"The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace, and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies, all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes.”

– Abraham Lincoln

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Wolfram|Alpha.com/

If the water's dirty, how do you wash it off?

What do these people have in common?

Robert Aderholt, Spencer Bachus, Joe Barton, Judy Biggert, Rob Bishop, John Boehner, Jo Bonner, Henry Brown, Ginny Brown-Waite, Michael Burgess, Ken Calvert, Dave Camp, Eric Cantor, Joseph Cao, Shelly Capito Moore, John Carter, Mike Castle, Jason Chaffetz, Mike Coffman, Mike Conaway, John Culberson, Geoff Davis, Charlie Dent, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Vern Ehlers, Mary Fallin, Elton Gallegly, Jim Gerlach, Phil Gingrey, Louie Gohmert, Bob Goodlatte, Kay Granger, Parker Griffith, Sam Hall, Pete Hoekstra, Sam Johnson, Tim Johnson, Steve King, Jack Kingston, Mark Kirk, Leonard Lance, Chris Lee, John Linder, Frank Lucas, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Dan Lungren, Don Manzullo, Kenny Marchant, Kevin McCarthy, Michael McCaul, Thad McCotter, John Mica, Candice Miller, Tim Murphy, Sue Myrick, Randy Neugebauer, Pete Olson, Ron Paul, Todd Platts, Ted Poe, Bill Posey, Adam Putnam, Denny Rehberg, Dave Reichert, Mike Rogers, Mike Rogers, Tom Rooney, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Peter Roskam, Paul Ryan, Steve Scalise, Jean Schmidt, Aaron Schock, Pete Sessions, John Shimkus, Heath Shuler, Bill Shuster, Lamar Smith, Cliff Stearns, Glenn Thompson, Mac Thornberry, Pat Tiberi, Fred Upton, Greg Walden, Zach Wamp, Ed Whitfield, Joe ("You Lie") Wilson, Frank Wolf, Don Young, Bill Young

Lamar Alexander, Bob Bennett, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Richard Burr, Saxby Chambliss, John Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Jim DeMint, Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Inhofe, Johnny Isakson, Mike Johanns, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby

• All of them are members of the current US Congress. Those in the first group are in the House of Representatives. Those in the second group are Senators.
  
  "What's the BFD?" you ask.
  
  
• All of them claim to disagree with the "Obama Stimulus" - a government spending program that is pumping several hundreds of billions of dollars into the USA economy. The "stimulus" is designed to create and/or save millions of jobs from the ravages of an economic recession.
  
  And?
  
  
• All of them spoke out against the 'stimulus' plan, claiming (among other things) that it would not create any jobs and would not save any jobs in danger of disappearing.
  
  Is there a point to all this?
  
  
• All of them voted against the "stimulus' bill when it was debated and approved by Congress.
  
  [ ... yawn ... ]
  
  
• All of them continue to this day to gloat and claim that the 'stimulus' has not created or saved any jobs. "We were right all along. The stimulus is just typical Democratic wasteful spending."
  
  
  So what? The 2 sides to the argument disagree. That's how it is in the USA.
  
  1. For openers, many of them have requested that funds for government-funded projects in their own districts or states. The justification: the projects funded by the stimulus will create lots of jobs in their districts and states.
     
     
  2. Many of them did get funding for government-funded projects in their own districts or states. And when those projects received the needed funding (from the 'stimulus'), those same people had ceremonies at job sites and bragged about how each of them helped their districts get funding for important projects and the resulting jobs.
     
     
  3. And they continue to claim that the 'stimulus' was merely government waste that created no jobs.
     
     Isn't that a contradiction?" you ask.
     
     It's more that mere contradiction.
     

     hypocrisy, n. insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have.
     hypocrite, n. one who practices hypocrisy.

     It's hypocrisy. If I had to choose one class of people whom I would never trust, that class would be hypocrites. One never knows which hypocritical statements to believe.
     
     It also explains those people's true opinion of YOU. They believe that you are too stupid to notice the hypocrisy.
  
  Those are the points:
  
  
  1. Today's Congressional republicans are hypocrites.
  
  
  2. Today's republicans don't think that you are worthy of honesty and integrity.
  
  
• Oh, one more thing:
  
  They are all republicans ... every last one of them is a republican. Think about that when you're trying to sort out whom to believe in American politics.

Did I mention that they are all republicans?

When an adult has a sudden cardiac arrest, his or her survival depends greatly on immediately getting CPR from someone nearby. Unfortunately, less than 1/3 of those people who experience a cardiac arrest at home, work or in a public location get that help. Most bystanders are worried that they might do something wrong or make things worse. That’s why the AHA has simplified things.
Don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help.

It’s not normal to see an adult suddenly collapse, but if you do, call 911 and push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Don’t be afraid. Your actions can only help. Take a minute and look around this site and invite your friends! Increasing the number of people who know about Hands-OnlyTM CPR will increase the chance that someone can help when an adult suddenly collapses, and more lives can be saved.

Check out this video to see Hands-Only CPR in action.
Source: Hands Only CPR.org/

Isn't calling it a "U.F.O." a way of, um-m-m-m, identifying it?

Total eclipse of the sun.
Crosses North America from Portland, OR to Charlie's Town, SC
August 17, 2017

USA!
USA!
USA!

Who Is More Intelligent?

1. Glen Beck


2. Sean Hannity


3. Rush Limbaugh


4. Bill Gates

Who Is The More Reliable Source of Information About Science?

1. Glen Beck


2. Sean Hannity


3. Rush Limbaugh


4. Bill Gates

Whom Should You Believe When Discussing Climate Change?

1. Glen Beck


2. Sean Hannity


3. Rush Limbaugh


4. Bill Gates

Assuming that your IQ is above 50, you should read this: Bill Gates Talks Climate Change. In that article Gates talks about, um.... climate change. He also talks about an interesting technology: Terra Power

Ribbon Hero is a game for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel 2007 and 2010, designed to help you boost your Office skills and knowledge. Play games (aka "challenges"), score points, and compete with your friends while improving your productivity with Office.
Ribbon Hero

Recently, a press release from German astronomers announced their discovery of two of the most complex molecules ever in space: butyronitrile and ethyl formate.

The story is important for two reasons:

1. it adds to previous findings that elsewhere in the universe there are abundant precursors to amino acids (which are precursors to life as we know it)
   
2. it points out that ethyl formate is abundant in the universe.

The implications of the first are significant, in regards to the possibilities of life out there.

The implications of the second are tastier: since Ethyl Formate is the fragrant ester molecule that gives raspberries their distinct flavor ....

It's a short leap to declaring that

• the universe tastes like raspberries ("um-m-m-m — raspberries")


• perhaps portions of it are raspberries


• maybe the entire universe is a raspberry. In that case, we humans are either druplets, seeds, or thorns (my money is on thorns).

So in the coming months, when I'm harvesting raspberries, I'll be singing
"He's got I have the whole world universe, in his my hands."
"He's got I have the whole wide world universe, in his my hands."
"He's got I have the whole world universe, in his my hands."
"He's got I have the whole world universe, in his my hands."

Do As I Say, Not As I Do - Why I had to leave the GOP (I got tired of making excuses for fools). By the way, I'm not positive, but I think the guy in the blue jacket — sitting next to Reagan — is my long-time bestest old buddy¹.

It's highly likely, since

• He was an advisor to and speechwriter for Reagan
• He met with the Taliban - unofficially - on at least two occasions ... he has a photo on the wall of his living room to prove it. In other words, he was friendly with both sides.
  

¹ It's hard to tell because the picture is not big enough and sharp enough to be sure... but I'd be willing to wager on it. Compare it with this:

White Noise Insanity

If by a ‘Liberal’ they mean

• someone who looks ahead and not behind
• someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions
• someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties
• someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad

If that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say

“I am a ‘Liberal.’”

John F. Kennedy, 1960

Thomas Paine was one of the Founding Fathers. He was a prolific and persuasive pamphleteer — the intellectual leader of that august group. Many of his revolutionary ideas became part of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

His principal contributions were the powerful, widely-read pamphlet Common Sense (1776), advocating colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and The [American] Crisis (1776-1783), a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series. Later works include Agrarian Justice (discussed below) and The Rights of Man.

His best-seller Common Sense (1776) was the rallying cry for seeking independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

He wrote The [American] Crisis¹, a series of pamphlets intended to

• bolster the wartime morale of the American warriors
• remind the American public of what we were doing and why
• appeal to the English people, to help them understand the issues at stake in the war

Were Paine's pamphlet sales adjusted to reflect population growth in the past 225+ years, he would be - by far - the best selling American author of all time. Also, his pamphlets were widely exchanged and passed around, thereby reaching an even larger audience.

Agrarian Justice is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine, published in approximately 1796In that publication, Paine advocated the use of an estate tax to fund a universal old-age and disability pension, as well as a fixed sum to be paid to all citizens on reaching maturity. If that sounds familiar, it should. Agrarian Justice laid the foundation for Roosevelt's New Deal - especially Social Security.

Having read a sermon by Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, which discussed the "Wisdom ... of God, in having made both Rich and Poor", Paine decided to publish Agrarian Justice. In it he argues that "rich" and "poor" are not divinely created distinctions.

¹ The [American] Crisis begins with familiar and eloquent words: "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

Now, onward toward Thomas Paine's Agrarian Justice. It is short (12 pages, spaced like a term paper), and it's an easy read.

Quick summary:

In Agrarian Justice, Paine proposed a detailed plan to tax property owners to pay for the needs of the poor.

Keep in mind that then, as now, many people are one paycheck away from poverty. Even the most industrious of people can be devastated by medical expenses, infirmity, aging, economic downturns, accidents, crime, deaths, separations in families, and other tragedies. Being poor, then as now, is not a luxury enjoyed only by the lazy and the wastrels among us.

Under Paine's plan, the money would be raised by taxing

• direct inheritances at 10%
  
• "indirect" inheritances - those not going to close relations - at a somewhat higher rate.

He estimated that this would raise around £5,700,000 per year in England.

Around two-thirds of the fund would be spent on

• pension payments of £10 per year to every person over the age of fifty, which Paine had taken as his average adult life expectancy
  most of the remainder allocated to
  
• making one-time payments of £15 to every man and woman on reaching the age of twenty-one, the age of legal majority
• the small remainder would then be able to be used for paying pensions to "the lame and blind."
  

For context, the average weekly wage of an agricultural labourer was around 9 shillings, which would mean an annual income of about £23 for an able-bodied man working throughout the year.

Now, click to read or download Thomas Paine's Agrarian Justice.

Another encounter with Hoyt Axton — second-hand — .was when a friend of mine, a journalist at the time, met H.A. at NBC Studios when Hoyt was leaving after an appearance on Johnny Carson. My buddy told him that in our college days we saw him play in those little clubs mentioned in an earlier post. He gave my friend a gi-mongous "Hoyt Axton" brass belt-buckle, and signed a couple of his albums (vinyls - remember those?) to give to me. I still have them.

Playing 6 Degrees of Separation,

1. I'm 2nd degree to Hoyt Axton


2. 3rd degree to
   
   • The guys in 3 Dog Night and Steppenwolf
   • Linda Rondstadt
   • Ringo Starr
     
   • Johnny Fever and Loni Anderson (WKRP in Cincinnati), since Hoyt performed on that show
   • The Maytag Repairman (he was the boss on WKRP in Cincinnati)
   • Johnny Carson
   • Doc Severinsen (Seattle musician, remember?)


3. 4th degree from
   
   • Elvis Presley (via Hoyt's mother)
   • John, Paul, and George (via Ringo)
   • Joan Baez ²
   • John Denver ³
   • Waylon Jennings — who in turn gets me to 5th degree from Willie!
     

And the beat goes on....

¹ I went to Long Beach State U, also known as Surfer Tech

² Via another route, I'm 2nd degree to Joan: the same journalist friend was a friend of Ms. Baez

³ Via a different route, I'm 2nd degree to John Denver: another friend was JD's personal security guard when JD did his Lake Tahoe ski tournaments; my friend's wife baby-sat the wee little Denvers.

My earliest encounters with singer/songwriter Hoyt Axton were in my college days — late 60s — when he played at folk music clubs like Cosmos (in Seal Beach, CA) and The Golden Bear (in Huntington Beach, CA).¹

As a quick aside, his mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote the early rock 'n' roll song Heartbreak Hotel: Elvis Presley's first hit.

Like his mother, he was a songwriter much in demand. His hits were performed by

• The Kingston Trio
  
  • Greenback Dollar
    


• 3 Dog Night
  
  • Joy to the World ("Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog...")
  • Never Been to Spain
  
  
• Steppenwolf
  
  • The Pusher (think: Easy Rider)
  • Snowblind Friend
    


• Ringo Starr
  
  • The No-No Song
    
  
  
• Singing with Linda Rondstadt
  
  • Lion in Winter
  • When the Morning Comes
    
  
  
• Hoyt's Solo hits
  
  • Boney Fingers ("Work your fingers to the bone, what do you get? Boney fingers, boney fingers")
    
  • Della and the Dealer
  • Jealous Man
    
  • Officer Ray ("Officer Ray / May you have a bad day / May your wife run away / With a hippie.")
    
    
  and many more, performed by such notables as Joan Baez, John Denver, and Waylon Jennings...

Washington, My Home applies to many influential musical groups besides the Kingsmen (Louie, Louie). To whit:

• Alice In Chains
• Bonnie Guitar
• Dave Lewis (Little Green Thing)
• Death Cab for Cutie
• Doc Severinsen
  
• Green River (the first grunge band)
• Heart
• Ivar Haglund
• Jimi Hendrix
• Merrilee Rush
• Mother Love Bone
  
• Mudhoney
  
• Nirvana
• Pearl Jam
• Queensrÿche
• Quincy Jones
• Ron Holden
• Sleater-Kinney
• Soundgarden
• The Brothers 4
• The Fleetwoods
• The Gallahads
• The Seattle Symphony
• The Ventures
• The Viceroys
• The Wailers

and

• Gypsy Rose Lee (technically not a musician, but still ...)
• J. P. Patches (not a musician, but worthy of note as the inspiration for Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons)
• The Flying Karamozov Brothers (OK, not music, but internationally hilarious) performers

Look 'em up yourself. Your best friend might just be Google.

• Did I mention Heart?

Now for some unfinished business: technically, the Kingsmen were from Portland (OR), just across the river from Washington. Washingtonians could hear them playing without leaving home. They went from garage band playing for tips in smokey dives to international fame when, as young men in an inexperienced band, they came north. They 1st played in Portland, but they became real musicians in Seattle.

Besides, Oregon claims Mason Williams (Classical Gas) because of how long he lived there (35+ years) and Hoyt Axton (who lived in Roseburg for a while after becoming rich and famous).

If we were to include (as do our little brothers to the south) musicians/group who bedded down in Washington, the list would be much longer. For example, Ray Charles, who recorded his first single and made his first TV and radio appearances in Seattle.

• Did I mention Heart?

Back in the 80s there was a groundswell of support to change the Washington State Song from Washington, My Home (not the official link to the official version) to Louie, Louie. Yes, that Louie, Louie.

Besides being the anthem for frat boys everywhere, Louie, Louie is held in especially high regard along the Greek Rows at University of Washington ("Yew-Dub") and Washington State University ("Wazoo"). The UW marching band proudly plays Louie, Louie at all sports events and parades. Of course, they also play Tequila, but I digress.

Besides being a great party song, Louie, Louie has its roots in Washington. The Kingsmen, who made Louie, Louie famous are homegrown Washingtonians.

While Washington, My Home remained the state song, we did get something from the effort: a few proclamations declaring a day to be the official day of Louie, Louie in the state. The City of Seattle once passed a similar proclamation.

Stuff about Louie, Louie.

We gotta go....

What do these have in common?

Coat of Arms, Motto, Flag, Song, Flower, Bird, Tree, Fish, Animal, Wildlife Animal, Domesticated Animal, Dairy Cow, Mineral, Rock, Symbol of Peace, Insect, Soil, Fossil, Dog, Beverage, Grain, Dance, Microbe, Bacterium

They are all stuff that the State of Wisconsin has designated as "official" State Symbols. More specifically:

• Coat of Arms:
• Motto: "Forward"
• Flag:
• Song: "On Wisconsin!"
• Flower: Wood Violet
• Bird: Robin (Turdus migratorius)
• Tree: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
• Fish: Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy Mitchell)
• State Animal: Badger (Taxidea taxus)
• Wildlife Animal: White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
• Domesticated Animal: Dairy Cow (Bos taurus)
• Mineral: Galena (Lead sulphide)
• Rock: Red Granite
• Symbol of Peace: Mourning Dove (Zenaidura macroura corolinensis linnaus)
• State Insect: Honeybee (Apis mellifera)
• Soil: Antigo Silt Loam (Typic glossoboralf)
• State Fossil: Trilobite (Calymene celebra)
• Dog: American Water Spaniel
• Beverage: Milk (Cookius Dippitus)
• Grain: Corn (Zea mays)
• Dance: Polka
• Microbe: Bacterium (Lactococcus Lactis)
  

Wait a minute! Bacterium? Who would want to honor something that makes people sick? Actually, we do honor things that make us sick, but we shouldn't go there right now.

It seems that Wisconsin is famous for its cheese. Lactococcus Lactis is the beasty that turns milk into cheese. Ergo ....

No, I'm not making this up.

Hm-m-m-. (shakes head). Sorry, I can't recall.

In my case, this dark humor is like whistling through the graveyard. I own a 2010 Prius, one of the vehicles about to be recalled because of possible brake problems.

I live in a community that is politically conservative - very conservative. Think: Attila The Hun conservative.

Like all people everywhere there are intelligent conservatives (yes, really), dimwit conservatives, thoughtful conservatives, knee-jerk conservatives.

There is one for whom I have the misfortune of having to endure almost daily. He is a hybrid of dimwit and knee-jerk. He has never had a thought which is either original or even derivative. Every "thought" in his head is comparable to the "thought" of a parrot or mynah. His idea of talking is to repeat what he hears from such intellectual giants as Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Medved, and some sports guy on ESPN..

Actually, I'm exaggerating. His speech goes beyond those, um, reprobates.

• He spices up their words with an unimaginable number of F-bombs. Think:
  
  F%^&*k noun F$%^k verb f$%^& f#$%k f#$%^k.
  
  
• Also, those radio-based talking anatomical orifices are far less racist than he. He could make a neo-Nazi vomit in disgust.

Needless to say (but I'll say these anyway):

• He is a climate-change denier.
• He has no sense of irony.
• On the rare occasions when he says something that he thinks is funny, he breaks out in a huge grin. It's obvious to anyone nearby that he believes that his last utterance was funny - maybe even hilarious.

All of that said, on Groundhog Day he stated, completely deadpan, "if global warming were real, why didn't it affect the Groundhog?"

I know him well enough to say unequivocally He Was NOT Joking. His fellow conservatives in the room reacted with stunned silence. Finally, one started to explain it, and gave up.

Some of you may have noticed that there is an economic recession. Times are tough — unless you work for the Feds.

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries increased sharply during the recession. The trend to six-figure salaries is occurring throughout the federal government, in agencies big and small, high-tech and low-tech. The primary cause: substantial pay raises and new salary rules.

USA TODAY analyzed the Office of Personnel Management's database that tracks salaries of more than 2 million federal workers. Excluded from OPM's data:

• the White House
• Congress
• US Postal Service
• intelligence agencies
• uniformed military personnel.
  

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

• The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009.
  
  
• When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.
  
  
• The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
  

Key reasons for the boom in six-figure salaries:

• Pay hikes.
  
  
  • Then-president Bush recommended — and Congress approved — across-the-board raises of 3% in January 2008 and 3.9% in January 2009.
    
  • President Obama has recommended the smallest pay raises since 1975: 2% pay raises in January 2010.
    
    
• Longevity pay hikes. Most federal workers also get "steps" that average 1.5% per year.


• New pay system. Congress created a new National Security Pay Scale for the Defense Department to reward merit, in addition to the across-the-board increases. The merit raises, which started in January 2008, were larger than expected and rewarded high-ranking employees. In October, Congress voted to end the new pay scale by 2012.
  
  
• Paycaps eased. Many top civil servants are prohibited from making more than an agency's leader. If Congress lifts the boss' salary, others get raises, too. When the Federal Aviation Administration chief's salary rose, nearly 1,700 employees' had their salaries lifted above $170,000, too."
  

Recession? What recession?

A central purpose of the California Milk Board is to convince consumers to buy local dairy products to keep the spending in-state, but the board acknowledged in November its advertising contract had gone to an agency in New Zealand.

Said a board official: "We have a . . . responsibility to spend (taxpayers') hard-earned dollars as efficiently as we can."

Do as we say, not as we do.

And people wonder how I was so prescient about the Iraq Attaq.

• I told everyone there were no WMDs.
  
• I told everyone that Saddam Hussein had no collaboration with Al Queda.
  
• I told everyone that invading Iraq meant breaking Iraq, and that a broken Iraq would be a nightmare.
  
• I told everyone that Rumsfeld's prediction of "5days, maybe 5 weeks, certainly not 5 months" was off by a power of ten - or more.
  
• I told everyone that Wolfowitz's claim of "less than 3 billion dollars" was wrong by a factor of at least a hundred. OK, I was wrong on that: I should have predicted a factor of a thousand.
• I cringed (out loud) when Mighty Warrior George Bush proclaimed "Mission Accomplished" and followed it up with "I say bring 'em (Iraqi insurgents)."
  

What makes me so brilliant? Well, I'm not (he says, humbly). What set me (and many others like me) apart from the crowd was that I (we)

1. Ignored every claim from anyone who had a vested interest in going to war.
2. Listened for the propaganda behind the public statements and proclamations.
3. Found sources of information that had no vested interest in going to war.
4. Applied critical analysis to each concept that sounded correct.
5. Checked, and re-checked everything that seemed to be correct as I went through steps 1 - 4.

The best sources for information, then and now (and always):

• "Between the lines" of articles in publications (and websites and blogs) that are often thorough and often correct; the actual articles, on the whole, tend to be wrong, but the truth is sometimes in there.
• Left-wing fishwrap/birdcage liners such as Mother Jones (Smart, fearless Journalism) and The Nation(unconventional wisdom since 1865).
• Listening to the sheep(major news media) - and their listeners - bleating while marching in lockstep with those who have a vested interest in doing the wrong thing ... then using the opposite of what they say as a starting point in my research.
  

And ... I (we) tend to be on the right side of history, e.g,

• I thought way back then that Viet Nam was a mistake. In fact, I yelled it.
• I told people that there was torture going on at Guantanamo and in our prisons in Iraq.
  
• I predicted that if it ever got started that the "9-11 Commission's" recommendations would be largely ignored.

There's a much longer list inside my head, but those voices in there drown out the items on my list. Stay tuned. Some of those will sneak out. Truth For Dummies!

In my post on 1-26-2010, The Power of Twisted Thinking, I blathered about a good example of bad science. Specifically I discussed flawed research that made its way into a prestigious medical journal.

From today's (February 2, 2010) news @ CNN.com:

Medical journal Lancet fully retracts 1998 study linking MMR vaccine to autism, citing "incorrect" elements of research. (emphasis mine)

See: I told you so. You want truth - get it here, where smart dummies shop for wisdom.

Ronald Reagan: the greatest president ever - assuming that you are

1. a Republican
2. in denial (of everything real)

Barack Obama: the worst president ever - assuming that

1. you have a blind hatred of Democrats in general
2. you have a blind hatred of the fact that Obama is so uppity - and is in charge (again)
   

Today's pundits and republicans are thrilled that Obama's favorability rating is down. His approval rating is 57% at the end of his first year.

His presidency is toast. It's in the toilet. The republicans will get back control of Congress in 2010. Any republican will beat Obama in 2012. After all, his approval rating is down to 57%.

Unlike Reagan, whose favorability rating after his first year was, um ..... 57%.

After the good old fashioned ass-wuppin' that Obama handed out last week, I suspect his approval rating will be heading back into the stratosphere ... and the republicans will have to come up with a new strategy. Just saying NO! and lying to the public is not going to work as well as it did last year.

It's Groundhog Day.

BFD?

Not so fast.

• It's the biggest non-event that won't go away; it comes back every year. Grown men wearing top hats hang out in the woods waiting for a rodent to climb out of his hole. Based on how that works out, they (and the news media) can predict the weather for the next month-and-a-half.
  
• It's one of the best movies ever. I say that because my life often seems like Groundhog Day (the movie, not the rat-fest)
  
• It's Ayn Rand's birthday.
  
  • Google her name and you get 2.5 million hits - most of them fawning.
  • Or try this reality check. I've been on both sides of the discussion. From one who knows: Rothbard nailed it.
    

You're right: BFD.

I got an interesting e-mail. It was from "Bank of America." It looked authentic. However, my scamdar sounded an warning.



Yes,I have credit card accounts at Bank of America (but only because B of A swallowed up my previous banks). However, the warning in the email was about a check card. I don't have a cash account at BofA, and therefore have no "check card."

I looked at the links embedded in the email. The idea was to get me to click on a link. Clicking on that link would open up a browser (for example, IE or FireFox) and then open up a website.

Would the web site be legitimate? Not likely.

By hovering my mouse over a link, the real destination for the link displayed in the lower-left-hand corner of the e-mail window. By the way, that feature is in the e-mail program Thunderbird. If you're not using Thunderbird, it might not work the same.



Another way to see the real link:

1. highlight the link (carefully drag mouse across the link)
2. copy it (Menu --> Edit --> Copy),
3. paste it into the address bar of the web browser (IE, FireFox,etc)

Just to be sure,

1. I used FireFox to go to the real BofA website
2. logged in as myself
3. clicked on the "Alerts" link.

Guess what ... Bank of America sent no such e-mail.

I missed a real adventure. Had I blindly followed the email's instructions, many wonderful things could have happened.

• the website could place a Trojan Horse on my computer
• the Trojan could capture all of my keystrokes, thereby making available to the scammers all of my accounts and passwords
• the site could have planted a virus on my computer, wreaking all sorts of havoc
• and a lot more .....
  

There's a lesson in there somewhere.