Archive for June, 2009
Most GOP county votes hypocritical – gets most aid but always votes anti-tax
The self-hating welfare people? They hate welfare, vote against it, complain about those on welfare or receiving aid from the government, but then make the most use of it… as the saying goes, when you point your finger at someone you have three pointing right back at you…
Sprawling across the northeastern corner of California, this huge, thickly forested county with more cows than people epitomizes the Western frontier – and what seems to be a two-faced political ideology.
Modoc has the highest Republican registration of any county in California, it unfailingly elects anti-tax Republicans to office, and the vote here against last month’s ballot measure that would have raised a variety of taxes was one of the most lopsided in the state. And yet, per capita, Modoc County gets more state taxpayer dollars than all but one of California’s 58 counties.
The prevailing attitude among the right-wing ranchers and modern hippies who define Modoc County is of fierce self-reliance – but more people here than just about anywhere else depend on welfare checks of some kind to get by.
So with state Republicans blocking new taxes and insisting on deep cuts in taxpayer-funded services, does that make this most solid of GOP bases politically conflicted? Or, worse, just plain ignorant?
How a science documentary gets made!
How a science documentary gets made
Poppy production… crazy!
The problem with poppy comes at harvest. Most farm work is still done by hand in Afghanistan, and harvesting anything is difficult. Take wheat, for example. Lacking a gas-powered combine, farmers reap the old-fashioned way—by swinging a scythe or an even less efficient sickle. (Most communities or extended families do share a mechanized thresher—a not-insignificant capital expense—to separate the wheat from the chaff.) But poppy is more costly by at least an order of magnitude.
Workers slice into the pod, permitting the crude opium sap to ooze out and dry on the shell. They return later in the day to scrape the sap, then scrape once or twice more the next day. Because individual farmers cannot complete the process for even a small field before most of the pods die, they have to hire an army of migrant laborers from throughout South Asia. More than 350,000 workers are required for the Helmand Province harvest alone. Because the harvest is limited to about a six-week window, labor is expensive. The process is also dangerous.
Most harvesters, many of them children, develop opium addictions or serious health problems by absorbing the sap through their skin. (Some farmers can tell when it’s time to harvest poppy because they wake up with headaches and nausea from the fumes.)
via The cost of poppy production. – By Brian Palmer – Slate Magazine
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St. Paul’s bones found?
I still don’t know how this implies anything… can I contest?
Benedict said archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul.
Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.
“This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul,” Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican’s Paoline year, in honor of the apostle.
via Pope: Scientific analysis done on St. Paul’s bones // Current.
The Historical Amnesia of Samuel Alito, A Review of The Lost World of Italian American Radicalism: Politics, Labor and Culture
Why can an Italian take pride in their hardworking immigrant parents and thats OK, but a Latino can’t? Latinos have a right to be just as proud of their heritage as do Italians or Jews, or anyone else. This is what makes America great!
Supreme Court overrules future Supreme Court justice
Because we all know that this country is being overrun with successful black people, from too many black firefighters to too many black students in college…
Can’t a black/brown man get ahead without people crying “unfair, unfair.” Bush didn’t qualify for Texas A&M so he went to Yale instead as a legacy child… if most Ivy league parents are white doesn’t this imply preferential treatment for whites based on parents, which shouldn’t matter since it’s not based on personal skill or ability?
“I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold equal rights for all and to strike down government decisions based on race,” said Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee.
“No individual should be denied a promotion simply based on the color of their skin. … The Supreme Court today reminded all courts and governments that equal justice under the law means refusing to tip the scale in favor of one race over another.”
Smith called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to “carefully examine Sotomayor’s role in the 2nd Circuit’s opinion on this case. Discrimination and racial preferences have no place in our courts, let alone on the highest court in the land.”
Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin in two weeks.
via GOP applauds, Dems criticize overturning Sotomayor ruling – CNN.com.
It gets even better… listen to what Justice Scalia has to say:
Justice Antonin Scalia sets up the constitutional smash-up to come even more apocalyptically, warning that the court today “merely postpones the evil day on which the Court will have to confront the question: Whether, or to what extent, are the disparate-impact provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 consistent with the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection?”
via Newsweek
Franken for Senate!
When Al becomes a Senator, I say we drink a Franken-stein of beer!
The Amazonian Secret
Please allow me to share with you how “The Secret” changed my life and in a very real and substantive way allowed me to overcome a severe crisis in my personal life. It is well known that the premise of “The Secret” is the science of attracting the things in life that you desire and need and in removing from your life those things that you don’t want. Before finding this book, I knew nothing of these principles, the process of positive visualization, and had actually engaged in reckless behaviors to the point of endangering my own life and wellbeing.
At age 36, I found myself in a medium security prison serving 3-5 years for destruction of government property and public intoxication. This was stiff punishment for drunkenly defecating in a mailbox but as the judge pointed out, this was my third conviction for the exact same crime. I obviously had an alcohol problem and a deep and intense disrespect for the postal system, but even more importantly I was ignoring the very fabric of our metaphysical reality and inviting destructive influences into my life.
My fourth day in prison was the first day that I was allowed in general population and while in the recreation yard I was approached by a prisoner named Marcus who calmly informed me that as a new prisoner I had been purchased by him for three packs of Winston cigarettes and 8 ounces of Pruno (prison wine). Marcus elaborated further that I could expect to be raped by him on a daily basis and that I had pretty eyes.
Needless to say, I was deeply shocked that my life had sunk to this level. Although I’ve never been homophobic I was discovering that I was very rape phobic and dismayed by my overall personal street value of roughly $15. I returned to my cell and sat very quietly, searching myself for answers on how I could improve my life and distance myself from harmful outside influences. At that point, in what I consider to be a miraculous moment, my cell mate Jim Norton informed me that he knew about the Marcus situation and that he had something that could solve my problems. He handed me a copy of “The Secret”. Normally I wouldn’t have turned to a self help book to resolve such a severe and immediate threat but I literally didn’t have any other available alternatives. I immediately opened the book and began to read.
The first few chapters deal with the essence of something called the “Law of Attraction” in which a primal universal force is available to us and can be harnessed for the betterment of our lives. The theoretical nature of the first few chapters wasn’t exactly putting me at peace. In fact, I had never meditated and had great difficulty with closing out the chaotic noises of the prison and visualizing the positive changes that I so dearly needed. It was when I reached Chapter 6 “The Secret to Relationships” that I realized how this book could help me distance myself from Marcus and his negative intentions. Starting with chapter six there was a cavity carved into the book and in that cavity was a prison shiv. This particular shiv was a toothbrush with a handle that had been repeatedly melted and ground into a razor sharp point.
The next day in the exercise yard I carried “The Secret” with me and when Marcus approached me I opened the book and stabbed him in the neck. The next eight weeks in solitary confinement provided ample time to practice positive visualization and the 16 hours per day of absolute darkness made visualization about the only thing that I actually could do. I’m not sure that everybody’s life will be changed in such a dramatic way by this book but I’m very thankful to have found it and will continue to recommend it heartily.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7,221 of 7,426 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret saved my life!, December 4, 2007
By Ari Brouillette (Kensington, CA United States) –
Can one man bring down the internet?
At first I thought that based on the date, it was all the people sending me birthday wishes, but I was wrong…
How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it’s just one — if that one is Michael Jackson.
The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples caused by the news of his death swept around the globe.
Yearbook from 1950
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Shaq and Lebron duo
O’Neal, a 15-time All-Star, will join LeBron James, the league’s reigning most valuable player, to form one of the most powerful tandems in the league. The Cavaliers were already an elite team — winning an N.B.A.-best 66 games last season — but one that was missing any star power, or reliable scoring, beyond James.
via Cavaliers Deal for O’Neal and Show James They Care – NYTimes.com.
TPD officers get off on man who was killed by them
Justified or not, this was still one major ass-whooping the Tucson police gave this guy that led to his death.
Officers repeatedly used their batons on “nerve centers” and punched Decker in the face to get him to take his arm out from underneath the mattress.
The report concludes, “The officers’ fear for their safety was justified, and the force they used to negate the perceived deadly threat was not so unreasonable as to constitute a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable police officer would observe faced with a similar situation.”
The autopsy revealed “extensive hemorrhaging within soft tissues, on the chest wall, and on both sides of the back. The right lung was compressed and there were numerous contusions and rib fractures.”
Revenge of the nerds!
Why Obama is the first Nerd-in-Chief, and the importance of nerds!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Obama for Senate!
PHOENIX—Saying that it is time for change to come to Arizona, President Barack Obama on Tuesday formally announced that he will run for Senate against John McCain in the 2010 election…
“Let me be clear: John McCain is a good man,” Obama said. “He has served this state nobly for more than 20 years. But where was John McCain last year when the economy collapsed and the housing bubble burst? Was he here in Arizona looking out for families in need? Or was he crisscrossing the nation trying to further his own political career?”
via Obama Announces Plans To Run For McCain’s Senate Seat In 2010
Spiritual high
Finally a church I might consider joining!
The Mathematical Apocalypse!
Only the true nerds will understand the significance of this 🙂
DNA – Do Not Ask… a true Prisoner’s Dilemma!
This is a ridiculous ruling. DNA data, which they agree has an “unparalleled ability,” but the prisoners (who have already been convicted) don’t have a right to a DNA test… maybe it’s because we will find more innocent people in jail than we thought… they have already exonerated 17 people on death row!
AA in AZ
Since we all know that the sciences are being OVERRUN by women and minorities, bills like this are absolutely necessary? It would be nice if our legislators knew some science so we could have a reality-based discussion!
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