 7 years but ,as you notice, we're still alive. The reason for that is biofeedback mechanisms. If you have never heard that term before, it's because the media doesn't bother telling you about it while the are trying to scare you and control you through global warming hype. Here is some "green awareness" for you, plants consume CO2 and create 02. So if they have sunlight, you know that same sunlight that causes global warming, and CO2, the same one that causes global warming, and water, once again a part of global warming, then they create O2 and sugar. SO, for what it's worth, cutting CO2 won't "cool" the planet as much as it will kill plants. For some reason, I doubt Chris Collingsworth gets that. Achieving an equilibrium might be advisable but thankfully plants do that pretty well on their own. The only thing left is to effect the energy effecting our system. Is anyone here for a massive reflection of solar energy? Yeah, I though not. Besides, who says that the current environment is the optimal one for the human species? I think that despite NBC's aspirations, the issue of global warming is a little more complex than can be effectively discussed at a halftime show in the dark.* *~ That description of being "in the dark" is both literal and figurative.

Beyond Stupid

Hat tip to DrewM at Ace of Spades who quite eloquently states: "The media really are beyond parody at this point." As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch NAJAF, Iraq — At what's believed to be the world's largest cemetery, where Shiite Muslims aspire to be buried and millions already have been, business isn't good. A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds. This shit could've been on The Onion.

Up is Down. Black is White. Dogs and Cats are living togather. Mass Hysteria.

Brace yourself. OK. "Former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming. " WTF!? I mean, really, let's just say it. What the Fuck is that?! You get a Nobel Prize for raising awareness?" Fine...... Here.... Here's some awareness: Global temperature is cyclical. Where's my prize? Oh, I forgot. My "awareness" doesn't have the political clout with the international community because it doesn't say that everything is "America's fault." Well, let let it be said that I'm a poor loser in my race to raise awareness. So let me take a moment to address Al Gore and his buds at the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change directly: "Good Luck" on stopping the earth from changing. I mean it's not like it had a history of doing that before "man" evolved, right? Click the picture and notice something, that global image isn't rotating and no one was burning any fossil fuels some I think some set of scientist are pretty much full of shit when they say that global warming is anthropomorphic. Remember something: When a person that supports abortion tells you that we have to do something "for the children" you can pretty much know that it's not for the children, it's about power. Well the same thing applies here, when someone who uses private jets to fly all over the place and has a house that uses 5 times the energy the average US citizen does comes to you and says that we have to change "for the good of the planet", it's about power. The Nobel Prize became worthless when Arafat won it, Al Gore can barely add to that tarnish. Update: Great! Now he's gonna make a sequel! I found the poster art for it.

Umm, No.

FAIL. Summed up nicely here. Feel free to link to your nominees in the comments. As a matter of fact, I insist you do so.

Possibly the worst thing i have ever heard...

Cop who fell on the job sues family... CASSELBERRY - In January, 1-year-old Joey Cosmillo wandered into the backyard and fell into the family pool. When his mother hauled him out, he wasn't breathing. Rescuers were able to bring him back to life, but he suffered severe brain damage and cannot walk, talk or even swallow. Now, his family faces another burden: One of the rescuers, Casselberry police Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn, is suing, alleging the family left a puddle of water on the floor that afternoon, causing her to slip and fall. Wow. Just wow. Eichhorn arrived a few minutes later. As she stepped into the room where rescuers were working on the boy, she slipped and went down on one knee, then stood back up, according to Richard Cosmillo. Eichhorn, a 12-year department veteran, would not discuss the suit. Her attorney said those benefits, paid by the city's workers' compensation carrier, were not enough. The suit seeks an unspecified amount of money. Eichhorn, he said, is a victim. Her knee aches, and she will likely develop arthritis. If the Cosmillos had made their pool baby-proof, police would not have been called to the scene, there would have been no water on the floor, and Eichhorn would not have hurt herself, he said. Bad folk. I hope Eichhorn and her attorney both live long enough to regret this, but people like that tend to not really care about anything other than themselves anyway.

Propaganda Bytes ...

The Dreaded SBs You thought it was all about OIL ... You thought it was the AFGHAN PIPELINE... You thought it was the illusive WMD ... ... or, even DEMOCRACY in the ME ... Courageous and tenacious journalism has uncovered the truth ... it's all about the SBs. via small dead animals and Celestial Junk If you think that this kind of fallacious crap ... which is all it is, doesn't do great harm, consider that I found it on Kavkaz, an Islamist site that promotes jihad all over the planet. Funny though, as one reads Kavkaz editorials, one would swear they'd been written for Koz, or MoveOn, or even the NYT. Is it any wonder, at all, that y'all are frustrated? Have at it, Rob.

The eternal debate

Because you "can" do something, does it mean that you "should" do something? Consider that question as you look at this. A scientist who built a synthetic chromosome from laboratory chemicals is expected to announce the creation of a new species, the first new artificial life form on Earth, British newspaper The Guardian reported Sunday. The new species is a form of bacteria, and the announcement, which could come as early as Monday, is expected to provoke a substantial ethical debate about the manufacturing of life forms in a test tube, as well the dangers posed by introducing a new species, The Guardian reported. Craig Venter, the genetics specialist who spearheaded the landmark breakthrough and heads the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., where the research was conducted, said the new species could lead to new energy sources and new methods for combatting global warming. "We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it," Venter told The Guardian. "That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before," he said. For example, the bacteria could be capable of absorbing carbon monoxide, a possible solution to global warming, Venter said. While I understand the desire for science to advance it's understanding of life and the genetic chemical engineering of life, let's look at one thing. If you make a bacteria that eats carbon monoxide and it works and the planet cools that's just spiffy. However, if you make a bacteria that eats carbon monoxide and it mutates, as bacteria often do, and it begins to eat CO2, just one oxygen more, then plants die follwed by us dying. That would be not so good. If you make a bacteria that mutates and begins to eat just Ozone, or just "O", we loose our UV protection and get cancer and die. If you make a bacteria that mutates and eats carbon, we die. Ect, ect, ect.... Get the point? Nature doesn't exactly treat us with kid gloves now, but do we really need to aid her in wiping us out?

Mexico: Why they should hate the US

The immigration battle has been tied to a lot of things. The issues of drugs, terrorism, assimilation, respect for the law and even racism have been mired to it in one fashion or another. However, there is one point I have yet to see discussed. Mexico should hate us because we steal their labor. Seriously, labor matters. Look at the effort that IRS makes to recover taxes from American workers who don't pay. Labor is the backbone of any country's economy and the US, by the sheer virtue of being better, takes Mexico's most willing workers each year. Hell, we don't even recruit. For all the talk of pride in Mexican culture, you can be damn sure that you won't hear the same crowing about the Mexican economy. Compare that to the US and then remember that they do most of their trade with us. Not to dog the efficiency but most remoras eat better when they are tied to the big shark in the pond, so Mexico is having issues. So what happens to John Q Mexico, who just wants a taste of the good life for the work that he does? Does he stay in Mexico and work to fix the system? Nope, he just comes over here, busts ass and gets paid. The American dream is still alive and well if you are willing to work and Mexico suffers from it. So if you were a nation that was governed by the inept and corrupted would you let the people most willing to work hard leave? I wouldn't, that seems like industrial suicide to me, but Mexico does. They'll all but encourage it for the sliver of left overs that Mexican ex-pats will send home. It's really kind of sad and pathetic. For us in the US, I guess we have to be a little proud because at the end of the day we know that we have it good. Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants don't come here each year by mistake and in doing so they prove that the US is like the popular rich